I am looking at ordering hard red wheat in 45lb buckets from Lehi Mills for $12.50/bucket. Has anyone here ordered from them? Are their buckets sealed and nitrogen-packed? Anyone have recommendations for better outfits to order from (for shipping to the east coast)? I would also like to know how much flour a pound of wheat produces when ground. What are the recommendations for pounds of wheat per person per month? I've seen 20lbs for that number in Mormon literature, but that seems to be as part of the basic Mormon-4 diet, whereas I am trying to plan a much more varied store of food. Is anyone storing corn for making cornmeal? Would like to hear what other people are doing in regards to food storage.

-- Ben Davenport (bendaven@microsoft.com), October 05, 1998

Answers

I have Lehi Mills wheat. Also got oats, honey, and flour from them.

Good service, everything arrived intact and quickly. I'm pleased. Shipping costs are high, but they're high from anywhere in the midwest to the east coast. You might ask if anyone else wants to share an order with you and reduce shipping costs.

The buckets are sealed....not nitrogen packed since wheat doesn't really require it. The wheat isn't exposed to oxygen until it's ground -- the berries protect what's inside. Wheat from the pyramids has been found to sprout, after thousands of years.

You get about a pound of flour per pound of wheat. It all gets ground up ---- you don't waste any.

That 20 pounds isn't a bad number if you are considering baking plus sprouting. I ran out an inventory for 10 people for 6 months that came out to 2775 pounds of grains and flour. This included pasta, oats, barley, and rice, as well as wheat, some flour and some corn meal.

If anything, I would go heavy on grains and legumes for several reasons: they're cheap, they keep well, and you can give them to people who are hungry if you've stored enough. That lets you keep the good stuff for yourself. Let's see, 20 jars of pickled herring, 10 jars of Siberian eels, 50 tins of caviar............:)

-- rocky (rknolls@hotmail.com), October 05, 1998.

Ben,

This is a basic quantity list I was given by a LDS member. The list is for a one year supply:

MILK: 16lbs., SUGAR: 60lbs., OIL: (including peanut butters and mayonaise) 20lbs., BEANS: 50lbs., WHEAT: 200lbs., OTHER GRAINS: 25lbs. (a combined total of rice, spaghetti, oats, corn, and macaroni) go heaviest on what you like and use the most of... BAKING YEAST: 1LB., BAKING SODA & POWDER: 2 LBS., SALT: 5LBS MULTI VITAMIN: 1 A DAY (365 PER PERSON)

It would be useful to learn to bake bread without using store bought yeast and how to make flat breads as well.

My family is getting about 1000-1200lb of the hard red wheat to grind for sfour and for sprouting. (I'm also getting a large amount of flour, bisquick mix, and similiar for short term shelf life). In addition, I am going to get at least 200lbs. of organic corn to grind myself.

I would recommend getting: a variety of sweets i.e. sugar, honey, mollases, corn syrup

a variety of salts: table salt, pickling salt, sea salt...a good barter item, I would think

For items that need refrig. after opening, get small sizes or individual packets such as mayonaise.

Buy lots of vinegar...and a book on its many uses! (Apple cider vinegar is the best for burns! apply immediately and it keeps the burn from going deeper into the tissues)

Buy plenty of herbs and seasonings (and plan to grow your own herbs)

Grow pepper plants...dried ground peppers can be used to substitute for black pepper.

BTW...if you have a source of fresh eggs, homemade mayonaise is easy to make...and you can make it in small useable batches.

In an earlier thread I gave a suggestion for purchasing dried whole eggs (FOOD FOR THOUGHT...OCT.3RD)

Powdered or dehydraded cheese is a good idea too.

Good Luck, Texas Terri

Texas Terri

-- Terri Symington (TJSYM@AOL.com), October 05, 1998.

I just wanted to make myself clear that the basic supply list above for the year is per person.

Texas Terri

-- Terri Symington (TJSYM@AOL.com), October 05, 1998.

Thanks, Terri, that was a keeper.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), October 06, 1998.

By the way, if you order 200 pounds of wheat, how do they handle delivery? Thats a little more than my mailman can pick up.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), October 06, 1998.

They use Mongolian pack elephants. You're responsible for offloading, though :)

-- rocky (rknolls@hotmail.com), October 06, 1998.

My expanded new site is ready to go with the revised & finished Y2K shopping& resource list.It is now 7 topics in one site. http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/villa/3388.I have been busy teaching Y2k seminars .

-- ray kwong (rayk19@juno.com), October 06, 1998.

Ben - we store corn for storage. Grind it up into cornmeal for corn bread, corn muffins. Also mixed with leftover food scraps makes good dog food. (Cook it all together.) Corn puts fat on hogs and cows so I figure it is a good source of calories (not that I need it at present.)

Also, when storing wheat, grains, etc. Get some used pallets from - well, almost anywhere. The wooden pallets. Don't pit even wheat in buckets on cement or dirt floors. O2 not a problem but infestation might be. It's not what they eat that's the problem, it's how they contaminate the food.

-- Melissa (financed@forbin.com), October 07, 1998.

For moisture in storage of items like wheat someone suggested using popcorn in the container instead or in place of dessicant packs. Anyone have experience with this? Popped or unpopped??

-- Rancherdick (angusdude@yahoo.com), October 11, 1998.

For low cost, home-made desiccant, I suggest using gypsum from drywall (sheetrock, wallboard). Get scraps from a lumberyard, construction site or your neighbor's remodeling project. Break it up into gravel-sized pieces, bake it on a sheet of aluminum foil in the oven at low heat for several hours to dry it. Store it in a sealed container if you're not going to use it right away. To use in a grain bucket, for instance, place a cupful of the gypsum chunks in a large coffee filter and tie it closed. (found this tip in Dean Ing's Pulling Through, a how-to novel about surviving a nuclear attack)

If someone out there has access to a sensitive lab scale, it would be interesting to run some tests to see just how much water some of these desiccants will absorb. Maybe do a comparison test of equal weights of silica gel, gypsum, and powdered clay. Bake them out dry, let them absorb moisture for a period of time, then weigh each sample to determine how much water each had absorbed.

-- Max Dixon (Ogden, Utah USA) (Max.Dixon@gte.net), October 12, 1998.