Today I’m continuing the exploration of my previously identified Home Preparedness skills that I want to learn or improve in 2013 as part of the 13Skills.com 13-in-13 Challenge. Because they go so well together, I’m going to combine two skills in this article: Food Storage and Canning.
Our recent experience in Hurricane Sandy really drove home the need for a food reserve. In addition, our reliance on ‘basic’ dry goods – pasta, rice, beans, etc – during that time showed us that having foods other than dry goods on hand might be a good idea, if for nothing more than variety. That’s where the canning part comes in. By combining basic food storage with canning, we should be able to provide a solid food backup plan for the family in case we run into another situation like Sandy where we have limited availability to buy food as well as limited means to prepare it.
Learning
As of right now, I know very little about what to store and I know even less about how to can food for long-term storage. I’ll need to do some research on what to acquire, how to store it and how to determine the mix of ingredients I need. I’ll use websites like Rainy Day Food Storage to help educate myself on quantity requirements, canning processes and applicable recipes (do you really want to eat bland rice and beans every meal?). In addition, I’ll scour YouTube for more educational material. The end goal will be to build a food reserve (inclusive of water) that can sustain my family, including our two dogs, for a minimum of six months. I’ll work towards smaller goals to progress to that long-term goal.
Measurable Goals
As I’ve explained numerous times now, I’ll use clearly defined, measurable goals to gauge my process and successful completion. In that vein, I’ve identified the following goals for this skill set:
- Research food storage requirements and create a 3-day storage requirements list by April 1, 2013
- Research canning and create a material list by April 1, 2013
- Purchase canning equipment by May 1, 2013
- Produce first canned meals by May 15, 2013
- Produce 3-day food storage (water included) by June 1, 2013
- Produce 1-week food storage (water included) by August 1, 2013
- Create plan for build towards 6-month food storage by October 1, 2013
As you can see, this is a progressive approach to food storage and canning. The first step is learning, the second step is implementing what you’ve learned and the third step is an iterative process of implementing the do’s and don’ts of what you learned. The bottom line is that by the end of 2013, my family should have and understanding of food canning as well as have a food storage capable of holding us up for a minimum of one week. In addition, we’ll have a plan to build our food stores up to a six month capacity.
During the course of this journey, I will do my best to share recipes and techniques as well as any ‘lessons learned’ I pick up along the way. I’ve very interested in this process as I believe it will help us out not only in the time of disaster, but also in day-to-day life. If we understand how to store food better, we should be able to keep our food costs down. We will be able to purchase materials on sale and set them aside for longer-term storage rather than rely on ‘just in-time’ inventory in our house.
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