heidijp

I am a non-member and just an occasional lurker to this site (as I STRONGLY believe in food storage). Your question prompted me to sign up so that I could share what I have learned. During the Great Depression a lot of families survived almost solely on dried corn. Mothers would grind the corn up and make cornbread, johnnycakes, etc... Unfortunately a lot of people did not know that unless the corn is treated with lye the niacin is not available nutritionally. This led to pellagra (which can cause death). 2 Parts grain to 1 part bean is a complete protein. Corn is the cheapest way to get your food storage in order if you are on an incredibly tight budget right now. I think we all agree that very hard times are coming, and I would hate you to put off the bulk of your food storage until you can afford it. If you buy dried corn at the feed store or deer corn you can buy it at $6-$7 for a 50 lb bag. You will need to clean it before you use it (removing dry cob parts or any rocks in the bag), however this is something you do with pinto beans anyway. At $7 per bag this would figure out to be $51.10 for 365 lbs of corn (the amount I would buy for each person). You can wash out two liter bottles or milk jugs and put the dried corn in them for storage. Walmart also sells 18 gallon totes for $4.50 each (these hold about 125 lbs of grain each, so you would need 3 per person). The corn can be brought to a boil in lye water (Aztecs used wood ashes) and then soaked overnight. The hard shells can then be rubbed off of the corn. Rinse the corn WELL. At this point you can run it thru your old fashioned meat grinder to make a masa paste and make corn tortillas out of it. They are delicious when made with fresh soaked masa like this. I will not kid you. This is a lot of work compared to opening a can of soup BUT you can get a years worth of calories set aside for your family, even if you have several children. I also recommend buying oil for your stockpile. A 48 ounce can of crisco is going to have over 10,000 calories in it. Calories are important if people are starving. Straight oil/shortening is going to be the cheapest/most compact food in your food storage. Oil/fats do go rancid over time however, and you will need to keep them out of sunlight in a cool place to slow that process down. If you get a years supply of food set aside like this (the basics that would prevent starvation), you can then work on improving the quality/quantity of your food storage to include items that your family likes and uses on a regular basis. My family are not Mormons. I had a hard time getting my husband on board with food storage. I checked out a bunch of old Great Depression documentaries (with actual footage from that time) and watched them with him. Some of the children in the movies looked like concentration camp victims and these children's mothers looked as if their spirits had been crushed to have their families go hungry. After I watched the documentaries with my husband, he was able to understand my fears and is behind my food storage efforts 100% now. I strongly urge you to get as much as you can in the way of calories in your house NOW. I can not tell you how much better I felt about my family's security after I had the minimum in place. After I had that in storage I started buying extras (salt, cocoa, tuna, bathroom tissue, etc) each time I went to the grocery store. It does add up fast. If you are saying to yourself that you wouldn't want to eat all that corn, then remember that you could always trade with someone else for white flour or sugar or beans. The main thing I think is to get started and get as much as you can calorically per $1 spent until you have what you consider to be an acceptable minimum in place. The corn works out to be 14 cents a pound at that price. Rice in bulk on sale right now is 40 cents a pound, cheap flour 30 cents a pound. All grains/sugars have roughly 1500 calories per lb dry weight. That is barely enough to survive on. You would lose weight. Your children and husband would lose weight. If you are nursing, you might lose your milk. I have thrown out my food storage due to weevils, poor rotation, not using what I have. I am still learning and still trying to improve what I have and how to store it. But my family will not starve until we get the first crops in. I pray that you and yours have a similar plan.