Why we prep
Here's another reason why you – and your friends and family – should prep:
Lies, Lies, & OMG More Lies ...
The above link is a pretty long article with lots of graphs and data sets. But if you're in a hurry, or if you're one of the 45 million Americans who can't read, an excellent summary of the article is given in the George Carlin quote shown above: "I don't believe anything the government tells me."
TRENDING: America's most dangerous demographic
Of course, if you can't read, you're not reading this ... so have a nice day. But if you can read but would prefer not to leave my scintillating column, a slightly longer summary of the article would go something like this: The occupying force, which I call the UGA (United Government of America), is cooking the books on all things economic to keep its subject peoples (the USA) from getting restive. So inflation is low, the GDP is humming along nicely, medical care is cheap and all your children are above average.
A lot of talking heads will tell you, "Sure, things are a little rough right now; but not as bad as the Carter recession, the Nixon downturn, the Great Depression or even the Copper Panic of 1879."
But being as they are members of the UGA, you can be sure they are lying too. Your share of the U.S. debt is $60,000 and rising.
Things are coming to a head. Put some stuff aside soon. The members of the UGA are doing so. If everything is so rosy, ask yourself, "Why? What do they know?"
Prepping means never trusting the UGA.
And that's one of the reasons we prep.
So last week I covered, very briefly, the reasons, methods and mechanisms for storing grain long-term. I also showed you don't need to use fancy and expensive Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers for many food products. I mean, if it gives you comfort to do so, feel free. But you can save a bunch of money if you don't, and you can use those funds for other items and still have safely stored grains for personal use (as well as being able to feed others around you).
I also previously presented a YouTube video of rice that was stored long-term in just a sealable bucket, and aside from some yellowing, was perfectly edible.
But YouTube videos being what they are, I decided to wrap up this section on grain storage by giving you my own example of just-bucket storage. To the right is my five-gallon sealable bucket of black beans.
I put the beans in that bucket in 1999 (some of you will understand the significance of that date). Since Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers were kind of exotic in my location, and because I thought I might need those beans fairly quickly, I just dumped the beans in the bucket, screwed on the lid and forgot about them.
Now I'm a big proponent of food rotation, but since the only way I like black beans is when they're wrapped in chili, I never got around to using them. Then you can guess what happened – I've moved those beans with me twice, and stashed them in odd corners (under stairs or in barns) for the past 17 years. I did open the bucket about six years ago, to check on the contents. They were still black, so I put the lid back on tight (or so I thought) and once more forgot about them.
The only other time I reopened the bucket was a few days ago, for this column. That's when I discovered I hadn't really screwed the top down all the way. It was probably bug-tight, but certainly not air tight.
But the beans looked just the same as that day in the previous century when I put them up.
Now a lot of folks will tell you beans really harden up when stored for that long, and they won't soften when cooked – especially if they weren't protected from oxygen. So I decided to test them myself. I soaked a couple cups of beans overnight in water, then put them in a pot with fresh water and boiled them for about 30 minutes. The result? Soft beans ready for a chili-cookoff.
For another example of myth-busting food storage, I invite you to check out this nifty 1991 master's thesis written by a fellow named Scott Myers at Brigham Young University, entitled "The Effects of Packaging Gas, Temperature and Storage Time on Germination, Loaf Volume and Protein Solubility of Wheat."
I know. Sounds like a huge page-turner, right? I especially liked the chapter on "Loaf Volume and the Protein Solubility." Kept me awake all night. But if you're already in the middle of another blockbuster summer-read, then let me spoil the ending of Mr. Myers' opus: during the 18 months of his study, the packing gas used for each of his wheat samples (air, carbon dioxide or nitrogen) made little difference in the wheat's ability to become a loaf of bread.
What did make a difference? Temperature. But let's be realistic. Even when stored at a constant 100 degrees for a year and a half, the wheat still made bread. It only lost that ability when the wheat was stored between 100 and 130 degrees. So if you live somewhere where the constant temperature is lower than 100 degrees, your air-bucket-stored grain will probably be okay when you need it. (On the other hand, sleeping at night will be sticky. Get an air conditioner.)
There's a lot of info out there on the information superhighway. Most of it is probably good, but occasionally someone will write something that isn't correct and it will travel the world, passed from computer to computer, until it becomes gospel.
You need to read a lot of stuff and preferably try things out yourself. It's the only real way to be sure you've got the straight facts.
So that wraps up grain storage for now. Next week we'll get a little sexier and talks about guns for the prepper.
Until then, get prepared.