A letter from a cat

Friends of ours went away for Christmas and asked us to look after their cat Nikki.  They were very concerned about leaving her so Nikki wrote them a letter...

Dear Mommy,

I wondered where you went!  The sunny weather sounds nice but not as nice as being able to curl up on your bed all by myself in the sunshine.  I told you we didn't need a dog – I can guard the house ALL-BY-MYSELF!!

Aunt Anita came and she even left extra treats in my bowl – didn't you tell her I could have ten?  Well she gave me a three extra – maybe she can’t count.  I ate all my wet food on both days- aren't I a big kitty?

I pooped on the floor this morning in my special spot just to see what she would do – hee hee – she had to clean it up!!

I am nice and warm and cozy and being really lazy.  I haven’t done much since you left – I get to have a holiday too!

I’ll write again soon – next time I’ll ask Aunt Anita if she has anything to tell you.  She didn’t tell me anything today she just petted me and talked nonsense.  I can tell she was trained by a dog!

Have fun – Meowry Christmas!!!!!

Nikki

2012 Merry Christmas

It`s early morning on Christmas Eve at Shalom Engedi Farm.  I`m sitting in the soft glow of a look-a-like oil lamp wrapped up in a blanket.  It`s still dark outside and the house is quiet - except for the dog snoring softly on the couch beside me.

I embrace this early morning peacefulness while anticipating the busyness that`s still coming over the next few days with a house full of family.  Laughter and fun, board games and card games, shuffle board and too much food... talking over tea and cookies and munching on chocolate letters...seeing the new fallen snow... watching Home Alone 1, 2 and 3 - again.  This year we`re squeezing in a scrapbooking day as well.

Our family Christmas traditions are like the ribbon on the package of family.  Those are the things we do at this time of year that say I love you, I value you and you are part of our FAMILY. 

Christmas matters.  It colors our lives through the rest of the year - not because we have such great traditions or because we always get along perfectly but because it`s a time to say in words - we are family - through thick and thin - For Ever For Always No Matter What!

Those words ring true for us because someone else said them long ago.  At Christmas we celebrate  the coming of Christ the King - born in a manger as a tiny baby - who completely rocked this world.  He came for us who had no-family-and-no-friends-and-no-place-to-belong and opened His arms and His heart and then gave His life for us so we could be part of HIS family For Ever For Always No Matter What.

Every day is different for me because I am part of His family.  it changes everything.  That little baby - that Saviour King - He changed my life - He GAVE me LIFE.  He came for us.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.`John 3:16 (The Message)

So I`m sitting here on this Christmas Eve morning - in the quiet - remembering and being so grateful that I belong to His family and that I can experience the love of my family and friends this Christmas.  

Merry Christmas from Shalom Engedi Farm

Wood stoves - Cook Stoves - what a beautiful dilemma

It's been a bit of a process but we've finally made up our minds what to do about the wood stove - cook stove dilemma we've (I've) been struggling with. I have written before about my absolute love of all things old and beautiful but I would NOT want an old stove because burn technology and heat shields  have come a long way in the past 25 years and I am concerned about safety above all.  

Our search had several criteria. 

1. It had to look good.  
2. It needed to be efficient.  
3. I would like to cook on it. 
4. The price needs to be taken into consideration.  

It may sound shallow but that was in order of importance!

We spent part of the past weekend  learning about wood stoves by visiting different wood stove dealers.  We asked lots of questions and were able to see - in person - some of the stoves I had researched on-line. The real dilemma in making the choice lay in what we want the stove for in the first place.  Our first priority is an alternative way to heat the house - the second is cooking.  I had to keep reminding myself of that goal.

My all time favourite is the Heartland Wood Cook stove - and who wouldn't love it???  It's even more beautiful in real life!  This is the stove I drooled over - almost literally...  The problem: It was pricey - about $7000.00 and It has a small firebox which means it needs to be restocked regularly and although many people use it to heat their homes I was looking for something that I could fill up and leave longer than the 7-8 hours max it is rated.  Chopping wood is not on my list of - I-can't-wait-to-do-this-some-more so if I gotta do the work then I want all the bang  for the buck I can get for my sweat equity. 

I've researched the most efficient wood stoves on the market in the past few weeks and came up with the Blaze King. It's Canadian-made wood stove with a catalytic system built right in to create less emissions and therefore less creosote.  In some cases it allows for a 40 hour burn! Wow - that's impressive.  I watched all the videos on Blaze King I could find.  Great technology.  The problem: it is the ugliest stove you have ever seen and it didn't improve AT ALL in person.  It's a big square ugly box and no matter how I squinted I could never imagine it in my dining room and therefore who cares what it costs :)  If it was out of sight - i.e.  a basement or a garage - it would be my first choice.



One of the others I wanted to see was the Esse cook stove.  This stove made in the UK has great reviews for heating a home and cooking.  It looks nice too.  I liked it but the price tag of $7000.00 was more than my budget could bear.

So - we needed to look for something else.  We stopped in a place called Friendly Fires in Peterborough and walked into WOODSTOVE-COOKSTOVE-GAS-STOVE-BBQ HEAVEN!  We found really nice people who really knew what they were talking about.  We got the most answers to our questions of all our stops and they took their time to explain everything without making us feel we were taking too long (or we were dumb - which of course we were!)

All through this process I had my conversation with Michelle Mather in the back of my mind.  Last year she pointed out that having a cookstove as your main cooking appliance meant you would have to fire up the beast in the middle of the summer in order to cook - oh yeah. Her suggestion was to get a good quality woodstove - and she and her husband Cam recommended the Pacific Energy Brand (and later get a gas cookstove that looked like the cookstove of my dreams. oooh!)  

After looking at many other brands we settled on one made by Pacific Energy - the Alderlea. 

Built around Pacific Energy’s legendary Super Series steel firebox, the Alderlea T5 combines the very best features of both cast iron and steel stoves. Elegant, historic cast iron styling that adds to the decor of any room, radiant and convective heat, huge glass for a full view of your fire, a concealed cook top for peace of mind during power outages all in a proven easy- lighting, clean, long-burning heater with 30 years of wood stove technology behind it.

Matt - they guy we talked to at Friendly Fires mentioned hat one of the other men who worked there had guided the purchase of wood stoves for his whole family and wouldn't let them buy anything BUT an Alderlea because as a repair man he KNEW that these were the least likely to break down, the easiest to fix if they did and the most efficient.  Apparently people who own one never want anything else - even 20 years later they are coming back for the same stove.  Well - that was the kind of recommendation we were looking for. It's also pretty, it has a swing out cook top and the price of $2500.00 was more within the budget range.  

Our stove chimney will go straight up through the ceiling of the dining room, through the corner of second floor family room and out the sloped roof - the install cost was quoted at around $3000.00.  Spending that kind of money I think it's worth our while to purchase a really good stove rather than put an old stove in and hoping for the best.  I feel very confident the Alderlea will last for many years and safely do the job with style.

Soon we will have one more step done in the plan to be more self sufficient!


  

A baby lamb in time for Christmas!

There is nothing sweeter in the animal kingdom than babies.  Little baby Hubert is no exception.  He is a mischievous and playful little guy and we're already falling in love.  

Sometimes the best way to do things isn't exactly how they happen...and such was the case with our newest ewe Juliette.  We bought her from a friend who had left the ram running with the ewes all summer so he had no idea when she was due to lamb just that she looked good and pregnant.  She's a purebred Canadian, has been a mom before and had a sweet disposition - exactly the character traits I was looking for.


We'd been checking her often the last few weeks and expecting a baby-any-day.  Nothing.  Nothing. Nothing. I was getting just a little concerned because we have a weekend away planned and I didn't want to worry about lambing in the middle of our 25th anniversary dinner! Thankfully that won't be a problem.  My DS was putting the animals in for the night and came running back to tell me that Juliette was going to have her baby any minute.  Hurrah!

One of my beautiful daughters with 2 day old Baby Hubert

Such excitement!  We missed all the other births because they happened in the middle of the night so I really was hoping to be here for this one.  We got back to the barn just in time.  DS had already moved momma into the lambing jug to keep the other sheep at a distance. A lambing jug is a small enclosure - about 4 feet square - that provides a safe place for momma and baby to be for a few days after the birth while they bond.  It might have been better if she hadn't been confined before the birth but by the time I got there it was going to happen any minute so we just left her in the jug  

As soon as we got there I could see tiny hooves appearing - everything was happening exactly the way it should.  A few minutes later baby Hubert arrived into the world and all was well.  

I am just amazed at how energetic he was - struggling to get up on his feet and succeeding in less than 5 minutes.  He was wobbly to be sure but even that didn't last long.  Momma was doing her job licking him clean and very attentive and careful as she moved around the pen.  It didn't take long for him to figure out how to nurse...it really is a wonderful experience to be sitting on straw in a dimly lit pen with the wind whistling outside and animals surrounding you watching a miracle happen.

All the sheep and Maybe the donkey had their heads over the rails to watch what was going on.  They were very interested in the new arrival and when he wobbled over near the corner of the jug they all took turns sniffing him.  It was so sweet to watch them welcoming the newest member of their family to the world.  

I thought Juliette was for-sure going to have twins.  She was huge!!  I waited and waited to see if another baby was coming but after a few hours I concluded that was it.  I went to check on her several times that night and at 11 pm I finally decided all was well and it was time for bed.  We left a heat lamp on all night but he was toasty warm every time I checked.

Hubert's fate is still up in the air.  His bloodlines are pure-bred Canadian and he will likely sire bigger lambs than our Shetland ram Mr. Sheepie ever will.  Should we keep him?  Should we sell him? Decisions decisions!

Another successful birth and addition to Shalom Engedi Farm and I am happy to report I lost a lot less sleep over this birth than the previous ones!  I think I'm getting the hang of this farmer bit and I can tell you it's better than I ever imagined!

Fam-Jam - No Peeking till after Christmas!!!

It's Christmastime and I'm making home-made gifts again this year. I am incredibly blessed to be the recipient of my whole villages extra canning jars - or so it seems.  I put the word out and everyone seems to know that I will take anything they have.  Along with the more modern mason jars I have several boxes of these old beauties.  Glass lidded and zinc covered - jars to swoon over! 

After admiring them for awhile I decided I could part with some of them - you know you have a serious addiction to canning jars when you have to think it over before you commit to giving them away!

I filled the jars with a mixture of Epsom salts and lavender flowers.  Apparently it smells heavenly!  I bought essential oils to add to the mixture but my daughter (aka: the family nose) says they smell better without it but we're a low-odour family partly because I have no sense of smell and partly because I have allergies to so many things I err on the side of caution when it comes to fragrance - you might like the extra lavender scent.

I mixed 5 cups of salt to one cup of flowers - it filled almost three pints.  One pint is enough for about three luxurious and relaxing baths.  I used beautiful purple wrapping paper over the glass lid and under the zinc ring to match the purple ribbon.

Epsom Salts are not really salt at all - it's actually a naturally occurring mixture of magnesium and sulfate which are easily absorbed by your skin. Magnesium plays a number of roles in the body including regulating the activity of over 325 enzymes, reducing inflammation, helping muscle and nerve function and helping to prevent artery hardening. Sulfates help improve the absorption of nutrients,flush toxins and help ease migraine headaches.  You can read more by clicking on the hyper link  In short it's really good for you.  Lavender has long been known as the relaxation scent.  Apparently just smelling it causes you to relax, helps ease migraines and can help with insomnia.   So - this gift is more than just a pretty jar - it has all those wonderful qualities as well! 

The perfect Christmas gift!

Just in case my neighbours are reading this - yes please I would still like more canning jars.

(To Whom It May Concern... I know you're reading this and I told you not to peek!!)

Christmas 2012 at Shalom Engedi Farm

The old barn door.

The Christmas Tree 2012

I love oil lamps.

Rusty Cookie cutter - rust rocks!

These beautiful crocheted snowflakes were a gift from a friend when we first got married.  I want to make more for next year.

 Some of my favourite yard sale finds are old tart tins that I re-purposed into ornaments.

The Christmas Village has found a new place in this home but it's been part of our Christmas traditions for many years.

Video: A self sufficient village in medieval ruins

I've never posted a video before but this one is a really good example of people working together towards a common goal of building a self sufficient community in the ruins of a medieval town.  It's good to hear that your mind is the biggest thing holding you back - they have done things that are nearly impossible!! 

Enjoy!!

Dehydrating Kale and Making Veggie Broth Powder

I must be in nesting mode - winter nesting NOT baby nesting just to be clear!!  Last week did not go as planned - we had a few issues with our water system.  One day it was an overflowing water softener and a few days later someone-who-shall-remain-nameless left a hose running in the barn...OH BOY!  The water coming out of the taps after that episode looked like coffee-with-no-cream.  The bright side to all of this is my burgeoning education in how all that junk in the basement (that we depend on daily) works.  I'm getting there but I am beginning to think what we really need is a plumber to come and have a look at everything.

But one thing leading to another led me to want to clean up the basement and get organized once and for all.  I am perhaps delusional on that last bit because things have a way of UN-organizing themselves somehow when I'm not looking.

I was running out of room for my canning jars - filled and empty - so I purchased and installed some new shelving.  It all fits so much better than my ragtag assortment of tables and plastic shelves.

I also was able to get rid of lots of cardboard boxes that were holding all those canning jars.  One of the boxes looks like it's from more-than-a-few years back.  The top of the box says Rolph How Limited O/A Rolph Dom Howe Main Street Orono L0B 1M0 - there's still a Hardware Store in Orono with that name. Cool. (The purrpot insisted on having it's picture taken!)

All this cleaning got me in the mood to clean out the freezers and do some dehydrating too.  You can dehydrate almost any fruit or vegetable but some turn out nicer than others. 

One of the things I love dehydrated is kale.  My mom and dad grow lots of kale - good thing because mine didn't do so well and they were willing to share as always.  Mom washes it, strips it off the stocks and puts in the freezer.  After it's frozen you can just crush the bag with your hands and it falls apart into little pieces.  The handy part about all of this is when you're swamped with work outside you can throw it in the freezer and dehydrate it later..

I did three loads this week in my Excalibur 10-tray dehydrator that lives year round on top of my fridge.  If you don't have a dehydrator you can also use your oven set on low or warmed up and then turned off with the light left on.  It's a messy job - there were bits of kale everywhere but three loads filled a large ceramic container with the clip lock that will do us for most of the year. (About 9 large freezer bags)  I just crunched it up frozen right out of the bag and filled the trays about a 1/2 inch deep and set the temperature for about 105 degrees - this allows it to dehydrate while keeping the nutrition intact.  If the heat is higher it destroys the enzymes that make food alive.  It  took about 3 hours a load.  It needs to be completely dried or any remaining moisture will cause the whole container to mould.  After dehydrating I pulsed everything in a food processor.  

I like the convenience of dumping a few tablespoons into lasagne or soup or pretty much in anything.  It's so good for you!  Kale Nutritional Info.  You just have to remember that a tablespoon is a cup or more when not dehydrated.

I got to thinking about how convenient this was and decided to finally get around to making a vegetable broth powder to replace the expensive organic bouillon  cubes I've bought in the past.  I found a simple recipe and I adapted to what I had.

The original recipe called for:

2 cups Nutritional Yeast

1/2 cup sea salt

2 Tablespoons onion powder

1 Tablespoon turmeric

2 teaspoons dried dill weed

2 teaspoons marjoram(optional)

2 teaspoons dried powdered lemon peel (optional)

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon powdered thyme

1 Tablespoon dried parsley

Anita's Home Made Vegetable Broth Powder 

4 cups nutritional yeast

1/2 cup sea salt

2 tbsp. Onion salt (or powder but I was out)

2 tbsp. turmeric

2 tbsp. basil

1/2 cup parsley

1/2 cup dried veggie mix (carrots, peppers, celery or anything else you have)

This recipe is very forgiving - add whatever sounds good to you. I always figure more green stuff is good for you (it's a bit of a change from 1 tablespoon parsley to 1/2 a cup)  I threw it all into a food processor for about 40 seconds until everything was well blended and for much less than the cost of a box or two of cubes I have enough to last me a year.  It will keep for at least a year or two if it's in an airtight container.

Winter soups and casseroles anyone??

All about ducks... quack quack.

This is poor Sir Winston (or Sir Winnie for short) the Muscovy drake.  Doesn't he have an interesting face (maybe interesting is just being kind)! Sir Winnie is the King of the Chickens and Ducks.  He's a huge duck  and he likes being the boss.  My son has had a few run ins with him when he challenged him "just for fun".  I've never had a problem with him and he often comes to sit near the back door hoping to score some leftover cat food or just sit basking in the sun.

All summer he and his girls would find a shady spot to sit during the hottest parts of the day to emerge ready to join us at the fire pit for supper.  Between the chickens and the ducks there are never any leftovers.

We have three Rouen ducks - they look similar to mallards to the untrained duck-eye.  Two of them hang around with the Crested White Duck below and they are the best of friends.  They are always together wandering the property, drinking out of puddles after a rainstorm or waddling off to find some adventure in the paddock.  So far their farm value has been mostly the entertainment factor with a few eggs thrown in.

Our Crested Duck sat on a clutch of eggs early this spring and hatched out a bunch of ducklings but I don't think any of them where really hers - note the colors of the ducklings - she didn't seem to mind.   One of those hatched drake ducklings grew up to hang out with a misfit Muscovy hen and they've been in love ever since.

Yesterday we welcomed three new black Muscovy hens to the farm. Sir Winnie lost both his girlfriends in the last two weeks.  They had been roaming off without him and we think they may have been a coyotes lunch.  Sad.  They were really sweet ducks who put up with lots of our attention and on occasion being carried back to the barn when they moved too slow for our liking.  The new girls are locked up in a pen getting to know Sir Winnie and I'm not sure they are too happy about it but I can hardly blame them.  They came from a beautiful farm near Balieboro where they had the run of the farm and a huge pond.  Farmer Sue and Farmer Rick helped us catch the girls who were roosting far above our heads in the barn - it was quite the run about!  After several attempts with a huge net we finally captured them but they most certainly didn't want to get into that cage.   All of our Muscovy's up till this point have been almost pure white.  These new girls are mostly black with a little white on their throats - very pretty!  No pictures yet because the barn is too dark for a good shot.

There is another duck sitting on a nest at Farmer Rick and Farmer Sue's and if all goes well we agreed to take them so we may have some baby ducklings in a week or two.  The momma's on their farm come and go from the barn at will and spend most of their time on the pond.  The last batch this particular momma hatched out waddled across the yard and down the steep slope into the pond and learned to swim at THREE DAYS OLD!   Rick and Sue were a little concerned that the water temperature and the predators would probably wipe out the babies this late in the season so we're doing an intervention!  Yeah - duckies!!  We've kept other ducklings in the house under a heat lamp in the past but we also need them to get used to the colder temperatures outside so it may be a heat lamp in the barn for them.  We can gradually raise the lamp to adjust the heat.  The best solution would be for another duck to adopt them but  that hasn't always gone so well.  I guess we'll wait and see.

I had a chat with my farming friend - farmgal - the other day - you can read her blog here.  We were discussing how prolific her ducks were (hatching out 25-30 ducklings a year EACH) while I lamented that mine were laying fine but not hatching much of anything out.  Well - no wonder!  We were doing a few things wrong and once corrected I hope we have better success.  Their nesting area was shavings on top of concrete and this is not optimal for ducks because the nests actually need a fair bit of moisture to hatch.  The shavings and the concrete were working against us.  Farmgal suggested dumping dirt (in my clean pen!!) to a depth of 6-8 inches and then laying straw over the top.  The mommas also need to be able to leave the pen every day to have a bath,get something to eat and do their business.  In trying to keep the chickens out of their nests we didn't always let them out.  There's a solution to everything and it usually involves in talking to an expert!

Now we need to wait till spring to see if the changes will make a difference...is winter over yet?  

One Year Food Storage Organization System

One of the things I struggled with in the area of food storage was keeping track of everything and making sure I was storing enough.  That gets complicated when you are wanting to store enough food for ONE WHOLE YEAR for a large group of people. 

I've talked lots about WHY I am crazy enough to even want to attempt this so I'll just carry on from there.

 I've tried several food storage calculators and messed around with my own versions but was never satisfied until recently.  I was looking for a simple way to keep track so I came up with a system that's easy to read and see at a glance.  It can be used for any length of food storage and include any of your favourite foods. It can also be expanded to include non-food items that you want to store but for simplicity sake I keep that information separately.

For some interesting facts about canned SPAM click here.

I used various sources for my calculations.  I started with the basics come from the most recent LDS manual that you can download for free here.  I expanded my lists by considering foods that store well and that we eat regularly.  I also made allowances for food sensitivities in our family - less white rice and no white flour for us and more variety in whole grains and gluten free grains.  These lists have come out of a few years of practice and note-taking as to what we eat regularly.  I have also made a concerted effort to include some of the items we do not eat regularly but store really well and make them a part of our monthly menus.  We still have a long way to go but all of this is a process!

Most sources say 400lbs of grain per year per person is a minimal goal.  The first question you may ask is - how many buckets is that??  Here's a handy chart from www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net

Food Item	#10 Can	5 Gallon Bucket
Wheat	5 pounds	37 pounds
White Flour	4.5 pounds	33 pounds
Cornmeal	4.3 pounds	33 pounds
Popcorn	5 pounds	37 pounds
Rolled Oats	2.5 pounds	20 pounds
White Rice	5.3 pounds	36 pounds
Spaghetti	N/A	30 pounds
Macaroni	3.1 pounds	21 pounds
Dried Beans	5.6 pounds	35 pounds
Lima Beans	5.4 pounds	35 pounds
Soy Beans	5 pounds	33 pounds
Split Peas	5 pounds	33 pounds
Lentils	5.5 pounds	35 pounds
White Sugar	5.7 pounds	35 pounds
Brown Sugar	4.42 pounds	33 pounds
Powdered Milk	3 pounds	29 pounds
Powdered Eggs	2.6 pounds	20 pounds

If anything I erred on the side of abundance with the suggested amounts from these sources.  I've copied an sample below to show you how it works.  I used an average of 33lb or 15kg per bucket for the grains which means I need about 12 pails in total to make up the 400lbs per person recommended.  Then I listed the grains I wanted to store and decided how I was going to divide up the storage.  As you can see below I am actually aiming for 15.5 - 5 gallon buckets per person per year.  I like variety.

I've done the same with all the categories - Grains, Beans/Meat, Cooking oils, Salt, Milk/Dairy, Fruit, Vegetables and Other Necessities.

Since this is MY list is really will only serve as a jumping off point for others.  Our family doesn't need to store eggs - we have chickens.  We eat much of our vegetables in the summer from the garden and hope to improve our productivity over the next few years so I have only included the vegetables that we actually store long term by canning, freezing or root cellaring.  I also don't store a lot of store bought dehydrated or freeze dried foods - just my personal choice.

The chart below is fairly self- explanatory.  There's room on this chart for 5 people but it can of course be expanded.  The "X's" represent the number of pails I have already stored.  I use the highlighter function to remind me that I have bought the product but still need to properly package it for long term storage.  So in the example below I have 2 pails of large flake oatmeal in storage and enough for one more pail that will be packed in a pail with mylar and an O2 absorber as soon as I have a few more buckets to do at one time.

Farther down the list I have some canned goods and instead of using "X's" I just write the number in the space provided.  eg. for tomato sauce I write "20" or if I am working up to that 12 or 15 or whatever I have so I will be able to add my new purchases and carry on to the next "person" (per) on the chart.

I debated whether or not to include the details of WHAT I store because I believe that everyone's food storage needs to be personalized to their own needs.  HOWEVER we all need to start with something and I like seeing charts like this myself so I am sharing it anyway!

The amounts listed for each item are based on how much of them we already eat.  It's sometimes hard to imagine how much food it takes for a whole year simply because we are disconnected to it by not having to prepare much of it ourselves.  Imagine having to bake every loaf of bread, grind wheat to make every muffin and cookie you eat - that's a lot of food!

Here's a link to a food storage calculator.  It will allow you to input your families ages and be given a basic list - consider the one below Anita's expanded list!

GRAINS 400 lb min	12pails	1 per	2 per	3 per	4 per	5per
Wheat kernels soft	2	XX	XX
Wheat kernels hard	3	XXX	X
Steel cut oats	1	X	X
Large flake oatmeal	1	X	X	X
Brown rice	1	X	X
Pasta	2	XX	XX
Parboiled rice	2	XX
Millet	.5	X	X
Quinoa	.5
Spelt	1	X	X
Buckwheat	.5
Quick Oatmeal	1
BEANS/MEAT 60lb min	5 pails	1 per	2 per	3 per	4 per	5per
Dried beans kidney	1
Dried beans chickpea	1
Lentils/red or brown	1
Yellow/green peas/split peas	1
Dried beans black	1
Canned chicken/turkey	50
Canned salmon	50
Canned sardines	20
Home canned meat	25
Falafel mix	5
COOKING OIL 10quarts	20lb	1 per	2 per	3per	4 per	5 per
Butter Powder	1
Olive oil	2
Coconut oil	4
Mayo	2
Peanut butter	2
Vegetable oil	3-5L
Nutella	2
SALT 8lb min	8	1 per	2 per	3 per	4 per	5 per
Pounds of salt	8
MILK/DAIRY 75lb min	75lb	1 per	2 per	3 per	4 per	5 per
Milk powder	40lb
Canned evaporated milk	12
Almond milk	24
Powdered cheese	2
Coconut milk	10

FRUIT 170 quarts		1 per	2 per	3 per	4 per	5 per
Applesauce	25 quarts
Dried apricots	10 pkg.
Coconut	.25 pail
Mandarin oranges	20 cans
Pears	20 quart
Peaches	20 quart
Pineapple	25 cans
Raisins	1lb
Dates	4 pkg.
Figs	10 pkg.
Jam	20 pint
Apple butter	2 pint
VEGETABLES 200 quarts	200 qu	1 per	2 per	3 per	4 per	5 per
Beans	50
Beets/plain/pickled	25  pints
Carrots	10
Onions	10lb
Peppers frozen	2 bags
Pickles	10
Canned Potatoes	10 quarts
Rhubarb	5 froz
Sauerkraut	5 quarts
Spinach/kale	10 froz
Tomato sauce	50	50
Home canned soups	20
Diced tomatoes	20
Salsa	2
Boxed potatoes	1
Canned corn	5
Sweet potatoes	10 quarts
Chili sauce	1
BBQ sauce	1
Sprouting Seeds	1 quart

OTHER NECESSITIES		1 per	2 per	3 per	4 per	5 per
Baking powder	2
Baking soda	10
Sugar	1 pail
Brown sugar	.5 pail
Apple juice	12 cans
Hot chocolate mix	2 can
Instant yeast	2 brick
Garlic powder	1 quart
Cinnamon	1 quart
Carob chips	.25 pail
Cocoa powder	1 can
Ginger	1 quart
Ketchup	2 bottle
Mustard	2 bottle
Relish	1 bottle
Lemon juice	1 bottle
Black pepper	1 quart
Maple syrup	4L
Honey	5lb
Stevia	2 bottles
Crackers	5 box
Cold cereal	5 box
Walnuts	2lb
Almonds	2lb
Hemp seeds	2lb
Flax seeds	5lb
Dehy.Veggie flakes	1 pail
Vinegar	10 bottle
Apple cider vinegar	2 bottle
Mrs. Dash	1 jar
Pickling spice	.5 quart
Herbal tea	5 boxes
Caf-lib	1 jar
Tea bags	50
Coffee	1
Parmesan cheese	2 can
Bouillon	12 cubes

I've expanded this list over the years.  I started with the most basic things and added more items as I thought of them.  Some of these things I could do without but they are nice to have. Some items like hot sauce I currently have in the fridge but we are not huge hot-sauce-kind-of-people so I don't actually have it on the list - I think the last bottle of hot sauce lasted two years.

There are other items I could have added and may add in the future but for now this is what I am working on.

I watch for sales to add to my stores.  For example this week pasta was on sale so I purchased enough to fill several buckets.  It was on sale for .77 for 900gr.  900 gr. is approx 2 pounds. It takes 21lbs of macaroni to fill a bucket so that's 11 packages. 11 x .77c = $8.47 per bucket. O2 absorbors and mylar liner take the cost up to approx. $10.00 in total if you can get a free bucket. Not a bad deal.

I am also careful to keep things balanced - no sense having pasta for 10 people for a year and no sauce.

One of the eureka moments I've had over the past years with food storage and organization is to divide it into five different components.  

1. Long term storage - it's packed in Mylar and rotated out in 15-30 years.
2. Long term shelf stable food - our personal grocery store - wet pack foods, boxed foods we rotate within 5 years.
3. Freezer items - we rotate out in 1 year and replenish
4. Upstairs pantry - our every day eating - not counted in food storage and probably enough for several weeks
5. Fridge items - on a weekly/bi-weekly rotation

I keep track of long term storage but I don't count everything in fridge and freezer - I just consider it extra food.  By eating primarily from the fridge, freezer and cold cellar we continue to rotate the most perishable foods first without having to add and subtract from the food storage lists.  We store vegetables and fruit for 6 months over the winter in our basement which we eventually hope to extend further with a proper root cellar.  Then we eat fresh from the garden as much as possible in the warmer months.  Season extenders such as cold frames and a greenhouse  are on the list for the future.

If you are feeling discouraged at the length of the list and the planning involved - know this:  you have to start somewhere. "What is not started will never get finished." —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

Start with a three day supply of shelf stable food.  Expand it to a week, then three weeks, then three months.  Remember to store foods you like to eat.  Who cares if SPAM is on sale if no one likes it! YUCK!  

There are lots of plans out there and ANY plan is better than NO plan.  Keep working towards your food storage goals - step by step.  Whether it's for three months or one year I hope seeing my One Year Food Storage Organizational System will help you to make sense of your own.