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Transcript of Processing Strategies
7/28/2019 Processing Strategies
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The Resilient Farm and Homestea
An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach
WITH PRACTICAL INFORMATION ON LANDSHAPING, WATER SECURITY ,
PERENNIAL CROPS, SOIL FERTILITY , NUTRIENTDENSE FOOD, AND MORE
BEN FALK
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Food Crops 205
Storing ood or very long periods o time using Mylar
and ood-grade buckets is simple and involves achieving the optimal conditions by (1) drying the ood to be stored,
(2) placing ood and oxygen absorbers into a Mylar bag,
(3) sealing the top with an iron, and (4) placing the bag
into a tightly closing ve-gallon bucket with a strong lid
and storing it in a cool, dry, dark environment. I nd that
buying oods in bulk rom the local co-op is a good way
to nd resh, large-quantity dry oods at a good price.
I wait or a warm, very low humidity day on which
to do the Mylar bagging, using grains and beans I have
spread out in the sunshine during the middle part o
the day. It’s easy to get behind on the process and end
up attempting to bag oods as the sun gets low. Thisis dangerous because the dew oten starts to set well
beore sunset on such a day—rendering the whole drying
approach ineective and likely destroying any possibility
or such ood to last years in storage. I have not measured
moisture content with precision but nd that a couple o
hours in direct sunshine on very low humidity days (here,
Three modern technologies that have emerged in recent
years allow us to put up a baseline stock o ood orinsurance purposes—or particular use in an emergency
event that lasts awhile. These three tools are Mylar bags,
oxygen absorbers, and plastic ve-gallon buckets. Easily
available rom many emergency preparation suppliers,
the bags and absorbers can be used with certain stable
oods—dry beans, grains, salt, and sugar—to enable stor-
age or very long periods o time because o the securing
o the optimal ood-storage environment, which is dark,
dry, cool, oxygen-ree, and protected rom pests.
Ensuring these conditions can allow the viable
storage o beans, grains, salt, and sugar or at least ve
years and up to twenty years. Research is still being conducted on these approaches, but evidence shows
reliable storage o these oods or at least ten years
under ideal conditions. Salt, o course, can be stored
indenitely, and many salts are already millions o
years old at time o purchase (or example, Himalayan
or Andean salt).
d e h y d r a t e d d a i r y
h a r d g r a i n s
b e a n s
d e h y d r a t e d v e g e t a b l e s
p a s t a
w h i t e r i c e
s o f t g r a i n s
c r a c k e d / g r o u n d s e e d
d e h y d r a t e d f r u i t
w h o l e s p i c e s
d r i e d h e r b s
f e r m e n t e d f o o d s
b r o w n r i c e
n u t s
r o o t v e g e t a b l e s
h a r d y f r e s h f r u i t s
s a l t , s u g a r , h o n e y
i n d e fi n i t e
a l c o h o l
i n d e fi n i t e
02
5
10
15
20
30
p o w d e r e d m i l k
o a t s
i n s t a n t p o t a t o e s
d r i e d a p p l e s
p a s t a
p i n t o b e a n s
c a n n e d f o o d
y e a s t
c o o k i n g o i l
p o w d e r e d e g g s
s a l t , s u g a r , b a k i n g p o w d e r
i n d e fi n i t e
w h e a t
3 0 +
r i c e
3 0 +
BEST USED BY
LONG-TERM FOOD SUPPLY
staple food/crop storage
02
5
10
15
20
30
“LIFE SUSTAINING”
An overview of some of the most important long-term food stores sources: https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/storage_life_of_foods.htm;
Nutritional Adequacy and Shelf Life of Food Storage by Dean Eliason and Michelle Lloyd copyright © 2005 Brigham Young University
VERy LOG-TERM FOOD STORAGE: A ISURACE POLICy
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The Resilient Farm and Homestead 206
Within one hour ater each bag is packed and sealed,
you should see the bag tightly crinkled around the con-
tents such that an outline o each bean, seed, or grain is
visible on the outside—it should look like it is vacuum
sealed. I it does not, you should consider that bag short-to midterm storage at best and eat it within a handul o
months to a year. Some have brought up the concern that
Mylar could be released rom the bag into the ood, as is
the case with many fexible materials, such as plastic ood
wrap. This could denitely be a health issue to be sure.
My take on the concern is simply that, while it’s a pos-
sibility—even a likely one—the need to store ood or very
long periods is important enough to warrant the risk. As
with most things, our exposure to articial contaminants
is high and continuous in the modern world—we must
counter that with equal consistency through daily ood-
medicine and other health-enhancing tools.
that’s 40 to 60 percent, which is relatively high or drier
climates) does the trick. The beans, grains, or sugar are
spread out thinly across screens or dry canvas so that sun
access is high. A light breeze can help but is not necessary.
I transer the ood quickly into Mylar with two tothree oxygen absorbers added into the bag as the ood
goes in. Holding the bag tightly so that as little air
is inside as possible, I use a hot iron to make the top
seal—mine is an electric model, but one could be ash-
ioned at home and heated via a woodstove i necessary.
Labeling each bag, o course, is very important. Though
Mylar bags are available in ull ve- and six-gallon sizes
to ll a bucket, I preer to store at least hal my long-
term insurance oods in smaller one-gallon bags so I can
open smaller quantities at a time, and in the event that
a seal was not properly perormed or the ood was not
adequately dried, less ood is spoiled.
The longest lasting storage options are o particular
value because they allow us to extend harvests across
years, not just months. This multiyear storability is cru-
cial when acute events happen—like the Year Without
a Summer. While such events are unlikely to happen
oten, they are inevitable, so a continuous backdrop
o preparation or them is oundational. The longest-
lasting storage approaches combine the right oods
and methods, which yield a stable calorie and nutrient
package that can be consumed more than one year
rom harvest. These ood/storage combinations should
be used as the baseline to one’s ood security. These
include, in general order o value, the ollowing:
• Live animals or milk, meat, ber, hide
• Hay
• Dried ruits, vegetables, mushrooms, certain
nuts and seeds in their shell
• Grains and dry beans (unhulled, ideally)
• Canned and rozen oods: long storage
but high initial and operational inputs limit
their useulness
a crop I turn to the arm journal. I nd an increasingly
long span o records that show me the average time the
same action was done in years past and the extremes on
both early and late ends o the season. I try to record all
migrations, new pests, lea-out dates, ice out, ripenings
and harvests, sowings, birthings o an animal, completiono projects, and dozens o other markers that can serve as
both seasonal guides and reerence points in the uture
about signicant events. It is always an enlightening expe-
rience to lea back through the years and see that whether
something on the arm seems productive, early, unhealthy,
or late, it all seems to even out by the end o the year.
Today the ice on our ponds is 6" thick, it’s 28°F out
and snowing sideways. A quick look at our arm journal
reveals that on this day last year the ponds had been ree
o ice or a week and the rst spring peepers were heard.
By checking the journal I also see that we had been eat-
ing arugula or weeks already last year while those samebeds are now rozen solid. The earliest perennials were
leang out at this time last year—a ar cry rom this year.
Our memories are poor and having a written record going
back now almost ve years has made me realize this to an
acute degree. When it’s nearing time to sow a specic veg-
gie seed, look or a certain pest, or think about harvesting
kEEPIG A HOMESTEAD/FARM JOURAL