GUEST POST - Does The Bible Say Anything About Storing Food

By Daymond Duck

Prophecy Plus Ministries

While teaching on Bible prophecy I often point out that Jesus mentioned that famine is one of the signs of the Beginning of Sorrows (Matt. 24:1-8). This usually leads into a discussion of the rise in food prices and the impact that natural disasters are having on food supplies. It is about this time that I am asked if it is okay to store food. Some people seem to have the impression that storing food is a sin, or at the very least, it demonstrates a lack of faith. This is a good reason to ask, “Does the Bible say anything about storing food?” Yes! It does.

In Genesis chapter six, God told Noah to build an Ark, board it, get his family to board it, put animals on it (verses 14-20), “And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Gen. 6:21-22). Simply put, God intended to send a great natural disaster upon the earth (the Flood) so He commanded Noah to gather a variety of food and store it on the Ark for him, his family and the animals. Could God have spoken food into existence anytime Noah or the animals needed it? Of course, He could. But He didn’t. He commanded Noah to gather food and store it. Did God provide for Noah? Of course! He provided food for Noah to gather and plenty of time for him to gather it.

For those who may wonder if Noah sinned by obeying God and doing this, Paul said, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Heb. 11:7). Noah was obeying God and acting by faith when he built that Ark and put food on it.

In Genesis chapter forty-one, Pharaoh dreamed about seven fat cows and seven lean cows. He had a second dream about seven fat ears of corn and seven thin ears of corn. When he got around to asking Joseph to interpret his dream Joseph said, “What God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. And there shall arise after them seven years of famine’ (Gen. 41:28-30). This is a second story about God planning to send a natural disaster upon the earth. And to make that everyone understands that it was God would send this natural disaster the Holy Spirit said, “And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass” (Gen. 41:32).

Did God provide for His people? Yes! God blessed Egypt with bountiful harvests and more food than they needed for seven years. And Joseph said, “Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine” (Gen. 41:34-36). Pharaoh believed this was a good thing to do; he put Joseph in charge, and the food that God’s man stockpiled became a blessing to others and saved the lives of many.

It is important to understand that God often provides for His people before they have a need. He provided the seven fat years before He sent the seven lean years. He provided extra manna on the day before the Sabbath so the Jews could collect and store food to consume on the Sabbath (Ex. 16:5). He provided triple crops in the sixth year so the Jews could store plenty to eat while they let the land rest during the seventh year (Lev. 25:20-21). He even considers the ant wise because it stores food for the winter during the summer (Prov. 6:6-11; 30:24-25).

Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity. This is a major sign that the end of the age is near. The good news is that the Rapture will be before Jesus breaks the third seal in the Book of Revelation that leads to worldwide famine (Rev. 6:5-6). The bad news is that no one knows the day or the hour of the Rapture or how far Christians will go into the natural disasters and famine before God removes His Church. When it comes to something like food it is better to be over prepared than under prepared. If we wind up not needing it, we won’t have any problems finding people who do. If the Rapture happens and we haven’t used it, that’s great. Others will benefit from it.

Peanut Butter Shoots Up - So Does Other Food Staples

We have been warning that unless weather trends change, the world would see major food shortages. For the past three years I have been reporting to my PZ Insiders on the global droughts and floods that have been wrecking havoc on the food producing countries.

Now we are beginning to see the effects of this and the peanut butter market is a great place to see it happen right before your eyes.

What is going on?

This past year was the worst peanut harvests in decades that have ever taken place. Peanut butter prices are shooting up as high as 40%

Here is what is being reported.

CNNMoney reports that Kraft is raising prices for its Planters brand peanut butter by 40 percent while ConAgra has already increased the price for its Peter Pan by 20 percent.

CNNMoney also states that J.M. Smucker, the maker of Jif, will hike their prices up about 30 percent.

AP Reported that U.S. farmers were expected to produce roughly 1.8 million tons of peanuts this year. This is down nearly 13 percent from last year, and we may be lucky to see even that happen.

Georgia, the largest peanut-producing state in the country, saw record-breaking heat and a lack of rainfall that prevented some peanut seeds from even germinating in the field. Plants that did grow were literally cooked in the summer heat. The result being poor-quality nuts or sometimes nothing at all.

This year was Georgia's worst peanut crop in more than 20 years.

But it is just not peanuts alone, many other crops were effected as well.

We are beginning to see drastic spikes in prices across the board when it comes to food staples.

You may be asking yourself "What is causing such a drastic spike?"

First, farmers have diverted more resources to growing crops for biofuels, such as ethanol made from corn and biodiesel made from palm oil.

Currently, the United States diverts millions of bushels of corn to fuel-production. Where 10 years ago corn was still going to the food supply, today we are literally burning up our food and for what?

Biofuels are now eating up 6.5 percent of the world's grain supply and 8 percent of its vegetable oil.

This is almost one tenth of grain and vegetable oil taken out of the food supply.

Think about this for a moment, one tenth is a large chunk.

what is also taking place is the simple laws of supply and demand are in play as well.

As I stated, corn and soybeans are going to biofuel production.

The rising Asian and Middle Eastern demand for higher-value foods.

We are seeing more developing nations buy more food.

We are also seeing more of the world's countries buying more meat producing animals which also depend on grains to help supplement their feed.

The ever rising transport costs AKA gasoline and Diesel are also playing a major part.

But the biggest issue at hand is crop failures.

Besides the US, Russia and Australia have suffered brutal droughts or floods that have severely effected many of the crops in those countries as well as globally.

Russia is no longer shipping grain out, China, the same. More countries are holding on to their food stores for their own use because other primary sources for food are drying up.

This past winter here in the US we had an extended winter with massive snow fall.

This caused flooding in the central US and prevented crops from going into the ground as well as destroying winter crops that were to be harvested.

The cold winters also extended into Florida damaging much of the citrus crops and also hit Mexico which damaged 80%-90% of the crops destined to the US.

With all these things that have already taken place, we are now begininng to feel the effects all these issues have created.

GMO Comes Into Play

Did you know Monsanto has now given the go ahead for their GMO seeds to be distributed to people for food crops? Farmers may get these seeds, but the drawback is that these seeds were genetically engineered for biofuel and not nutrition.

So even though we maybe filling our bellies, we are still lacking the nutrients needed thanks to seeds that have been genetically modified to produce more starch, which equates to sugar, which equates to alcohol the primary ingredient that makes Ethanol.

To top that off, the production of corn on a large scale is very damaging to the soil, basically stripping it of any usefulness in the long run.

Scripturally we are told to rotate our crops as well as give the land a break and not plant every seventh year.

Exodus 23:10-11  And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:
11  But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. 

This no longer is taking place and "mono cropping" the continued growing of a single crop, has depleted much of the US farmland.

So even if we wanted to grow, due to our greed we have depleted the soil and we can not grow. That is unless we stick a bunch of other chemicals in the ground, which in turn damages the soil even more.

Where's The Beef?

The Texas Cattlemen's Association sent out a notice that there is going to be a beef shortage starting before the end of this year and is predicted to last until 2014.

Since the biggest beef producing states in the nation have suffered the worst drought in history, ranchers have liquidated their herds earlier this year. The cows that would normally give birth in the spring time have been sold off, therefor there are not as many cows to produce the fall offspring that would normally be sold at auction about this time of year.

When the winter demands for beef take hold, the supply is not going to be there, thus the prices will skyrocket.

One PZ insider that I know is already paying $6 lb for high fat content ground beef in Oklahoma.  Here in Texas it is just a few cents short of that. Prime ground beef is already selling between $9 and $12 lb.

If what TCA is predicting does in fact come true, then we will be looking at $15+ lb for hamburger meat before next summer with a monthly price increase until the cattle market picks back up around 2014.

What does this all mean?

It means that beef will become the next "caviar" in the years to come.

So What Can We Do?

Knowing that food prices are going to go up drastically, what we need to do is create a "hedge" against inflation.

How we do this is by "investing" our money in food now vs later paying for higher priced food.

For example, ground beef is $5.00 a lb now. We believe that it will probably hit $15.00 a lb by end of next summer. So what we do is stock up on ground beef now.

When you are at the store look for sales in the beef area and if you see some good prices, then purchase some extra.

With the cost of beef going up, that will also cause the prices of other meats to go up as well due to the larger supply and demand due to the lack of beef.

But we do not stop there, stock up on Peanut Butter as well. We KNOW that peanut butter is going up in price, so estimate how many jars of peanut butter your family uses per month and then go out and buy a years supply.

Some of you may be thinking "Oh my.. a years supply??"

If you are like us, a years supply is about 12-14 large jars of peanut butter.

In fact just checking the Walmart Website I see that you can get 5 lbs of Skippy Peanut Butter for $8.98 per two pack.

A year's supply would be 14 jars or 7 two packs, that comes to $125.72.

Now that may seem like a lot of money to spend, but would you rather spend that now or spend the same amount and only get 7 jars around March/April 2011 time frame?

Prices could be that high by then.

Now if you do not have the $125.00 to spend now, what you need to do then is buy in "baby steps." Purchase just one or two jars every time you go to the store.

In fact do what we are doing and start keeping an eye on coupons. When you get a coupon for peanut butter, hold on to it and then the next time you are at the store, use the coupon to purchase extra peanut butter. Often you are able to use store coupons on top on newspaper coupons, thus saving you even more money. Look for these offers, they are out there.

We Bought A Lot - Now What?

Let's say that you have gone out an purchased a large amount of beef. How do you store all this?

Well there are several ways.

First there is freezing, and the best tool to use to freeze with is the Foodsaver. This is a tool ever prepper kitchen needs to have. This is a home vacuum sealer that costs around $80.00+. You can pick it up at Walmart as well as buy it from Amazon. If you have Amazon Prime, that means shipping is free and you also do not pay sales tax on the item.

You can divide up your meat and then put them in individual bags. Suck the air out of them and get a real good vacuum seal. Once sealed mark the bag and date it and then put it in your freezer. The Foodsaver people say that you can keep beef of over a year in the freezer. There isn't any freezer burn and the meat stays fresh.

Second there is dehydrating, and the best tool to use is the Excalibur Food Dehydrator. This is one of my favorite kitchen prepper tools out there. I use my dehydrator quite a bit. More so than freezing in fact. You are able to marinade your beef, cut it in strips and then dehydrate the beef, AKA..Beef Jerky.

But what is great is that you can create different marinades that have different flavors, spices, etc and then make jerky out of it.

Once you have made your beef jerky, I have found that putting into a mason jar with an oxygen absorber will help keep the beef jerkey for some time.

How you use this is by rehydrating it, using it in soups, stews, caseroles, sauces, just about any way that you would use and cook standard beef.

The great thing is that the beef is already seasoned and will help add more flavor to the items you are preparing.

Now the dangers of this is that your family will eat all the beef jerky before you can use it. This is what happens a lot here at the Gano home, so make sure you make extra to compensate for the pantry raids that will be conducted. Another interesting thing is that the beef jerky will disappear and no one in the house will know who ate it all. I am sure that "Mr. Idunno" lives at your house as well. He seems to be the culprit most of the times.

Finally there is canning your beef. One of the best ways to do this is to cook up your ground beef, beef strips or cubed beef and then can it in some sort of brine type liquid.

There is a lot of mystery in doing this and people are afraid of getting food poisoning. But if you follow your instructions in your canning cook book, you will do fine, the canned meat will be safe to eat and you will have meat that will last several years in the jar.

Now the tool that I recomend you to use for this is the All-American 21-1/2-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner. The best prices that I have found these were actually at Amazon. You can purchase one for $199.99. The average cost is usually over $210-$225.00+.

What I like about the AA-21 is that not only can you use it canning, but you can also cook a full dinner in it in about 15 minutes.

In fact if you raise chicken and have wondered what to do with all those roosters that missed the ax at 90 days old, the pressure cooker is a great way to cook these tough birds and when they come out, they are very tasty and tender.

You can then pressure can the meat and use the broth that it was prepared in as the brine all in the same AA-21 pressure canner.  

Now I know that there are some of you out there that are saying " But Ray, I don't know how to can."

Well I will share with you how we learned. We pruchased a great DVD series titled "Food Storage Secrets." In fact we liked the series so much we now offer it on the Prophezine website.

With this series you get the 2-DVD set, "Food Storage Secrets"as well as another DVD titled "Food Dehydrating Secrets." On top of that they also include a 63 page canning book that goes along with the DVD series.

All this costs $39.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling.

This is how Tracye and I learned how to can up some of our food stores. I highly recomend this series for anyone who is starting out learning how to can.  To learn more, click on the DVD picture and it will take you to the website.

Conclusion

The world is feeling the famine that drought, floods, excess snow has produced. Prices of food will go up, that is a fact. But if you plan now and start building up your pantry by "investing" in food; you will create a hedge against inflation that will free up resources so that you can then create other hedges such as dairy products, veggies, fruits, etc.

All that we are doing is just what our grand parents and great grand parents used to do. It was un-imaginable to not have at least a years worth of food storage in the days before the grocery store. Everyone canned and everyone dehydrated.

In fact do you know that God even told Noah to store up food?

Genesis 6:21-22  And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
22  Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

Folks, Noah knew that hard times were coming. Like Noah, we have a chance to also store up in our familys "ark" food that will create a hedge against inflation.

We KNOW that higher prices are coming, we can either learn from our examples like Noah, Joseph and others in scripture, or we can pay much higher prices down the road.

Be prudent, be practical, but above all...be prepared.





By Ray Gano



About the Author:

Ray & Tracye Gano are the Executive Directors of Prophezine. Prophezine deals with Bible Prophecy and World Events. They currently serve people  through the internet with a weekly newsletters, daily news updates, community based website, internet radio shows and You Tube broadcasts. Ray recently released his latest book " Survive The Coming Storm - The Value of a Preparedness Lifestyle.

You can purchase his book at - http://www.survivethecomingstorm.com

Visit his main website Prophezine by going to http://www.prophezine.com

Or visit Ray's Blog Survival4 Christians = http://survival4christians.blogspot.com

Watch Ray's Videos at - http://www.youtube.com/survival4christians

If you would like to have Ray Gano come speak at your church or community event, please contact him at ray.gano@prophezine.com

Coming Food Shortage

Hello All,

As many of you know I have been warning people for several years now about a coming food shortage. This year I have tried to ramp up my information and warned people about the 3rd-4th quarter 2011 and 1st-2nd quarter 2012.

Well here is some videos that I want to share with you...

Do You Know?

What is the best food storage system that is truly affordable? Page 87

Not much money? What is the best "getting started" handgun one can purchase? Page 93

Do you know what it means to be a "Grey Man" and then become one? Page 128

The dollar has died, the "new normal" is here. Do you know what to expect? page 171

Do you know that one of the most common house plants in the nation is also completely eddible? Page 199

In this book the author, Ray Gano, takes examples from history as well as from a Christian biblical standpoint showing what you can do to prepare. Is your family prepared to Survive The Coming Storm?

If you live in the US, ($20.00) please use the following link - http://tinyurl.com/STCS-US-ORDER

If you live outside the US, ($25.00) please use the following link - International Orders Click Here

If you wish to pay by check, let me know so I can hold it for you. For those of you who wish to do that, here is our mailing address...

PROPHEZINE
PMB #230
651 S. Walnut Ave. Ste. D
New Braunfels, TX 78130-5764

Please make checks to PROPHEZINE.

Pray that God uses this book for His glory and that it will really do well and make the best seller list.

In His Service,

Ray & Tracye Gano
Prophezine

The Rubber is Meeting The Road

By Ray Gano

The demand is growing. Bad weather has taken its effect. NOAA has stated that due to the massive amounts of winter snow that has fallen this year, there is a very high probability of record floods in the central heartland of the US.

Last Thursday the UDSA came out and stated that even if the US has  great bumper crops, it still will not be enough to " refill razor-thin stocks" and in fact it could take several years to restore inventories to comfortable levels.

Even former U.S. President Bill Clinton struck a more cautionary tone on ethanol, which is created by using corn. He stated "We have to become energy independent but we don't want to do it at the expense of food riots,"

We as a nation are literally burning our food supplies up so that we can get from one point to another.

Pete Nessler, president of the brokerage FCStone LLC said "There are speculators involved... but we've had the perfect storm over the last two years, and if we don't have a great crop this year in the United States, we are going to have an even bigger storm."

The global food supply chain is stretched to the limit. Two weeks ago Mexico suffered one of the worst freezes in many years. The result was the destruction of 80% - 90% of the food crops. Many of these crops were destined to come to the US. sending prices soaring and sparking concerns about a repeat of food riots last seen three years ago.

In fact, Sysco, one of the major food distribution companies stated the following…

ALL OF OUR GROWERS HAVE INVOKED THE ACT OF GOD CLAUSE ON OUR CONTRACTS DUE TO THE FOLLOWING RELEASE. WE WILL BE CONTACTING YOU PERSONALLY TO REVIEW HOW THIS WILL AFFECT OUR CONTRACTED ITEMS WITH YOU GOING FORWARD.

THE DEVASTATING FREEZE IN MEXICO IS WORST FREEZE IN OVER 50 YEARS…

THE EXTREME FREEZING TEMPERATURES HIT A VERY BROAD SECTION OF MAJOR GROWING REGIONS IN MEXICO, FROM HERMOSILLO IN THE  NORTH ALL THE WAY SOUTH TO LOS MOCHIS AND EVEN SOUTH OF CULIACAN. THE EARLY REPORTS ARE STILL COMING IN BUT MOST ARE SHOWING LOSSES OF CROPS IN THE RANGE OF 80 TO 100%.

EVEN SHADE HOUSE PRODUCT WAS HIT BY THE EXTREMELY COLD TEMPS. IT WILL TAKE 7-10 DAYS TO HAVE A CLEARER PICTURE FROM GROWERS AND FIELD SUPERVISORS, BUT THESE GROWING REGIONS HAVEN’T HAD COLD LIKE THIS IN OVER A HALF CENTURY. THIS TIME OF YEAR, MEXICO SUPPLIES A SIGNIFICANT PERCENT OF NORTH AMERICA’S ROW CROP VEGETABLES SUCH AS: GREEN BEANS, EGGPLANT, CUCUMBERS, SQUASH, PEPPERS, ASPARAGUS, AND ROUND AND ROMA TOMATOES.

FLORIDA NORMALLY IS A MAJOR SUPPLIER FOR THESE ITEMS AS WELL BUT THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN STRUCK WITH SEVERE FREEZE DAMAGE IN DECEMBER AND JANUARY AND UP UNTIL NOW HAVE HAD TO PURCHASE PRODUCT OUT OF MEXICO TO FILL THEIR COMMITMENTS, THAT IS NO LONGER AND OPTION.

WITH THE SERIES OF WEATHER DISASTERS THAT HAS OCCURRED IN BOTH OF THESE MAJOR GROWING AREAS WE WILL EXPERIENCE IMMEDIATE VOLATILE PRICES, EXPECTED LIMITED AVAILABILITY, AND MEDIOCRE QUALITY AT BEST. THIS WILL NOT ONLY HAVE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT ON SUPPLIES, BUT BECAUSE OF VERY STRONG BLOSSOM DROPS, THIS WILL ALSO IMPACT SUPPLIES 30 – 60 DAYS FROM NOW.

SOME GROWERS ARE MEETING WITH THEIR BOARDS RIGHT NOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER THEY SHOULD IMMEDIATELY RE-PLANT, HOPING FOR A HARVEST BY LATE-MARCH-TOEARLY-APRIL, OR WHETHER THEY SHOULD DISC THE FIELDS UNDER AND WAIT FOR ANOTHER SEASON.

Source: Sysco Release/Memo: Mexico Freeze [PDF]

For almost two years I have been trying to sound the alarm. Well, we are now coming to the point where the rubber is meeting the road. In the near future, the effects of all of these "perfect storms" will begin to play out. Now the good news is that the effects will not be as bad as in some other countries, but I do believe that we will suffer our own hard times. Thing is, this isn't a US problem, signs of the strain can be found from Australia to Argentina, Canada to Russia.

Scripture says…

Revelation 6:5-6  And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Are we living in the last days? Yes we are. Are we in the times spoken about by the John? No, but I do believe that we are close.

Needless to say, we are facing times and events that this generation has not seen before. History is repeating itself like it did 75 years ago.

What people do not realize is that historically our nation goes into what I call a  time of chaos approximately every 75 years or so. So this is not the first time, nor is it out of the ordinary. But because our generation has not studied our past, we may relive the cycle of approximately 25 years of chaos.

We had the revolutionary war, which had its own issues and saw trials and tribulations. We often believe that when July 4th 1776 rolled around life was good and we were a great nation. Well we were and we did win our independence from England, but at a great cost. We suffered hyperinflation as well as food shortages due to the revolutionary war, French and Indian war, etc. The FIAT currency called a  "continental" was introduced and hyper inflated.

Fast forward 75 years and this nation goes down one of our histories darkest path, that of the civil war where brother turned against brother. One of the primary issues in this war was not slavery, the issue was the 10th amendment where government was dictating and regulating the states and her people into poverty. I am not talking plantation owners either even though the main focus from history is on this group. I am talking average middle class hard working people of that day, people like you and me.

Once again due to the war, food production was greatly reduced so shortages came about. Lincoln introduced the "green back" and hyperinflation ensued causing goods, services and food to be outside the reach of many people.

Forms of debtor prison,  were enacted due to so many people who were in debt and borrowed above their means.

Fast forward another 75 years and we see FDR enacting the "New Deal." It was prior president Hoover who destroyed the nation with the big banks and FDR took it even further. We did not see hyperinflation in this cycle, but we saw depression. The results though were the same.  Millions suffered, and many more even died due to the hardship. Unemployment numbers were through the roof.  Instead of too much money in the system, there wasn't enough. American families monthly average pay was reduced by 40%, from  the average approximate being $2,300 to $1,500.

Instead of advancement, survival became the keyword. Every family maintained a "Victory Garden" and living a frugal life became the norm.

Scripture says…

Ecclesiastes 1:9  The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

I am saying all of this because I believe around 2005 - 2006 we as a nation entered into the age of chaos that this nation has seen in the past.

I do believe we are living in the last days of the last days. But I do not believe that just because our nation is going through our standard cycles of historical hardship, brought about by our own bad decisions, that God is going to come down and rescue all the Christians and rapture them out.

So many people like to point to Noah and the ark as a rapture model. Noah never left the earth nor was he taken out of the storm. He  lived through the storm. He and his family were spared because he prepared, built his ark and was obedient to God.

Many point to Lot escaping the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah as a rapture model. Again, it was Lot's faithfulness to God that allowed him and his family to be spared from judgment. The judgment still effected him through the loss of his wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back. But, he and his daughters were spared. Lot continued to serve God as a righteous man and is named 1 Peter 2:7-8.

God was there and delivered these men, but Noah still had to build an ark and Lot still had to use his own two feet to get out of town.

Now please know, I stand on the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ. I fully believe that we will soon see the return of our King in the clouds. I just don't know when, and to put a timeframe on that event is extremely foolish.

So those many Christians today who believe that God is going to come rescue them via the rapture, well I hate to say it, but that frame of thought is not biblical and in fact creates a dangerous attitude of complacency . Christ told us to occupy till He returns and to always be ready to share the gospel.

Folks, we are coming to a time in history where we as a nation will go through hard times. I say this not because I think I am some prophet or son of a prophet. I say this because three times before this nation has gone through hardship. History proves this as a fact. I do believe that much of what is going on can be pointed to as prophetic for the mere fact that Israel is now in existence and so much is going on in the middle east today. Where in the past that was not the case.

But I cannot say that we are where we are today is solely prophetic. We are operating with in the normal cyclical parameters this nation takes every 75 years or so.

Let me remind you what King Solomon said.. "there is nothing new under the sun."  Man will continue to repeat history till the end of time. It is the sin nature that drives man and man will always seek out lust, greed, and self pleasure. It is these three things that always brings us to where we are today. With sin one always pays the consequences. It is the same with nations as well.

Spring is on the doorstep, I encourage all of you to plant a garden. I will be posting articles in the PZ Preparedness area on this. Prepare your cupboards now, food prices will continue to rise.

If you do not have my Preparedness DVD, TEOTWAWKI, TEOTWAWKI -City Version and How to buy Silver, get them now. I have many files that will help you with food storage, gardening, raising small livestock, plus much more. It does not matter where you live, city or country, house or apartment, you can do something to better your situation. Our DVD package is $60.00 for all  three. Right now is the time to get them before spring sets in.

To order use the following URL - http://tinyurl.com/PZ-Prepper-Package

Finally Tracye and I have taken the steps to help in providing a food solution. We have become independent reps of a company that we have been a customer of for over three years, that being Shelf Reliance. This past Saturday they opened up the opportunity for people to not only secure their own home food store, but they have allowed those same people to then become independent reps of the company and try to help others prepare their food pantry.

If we can help you at all, do not hesitate to ask. The program they have is very affordable and the food is delivered right to your doorstep.

If you are interested in the ability to have a home based business, please contact me as well and I can fill you in on the details.

You can check out our Shelf Reliance Store at http://gano.shelfreliance.com

Are You Ready?

Have You Built Your Ark?

Home Dehydrated Food Shelf Life

Many people know that I am a huge fan of dehydrating. There are so many benefits and the shelf life is amazing. In fact, lets take a look at the four major factors that will affect the shelf life of your home dehydrated foods.

   1. Temperature
   2. Moisture
   3. Oxygen
   4. Light


Temperature

Temperature affects storage time the most. The cooler the better. Most official guideline statistics for shelf life are based on ‘room temperature’, or 70 degrees F (21 C).

Each drop of 10 degrees F (5.5 C) will double the shelf life! That is pretty significant.

60 F instead of 70 F will double a 1 yr storage to 2 yrs, which may simply be the difference between storing your food upstairs in the pantry or downstairs in the basement (assuming you have a basement).

Likewise, when foods are stored in warmer temperatures, you will lose shelf life at the same proportion. 80 F instead of 70 F will halve the storage life. This fact may be more of a concern for those that don’t have a basement to conveniently store food in a cool environment.

One thing that I miss, having moved from the Northeast US to California more than a decade ago, is having a basement. Many homes here are built on slabs, where outdoor temperatures don’t freeze to extremes like other parts of the country (where deep foundations are required, and thus a basement). Without a basement, use your common sense and simply beware of storing food in places where temperatures will be higher than normal.
 

Moisture

The process of dehydrating removes most of the moisture from foods while retaining much of the nutritional value and flavor. It is a great method to preserve your harvested fruits and vegetables for later consumption off-season.

Fruits will typically contain about 75 percent moisture when fresh, and should be dehydrated to a 20 percent moisture level, the point at which they become leathery and pliable. Apparently, it is OK for fruits to be dried to this ‘pliable’ level rather than a lower ‘brittle’ moisture level because the natural sugars and acids in fruit act as an added preservative.

Vegetables must be dehydrated to a moisture level around 5 percent, the point at which they become crisp and brittle, and will break if bent.
 

Oxygen

Oxygen will interact with, and break down fats and proteins resulting in poor flavor and eventual spoilage. Fruits and vegetables only have small amounts of fat and protein but will still oxidize over a period of time when stored in an environment containing oxygen. Oxygen absorbers are commonly used inside long term food storage containers.
 

Light

Photons from light will also eventually break down fats and proteins as well as vitamins in the food, resulting in poor flavor and possibly eventual spoilage.

Dehydrated Fruit and Vegetable Shelf Life

‘Shelf Life’, when referring to survival food storage, is typically defined as the maximum amount of food storage time whereby the food will not spoil and still contribute to keeping you alive. Shelf Life, when referring to grocery store and typical food packaging labels, is defined as the length of time that the food will still taste its best and retain most all of its nutritional value, usually far before actual spoilage. Having said that, shelf life is a subjective thing, and may fall somewhere in between the two extremes.

Generally speaking, home dried fruits will have a shelf life of about 6 months to 1 year, if stored in glass mason jars and in a dark, dry, and cool environment (the cooler, the better).

The shelf life of home dried vegetables vary depending on the vegetable itself, but some say it is about half that of home dehydrated fruit. I believe it’s safe to say that it will generally be between 6 months to 1 year. Some claim storage life success of several years, but again, storage conditions will change storage life by either increasing, or even decreasing if stored poorly.

Store-bought dehydrated fruits and vegetables processed specifically for long term storage will be prepared, dried, and packaged in processes that bring moisture content down to as low as 3 percent, and will store much, much longer (I’ve seen claims of 25 years in #10 cans if stored properly).

My opinion and experience with home-dehydrated storage and shelf life is that 6 months to 1 year has been fine for me because the following growing season I am growing all new foods. So as long as they last during the off-season, which is quite simple to achieve, then I’m personally okay with that (some of my long term food storage supplies are not home dried, but professionally manufactured). As long as I am able to grow my own food each year, our home dehydration method works just fine.

Vacuum Sealing, Mason Jar, or Zip Lock Bag

In my opinion it is debatable whether vacuum sealing home-dehydrated food will add significant shelf life in most practical situations. Common sense tells me that it will definitely add some storage time, but I’m not so sure how significant that will be assuming we’re talking about foods that are already dehydrated, and are being stored in normal conditions (cool, dark, dry – mason jar), and will be replenished during the following growing season.

Granted that opening and closing a mason jar lid to remove some of the product when needed, will reintroduce fresh air and oxygen into the jar. However, so long as the air in the room isn’t laden with moisture, it would seem not to be such a big concern. If you live in a very humid environment, I can see an advantage though. Some vacuum sealers also have an attachment for mason jars to remove the air. Vacuum sealing in vacuum seal bags will definitely save space too.

Having said all that, I just don’t think it is a huge difference to vacuum seal versus using a mason jar when we’re talking about foods that will only last a year or so anyway… (although some claim to get several years from home dehydrated fruits and vegetables when stored well).

I believe that Zip Lock Bags are a fine alternative too. They take up less space than jars. I am a little leery about the effectiveness of the seal when compared to a mason jar with the nice lid. Quite often I have experienced these bags not holding a nice seal, even after ‘burping’ the bags quite efficiently.

I personally like the mason jars because I can easily see the foods inside while on the shelf, and they are convenient and easy to handle and use. Again, since I’m only dealing with shelf life requirements of 1 year maximum for my home grown foods, I don’t feel a need to use vacuum sealed bags. Don’t get me wrong, we love to use vacuum sealed bags on other items around the homestead, like on some of our other storage items such as 5 pound bags of flour – for convenience – although storing in 5 gallon buckets with Mylar is even better for longer term storage. We’ll save all that for another post some other time

Prepping 101 - Where Do I Start?

For those of you wishing to be a little more prepared the biggest question is "Where do I start?".
The answer is quite simple. Don't buy anything until you've inventoried what you do have. It makes no sense to have an abundance of one item and a complete lack of something else. A good inventory of what you currently have on hand will show you the direction in which your preparedness efforts should be going.

If you're an avid hunter,with a fairly good arsenal already, buying more guns may not help you if you run out of food or water before the ammo plays out. Perhaps you're into gardening and canning and have a lot of canned items sitting on the shelves in your pantry or storeroom but don't own a gun. Either way you could have problems. So take an inventory! See what you have and write down what you need.You will also need to have a balance in your preparations.

Once you know where you stand on the basics of food, water,health, shelter and clothing, gear, education and protection, the next step is to develop a budget and a plan to get there. Next allocate a portion of your budget to each phase of your preparations. Then proceed toward being better prepared. It's easier than you think.

Prepping 101:

1.) Take an inventory of FOOD items you have in stock and compare it with your daily use to
determine the quantity needed to meet your short or long term goals. (dry goods, canned goods, etc.).

2.) Determine the items you have that will cover your WATER needs (storage containers, filters, purification methods, etc.).

3.) Figure out the items you need to address any HEALTH issues (glasses, prescription meds, first aid kits, etc.).

4.) Check your SHELTER status (temporary and permanent) and CLOTHING inventory (for both summer and winter) to determine any deficiencies in either category.

5.) Sort through your GEAR and equipment (camping, household items, and tools) and decide where you can improve things. Special Note: GEAR should always include the ability to make a fire for cooking and heat.

6.) Provide for EDUCATION materials (books, seminars, traing classes, etc.) so that you can increase your skills and knowledge base.

7.) Finally make sure you cover any needed items for your PROTECTION (guns, ammo, etc.).

8.) And above all other things, practice SAFETY at all times in your food storage, your medical preps, using your tools or your guns.

So determine what your budget will be and work towards your short or long term goals.

Hopefully, this will get you started towards being better prepared.

Q&A - What is the Shelf Life of Flour?

Hi Ray & Trayce,

Do  you know what the shelf-life is of flour, and how do you keep it from getting weevils? - Peg

Hello Peg,

This is a great question, specially for folks who are setting up their food storage.

To give you a short answer, it depends on where you store it.

You can store it in your freezer for up to 12 months

You can store it in your refrigerator for up to 6 months

Or you can store it at room temperature (your cupboards / pantry)  for  up to 3 months

GETTING THE MOST FROM FOOD STORAGE

Before tackling the question, I want to talk a little bit about food storage. When you store any sort of food, it is oxygen who is the enemy.  The more air you can take out of your food storage containers, the better. One of the greatest investments Tracye and I have made is our FoodSaver. The one we own is the V2420, which I think is outdated. But we love it and it still is chugging right along.  Probably today's equivalent is the FoodSaver V2240. These run about $100.00 and they are worth every penny. You do not know how much leftovers we have saved and not gone to waste because of this. This was one of the first "preparedness" products that we purchased.

I mention this product because with this you can help prevent getting those weevils in your flour and possibly even extend the food items you are storing.

If you do not have a FoodSaver, then you can also use 1 gallon Zip Lock Freezer Bags.

Don’t go cheap and get the regular 1 gallon storage bags, get the thicker freezer bags. They will prevent punctures a lot better instead of the regular bags.

Another item I want to mention are Oxygen Absorbers. These are the little packets you find in vitamin bottles, specialty chips, dried seaweed, basically anything that needs to maintain zero humidity in the package. What these packets do is "absorb" the left over oxygen in the package and helps prevent oxidization of the food product, which makes it stale and then rot.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

With the FoodSaver

FoodSaver Vacuum Food Sealer
1 FoodSaver Bag cut to size and sealed on the bottom.
1 Oxygen absorber (optional)
1 Bag of Flour

Without the FoodSaver

1 Gallon Zip Lock Freezer Bag
1 Drink Straw
1 Oxygen absorber
1 Bag of Flour

HOW TO…

1. Keep your flour in the packaging. This is yet another barrier to help keep your food safe and bug free.

2. Put your bag of flour into a FoodSaver bag.

3.  Add your oxygen absorber packet

4 Suck the air out and seal the bag

Once you have done this your bag of flour has a pretty dense feel to it because almost all the air has been taken out of the package.

Now that you have this, you can store it in your pantry, refrigerator or freezer.

If you do not have a FoodSaver, you can achieve something close to these results by putting your flour in  the freezer Zip Lock bag and zip it just about all the way.

Put your drink straw into the un-zipped portion of the bag and try to suck out as much air as you can. You can put your fingers around the straw and zipper opening and that will help you keep a better seal.

As you are sucking the air out and once you have gotten to the point where you are ready to seal, you need to pull the straw out while sucking and zip the bag all in one motion.

You may not get this on the first try, so do the best you can.

SAVING IN BULK

In today's world I have been telling people to start looking at food as an investment. The  on May 4rd, 2010 the commerce department released its Personal Consumption Expenditures Index  and guess what, food and energy prices have risen 18.7. This is compared to prices in February 2010. How many of you would like to see your mutual funds go up 18.7%? That is a good rate of return for your money.

Well, 18.7% is how much you have lost just by purchasing food in March verses in February. People need to start looking at food as an investment. Money saved is money earned. 

Folks, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the prices are only going to go up further as we progress more into the year and even further as the years progress.

So not only is buying in bulk wise, it is also prudent of you to do so.

BULK STORAGE - WHAT YOU NEED

1 5-gallon Plastic Storage Container- this needs to be HDPE, which stands for High Density Polyethylene. If you look on the bottom of the bucket you will see the recycle symbol, a triangle of arrows surrounding the number 2.

If the bucket has this, it is food grade.

Now check what was stored in the bucket prior to storing your flour. Often dill pickles are stored in these, if you get them used. To check, just smell the bucket. You can tell what was stored usually by the smell. It might smell like maple syrup, ketchup, mustard, relish, pickles, there are a lot of things. If they smell, you may want to find a different bucket because your flour may absorb some of the smell.

1 5-6-gallon mylar bag

1 2x4 approximately 12- 14 inches long

1 cotton bath towel

4-5 oxygen absorbers

6-7 whole dried bay leaves

A cheap or used standard iron for ironing clothes - if you have a FoodSaver, you can use this as well.

Bag of bulk flour

HOW TO…

Take your bucket and make sure it is cleaned out. In the bottom of the bucket put 1 oxygen absorber and 3-4 bay leaves.

Next, open your mylar bag and put it in the bucket. Push it down to the bottom and get a good fit.

Put an oxygen absorber into the mylar bag

Add your flour to half way

Add another oxygen absorber

Fill the rest of the bag to about 3 inches from the rim of the bucket

NOTE: You should have a good amount of bag left.

Put an 1-2 oxygen absorbers on top of the flour, and close up the bag.

Make sure the bag is NOT folded but both sides of the bag can touch each other.

Wrap the 2x4 in the towel and put it across the rim of the bucket

Lay a part of the bag on the 2x4 and with the hot iron, quickly seal the bag.

Depending on how your bag is situated, you can seal 2-3 places.

Cut off any excess mylar bag

Put 1-2 more oxygen absorbers on top of the bag with 4-5 bay leaves.

Put the lid onto your bucket and seal it up tight.

On the lid or on the side tape a label telling you the contents as well as the date you sealed the flour.

If you have the room, store it in your freezer and it will keep up to a year, 6 months in your refrigerator  or 3-6 months in your pantry depending upon the temperature.

Above all, make sure you rotate your stock and eat off of your food stores. In the end you will see your grocery bill start to go down because you are not shopping as much because you have purchased in bulk.

Now you can use this same method in storing dry goods like beans, lentils, rice and wheat. These items will keep for years.

Just to make a point, wheat discovered in King Tut's tomb was still edible and able to make flour from it even after being over a thousand years old.

I hope that this has helped answer some of your food storage questions. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me at raygano@mail (DOT) com.