My fight with mice was done lastyear when the cat distribution blessed me with a cat that does not allow any rodent on the entire property. This cat is the absolute worst cat i have ever had, but gets treated like a queen because of her rodent talent!
One mouse ran into the house. 6 cats and one got it within about a minute. All were after it and the winner would not let the others near her prize. It was crazy all going full speed after a mouse. I'll always have cats. 6 was more than I really wanted to handle but it happens and the inn is currently full. So glad neighbors keep cats indoors. I'm a sucker for a stray.
@@susiea1419 Its fine, everybody stores something that they 'think is food grade', but it comes from China so who really knows. If it is made in the USA and labeled 'food grade', chances are it is really food grade. Good mylar bags are basically impenetrable. Wallaby is a good brand with thick mylar walls and made in the USA.
Most cats are terrible mousers. Only 10% of them are actually good. The rest of them are pets that will just sit there and tell you to call me (pest control) to come in and get rid of the mouse. If you only knew how many times I've gone into a place on a mouse call where someone brought in a cat to be a mouser and it didn't work out. Know what happens in those situations? The cat gets taken somewhere and thrown out of the car like yesterday's garbage. It usually takes about one month for the cat to fail as a mouser before it is disposed of.
50-75F? Yeah, that would be great, but pretty much impossible here in Arizona, even with air conditioning. My kitchen pantry is in the worst position (SW) but that's my current yearly stuff. Everything else is in a closet or the spare bedroom (usually around 78-82 during summer). I have a bunch of raw-packed meat from 2019 and it's all still fine ("it's a DRY heat").😁
Store bought canned beets and cans of tomato soup explode in mobile homes here in florida...even with air conditioning. Pantry was built against the outside wall, obviously with poor insulation. What a colorful mess.😊
Generators are a must if you have freezers. Small dehumidifiers are cheap on Amazon. I would also use permanent markers to mark your cans. I can’t count how many times the expiration dates have worn off the can. We separate our pantries according to the year they expire. Most things will go well past their expiration dates. Cocoa wheat, cornmeal and flours last much longer in the freezer.
Canned food is deemed as food, good for a very loooooong time now. There is no expiration date anymore only BB (Best Buy) date. Finally the canned manufacturers have admitted that commercially canned food can last forever, figuratively of course. I mark every item in my prep pantry with thick black marker, in large fonts with the BB date. I want to see it from a distance up on that shelf. I also have enough canning jars on hand to can everything in my freezer in case the power does not come back on for a long time.
I had 49 boxes of 6 number 10 cans of freeze dried foods that I had in storage. They all reached their ten year shelf life period. I was storing for six people. As my wife only get pantry size cans now, we gave all the large number ten cans to a local pantry that prepares meals for the elderly and shut-ins. I hope they were put to good use. I was careful to ensure they were all stored at below seventy five degrees the entire time I had them. We now make sure we rotate what we have. Will never have that much on hand again.
My late husband had his dehydrated foods mostly in 5 gallon buckets. When he passed, they were past their 10 year date and it was a bunch of food that I don't eat. I gave them to the local Sisters of Charity. The load filled the entire bed of the pickup truck and they were ecstatic to get all that. He also had a bunch of #10 cans, all boxed up. I moved those and then when I went to open them up, several were in the process of becoming slime...I will never open up a can of broccoli or cabbage like that in the house again! Since then, I have purchased canned freeze-dried foods, mostly in the pantry can size, plus the My Patriot Supply mylar-bagged freeze-dried meals. I'll probably never eat those since I prefer fresh, but, someone will.
We also made the spare bedroom into our storage room. The only window is above a pony wall and we have blackout curtains on it and then we store all our TP in a layer on the pony wall to the roof. Blocks light and is a layer of insolation.
Multiple pantry space in my home. It's a constant checking ,dusting , rotating my items . Most of the homecannned items are in my bedroom on shelving . Has worked out wonderfully. I am ordering black out fabric to make panels for each unit. They will hang from a system of rods and shower curtain hangers so they move easily to get to my foods. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge with us.
Cool, Dark and Dry - My body needs the same conditions 😜Love your tips and I often find these video's a great reminder to do a double check and make sure things are safe and being rotated🥂
I learn so much from you! I live in California and humidity and pests have never been an issue, even when I was a child we didn’t repack pantry goods. But that doesn’t mean I won’t in the future so I can do a little now to ensure I don’t!
Hi Leisa! Tonight I made a pantry meal for dinner and my husband said that he liked it-twice! Chicken that I canned and some veggies from Thrive Life and some of their veloute for the sauce and some egg noodles. Easy peasy. And I saved out about half of the chicken for a nice Sunday dinner.
Not home canning yet, still gathering tools, learning gardening and permaculture. Mostly off-grid now. My Nana taught me about being frugal, canning, off-grid living and depression era foods. I think I am doing ok but I'm pretty beat up from my younger days so I'm slow moving most days. Still have to tend the critters etc. every day outside. Lots of native medicinal and edible herbs out back. Thanks for your hard work and Blessings to all.
This is our food that we want to rely on for either everyday, short term or long term. So let’s do everything we can to address keeping our food in the absolute best conditions possible. Great tips!
In 1999 I read a suggestion to dip canned foods in paraffin wax to prevent rust in storage. I guess you could do that if you stored your cans in a root cellar. Also- I thought home canned tomato products would last longer because they are in glass. It didn't occur to me that my home canned spaghetti sauce could explode.
Awesome reminders. We all need a little nudge to be consistent in checking our pantries. Thank you. I was told years ago when working at a dairy store that milk is dated so it will still be good 2 weeks after the date if it's been stored properly . However, at that time milk was bottled in heavy glass jugs. Regardless, Don't automatically throw it out on that date. Pour it in a clean glass and smell it. If it smells okay give it a small sip. Taste okay, use it.
Insulated garage, garage doors. Replaced HVAC. Vent into garage. Temp controlled. Dry goods in glass. Sealed. Salt, baking soda in glass with plastic lids desiccants.
I lost most of my patriot supply freeze dried I bought 7 ys ago. Fine print says what she’s saying! Hawaii, I had no idea! Thanks for video. First time here.❤
Thanks so much; really useful information. I will follow your instructions. I'm moving and really need tips. These are very heavy to lift but I can do it at my own pace. Family doesn't yet know I have these preps!
I saw your video on sealing glass jars and you mentioned that the older ones didn't seal. For Jars has created a GEM sized lid. Remember that community in Canada that used those jars? Ball was going to discontinue the lids. The community begged them not to, and for a while, Ball continued to make the lids. Ball has now discontinued the lids, but For Jars (what a great company!) is now making them. Anyway, maybe the Gem sized lids will fit your vintage jars???
I am using a bedroom as my extended pantry. Nothing but metal shelf units and buckets in there. I had my canning spread out around the house and decided to get it in one room. Well, that didn’t go well. Filled all the shelves up quick. I didn’t put the shelves against opposite walls, so I could stack buckets along the wall and on the other wall, I had stacked cases of some of my empty jars. Anyway, found out I had way more stuff canned, so went into second bedroom and set up another metal shelf unit. Filled it too, still have cases of canned goods so will have to set up a few more shelf units!
My pantry is fairly dark, but there are times in the afternoon when the sun comes in a little too brightly. I can't really black it out, because I need to walk through there many times a day. I get old tablecloths, curtains, etc., at the Salvation Army, strip them up, and use them over the outermost layer of jars. These large cheap pieces of fabrics also are good for covering up the dog beds, just tuck them under when the dogs get particularly muddy. I also keep a stock of shower curtains and cheap tablecloths on hand for stuff - covering rototiller if the nor'easter is going to blow snow in drifts under the shed door....stuff like that.
I am so jealous!!! I see my absolute favorite pickles there on your shelf 😢 I grew up hour north of Milwaukee... I cant get my baby dills down here in Missouri 😭
Great video. Store food correctly. I do my best to make sure my food is properly stored correctly.. do I make mistakes yes. But not on purpose. I’ve learned over the years.
I live in Florida and weevils, flour beetles and some other type of smaller weevil Infiltrate everything. The freeze thaw freese thaw method has been a total failure. Those critters can get around o-rings on food grade buckets. They eat through food saver plastic. The pantry moths are another unwanted invader that is almost impossible to eradicate. I am going to change to mylar. It was 107* in the shade without heat index at our Florida home today. AC could barely keep up to have the house at 82*. This is life here at least 6 months of the year
Maybe a plug-in ultrasonic pest deterrent could work for you. Having one deterred rats from my home, but I'm told they also deter teeny pests too. Worth a go for a few quid.
Something was up with the sound on this video. Like a low thrumming noise or maybe feedback in the background. Or like maybe Phil was mowing the lawn and right outside the window of your pantry. We don't have air conditioning, it's just not a thing here in the UK. I do what I can to keep the food storage dark and dry and so far it's been fine with the normal temperatures we get here. We don't really do long term storage, we keep it to 12-18 months, 24 months for the things that store easily like rice & pasta), so there's less time for things to go wrong. I don't necessarily worry about repackaging rice into mylar, I just buy it in mylar bags. That's worked great for me for the decades I've been doing it. For the people that worry about not having room for food storage, I would suggest remembering that not everyone's food storage needs to be as extensive as yours. For many years my food storage was an unused coat closet, I had room for about 3 months of food in there. Did I wish I had more? Yep. But I was happy for what I had, and realistically 3 months worth of food storage gives you a lot of time to figure other things out. Pintrest and youtube can make us think that we need to have these massive pantries full of food to last us for a year or 3 or 10. The reality is that food storage can be a week or two, a month's worth is a great start, 3 months? You're doing great!
Well Kelly, the gov recently told us to stock up on tins, water and batteries for 3 days. Lolz, 3 days. That's just going for your weekly shop. But if the gov are saying 3 days, I would interpret that as 3 years, at least for some things. You can't have EVERYTHING stocked for 3 years, we'd need a warehouse each. Rishi has said he doesn't want to be a war-time PM, whilst doing everything in their power to drag us into war. Extend your 3 months to a year, if you can.
@@jazzylyn5857 Isn’t Sunak out in July anyways? I thought I had heard he wasn’t going to put himself up for the general election. (I don’t follow politics super closely so I may be totally wrong about that) Also there’s a difference between prepping for the end of the world and prepping for just everyday things.
@@KellyS_77 Honestly, I'd never prep for an end of the world or apocolypse situation. Who the heck would want to live through that! One thing we should be prepping for though is huge price rises/shortages come the end of the year, because water-logged fields don't produce much food. So, I reckon we'll be short of wheat/other grain products, sugar beet, oils and root veggies. There will still be some, as some farms have fared much better, but products could be hugely expensive because there won't be as much of it. At the moment, we're still eating last season's produce. Come end of the year, we'll be starting to eat this season's, and it ain't been a good season. It's not just UK, so we can't be relying on importing what we need either, because the water-logging has been europe-wide and world-wide. Politics-wise, doesn't matter who wins. We've had a uniparty for, I'd say, about 40 years, so it's irrelevant who is PM and who the MPs are, and what parties the pretend to serve. They don't work for us, they work for much higher uppers than us mere plebs.
Pantry moths are a royal pain in the 🫏. I have made sleeves for my jars out of blue jean pants legs. Have 3 boy ripped pants are a plenty. They block light and should help with jar breakage in transport.
Socks work great too. I pack my meals in glass jars for a duration of 2 days. Before I put them into my ice chest I slip on a sock so they dont clank against each other. Been doing this for 30 years. Never had one break in all those years.
LOL, my mother had tomatoes, and peaches from the store explode in her cabinet. The sad part was that she had a massive stroke and died. So, I got to clean up the mess. And of course, it was in the very back row in the cabinet.
My newest pantry room started out as my back porch. We walked it in & insulated the inside. There are no windows or vents. Only a light, the outside door and an interior door. Can’t get much darker than that.
When we moved we found dozens of unidentifiable items in the freezer. So we had 2 weeks of guess what's for dinner tonight 😅😅😅, and we now label, we use painters tape on containers, or a sharpie on a freezer bag.
@mamabird2434 The chocolate chips lasted. Probably put them in some brownies or fudge and start over. Refilling my candy bucket. I eat little sugar now but a few bites here and there. Rotating out toothpaste now. Canned food. Kinda do in types. Pick one type of thing to rotate out at a time. Then shampoo and boxed and commercially Canned. Stuff like tp, not a worry.
I seriously listen to this like it’s scripture 😂 I’m taking notes and trying to be patient with myself while I get better at all this. Like I follow all safe practices but need to work on moisture and single-stack shelving. Also I have convenient 1 gallon containers I cook out of in the small kitchen pantry but they aren’t super air tight so eventually I will want to swap those out for gallon jars I think. Pricy though!
I noticed that Nallys Chili has shrunk it’s can from 16oz to 15oz. Don’t know if cans still fit. Going to make my own from now on. Also, whole milk is no longer 4%. It is 3.25%.
I have a she shed that has ac/heat and insulation. I purchased solar powered that my husband is going to hook up so I never loose power to it. I have some food prep in it. Long long stuff, and antique dishes. So it needs constant temp.
QUESTION: Is it safe to store dry foods (beans, instant rice, instant spuds, etc.) in mylar/absorbers/heat sealed bags in non-food grade orange buckets?
@@SuttonsDaze I thought only white ones were food safe, meaning you don't HAVE to mylar the food. I've been repacking in 5 gallon mylar, then putting the bags in orange buckets. Okay, if YOU don't know, then I'll go googling. LOL!! Early on, I heard male preppers say you don't have to use the white buckets as long as it's sealed well in mylar. If it turns out we can't use the orange ones, my hub is going to roll his eyes....then, he'll probably roll mine too. :D
@@SuttonsDaze You crack me up! The answers are all over the place, and couldn't find ANYTHING on FDA website. Since my food is sealed properly in mylar, I think I'll just keep going with the HD buckets. Afterall, it's not like they're radio-active. LOL!!
What are in the containers behind you-they are circular with white lids on them? I do not recognize them. Love, love all the information you give us--very helpful--thanks
Even pills had that soapy smell...is there any way to get soap smell out of a plastic container?,I tried vinegar and bleach,also baking soda, still has that smell 🙄
@@mawmawshomesteadpreparedness oh I've been doing that for weeks ‼️,it's a shame there tall ,got a bunch at dollar tree,but now only short ones, even looked out of state ‼️
If you live in a damp climate or are prone to floods/water getting in, USE GLASS. It floats and is much easier to clean. Those fancy food cans wil rust. The buckets will leak. We had our basement flood last year, and pretty much the only thing that was salvageable were all my lovely jars. The cans are rusting. The buckets leaked. Nothing but glass will ever be on my shelves again. And we have hopefully flood-proofed the basement... 🙈
Do you have Hobbock's in America? We use them here in Austria in stead of 5 gallon buckets + milar bags. They are foodgrade tinplate buckets with airtight lids.
All this sounds great, but in a grid down situation, most won't have the ability even with solar to keep it between 50 and 75 degrees. A caller is the way to go if possible.
Cellars and basements are not as common as you may think. Realistically, we are living in places that aren't really sustainable in a grid down apocalyptic situation.
I asked about the popcorn tin cans can I store my plastic containers of spices in there with those be safe don't have access do those bags you're talking about😊
I just started working on my food supply. Got pack of 30 mylar bags from well know brand and 24 had pin holes in the bottoms. I'm a little nervous to try buying more mylar. Have you had problems with holes in mylar bags?
Someone dropped off atwin teen kittens a .ale n female the female is the hunter 1 day she got 5 mice . Her previous record was 3 that she did several times. She had kittens yesterday. So im staying put till next fridsy when i get my check. Then ill have to pay bills.
There are a few ways to tell if a bucket is food grade, including: Recycling symbol Check the bottom of the bucket for the universal recycling symbol, which has a number inside. The number indicates the type of plastic the bucket is made from, and numbers 1, 2, 4, and 5 usually indicate food grade containers. Symbols Look for other symbols that indicate the bucket is food grade, such as a cup and fork, which means it's suitable for storing food. Other symbols include radiating waves for microwave-safe, dishes in water for dishwasher-safe, and a snowflake for freezing. Label New buckets from the manufacturer should be clearly labeled as food grade or food safe, either printed on the bucket or on a sticker or label. You might also see language like "FDA approved" or "USDA approved". Price Food grade buckets are often more expensive than standard buckets. Manufacturing process To be considered food grade, every part of the manufacturing process must be non-toxic, including the release agent used to remove the plastic from the mold.
I have a few things in mylar with oxygen absorbers bit they don't look "sucked" in, just looks loose like the oxygen isn't being absorbed. If that makes sense. I didn't see any pin holes or anything. Any advice would be appreciated. 😊
If you buy anything that has an acid base like tomatos special #10 can size on sale, i recan them. Because if you leave them in, those metal cans will taste like metal. It's just as easy for me to recan into jars and please date everything.
Hi. Getting buckets which are suitable for gamma lids in the UK is difficult. The closest I have come are auto detailing buckets but no one can tell me if they are food grade. How can you tell?
I have a question I hope someone can give me advice on. Our house is on a slab concrete foundation, so storing food in a crawl space isn’t an option (In case of a grid down situation, etc). The only thing I can think of is to put it in some type of a big container, then bury it Suggestions anyone?
If it's just cans, I would use boxes instead. If you have access to it, the boxes that printer paper comes in work great for storing cans. And you can easily stack the boxes on top of each other. I used to get all my boxes for free from the office I worked at.
Easiest way to avoid most of these issues? Inventory quarterly = RELIGIOUSLY. I have a clip board and pencil hanging wherever I store food or dry goods. Pantry room, under the beds, in the closets, freezers, workshop (fuels, etc.) Jan.1, April 1, Aug.1, Oct. 1.
We snuck out a quart of my mom's homemade wine to take to the drive in. It exploded in the car. So much for thinking that no one would know. Dads car smelled like concord for over 4 months 😅😅.
If you discover pest don't just treat the pest, throwing poison or traps down not only will not solve the problem it could actively make it worse, dead things are an attractive food source for other pests type things! If there are pests there is food or water somewhere that needs cleaned up and addressed, has something spilled are water pipes leaking or sweating? Pests are often a symptom of another problem! Pull it all out clean it, find what's drawing the pests in, despite how it might feel they do not exist just to spite us!
I am sure I am showing my stupidity here, but, if mylar is safe, airtight, and water tight then why does it have to be stored in food grade containers? (not counting for rodents as they will eat through either kind of container.)
Observations from the pest control field: I'm seeing lots of unbelievably bad food storage by people who can't afford to have their food compromised. I'm seeing lots of food bank issue dry bulk product just thrown in bins without rhyme or reason as to how it's being stored. Product rotation is not even a thought. I'm also seeing multiple packages of the same product open. Maybe it's stored in a Ziplock bag after it's opened. More often than not, the only thing keeping the bag closed is a rubber band. Worst of all, I'm seeing food product (especially rice) stored under the sink. In most cases, food is being stored next to chemical. Think about all the bad things that can happen to food stored under a sink. Chemical spills onto the food. Plumbing leaks all over the food. Mice follow the pipes and hoses into the sink cabinet. I've even gone into places where kitchen drawers were caked with mouse droppings (you would have needed a putty knife to scrape them away) containing open bags of dry bulk food that people were cooking and eating. The common denominators here are people who are dependent on food banks for food and are living in apartments in structurally deficient houses because they have to live somewhere. My honest opinion is that most of them don't have the functioning capacity to understand proper food storage, can't afford to understand proper food storage, or both. Their attention span doesn't go past the next bag or box of free food they'll be receiving.
