I've mentioned this before on a couple of sites, but I think it bears repeating. One thing that happened with my vacuum sealed jars that I was not expecting at all happened when we had a tornado pass our house and I'm talking very close to our house. There was no damage, but it was within several 100 yd of our house. I don't even know if it actually touched the ground, but it was incredibly loud. I was checking doors and windows and concerned that they were going to pop out. As I got close to my pantry, I could hear ping after ping. My heart sank. Jars were unsealing. That was scary! After everything was over, I started checking jars. No conventionally canned jars lost their seal. And for some mystifying reason, only about 15 half gallon and gallon jars setting on the concrete floor unsealed. Other vacuum sealed jars setting only a couple feet higher and all the way to the top shelves didn't unseal. I sealed them back and counted my blessings.
Freezer alarms are the best. Didn't have 1 on the extra fridge in garage and we lost more than the cost of the alarm. Bought a Mocreo monitor on Amazon. You can add up to 10 appliances. Put the app on my phone...put 1 thermometer in each freezer, fridge...300 miles from home right now and I can see what each is doing. If something is not right, I can call family and they can check it. Love this thing!! Bought 1 for each of my kids.
Pest control tips for preppers from a pest control guy: >Freezing dry bulk product does nothing to eliminate stored product pests. It makes them go dormant. And it opens up the possibility of molding your dry bulk. Think temperature change and moisture building up on dry bulk product before you bag it. You are much better off if you bag it as soon as you bring it into the house, using oxygen absorbers. Stored product pests are like anything else: They need oxygen to survive. Deny them oxygen and they die. >Store anything consumable at least a foot off the floor on metal racks. Why metal racks? No surface area for mice to use as a ladder. And have your racks half a foot to a foot aways from walls. >If mice relieve themselves on it, toss it. Between droppings, urine and fleas, mice can carry up to 200 different diseases. All of them are more than capable of sending you to the emergency room or the cemetery. Forget about washing or bleaching the filth from mice off the packaging, unless you plan on changing your name to Mary Chapin Carpenter because you're Feelin' Lucky. Remember the Family dollar warehouse in Arkansas with the rodent infestation? Immediately afterward, the FDA came out with a statement that food product stored in this warehouse was safe for consumption if you washed the cans and jars before consuming the product. The FDA pulled that statement down after 48 hours because PCOs called them out on it. >Consider renting an indoor, climate-controlled storage unit to store your food. Keep in mind what i said about metal storage racks and proper spacing from floors and walls. If your food is dry bulk, in Mylar with oxygen absorbers, in totes or Homer buckets, you're good to go. If it's canned goods in cardboard cases, you're good to go. You can absolutely store food product in a storage unit. Don't let them tell you otherwise.
I’m in the Bahamas with high humidity, hurricanes and temps between 75-85 most of the year. Bugs, bugs and more bugs all year long. My long term food storage cans that are only 6 years old had some bulging in them and had to dump. Building a “basement” under our living room out of concrete where it’s about 5’ cut into the ground to be the coolest area on our property. Water sealed with basement sealer to prevent moisture, no windows will only have a light on when we enter, trying to save the food we bought so much of for emergencies.
Mice proofing is so necessary in my area! Due to wild fires last month in NW Oklahoma, I caught 33 mice in 12 hrs! I use dehumidifiers, have a mini split, for heat & cooling control. Everything is either in jars, buckets, (gamma lids), Mylar bags..
I helped my sister came up 40 lb of potatoes. Everything went well I told her to take them home keep them in a cool room and don't let the sun shine on them. She put them in her side room but then she put a lot of them on the floor because she ran out of space. Forgetting that was where the heat radiates up from. She went in the room and it smelled really bad and realized that all the canning jars she put on the floor were now ruined. Hard lesson to learn!
Dealing with high humidity and power outages several times a month...no air conditioning without power. This year may be a rough one if our storm this week is an example. Thank you Leisa 😊
@@SuttonsDazethat is crazy. We don’t have rats thank the Lord. I also have first aid supplies. You should do a video on pressure canning normal saline rags. Great in an emergency. My husband cut himself and I poured the sterile normal saline on it and then wrapped his bleeding hand in the rag. 2 cups distilled water one teaspoon salt and that package of cheap rags at Sam’s. I use my store jars for this. Rebel canning first aid supplies 😂😂😂. Take care!
I turned a spare bedroom into a food storage pantry. I can control the temperature so much easier in this room. The Mid-South is humid in the summer and we can have 105 temps. This room is the best option that I have.
I finally found some gamma seal lids for my 5 gallon buckets on sale (yay!). Great googly mooglies those things are difficult to put on. Mylar might be the best practice, but people shouldn't let a lack of mylar bags keep them from stocking up. You can always buy the mylar bags a week or a month out from when you buy the food. Foodsaver/vacuum sealer bags make a great short term storage scenario or even a "until I get some mylar bags" set up.
I watched a video a few years ago about a man who had a rat problem in his barn. He mixed one box of Jiffy cornbread and an equal amount of Baking Soda and placed the mixture in a cheap food container with a hole cut on both ends. He killed hundreds of them. They cannot, like humans, belch or pass air. I have a dehumidifier in my basement, actually attached to my furnace, my sister used to use cat litter in her room in her basement to absorb moisture or humidity.
Very skeptical of the video you mention. Rats live in burrow holes in the ground. He's not going to kill hundreds of anything with that concoction. He probably had a bucket of Contrac Blox or First Strike off camera (which he probably stuffed into burrow holes in violation of label law). Or he blasted those burrow holes with ZP tracking powder (something which will kill hundreds of rats) in violation of label law because it's restricted to use by anyone with a minimum of certified applicator status. Or maybe he threw crystal Drano and Clorox down the burrow holes.
My storage issue is space. We went from empty nesters to a house of five adults (all family) and in that lost a spare room. Now with stuff spread over three rooms, it’s much harder to keep track and organized.
And RAINY MID-ATLANTIC DAYS, 😂, sealed is key! Rotate, rotate, rotate! I have a cool, dark room for dehydrated, home canned goes in basement pantry, Everything is vac sealed in jars or waterbathed/pressure canned ...I do not use moisture or oxygen absorbers in any of my food stores, not necessary given how I'm sure things are stored, NEVER stick with store packages, repackage...all vac sealed bags are stored in bins and No air leaks to date! Great video Lisa!❤
I have a cool, dark and dry space...but..last year a rodent/rat came right through the wall that goes between us and the neighbors..as high up as I am tall!!! It came through right in to a coffeepackage, the whole room smelled coffee...and the rat was not in to coffee..so it did not come any further, thank God...I could never have imagined they came right through the wall..but yes, plaster and wood, apparently..
We live in Va. our summers are humid . My biggest issue right now is room. We are addressing that with summer projects. One idea we have is building " window seats " with a shelf so we'd have 2shelves and sliding doors. we are planning to cut a door out in our staircase, add insulation, drywall, and build a " library, on the wall that backs kitchen, I want to build shelves for jars. Then books go to the other wall and place buckets in the shorter section. Our issue in summer we use window a/c winter is wood stove . The hall /staircase has the least fluctuations and the dining room where I want window seats. I'm totally open to more advice.
Just pulled for rotation some cans of tuna that have a BBDate of later this year. We will put them out for the mail carrier’s food bank collection next Saturday (May 11th). The food bank never has enough protein.
Gulf Coast of Alabama here... Humidity and hurricanes! Humidity year round and June - November is hurricane season with the potential for loss of power! These are the greatest of my concerns. I am less worried about fire ants (we are ground zero) and palmettos! They will tote off the cat if you turn your back for a minute!! Fire ants have killed my chicks and ducklings! Nightmares!
I have lived there ,lm in Ala,now but further north,l know where you are coming from on that humidity and fire ants too, l hate the humidity, it's the same even further north in the state🥵🥵🥵
LIGHT is a problem for me, and I am ready to hang blackout curtains in a room where more food is being stored now. ROTATE WHILE WE CAN. Cardboard, especially corrugated cardboard, are really bad for harboring bugs. I sometimes go to an international, mostly Indian, store that I have been going to for many years and all has been well. I was sent to another one, (Indian/Napali) store in a less well-kempt part of the same city and walked right back out because I saw a huge roach. Be aware of where you shop. There is a store of a MAJOR chain in nearby city that was good until the farms nearby began to be built onto and rats are now a problem, even in a national chain. Be aware.
I am a lucky person who lives CCP in the part of Arizona where it doesn’t usually get extremely hot or cold. This spring, I started a group of chicks inside, and moths came inside with their food. Now the chicks are big enough to keep outside, but I can’t get rid of these moths! I am worried that they are going to find their way into the food supply for us humans.
#1 I close my blinds because I heard long ago don’t have a window or let light in the room with food. #2 I do vacuum seal my spices and some rice and beans but, I put my food in a tote in my spare bedroom in the closet. I know all about getting mice 🐁 in last place and saw two here, ( we got them killed with glue traps) I use a locking container and my sugar is fine. If it wasn’t I’d find some other container. Flour one bag is in freezer and some in fridge . Then I have a little I use now and again in pantry that is fine. I’ve seeing the weevils in my flour all over flour in the other house because house still was in remodeling mode. This house that we’re in now does not need any of the work at the last house needed. I’m way better prepared because I have more room. I also don’t use my vent much in our laundry room where stuff is kept. I have some food in a closet type cut out in laundry room besides half the closet in the spare bedroom room and the two small pantry’s in kitchen.
I found 3 different sizes of water proof (as in dunk them completely into water and they don't leak) containers that I use for my rice, pasta, dried beans and noodles. If water cannot get into them, I figure few other things can, if the packages were well sealed in the first place. I found mine at Hobby Lobby. They also let me sort the rice from the pasta, from the beans in separate containers. When I first started and didn't have as much stored, all those foods went into the same boxes or containers.
Hi Leisa! I'm so glad that you're doing well. I look forward to the weekend because you will do a video. Thank you for this important information. I'm going to be making some meals in a jar, using Thrive Life food. Yesterday I went to town to a thrift store and bought a dozen more canning jars to put my meals in. Plus bought 3 gallon sized canning jars for sugar, oatmeal and flour.
Lisa, first off… you are the best! Love your advice we and no nonsense attitude about everything. You are amazing. Questions: canning specifically: What is the max humidity? what is “extreme temperature fluctuation”in storage air? Best practice for home canned goods: humidity; air temp range?
Jenn, first off......... thank you!!! The ideal relative humidity levels for a pantry are between 50% and 60%. To keep it down, run your dehumidifier in the pantry or kitchen area. 'Humidity is the enemy in your pantry! The optimal temps are between 55 degrees and 75 degrees.
Dealing with the problem of my dry goods. The seals are breaking on my jars. No rhyme or reason. I'll just hear the seals breaking in the middle of the night. It has happened on a variety of dry goods with oxygen absorbers.
My biggest problem is the black bug and flying bugs' don't know what they're called' . I suffer and loose alot of my rice and pasta to that which is really frustrating! I used everything, from salt to pepper corns and cloves, nothing works😢
Here on the very hot and humid Louisiana coast, my number 1 threat has got to be the weather. A close second is cockroaches; for that let me HIGHLY recommend Combat Max Gel (Fipronil 0.01%).
I do live in Arizona along the Colorado river. And when we say is humid, we complain when it hits 30% and that’s usually in August. However, because it’s so hot here we all pretty much have air-conditioning and don’t use swamp coolers even though it’s so dry. it can be 3 to 6% humidity literally. I actually get nosebleeds in the summertime because it’s so dry. But I do have a room I’m trying to keep 76 to 78° very dry in that particular room but it’s not cheap to keep that room there but there’s no windows it’s not a basement. There is some areas where there is basement but not where I live that I know of. The ground water is too high to try to have a basement so other areas could hear, but they just don’t do it. But I do know there is some with and I kind of wish we could have the food freeze dry I Freeze dryer. I am putting my bags after they’re done Plastic buckets or plastic bins. I very close hopefully no mice will get in there. It’s totally shut off, but who knows. When it comes to the flower, I’ve done exactly what you said. I put it into freezer and into my bags and then into buckets. I’m just learning how to make bread. I am going to the whole wheat berry, haven’t used but they’re already sealed ready to go when I purchased them so I have a grinder. I’m ready for that one when the time comes. I’m guarding and I’m making bread. I’m 75 so I worked really hard on my business and I wasn’t interested or making bread because I was working anywhere from 12 to 16 hour days running a portable toilet business with my husband. Then we moved to Arizona and then I had fun for a while.I have been preparing and I love my Freeze dryer. I can’t really I don’t think I canning stuff. I am doing things on rotation to do with the family because I’m not doing everything that’s just for me. Used to work in a grocery store 100 years ago so I know about rotation. I watch the things on sale and that’s pretty much what I buy we got our beef in this year. But I’ve also freeze some but not expensive beef in case I messed up. When we get too many leftovers that I can’t get in the freezer cause I’m gonna be tired of it. I freeze dry them. Go backpacking so I like the containers so it makes a meal and I’m giving everybody choices instead of having huge amounts in one container they can make a choice.
Hi Lisa, Im in Brighton, Michigan area and was wondering where in Michigan you are. Trying to het my planting times straight. I see you wait until closer to the end of May.
MICE , can't get rid of them, neighbor has a corn field behind me and i'm seeing some in my basement. Trying mice/rat poison but working very slow. Any suggestions from anyone. I also have chickens which doesn't seem to help my situation.
What poisons are you using? If it's Tomcat, junk it. The stuff doesn't work. It also has no antidote, which means a real risk of accidental poisoning of pets and other animals. Best mouse bait I've ever used is Contrac Blox. Put it in tamper resistant bait stations along walls and sill lines. Also use mouse snap traps with Oakes bacon bait (orange and blue label).
Someone on here said use a box of cornbread mix and same size of baking soda cause apparently the mice rats whatever can’t fart. Some guy killed like 30 of them at a time
The ideal conditions for a pantry are cool, dry, and dark. The temperature should be consistent and ideally between 50-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity should be low to prevent mold and mildew, and light exposure should be minimal to preserve the nutritional quality of food
Is there a difference between natural (window) light and ‘light bulb’ light affecting food storage ? Mine is away from windows in a basement but still has daily light from electrical sources. Do I still need to consider keeping storage items covered?
