If you've been following along for the past year, food security has been a consistent topic of discussion. While I've talked a lot about planting gardens and how to produce vegetables, meat, dairy, and so on, I've only briefly touched on how to preserve and conserve for the long-haul. Today I'm thrilled to be joined by a real expert on this topic, Jessica from Three Rivers Homestead. With a family with seven kids, Jessica has experience not only with long-term storage but also volume storage. In today's episode we cover nearly everything including storage, how to intentionally use and replenish your pantry, what foods to buy and not to buy in bulk, how to prevent and deal with pests, how to plan your bulk buys, and so much more.
If you've been following along for the past year, food security has been a consistent topic of discussion. While I've talked a lot about planting gardens and how to produce vegetables, meat, dairy, and so on, I've only briefly touched on how to preserve and conserve for the long-haul. Today I'm thrilled to be joined by a real expert on this topic, Jessica from Three Rivers Homestead. With a family with seven kids, Jessica has experience not only with long-term storage but also volume storage. In today's episode we cover nearly everything including storage, how to intentionally use and replenish your pantry, what foods to buy and not to buy in bulk, how to prevent and deal with pests, how to plan your bulk buys, and so much more.
So far on this season, we have talked about how to be more prepared and resilient in terms of growing your own meat and milk and eggs and vegetables. But what about the things that you can't grow yourself on your homestead or in your backyard? What do you do about those? Well, keeping a well stocked pantry and buying in bulk is a major key to your family's food security. So I am thrilled to have Jessica from three rivers homestead joining me today to talk about this very topic. Jessica is a homesteading and homeschooling mother of seven, living in Northwestern, Ohio, where she gardens keeps bees and raises poultry and beef to feed her large family raising and preserving homegrown food and cooking from scratch are very important to her as her family navigates many challenges, including anaphylactic, food allergies and autoimmune autoimmune issues. So this is a really big deal for Jessica and her family. She documents her journey on Instagram and YouTube over at three rivers homestead, and she is an expert when it comes to keeping a well stocked homestead pantry. I thoroughly enjoy this interview and I know you will too. So let's dive in. You're listening to the old fashioned on per podcast where ambitious people master the art of returning to their roots. Have you found yourself disenchanted with society or wishing you could opt out of the rat race, perhaps you're craving a life that's meaningful and tangible a life where you can create and produce instead of merely consume. I I'm Jill Weinger best selling author and longtime home center. Over the last 10 years, I have helped thousands of families create more connection, grow amazing organic food and find the ultimate fulfillment through an old fashioned lifestyle. And I can do the same for you now onto our episode. Hey Jessica,
Speaker 2:Welcome to the old fashion on purpose podcast.
Speaker 3:Hi Jill. Thanks for having me. I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Me too. So, um, just a little bit of a backstory. I had asked on my Instagram. I said, you know, we are talking about this season being more self-reliant and be more prepared. And I'm like, I need an expert on both food storage. Who do I have on the podcast? And your name came up like a bazillion time.<laugh> so, um, your reputation proceeds you for sure.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of mouths to feed here, so we keep a lot of food in storage.
Speaker 2:<laugh> yes, that's fabulous. So, um, before we get into all the, the juicy questions, can you just give us, give listeners a bit of a backstory on and your family and your homestead?
Speaker 3:Okay. Well, um, I live here in Northwestern, Ohio. Uh, we're a family of nine. We have seven children, uh, ranging an age from 13 all the way down to nine months. Uh, my oldest son has anaphylactic food allergies to dairy and peanuts. So that makes, um, feeding him quite a challenge. We can't eat at restaurants, we can't eat most processed foods. And so that's what sort of prompted us to start homesteading. Um, after spending a year or two, after he got his diagnosis, um, purchasing a lot of the allergy free and things we re quickly realized that would be too expensive to go that route with a large family. So we began looking into growing our own food. And so we, um, started a homestead, you know, we started with gardens and chickens and that sort of grew to, um, growing more of our own meat and bees and things like that. And then obviously, uh, we had to look into the things we couldn't grow and that's where the bulk food storage comes in. We briefly tried to grow grains<laugh> and, and quickly realize<laugh> we don't have the equipment nor the time nor the space to, to do that efficiently. And so we do a lot of bulk, uh, food buying for that and sort of where we're at<laugh>.
Speaker 2:So I, I mean this, so your, the size of your family obviously was just a natural prompt to get you into bulk buying. Um, do you stock up kind of in like a preparedness sense as well? Or is it just like, Hey, we're gonna get the best prices for what we're eating on a regular basis, or what is your kind of philosophy on that? Yes,
Speaker 3:We, you know, I view food storage into area is there's our long term food storage where you want, you wanna have stuff on hand in case an emergency happened, you know, a job loss, some kind of catastrophe, things like food shortages that we saw last year happening. And so that's one component of my bulk food buying is making sure we have that on hand, but also just with a large family, you need to have bulk food, the working pantry as well to kind of work through. So yeah, the, you know, those are both components of my food storage.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So what would you say, and I know there's, there's such, this is such a wide topic because we can do everything. When we, when people talk about food storage, we have people doing like thes meal, ready to eat, kind of the military stuff. You have people doing the free stuff, you have people canning. Um, and I've talked a little bit about some of those topics on the podcast before, not the E like crazy survival stuff, but more just like the canning and that sort of, um, idea of the food storage. But the one I really am interested in today is just like the, the dry goods. Cuz whenever I talk about this to my audience, there's so many questions, you know, about how do we store the, the grains and the dry goods or what should a bulk pantry look like? Um, so what are the, the dry goods that you just consider essential for your homestead pantry?
Speaker 3:OK. So for our family, obviously, um, grains, you know, we focus on storing the things that we can't grow ourselves. And so, you know, when you're looking at wheat berries, um, corn dried corn, and a lot of these things like that, you, you want to get the, the whole corn, the whole wheat Berry, and then you'll purchase, you know, a grain mill to, to help you with that. It's much easier to purchase the whole item and then you can use it in multi ways.<laugh>, you know, if you have whole corn, you can turn it into corn flour, you can turn it into corn meal, you can add lime to it and make your own corn flour for tortillas. You don't have to store all of those items individually. So, um, so yes, the wheat varies the corn, your oats, um, would be essential. You, uh, rice obviously. And when you're talking about food storage with rice, you're gonna want, um, white rice, like Jasmine rice, brown rice doesn't store very well. So, um, so those kinds of grains are the essential and then you're gonna want to look into salt obviously is very important to have, uh, some kind of sweetener, so sugar or honey or maple syrup, molasses, those kinds of things. Um, and then your baking supplies, you know, you're gonna want yeast and other Le agents like baking powder, um, and then baking soda, things like that. And then protein sources, if you're unable to grow your own protein on your homestead, uh, you're gonna wanna look into having things like lentils in your dried food storage or beans. Other plant-based protein sources are important as well. But I'd say that is the, those are the basics that if you wanna have a functioning pantry to work from and create just about any meal, if you have those items, oh, I, I would add to that yeast<laugh> if you're not into sourdough baking and um, you know, making breads that way, having yeast on hand in your pantry would also be helpful. Yeah. You can make just about anything with those items. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's what I love about just the versatility of, of getting better at storing because you know, in our modern food culture, it's all about like this such the specialized food, you know, you gotta have the cream of mushroom soup and then you have to have the macaroni and cheese boxes and the Ram noodles. And if you just get back to the basics and the whole foods, you don't have to have all that stuff. You just keep this whole pieces and the components.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think about our, our ancestors, you know, they didn't keep pasta and, you know, separate bread, fly hours and separate fly all on hand. They had their wheat berries and they kept that in storage. And then when they needed to make their bread, they ground it down. If they needed to make, you know, pancakes or pasta or whatever, they just start with the most simple ingredients and, and work from there.
Speaker 2:Okay. So just a little rabbit trail here on when I hear you talk about wheat bees, um, what do you have a favorite variety if wheat berries? Cuz people have a lot of questions when we start talking about whole wheat. I know people are gonna be wondering
Speaker 3:That. Definitely. So I always tell people, if you have one wheat Berry that you're gonna keep, you know, you only have room to store one kind of wheat Berry. I would go with a hard wheat, hard wheat berries are the type that you're gonna use to make bread because they have a higher gluten content. So, um, you can't make bread very well from a soft wheat Berry, but soft wheat berries are for making things like cakes and pastries and biscuits, things like that. You can make those things from a hard wheat Berry. It just might not have the, the fluffiest texture<laugh>. Um, so I guess if I can only choose one, I would go with the hard wheat berries, a hard red wheat is usually what I, I like to use. Um, but then if you had room to store two types of wheat berries, you could go with a soft white wheat and that could be used, uh, for those cakes and pastries and, and other kinds of things.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Okay. Yep. That was kind of the same train of thought I had, but just curious if okay. Yeah, we were on the same thing then we definitely are on that and there's lots of different. I mean, people, I think get overwhelmed because there are so many different varieties. There's like the same Lina and there's the pasta ones and there's the cake wheats and the, yeah. So I agree. The hard, hard wheat is what I usually keep the most of almost is hard, hard, white or hard red.
Speaker 3:Yep. You know, and for us space is limited. I can't, I don't have storage for 10 different types of wheat be, so I just keep it simple. And um, you can have great results with your baking using, you know, just simple varieties<laugh> yes.
Speaker 2:So speaking of, kind of space or how you store, can you give us just a, a rundown of your storage location or where in your home are you putting all of this stuff?
Speaker 3:Right. So, um, we currently do not have a root seller. A root seller would be ideal, you know, for food storage, ideally you wanna have a place that's dry. That is dark. That's cool. Um, ideally somewhere between 40 to 70 degrees, um, consist, and you wanna have, um, in terms of storage, you wanna have containers that are gonna limit the amount of oxygen. So those are the four things that, that matter. We don't currently have a space that meets all of our light and moisture and temperature needs. So what we have to do is use, um, closets in our house and that works great because, um, we heat only using a wood stove. Our house stays fairly cool throughout the, the year. And so it's dark in there. Any bulk items are stored in five gallon buckets in the closets, and that works just fine. You don't need anything fancy to do long term, uh, food storage while, uh, roots seller would solve a lot of our space issues. It isn't<laugh>, it isn't necessary. Um, but most of my food storage, I keep in my actual kitchen, I have shelving in my kitchen, um, with the buckets lined up because mine is really a working pantry that helps me cycle through things and keeps them from going bad. So, um, so yeah, the there's, like I said, I, I divide my food storage into two areas. There's the long term stuff. That's gonna be hidden away to try to keep it as dark and cool as possible. And then there's the stuff that's part of that, that we're actually using and working through and that's kept in our kitchen. So I think it's,
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's really reassuring to hear you say, I mean, for a lot of folks that you don't have like some magical dedicated room in your house where all you have this amazing lineup of food, because I, I have a lot of folks come and go. They're like, I wanna stock up. I wanna be more prepared, but I don't have a basement. I don't have a root seller. So just to hear you say, you know, you're feeding nine people and you're using closets to store it. That's just really nice to hear<laugh>
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. I mean, anywhere there's space, our extra canning jars, um, go under beds<laugh> yep. Get stock up anywhere. There's there's an, an extra spot space that will keep it out of the sunlight and keep it relatively cool. So yeah. You don't need anything fancy. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And definitely that's a benefit of what heat is. You can control a little bit what is cool and what
Speaker 3:Is not oh, definite definitely. Yeah.<laugh> yeah. Um, now in, oh, go ahead. I was gonna say, you know, in terms of containers, if you wanted to talk about that, you know, what's, what's ideal. Um, like I said, I like to use the five gallon buckets for my long term food storage. If it's something that I know I'm not gonna touch within a year, or I'm not gonna cycle through within a year, I put, um, Mylar bags. Okay. I dump the food into Mylar bags and put in an oxygen absorber, and then I seal that up in the five gallon bucket. Um, but if it's something that I'm just putting in my pantry that I'm gonna be opening regularly, you know, once a week to pull out a scoop of rice or to pull out a scoop of oats that just goes directly in the five gallon bucket, a food grade five gallon bucket. Um, or if it's in a smaller quantity, like a five or a 10 pound quantity of an item, I just use glass gallon size jars, and that works great. So
Speaker 2:Where's your favorite place to get your food grade buckets?
Speaker 3:Um, well, if I'm gonna purchase them any, any old hardware store works, um, lows, you know, Menards home Depot, places like that have food grade buckets, but, um, if you wanna get a little more thrifty, sometimes restaurants will even have five gallon buckets or three gallon buckets. You know, bakeries sometimes have food grade, um, icing containers are large size that you can go and ask them if they have any they're willing to, to give you when and half the time they're very happy to, to get rid of them because they have an abundance of them, uh, piling up that need a, a home. Um, so yeah, and then in terms of lids, I prefer on my five gallon buckets to use Gama lids. They're special lid that makes it really easy. I, you know, I have kids working in my kitchen helping me cook. And if you're trying to pry off a five gallon bucket li it could be very difficult for a little one, but the Gama lids, um, they can get them off. No problem. And I find that Amazon sometimes has good deals on those. Um, I've seen them at the local hardware stores, but there's sometimes little pricey there, even some bulk food buying places where you get your actual food will have those as an option. And I've found great deals like through Azure standard on the gads, um, and places like that. But yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, could you go into a little bit deeper the, the oxygen absorbers and Myer bags? Cause I feel like this gets really intimidating to people mm-hmm<affirmative> there has like, where do I get them and what, I don't know, how do I use them? And what if I wanna open it, you know, sooner versus later, is that gonna mess it up? So a little more info on that I think would be helpful to a lot of folks.
Speaker 3:Okay. So like I said, oxygen is one of the four main things that, that are going to affect the long term storage of your food items. So if it's a, a food item that you're planning on opening the bucket on a regular basis, you're gonna be, you have your five gallon bucket of rice. You're gonna be getting into it every week or every other week to make meals. You don't need to worry about an oxygen absorber. You're gonna obviously be putting oxygen into that bucket it regularly anyways. But if it's long term food storage that you're not gonna be touching for a year or more at a time having that oxygen absorber in there is really important, it's gonna, um, extend the shelf life of that food tremendously. You're gonna go from, um, rice, for example, that is, um, in an oxygen safe environment is gonna go bad within a year or two. But if you put it with an oxygen absorber, it can last eight to 10 years. So, you know, it really, really extends that that shelf life, yeah. Now, but the oxygen absorber can't be put directly into a plastic five gallon bucket because plastic tends to leach oxygen through it. And so it will actually, um, begin to compress the five gallon bucket and, and cause storage issues. Okay. So you always wanna put the food in a Mylar bag before you, uh, with oxygens Absorbine inside the Mylar bag before you seal it up and store it? No, I guess prevent those issues. And like I said, you don't need to worry about oxygen absorbers. If, if it's food that you're gonna be regularly using. I mean, half the time, I don't, like I said, I don't use it unless it's something I'm putting in a, in a closet and I'm not gonna touch it for over
Speaker 2:A year. Sure. And I did not realize that, that it would bring the oxygen through the plastic bucket. Like I have no idea.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It'll it can actually, you know, compress the, um, the bucket and whoa. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Not great. Not ideal<laugh> yeah, your food starts. Okay. Whoa. Okay. Um, do you have any tricks for cycling through what you have, you know, maybe your, in your closet stash versus your kitchen stash and like how, you know, kind of your triggers when, you know, you need to buy more or replenish the, the supply. Yes.
Speaker 3:So, um, I always encourage people to, you know, set a time during the year when they're very busy. Um, or I guess when they're not busy<laugh> and they don't want to bother themselves with, um, going to the grocery store and, um, dealing with, by for us, what I like to do is at the end of the fall, once harvest season's over, we've canned all the food, you know, the freezers are stocked. Um, I like to assess everything that we have in the house and, um, start going through some of these bulk grains and using them up. And so I do, um, a shop, my pantry challenge where I'm just getting eat out of my pantry. I typically do that the months of December, January, and February. Um, and during those times I eat nothing, but what is in our food storage. And I know that sounds crazy<laugh> but if you have built up, um, a very stocked pantry, you're, you're not gonna want for anything during that time, you've got everything you need there. And, um, and yeah, so I just encourage people to pick a time of the year to intentionally use up all of this food storage, because while it's great to have 50 pound bags of grains in, in storage, it really doest, you know, good. If it's just gonna sit there and eventually go bad<laugh> right. And you're gonna have to throw it away. And so intentionally using it throughout the year will keep you, you know, we'll keep it fresh, you'll use it up and then replenish it and put the, the new stuff in the closet. And yeah, that's, I guess what I encourage people to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I love like, I like the shock, the pantry challenge, and I've seen those floating around over the years and I'm always like, we need to do that. And then I just haven't ever implemented it. But I think it's a really, it's a great idea cuz sometimes I think we get, even when we're not stocking up in bulk, we just, our pantries get full, like Americans have this problem a lot, not all of us, but some of us of which we have too much food sometimes, or we, we don't know what we have or we lose track or our pantries are overflowing with stuff that's random. So just getting creative and kind of forcing ourselves to use up what we have, um, I think is always a good idea and teaches you how to cook a little differently or get outside of your ruts in the kitchen.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. I mean, we save, we save money when we shop the pantry, obviously we you'd be to how creative we have to get with with recipes and things. Um, you know, sometimes you're like, oh yeah, I'm gonna buy a, a 50 pound bag of sorghum just so I have it, but why<laugh>, what am I gonna do with it? And so you have to, you know, look up recipes and ways to use it. And, and then sometimes through that process, we find recipes that we love and then they become a part of our, our normal meal rotation. But, um, yeah, it helps you use up the odds and ends in the back that are close to spoiling and um, and it teaches you what you don't need to buy 50 pounds<laugh> of in the future. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I have made that mistake before. I'm like, oh my gosh,<laugh> never again, never again.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well that's the thing too. It's like a lot of people think, okay, I'm gonna buy all these 50 pound bags of grains for in an emergency situation will eat off that. And that's great. But if you're, you know, if you don't really wanna eat off it now, you don't wanna be miserable in that, in that situation that you're forced to eat off that stuff. No one wants to just eat beans and rice for a month straight. So you've gotta teach yourself how to use the bulk grains and the food that you have. And so having a set time each year where you really focus on honing in on those skills and, and learning to bake with, with those things, it, I don't know it's helpful for
Speaker 2:Us. Absolutely. And that's why I love this, this season on the podcast. We're really just talking about like kind of everyday self-reliance because I feel like there's so much when we get into the hardcore prepping mindset. Like people, not that it's wrong, but we sometimes buy things like only to be used in the case of, of emergency. And I'm like, what, what can we put into place now that increases our quality of life that improves our health, but also helps us be more prepared. And that's the, the perfect example that you're teaching yourself, how to use these foods who uses them anyway, saving you money, but you're also gonna be prepared. So it's kinda like a side effect. That's, mm-hmm,<affirmative>, um, really beneficial all the way around. So I love that.
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Speaker 2:Um, are there any foods that you just never buy in bulk or you, you know, you've maybe tried it and you thought you thought this doesn't work. That doesn't last as well as I thought any things to avoid.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. I mentioned before you wanna avoid brown rice in bulk, obviously because it's, um, it has a higher oil content than your white rices. So it, you know, isn't gonna last you very long at all, but in that same vein, any, um, high oil products, like nuts are typically gonna go ranted before you're gonna go through large quantities of them unless you have like freezer or fridge space to, to keep them in. Um, so yeah, I avoid, if I'm gonna buy nuts, I typically stick to pound quantities or 10 pound quantities, 25 pounds of nuts. You're gonna have to be eating them.<laugh> yeah. Daily, a lot of nuts.<laugh> yeah. Um, and then I also avoid pre-ground flowers, um, in large quantities, because as I mentioned before, the closer you get to the natural, um, grain, the whole grain, the longer it's gonna store, anytime you start breaking apart, the, the coating of that seed, you know, the coating of the, the wheat Berry or the, the corn mm-hmm<affirmative> and grind it down the oils start to mix together and it's gonna go ran it a lot faster. So, um, yeah, I would avoid avoid the corn flowers, avoid the wheat flowers and just stick to the whole, whole grains. Yes.
Speaker 2:Great advice. What are your thoughts on dry beans? Because I've stored quantities of dry beans and I've had some last many, many years and I've had others go to that point where they don't ever soften. Have you ever had that happen? Oh yeah. You're like, oh my goodness. So now what, what are, how, how do you handle the bean situation? Beans
Speaker 3:Are another thing. Uh, we're not big bean eaters because we grow a lot of other protein sources. We, we try to add them to our diet<laugh>, but, um, we do keep someone hand, but that's another one that I typically try to buy in 10 pound quantities, um, because we're more likely to go through those before are going to go bad and beans won't ever go bad. You can still eat them. The, just the flavor and the texture and the cook time are gonna be way off they're, you're just gonna have to cook them.<laugh> forever to get themselves off. So, yeah. Yeah. And that, so that's one of those things. If you are buying beans for, to store, you know, for longer than six months or a, I would definitely look into the oxygen absorbers to help, you know, with some of that degradation of the, of the B yes,
Speaker 2:Yes. Great idea on that. Okay. Um, where do you get your best deals on bulk foods? Do you have any tricks
Speaker 3:For that? Yes, I, I mentioned before Azure standard and, um, there are other food co-ops I out there too, but I've found really great prices there. Um, so we, we do a lot of food. Co-ops bulk stores, um, around us. We have a lot of Amish bulk stores, but I've seen other, other kinds of bulk stores. And a lot of times they may sell like the Amish stores. For example, they buy things in 50 pound quantities, and then they free package them for you into smaller quantities to sell you at a good price. But if you go to the owner of that store and you ask them, if they would be willing to purchase you a 50 pound bag at their whole sale price, and then just mark it up, whatever they feel is appropriate, you can often get good deals that way as well. Um, so I like to do a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I like, I, yeah. I like the idea of, of finding those local bulk bulk stores, if you can, cause then you're not paying for the shipping. Um, and for those of you listening, if you, you don't have to have seven kids, you don't have to be a homestead just buying in bulk, even in less than 50 pound quantities is gonna save you a lot of money. Oh yeah. And I'm always surprised, you know, sometimes I'm just used to my routine and used to other homestead friends, our routine of grocery buying, just to see how the rest of the world buys like one banana at a time and one toilet paper. And I'm always like, what are you guys doing? Like, um, we only have three children, so lot smaller family than you guys that we still, I mean, we probably buy, like we have 15 kids just cuz I buy in bulk and it saves money. And it also saves the at time of not having to go to the store, not having to think like it mm-hmm,<affirmative> it, um, batches, my brain power of planning, grocery trips and food stuff. So it just saves, saves everything, time, money, resources, all the, all
Speaker 3:That. Yeah. I mean it saves you, it saves you money on the bulk product. It also saves you money because you're in the grocery store, less, less impulse buying. Yeah. Um, and then there's an environmental factor to it. It's just often when you're buying things in larger quantities, there's less waste produced, produced because you know, you have one large package instead of 10 small packages that you're going through and absolutely overall I just, yeah, it's a good, good thing.
Speaker 2:<laugh> it's and for those of you not familiar with Azure standard, I think I have mentioned them on the podcast before, but they are a co-op and they're available. Are they most of the us now? Aren't they? Or is it still limited?
Speaker 3:Yes. They just expanded routes. I believe up through the Northeast for a while. I think that was the last area that they were trying to get to that I believe they're in the process of, or just began routes up through. Okay.
Speaker 2:That area. That would be awesome. Um, we use them as well. They're AC my, my truck comes, our drop is at our house is actually gonna be here like a half hour<laugh>. Oh wow. It's so nice. It's so nice. Um, but for those of you who are interested in Azure, I highly highly recommend them. Um, they have great organic options, great bulk options and have a there's a lot of options, just a lot of variety. You just have to go on their website and look for a drop near you. And there's odds are, there'll be something in your area or something not too far away and you can sign up and then you place your order and it comes once a month and you just meet the truck and pick it up. So mm-hmm,<affirmative>, it's a really good option. And um, yeah, I, I love our Azure order. I look forward to month.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Even if there isn't a drop near you for, for me, I have to drive an hour away to get to my drop, but it still is worth it for the discounts that I get. And I have several families that live in my area and will often take turns, driving up to get each other's orders. Um, it splits the gas cost and, and it's really helpful. So to just because they don't have a drop in your area doesn't mean, um, you can't find a way to make it work and exactly still
Speaker 2:Save money, go in with friends. There's always people around that seem to be excited to have the option as well. So you can make it a community deal.
Speaker 3:So that going in with friends that was kind of how we started on bulk food buying. We started buying in bulk when we only had two chill. Um, but I wanted those prices. I wanted the bulk prices because per pound or per ounce or whatever, you get so much, you know, such a better deal at 50 pounds versus five pounds. And so we would go in with other families. We had one family in particular where, you know, they only wanted 25 pounds and we only wanted 25, but we bought the 50 pounds together and would split. So that's a great way to save money if you don't need, you know, the huge quantities.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, no, I love that idea. Okay. Let's talk about bugs.<laugh> what do you do with, you know, for bug prevention, pet prevention, goodness. In your storage and what do you do if they get in and it's like, you find the weevils or whatever. Oh
Speaker 3:My goodness. I've had some bad experiences, you know, no one warned me when I first started bulk food buying years ago that this was even a thing<laugh> but you know, apparently the, the bugs lay their eggs inside the grain. So even if it looks great and there's no bugs in it, doesn't, it doesn't mean that you don't get at home. And then two weeks later, all of a sudden they're there. Yeah, there they are. And so I remember I had been storing bulk grains for three years and never had an issue. And then I opened up a container once and it was crawling with weevils and I'm like, oh my goodness. How did they get in here? And um, and then it became quite an issue. So I guess I'll start with, what do you do if you find the Wes? Yeah.<laugh> okay. So I guess it's gonna depend on your comfort level and how far gone the situation is. You know, if it's just a few that you find you might be able to salvage, um, the grains, if it's rice or things like that, you can actually rinse them and then dry them of put them back of storage or if you're not comfortable with that, chickens love bugs and they love grains. So<laugh> good combo. It's a good combo. They love that too. But, um, you're gonna want to, however you decide to handle the grain situation, you're gonna wanna thoroughly clean out your container, wipe it down, both inside and out. Um, you're gonna wanna clean the shelf or the pantry area that it was in sweep it. If it's like a closet that's carpeted because those little eggs could be anywhere. And um, yeah. So after it's thoroughly cleaned, then when you start over refilling your buckets, a couple preventative measures can, can prevent this from happening in the future. So for me, whenever I bring my bulk foods home, if it's any kind of grain, um, even spices, even things like sugar can, can get weevils in them. Um, put it in the freezer for a minimum of three days and that will kill any live insects. Um, what I've recently learned though, is that doesn't necessarily kill the eggs or the larva<laugh>. So what, uh, what I've read since now is that you need to, um, pull that item out of the freezer, let it thaw for a day or two. And if you're, if this is something you're gonna be storing without an oxygen absorber in your pantry, I would stick it back after you've let it haw for a day, put it back in the freezer then to kill the next cycle of oh, okay. Um, of pests. So you're letting them kind of hatch or get them, get them developing, and then you're gonna zap them again. Right. Because there there's a life cycle. And so freezing is only gonna kill them in the adult form. And so we recently had a situation where that happened.<laugh> I had frozen everything and then brought it out. I'm like, how, how are there other weevils in this? But apparently I read that, that it doesn't kill the eggs, so. Okay. Um, but there are other things you can do. Um, if you put some bay Leafs in the, um, the bucket that will deter some pests, um, and that if you're putting it on pantry shelves, you can stick even, um, garlic, CLOs, but I was talking CLOs, the, the spice CLOs mm-hmm<affirmative> okay. But garlic CLO would work too. Um, that deters pests, even Rosemary to stick some of that, um, on the shelves. And that will keep them away. I wouldn't advise putting the CLOs or the Rosemary in with your grains because you might get a taste issue for sure. Uh, but bay leaves are safe for that. Yeah. So, um, that's for your everyday food storage. Now, if you're doing long term food storage, and you're gonna go with the Mylar bags and the oxygen absorbers, the pests are not gonna survive in that environment without the oxygen. So you don't really have to have to worry about it that way. Yeah. So that's just, yeah, that's just the, the weevil situation. Now there's other pests that you have to worry about with food storage and, you know, there's things like mice and, um, and other kinds of pests like that. And that's why I always say, you know, don't leave your grain bags in the paper bag in your closet. It'd be very easy for something to chew through that. And honestly, um, if you're gonna put something in a plastic bucket and just stick it in an area and forget about it for a few years, you mice can chew through plastic even<laugh>. Yeah. So, um, you know, just be careful to check your food storage every now and then to look for indicators that that could be a problem. If you see two marks or whatever, you're gonna wanna wanna check on that. Yeah,
Speaker 2:Yeah. Um, that, oh, I didn't mean to cut you off. Oh, you're fine. Sometimes there's a delay and it's hard to yeah. Um, um, I was talking to someone the other day and they said that they have five gallon buckets and we have a lot of mice in our basement. We use the old house mm-hmm<affirmative> and we just, you know, do what you can, but you can't get rid of all of them. And I, if I leave a, a Burla bag or a plastic bag down there for more than a night, mm-hmm,<affirmative> there have it chewed through. So I, to be really careful with that, but I'm was thinking I was pretty good with the buckets, but somebody was telling me the other day that they have their mice working on their five gallon buckets, just like trying to get right in. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I have never had that happen. But it, apparently it does happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I mean, it would take a while for them to get through it, but if they're working and working at it, so yeah. Always go down and, and assess your storage every now and then, and just make sure there's no signs of things like that. Um, and you know, the five gallon buckets, if you have like a GAT on top that isn't completely, um, sealed. I found that even some bugs, if they're small enough can get up up through there. So, um, long term food storage, that's why it's really important to put it in that Mylar bag that's sealed up so that nothing can touch it. Cause there's nothing more disheartening. You put all of this time and, and money into this food storage and you go down and it's, you know, chewed through or there's bugs in it. That's<laugh>, that's
Speaker 2:The worst. Yeah, for sure. Um, so just yeah, little prevention and hopefully it'll keep all the critters away. Yeah.
Speaker 3:<laugh>
Speaker 2:So as we wrap up, if, if someone is feeling inspired and they're ready to start building out their pantry, what is your best bit of advice for getting started? Like sometimes it can feel overwhelming when they hear us talk about all these different options. Like what would you say someone should start with first?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Um, when I first started bulk buying, I, we didn't have money in our food budget to just go out and buy everything that we wanted. You know, I had to allocate a certain amount of our monthly grocery budget to our bulk food buying. And so what I would do is pick maybe one grain each month and it would be the grain that we're eating the most of. So I think in the beginning it was like oats mm-hmm<affirmative> and, you know, I bought one 50 pound bag of that or at the time we were splitting it with friends. Um, and then I would buy one, um, baking supply, maybe that we needed and add that to our cart and maybe one spice cuz we buy our, our, our spices in bulk too. And then every month I just do a different one and after six, seven and eight months goes by, you have a nice little, you know, vault food, storage situation going. Yeah. And, and then it's easy because it's spread out throughout the year. You're not running out of everything at the same time also. So you know, it kind of spreads that cost throughout the year and future years as well, as long as you're working through the food and eating it<affirmative> yeah.
Speaker 2:I like the idea of one, one at a time that feels doable. I, I think more than just, you know, spending thousands of dollars and being all Besu that could be a lot for a budget all at once.
Speaker 3:Right. Yeah. And so I always, I always tell people, start with what you're going to eat. Don't be like me and buy 50 pounds of Sorg gum that you're not going to eat. Right. Right. You know, think about what your family goes through. The most of that obviously makes the most sense to, to start with, and then you can kind work from there and get a working pantry going first, you know, the foods that you're gonna be eating off of. And then once you've got that filled, you can start focusing on the long term food storage that you can keep there for, you know, emerge, you see situations or, or whatever. Right. Yeah. Good advice. And then, yeah, and then you have to be intentional. Like I said, about setting a time every year, um, to go through the food because it, it will go rancid. Um, you know, ideal food storage we mentioned would, would be in a root cell where you have temperature control and it's dark. But if you keep these things in your kitchen, they are going to, um, degrade much faster. And so if you're not gonna be using that stuff up within a year, it, it is gonna go bad. They, you know, they, they say, it's just like with seeds for every 10 degrees that you drop the temperature in the storage environment, you extend, you double the shelf life. And so, you know, stuff's sitting out here at 70 degrees in my kitchen. Um, you know, it's not gonna last as long as it would be at 50 degrees down in a cellar. And so I really need to be intentional about eating this up for it goes bad.
Speaker 2:So yeah. Yeah. And that's what, that's probably another reason why you split the way you do not just space, but also just to keep saying cooler while all the others are easy access, but would degrade quicker in large quantities. Definitely
Speaker 3:The kitchen. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:Well, this has been awesome. Jessica, can you let everybody know where they can find you online if they wanna check out what you and your family do around your homestead?
Speaker 3:Yes. We're on Instagram at three rivers homestead and also have a YouTube team animal, uh, by the same name. And I'm just there trying to share encouragement for, um, for moms that are living this home, studying, um, homeschooling life. And every August, we do a challenge called the every bit counts challenge where we try to encourage people to just put something up into their food storage every day could be as little as just, you know, a couple items that you dehydrate or as much as a, you know, big batch of canning. Um, and then every winter, as I mentioned, when I do my pantry challenge, I encourage people to join us there. We call it the three rivers challenge and everybody follows along and we encourage one another in trying to use up our food stores and come up with creative ways to do that and share our meals. So yeah, if you join us there, we'd love to have you and encourage you to, to do the same. I love
Speaker 2:It. Well, thank you again for coming on. Um, this was so good. It was so fun to chat about this, cuz there was definitely questions I had that. Um, it's nice to talk to somebody who knows. So I appreciate all your wisdom.
Speaker 3:Well thank you for having me. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So everybody make sure you go check out Jessica and her family. They have some great content and those challenges sound amazing. So have a look over there and as always, if you wanna keep up with me in between podcast episodes, you can find me over@theprairiehomesteadoninstagramandtheprairiehomestead.com on the web and that's it for day happy home setting friends and we'll catch up on the next episode of the old fashioned on purpose podcast.