Rice
Is a good source of carbohydrate and very versatile , being equally at home in hot or cold , sweet or savoury dishes , it is also comparatively cheap and available in packages up to 25 Kg if you want to bulk buy . According to the books brown rice has a limited storage life due to oils in the husk becoming rancid over time , white rice by contrast lasts indefinitely in storage if kept dry and weevil free . Brown rice is more nutritionally complete than white rice but takes longer to cook (more energy) and is an acquired taste . All in all you should store the one you currently use but if you store brown rice it should be rotated (used and replaced) within a year . Both types of rice should be stored under the conditions described for wheat .
White Flour - ( Plain or Self Raising )
I can hear you asking " If I'm gonna store all that wheat , what do I need flour for ?" Well , unless you are currently on a very high fibre diet , getting into your stored whole wheat in a big way will result in a few tummy upsets until your system gets used to it . If you store some white flour you can use it to break down the whole wheat flour initially so you can ease your system onto it gradually . We store and rotate 25Kg of plain and self raising white flour , but it must be stored in absolutely air tight containers to exclude weevils , we use 20 litre plastic pails that have closely fitting lids . Again , according to the
books , flour should only be stored for about a year or it develops off , stale flavours but we have used flour two or more years old with no problems.
Soup Powder
Is available in a variety of brands and flavours from catering suppliers in 2 to 2.5 Kilo tins quite cheaply . I have eaten soup made from one of these tins that had been stored for five years and , at the time of eating , opened for six months and the flavour was excellent so their storage life is long . They are ideal for adding flavour to bland meals or just by themselves , we store four tins of different flavours .
Pasta
Has a very long storage life if kept dry and weevil free (although in my experience weevils don't seem to like it much anyway ) . It makes a nice change prom potatoes and rice as the staple carbohydrate and many of the generic , "no frills " type brands are ridiculously cheap . Also worth a go are the "two minute" style of noodles which are a good cheap quick and very versatile feed . They have a "use by" date of only about one year but we find them still good after two or three , after this time they tend to develop an off flavour and odour due to the vegetable oil used as a constituent going rancid .
Dried Beans
For example borlotti , navy , lima ,cannellini , red kidney or black eyed beans . They are high in protein , cheap , high in fibre , versatile and have a long storage life ,again if kept dry and away from bugs , they can be sprouted or planted if they are fresh enough and will grow. If you have a wheat grinder to process your wheat into flour then the beans can be processed in the same way to produce a high protein flour which can be incorporated into flour to provide a change of taste .
Dehydrated and Freeze Dried Foods
Many of these types of products are available from supermarkets eg. "surprise" peas , beans etc , dried vegetable mixtures and dried fruit are all plentiful . Most have long shelf lives and they are light and take up less storage space so they can be a valuable addition to your storage program if you find them palatable. The two problems with them are that they can be expensive and they may need to be rehydrated before they can be eaten, so you should store extra water if dehydrated foods make-up a large part of your food storage program.
Freeze dried foods in foil pouches or tins are available from camping shops, the most common brands are "Alliance" (N.Z.) and "Mountain House"
(U.S). The food generally comes in the form of complete meals eg chicken supreme or curried beef but even raw prime steak is available. They are light and compact, which is important for backpackers, but they are also horrifyingly expensive a meal for one person can cost $10 to $20 , compare this with 50Kg of wheat costing less than $40. In my opinion the cost factor puts freeze drieds well beyond the range of most serious food storage programs. Their one big advantage is that they have 10 to 15 year shelf lives so you may consider it worth putting away some as "treats" once the program is well under way .
