Food - Week 25: Grains
The shelf life of whole grains, like wheat berries, rice, oats, and quinoa is longer than flours made from those grains. If stored properly in airtight containers, intact grains will keep for years in a cool, dry, and dark environment.
To extend the life of your stored grains vacuum seal them and then store them in the proper “climate”; cool, dark, and dry. Freezing is also a great way to extend the life of grains. If you are going to use your whole grains within a year a re-sealable plastic bag stored in the proper environment will do the trick. I would use the freezer weight bags.
When purchasing grains buy grains that are well packaged and sealed tightly. Check the expiration or “sell by” date and choose the newest one. If you are buying whole grains from bulk bins, be sure the turnover at the store is high to guarantee you are getting the freshest grains possible.
Grains should always look and smell faintly sweet or have no aroma at all. If you detect a musty or oily scent, the grains have passed their peak and should not be purchased.
General Store - Week 25: Dish Soap
This week is so exciting, dish soap! Now, you may not think so but consider the following:
You may not wash dishes by hand in your house but think of all the ways you use dish soap. In our home we use it to wash the car, wash down the patio furniture, soak pots and pans, clean up barbecue skewers and other utensils, wash glass light fixtures, making bubbles, even washing the dog. Now, think about a natural disaster. How would you use it then?
For all those listed tasks and so much more.
Following a natural disaster you will probably have limited water causing you to use water sparingly. This is the perfect time to use dish soap to wash dishes and then to clean counters and then clean the table and then to soak and clean the barbecue equipment and finally to soak and clean the barbecue itself. Quite a feat for one tub of soapy water!
There may be no power following a disaster, forcing you to clean manually rather than depending on an appliance. And, you can even make bubbles to entertain the kids.
Best of all dish soap is cheap and never spoils. Stock up now.