Cornmeal & Popcorn

Types of Cornmeal:
Steel ground: The most common type of cornmeal, it has the husk and germ almost all removed.  Because of this, steel ground cornmeal has less flavor and nutrients but does have a very long shelf life. This is the type you will typically find at the grocery store.
Stone ground: This type of cornmeal retains more of the husk and germ but because of this it is more perishable than steel ground. Cornmeal can be found in white, yellow, red, and blue. Yellow and white are most common.

Types of Corn:
The basic types of dried corn used for food storage are: flint, dent, and popcorn. All can be used fairly interchangeably but flint is a little better for cornmeal, dent is better for corn masa, and popcorn is the most versatile since it can be popped for a snack OR ground into meal or flour. Corn can be found in white, yellow, red, and blue. Yellow corn is often recommended over white, since white corn doesn’t contain carotene (which converts into vitamin A). Yellow dent corn is very common at food storage stores, but popcorn can easily be found at grocery stores.

Corn/Cornmeal Shelf Life:
Cornmeal: Between 6 and 18 months. Store in a cool dry place to help prolong this.
Corn: 8 years or more if stored in a sealed airtight container with an oxygen absorber.

Corn/Cornmeal Uses:
Dried corn can be used as a vegetable in stews, popped into popcorn, or ground into flour or cornmeal. Corn flour is most commonly used to make corn masa which is a dough used to make tortillas. Cornmeal (fresh ground or store bought) can be used to make delicious cornbread or corn cakes. It can also be made into hominy or grits.


I love these recipes that use cornmeal:
Tamale Pie in a Skillet
Yummy Sweet Cornbread

*From FoodStorageMadeEasy

Oats

Types of Oats:
For long term food storage purposes you should consider storing one of three varieties of oats:

• Steel Cut Oats - This variety is often sold in bulk, in #10 cans, and in emergency preparedness stores. These are oat groats which have been cut into chunks with steel blades. They’re not rolled and look like coarse bits of grain.

• Rolled Oats - This variety is your typical grocery store variety. Rolled Oats are made by steaming oat groats and then rolling them flat. They take longer to cook than quick cooking oats, but retain more flavor and nutrition.

• Quick Cooking Rolled Oats - Quick cooking rolled oats are not to be confused with “instant oatmeal” where you just add water and microwave. They are simply rolled oats that have been rolled a little bit flatter to reduce the cooking time.

Health Benefits of Oats:
Oats are considered a “whole grain” because both rolled and cut oats retain their bran and their germ. Whole grains are recommended to be at least 50% of your daily grain intake due to their benefit to cardiovascular health, weight management, and other nutritional advantages.

Uses of Oats:
Oats are not just for oatmeal! Oats can make DELICIOUS oatmeal cookies, homemade granola bars, topping for a fruit dessert, etc. It can also be used as filler for meat dishes (my meatloaf recipe calls for oats) and can even be sprouted if you have some unhulled (or whole) oats in your storage.

So pick up some oats from the grocery store, try using them in some new recipes, especially those that use all shelf-stable ingredients, and then start stocking up!

*From FoodStorageMadeEasy

Benefits of Wheat

• Wheat is an important protein that has most of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that your body needs for survival (wheat sprouts containing 2900 calories produce 100% of the 50 essential nutrients a person needs to stay healthy).
• Wheat has ALL of the following vitamins and minerals in each kernel: iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, copper, selenium, manganese, zinc, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin E, folate, fiber and fat. 
• One cup of hard wheat has 632 calories, 3.7 g of fat, 130.6 g of carbohydrates, 23.4 g of fiber, and 26.9 g of protein.
• A study by James Stevens, who wrote the book Making the Best of the Basics, found that it takes 130 slices of white bread to equal the nutrients in one slice of whole wheat bread. 
• Sinply swapping whole wheat for white bread you cut your chances of heart disease risk by 20% (according to The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003).
• Fiber helps you feel full and makes it easier for you to control your weight.
• Reduces your risk of colon cancer & other diseases.
• Fiber reduces the risk of heart attacks and srokes.
• there are no chemicals, bleahes, or additives added to your freshly ground wheat flour.
• Wheat can be sprouted and used on salads, in smoothies, or put in soups/stews to add even more nutrients to your diet.
• Wheat can be used as a meat extender.  Use in your ground hamburger, sausage or turkey or add to soups adn stews to extend your meat.

White Flour VS Wheat Flour
Regular white all purpose flour is only made from one portion of the wheat kernel--the endosperm.  When the bran and germ are removed from the wheat grain, over 80% of the fiber, nutients and antioxicants are also removed.  White flour is nutritionally useless and breaks down in the body as sugar.  The body cannot tell the difference between eating a spoonful of sugar or a slice of white bread.  This causes all kinds of problems with a person's insulin levels, pancreas, and metabolism.  Eating whole grain flour is MUCH healthier for your diet.

*Info from FoodStorageMadeEasy

Questions About Wheat?

Types of Wheat:
• Hard or soft: Hard wheat varieties have higher gluten (protein) and are better for making breads. Soft varieties have lower protein and nutrients but are better for pastries, pastas, and breakfast cereals.
• Red or white: Red wheat tends to have a stronger wheat flavor than white wheat. Most red wheat varieties are hard, and most white wheat varieties are soft, but you can find soft red and hard white if you really prefer one over the other. Hard white wheat is our favorite all-purpose wheat to store.
• Spring or winter: Winter red wheat tends to have a slightly higher protein content and is a bit harder than spring red wheat. Winter red is better for baking bread than spring. There is not a significant difference in winter or spring varieties of white wheat.

Remember, don’t confuse fresh ground whole grain white flour with store-bought white flour. Whole white wheat is slightly lighter in color than red wheat, but has almost the same nutritional value. Store-bought white flour has had all the nutrients stripped from it in the refining process and therefore adds no nutritional value to the products you use it in. Whole grain white wheat ground into flour and store-bought white flour are not even close to the same thing!

Storage:
• If unopened, the optimum shelf life of wheat is 12 years or more. It is edible for a lot longer than that, but won’t necessarily keep the same flavor or nutrient levels.
• If opened, wheat will stay good for about 3 years.
• Once it is ground into flour, wheat can go rancid within a few days unless you store it in the freezer.
• You can add oxygen absorbers, bay leaves, or dry ice to help keep critters out of your wheat.

We should constantly be using our food storage foods. The best way I've found to
do this with wheat is to have several buckets of wheat well-sealed with oxygen absorbers. Then open one bucket at a time and “work” out of that bucket.

*from FoodStorageMadeEasy

Grains

Some things to know about grains:

• Grains are used to create the foundation of a wide variety of foods in your long-term food storage.
• It is recommended that half your daily grain intake be WHOLE grains due to the high nutritional value and protein levels (examples: whole wheat, oats, brown rice, etc). 
• Accumulate recipes that include grains. There are several recipes on this blog that use wheat.  Using your grains will help you rotate through them, and get your family used to eating them. 
• Wheat grinding seems to be the major hang up for most people! Don’t use this as an excuse to not start this step!  Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can.  I highly recommend the WonderMill (previously called the WhisperMill).  It is super easy!  All you do is plug it in, attach the lid/container to the mill just plug the "hose" in hole on the mill), add the raw wheat and out it comes right into the container.  
• It is recommended that one adult stores roughly 300 lbs of grains per year to sustain life. This measurement can be made up of a variety of grains, but is typically comprised of mostly wheat.  It is the staff of life, after all!

Rolled Oats:
Uses - Breakfasts, granola, cookies, filler in meat loafs or casseroles, thickener for soups/stews.
Types - Quick rolled oats or regular rolled oats. Quick oats cook faster but regular oats retain flavor and nutrition better.
Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is up to 8 years. If opened should be used within 1 year. We recommend storing large amounts in an airtight plastic container and pulling out a smaller amount every few months for your actual usage/rotation.

Wheat:
Uses - Wheat grass, appetizers, desserts, breakfast cereals, crackers, brownies, tortillas, breads, pancakes, muffins, cakes, snacks, in salads, to make vegetarian meat/protein, and any other baking item you would use flour for.
Types - Spring or winter, hard or soft, red or white. Hard varieties have higher gluten (protein) and are better for making breads. Soft varieties have lower protein and nutrients but are better for pastries, pastas, and breakfast cereals. Red wheat is typically hard and white wheat is typically soft. However if you prefer the flavor of one over the other you can find soft red and hard white varieties.
Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 12 years or more. If opened will last about 3 years. However, once ground into flour, wheat loses most of its nutrients within a few days so only grind small amounts at a time. You can add oxygen absorbers, bay leaves, or dry ice to help keep critters out of your wheat.

Spaghetti or Macaroni:
Uses - As a main course, in casseroles, in soups.
Types - You can store any type of pasta you like to use, the main ones sold in bulk are macaroni and spaghetti so they are convenient for long-term storage.
Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 8-10 years. If opened will last about 2 years. If you buy it in plastic bags we recommend transferring your pasta to airtight plastic containers for better storage.

Cornmeal:
Uses - Grits, cornbread/muffins, mush, jonnycake, hushpuppies, breading on fried items.
Types - Steel ground or stone ground. Most common is steel ground, it has husk and germ almost all removed. Loses flavor and nutrients but has a long shelf life. This is what you will find at the grocery store. Stone ground retains more of the husk and germ but is more perishable. Cornmeal can be found in white, yellow, red, and blue varieties. Yellow and white are the most common.
Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 5 years. If opened will last about 1 year.

Enriched White Flour:
Uses - Cakes, biscuits, pie crusts, pastries, gravy, thickener, puddings.
Types - Bleached or unbleached. Both have had their bran and germ portions removed and are “enriched” by adding back some of the lost nutrients. Bleached has been treated with chlorine, while unbleached is aged and bleached naturally by oxygen in the air.
Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 5 years. If opened will last about 6-8 months.

Enriched White Rice:
Uses - Rice pudding, cereal, casseroles, side dishes.
Types - Bleached or unbleached. Both have had their bran and germ portions removed and are “enriched” by adding back some of the lost nutrients. Bleached has been chemically bleached while unbleached goes through a natural bleaching process.
Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 30 years.

Pearled Barley:
Uses - Thickener in soups and stews, in sides or casseroles similar to how you would use rice.
Types - You can buy pot barley which retains more of the nutritious germ and brand, but it has a shorter shelf life. Pearled barley is recommended for long-term food storage.
Storage - If unopened, optimum shelf life is 8 years. If opened will last 18 months.

*info from FoodStorageMadeEasy

Food Storage Checklist #5 (Grains)

To Purchase:

• 75 lbs of wheat
• 1/4 lb of yeast
• 6 month supply of toilet paper (measure your usage for a week and times it by 25 to get an approximate amount)
• something from your 3-month supply list

To Do:

• Read Grains and Questions About Wheat and Benefits of Wheat.
• Research wheat grinders (I use a GrainMaster WonderMill, previously called WhisperMill)
• Try using half wheat/half white in your baking so that your systems can get used to eating wheat.
• Update your 3-month supply list.