Mylar, Oxygen absorbers, long term food storage

[John A.]

I was able to catch 50 one gallon mylar bags with oxygen absorbers on sale at amazon for $13 so I ordered them.

I have been using vacuum sealed foodsaver bags placed in 5 gallon buckets, but the oxygen absorbers and mylar are generally rated with a longer shelf life, so I'm planning on trying to put some more food up for the winter because at this elevation, sometimes gets pretty hairy to drive on some of these roads when we get a lot of snow.

White rice, Oatmeal, dried soup beans, Non-Iodinized salt, white sugar, instant coffee, raw/dried pasta and many other dry goods have excess of 20 year shelf life if done right.

Anyone else know any other food item that would be good for long term to store in the bags?

Does self rising flour, corn meal, pancake mix, etc store as well?

powdered milk or eggs or ??????

 

[GunnyGene]

All of what you asked about will store for a long time provided you keep it sealed and reasonably cool. My father found a corked and waxed bottle of wheat germ in the Arctic back in the early 50's that had been left behind by some 1800's expedition. We've been told would be good practically forever unless air gets to it.

If you can fill your containers with water pumped dry nitrogen (an inert gas) it will displace the oxygen and prolong storage nearly indefinitely for practically anything. Oxygen is what causes stuff to deteriorate (think rust/oxidation).

Dried fruits (apples, raisins, etc.), dried tomatoes, etc. keep for years also, and of course a wide variety of dried spices (which can be very valuable as trade goods). Again, provided you keep them sealed and protected against the evil oxygen genie.

 

[aksavanaman]

While I love being on an island... Things like food storage and availability of items is tough. I'm hopeful that this coming transfer season will put me up in Anchorage where I'll have lots more access to supplies. Looks like you've got a good system going John, I've got a couple oxygen absorbers in my long term ammo boxes... But only time will tell how much of a difference they'll make.

 

[John A.]

I'm not really sure how much O2 absorbers will help ammunition.

Store it in even halfway decent conditions, and it goes bang 50+ years later.

Nothing personal, but 50 years from now, I will have likely already past the torch to someone else

I just fill up an ammo can and close the lid and lock 'her down.

I've been reading a lot on the various storage and prep sights and there is a lot of good information on some of them.

And I have access to a few different places to store everything that is either below ground level in a root cellar that stays right at 70* year round, and an above ground smoke house built from rock and concrete that stays cool inside year round too.

But even without access to either of them, I currently have a really nice deep freezer that I am keeping some of the foodsaver bags of some stuff in.