Monday, November 26, 2007

40 kilos


What do you see?
I see a year's worth of bagels, cookies,
pies, biscuits, muffins, waffles, toast...

A month ago, Migros had a 40% off sale on flour, only 1sfr/kilo instead of 1.70sfr/kilo (that's about $.40/pound instead of $.70/pound). So I put my baby in the bjorn and carted home 40 kilos on my stroller. Why? I do plan to bake a lot. But also, my church strongly encourages emergency preparedness, particularly food and water storage. I'm not doing well in this department. I have a ransacked 72 hour kit, one week of water (1 gallon per person per day), and a small assortment of random can goods collecting dust in the cellar. Occasionally, I get motivated and stock up on whatever happens to be on sale. Forty kilos seemed like a reasonable amount at the time, but now that it has been sitting in my hall for four weeks, I'm not so sure. I've already baked my way through 4 kilos this month, so we'll see if I use it all before the expiration date. I must be more methodical in building up my long-term food supplies.
P.S. Freezing flour for a couple days before storing at room temp will kill any weevils that might already be present in the flour. Here are more tips on storing flour.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was really smart of you to stock up. The price of flour and other grains is going to rise because more grains are being used for fuel, and less for food. So good for you! (But whole wheat flour, or even unground wheat, is even better!)

Tanya D said...

You're right. Unground wheat would be better, but not whole wheat flour, which is only good for about three months or less (some say it only retains its nutritional value for one month). With the wheat germ, it has a higher potential to go rancid than regular flour. The Bread Bible recommends grinding on demand to avoid this problem. But first, I need to get a wheat grinder. P.S. Storing any flour in the freezer dramatically extends its shelf life. But who has a freezer big enough for all that flour?

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