Dried Beans for Long Term Food Storage - How and Why!

THE best way to store food to fill hungry bellies in the future, and to do it cheaply and quickly with long term food storage in mind...is beans.

Our ancestors going back thousands of years relied solely on beans with meat as a luxury item that came along occasionally. The military going back to Alexander the Great (documented back to that time period) relied heavily on beans, including the US military from the Revolutionary War onward. The pioneers relied heavily on dried beans for the westward journey, without their dried beans many would have starved to death on the journey.

The best way to store dried beans is in a large, airtight 55 gallon barrel. These are portable using a dolly and straps, and are as easy if not easier than moving a refrigerator. The barrels are able to hold 400-600 lbs of dried beans - when cooked, that is 800-1200 lbs of solid food. This is one of the best ways to ensure your family has food for a year or several years.

Dried beans are both protein and starch so they are a complete food with vitamins and minerals included. They are easy to prepare - I will be doing an extensive series on ways we use dried beans - and they are delicious if you use spices and bullion, salt and pepper. Stock up on beans, and also stock up on bulk spices, salt and pepper too. Anything after your prep of dried beans is a luxury.

Today's modern diet is nothing but junk, carbs and meat heavy. If you try to stock for long term storage, you will be spending an enormous amount of time canning or purchasing metal cans of food. The modern diet would also mean a very high price tag, and modern foods do not last more than a few years. Cans, boxes, plastic packages...even if you mylar bag them (another cost) you are still looking at a sizeable expense compared to dried beans and you are also looking at a shorter shelf life than dried beans.

Look on craigslist or FB marketplace or your local feed store for the 55 gallon barrels. Some come with a small faucet/tap at the bottom for liquids, you don't want those as they can break off. Just get the solid barrels, food grade, and when you get them home clean them out and allow to completely dry. I use a blow dryer and dry the inside of the barrels. Then you're good to go with storing beans or dried corn, wheat berries, split peas, lentils, etc.

I have stored rice in 55 gallon barrels, but I would recommend to ONLY ONLY ONLY use parboiled rice. Parboiled rice has already been partially cooked, so it has the least amount of natural oils on the rice (brown rice has the most oils, but all rice has natural oils). Parboiled rice will last a long time. We continued to eat our way through the barrel over about 3.5 years...towards the end there was a slight rancid smell, but when washed under cool water in the sink the smell basically went away. So your choice whether you want to store rice this way, or store it another way. Rice DOES and WILL go rancid, and the more oils on the rice the faster and stronger the rancid smell will be.

Please - if you are worried about having enough food to feed your family, stop buying store bought items, stop buying freeze dried foods. Store what has kept people alive for thousands of years. STORE BEANS!!!!!!!!! Once you have enough barrels full of beans, then you can start storing up the luxury items like canned meats and soups, canned veggies, freeze dried fruit, etc.

I consider this video one of the most essential videos I will probably ever produce. Please give this a thumbs up so the algorithm will push it out into the mainstream viewing - and please post the link on your FB, any groups you are on, etc. People need to know how to do this, and how much food they can so easily store up in case they need it in the future.

If you have any questions, please post them in the comments. If I don't reply, try again - youtube doesn't always alert me that there are comments.

Enjoy!
Rebekah ~ Everything Homestead
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