We get lots of questions about how to store food for the 3 month supply. I personally really like storing my grains and things in 5-gallon buckets. But before I knew anything about anything, I thought you could just go to Home Depot and buy buckets and use them. Not so, my friends, they have to be food grade. Plus, the bucket lids are IMPOSSIBLE to get off, (I still use the Home Depot ones for the dog food, I know) So I looked around a little and asked Emergency Essentials about their buckets and gamma lids.
They were kind enough to send me a bucket and lid to try out along with a few other things.
First off, they sent some snapware--airtight containers for food storage. I'm a big fan for two reasons: one, to prevent pests (which the South has in abundance) you ought to keep your food in plastic or glass containers, especially see thru ones so you can check on the food. 
And secondly, it looks so much nicer on the table.
What I was really excited about was the bucket though. I got this wheat from the LDS cannery.
25 lbs of white wheat
Emergency Essentials sent me a mylar bag to use with the bucket. The mylar bags are supposed to keep your foods safe from odors and moisture, but all I thought was: "Hey, now I don't have to wash out my bucket each time!" 
Also I was thinking because a 25 lb sack of wheat didn't come close to filling up a 6-gallon bucket, I could store two separate types of wheat in one bucket, each in their own mylar sack! Or, call me crazy, but I could mix red wheat and white wheat together and have it all ready for bread making! I know, hold on to your seats, right?
After I filled the bag with wheat, I just rolled down the top of the bag---keeps it even fresher, just in case you weren't going to use your wheat within 30 years, you may be able to stretch it to 31. 
So here's the gamma lid. The difference between the gamma lid and the regular lid is this: a bucket lid seals down by pressure. You've all had to hammer a bucket lid down, and then use one of those knifty looking wrenches to pull the lid up without breaking it.
With the gamma lid, you hammer down the ring part of the lid,
and then just screw on the top part of the lid. Getting the same seal, but oh so much easier.
Ta-da! My 3 month supply of wheat, all set. 
Whenever I need a little wheat, I pull the bucket out of the pantry, untwist the lid, unroll the bag and scoop out some wheat! Easy peasy.Emergency Essentials is nice enough to offer Safely Gathered In readers FREE SHIPPING on orders over $30 until the end of July! To use the free shipping, just type "gathered" into the promo code box when checking out---OR just click on this button.
Just in case you wondered, this post was made possible by Emergency Essentials sending me these products. I would have had nothing to write about otherwise. Thanks Emergency Essentials for giving me yet another reason to be excited about wheat.
7 comments:
If you are using mylar bags to store your food in, would it really matter if the buckets were not officially food grade buckets? I've heard there's really not much difference between food grade buckets and the HDPE buckets you can get from the hardware store.
I just got my first gamma lids also and they are working great. I LOVE them.
I got my buckets for free from the Wal-Mart bakery. I just called them up and asked if they had any available. They gladly gave them to me and said they go through approximately two each day. They were 5-gallon buckets. Just a thought of you want to avoid paying for them in the future - call your local bakery.
I like to use a smaller container for wheat in my kitchen cupboards and then a large 5-gallon bucket tucked away in a closet. Then I always have wheat close on hand without having to pull out the 5-gallon bucket, and I only have to refill the smaller snapware container once in a while.
love, love the gamma lids!!! Great idea with the mylar bags. I will have to look into it.
How do you keep your wheat from going buggy? I bought garbanzos in bulk earlier this year and they have some kind of weevil crawling around in there. Some of it was too nasty to save, the rest we washed off and used.
I was so excited about this post. I love the idea of the gamma lids. I needed some wheat and wanted it in 5 gallon buckets. So, I ordered 6 superpails of wheat from emergency essentials. They do not come with the gamma lids. I was a bit disappointed, in the post it looked like the lid was included if not part of the bucket. They can be purchased separately for $7.50 each. The gamma lids come in a variety of colors which I think is great. Now I need a gamma lid.
We have been faithful customers to EE since last year. We now have six superpails in our pantry, all with gamma lids. I also have lots of the snapware in the pantry, too. They have just about everything a food storage family could want!
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