Beans, Beans The Magical Fruit......(Botanically, That Is)

Ever wondered what to do with all the beans you have in your storage? There is a newsletter I'll frequently refer to, that is a wealth of knowlege. It can be found at preparetodaynewsletter.blogspot.com. I found this information from the "Prepare Today" newsletter and I'll share it with you:

DRY BEANS 411

yield 1 c. of dry = 21/2 to 3 c. cooked beans
bean : water ratio 1 c. beans : 4 c. water
soaked enough? Slice a bean in half. If the center is opaque, soak more.
cooked enough? A bean is fully cooked when you can mash it with a fork.
buying guide: Good beans:
smooth and bright.
Old bean:
cracked seams, dull, wrinkled. (The older the bean, the longer the cooking time.)
most difficult beans to digest: navy, lima, whole cooked soybeans
easiest beans to digest:
Anasazi, adzuki, black eyed peas, lentils and mung

~~~~

HOW OLD?!

The following comes from a newsletter putout by the Wooden Spoon, December 2006.
“In a recent cooking class at The Wooden Spoon we were discussing the shelf life of legumes, which is recommended as 6-8 plus years. True confessions were coming from our students, some of whom inherited their mother's food storage . . .
“We determined on an experiment.
“Charleen Clark told us that she knew she had beans that were at least 40 years old, and accepted the assignment to go home and see what she could do with them. [She] added 1/8 tsp. baking soda and 1 tbsp. cooking oil to a cup of beans while soaking them in three times as much water. She put the beans to soak on a Saturday morning and left them for thirty-two hours, until she observed that the forty year old beans were beginning to sprout! Charleen drained the rinse water, cooked the beans, and brought them to class.
“Christine Van Wagenen, teacher and cook extraordinaire, put her discriminating palate to the test and sampled a bean and declared the results to be a marvel.“

~~~~

Beans—Beans—Beans

Nutritious, filling, versatile, economical, and tasty - sounds like the perfect food!

Sorting
Sorting means picking over the dried beans before cooking them. Remove small rocks, pieces of dirt, beans with holes, badly misshapen or wrinkled beans and those greatly undersized or discolored.
Rinsing
Washing is not part of the packing process because water would rehydrate the beans. Do not rinse beans until you are ready to soak or cook them. Even then you do not have to rinse beans if you're going to soak them. Any field dust will be removed and discarded with the soak water. If you cook
the beans without soaking, rinse them after sorting.

Soaking

Soaking is not essential in bean preparation. Beans are soaked to begin rehydration and reduce cooking time..
During soaking, beans increase two to three times their dried size. Enough water must be used to keep the beans covered while soaking. Once rehydrated, beans cook in 1 to 3 hours, depending on the type of bean.

Cooking Without Soaking

To cook beans without soaking, use twice the amount of cooking water specified in the recipe. Combine the water and rinsed beans in the pot and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. The beans rehydrate while cooking so you will have to watch them carefully and add more water whenever necessary to keep them covered.

~~~~

Things To Avoid When Cooking Dry Beans

Add only after beans are soft

The following items will toughen uncooked beans and noticeably increase cooking time.
salt / unrefined sea salt
miso, tamari and soy sauce
sugars
acidic ingredients, including tomatoes, vinegar, and lemon.

Baking soda?

Many recipes call for baking soda to speed cooking and soften beans by increasing alkalinity. Use it only if you have extremely hard water. Baking soda will produce mushy beans, and deplete minerals.

~~~~

BEAN NUTRITION

PROTEIN: Dry beans are the richest source of vegetable protein (21-27% when cooked). Combining beans with a small amount of animal protein such as meat, cheese, or egg or small amounts of grain (corn, wheat, or rice) will create a complete protein equal to that of meat and other animal sources. Protein is important for human health because it supplies the materials for building and repairing body tissues – muscles, bones, glands, skin, and teeth. Beans consistently rank lowest of all foods in cost per gram of protein, according to the USDA.
ENERGY: Beans have long been valued as an energy source. Complex carbohydrates in dry beans digest more slowly than simple carbohydrate foods thereby satisfying hunger longer. One half cup of cooked beans contains 118 calories or less.
VITAMINS: A normal serving of cooked dry beans supplies as much as 40% of the minimum daily requirement of the B-vitamins, thiamine and pyridoxine, and significant amounts of other B-vitamins. The B-vitamins are important in contributing to healthy digestive and nervous systems, skin, and eyes.
MINERALS: Iron to build red blood cells, calcium and phosphorus for strong bones and teeth, and potassium, which is important in regulating body fluid balance, all plentiful in dry beans. Beans are high in fiber, contain no cholesterol, and are low in sodium. Sodium content is low so, when cooked without salt, they are good in low-salt diets.

~~~~

Home Storage Is Not An Event, It Is A Process

When you buy a case of beans from the cannery you will have, depending on the type of bean chosen, between 31 - 33 pounds. At today’s prices the cost per case is from (US) $20.82 - $28.32. With less than 3 1/2 cases and between $68 - $88 you can have 100 pounds of dry beans all securely sealed and tucked away.
Given the versatility and nutrient benefits of beans, dried or wet-pack canned, it seems prudent to become adept at preparing a variety of beans in an array of recipes.
Many people weren’t taught the skills to cook ‘from scratch’ but it’s never too late to learn and in today’s economic climate you really can’t learn too soon! There’s a vast selection of cookbooks devoted just to beans and the internet is a bean cook’s treasure trove.
Whether you use them cold in salads and dips; hot in soup, chili, and ethnic dishes, or ground into flour and added to your baking, beans are a wonderful foundation for healthful, flavorful and money-wise storage.

Bon Appétit—or should I say Bean Appétit!

ProvidentLiving.org

_______________

National Directory of Farmers Markets

http://farmersmarket.com/

More Opportunity To Get Your Food Storage

"Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their year's supply of food...and were debt free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year's supply of debt and are food-free."
~ President Thomas S. Monson~

So your desire is there, and you want to get going on your food storage, but you're intimidated by the cost of all of it. Some of you may not realize that its not that expensive. For example, a can of pinto beans is only $3.47 (5.2 lb.) and a can of quick oats is only $1.96 (2.6 lb.)! You can still buy red wheat for only $2.02 (5.8 lb.) a can and a can of white rice is still only $3.09 (5.7 lb.)!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is now making it easier to obtain a year's supply of grain. As of March 24, 2008 you will be able to purchase pinto beans, quick oats, red wheat & white rice without having to work a shift at a cannery. The catch is that you have to buy a whole box worth (6, #10 cans). You will be able to go down and physically get the boxes, or if you know anyone who wants to get started that can't get to a cannery , they get started by purchasing a Family Home Storage Starter Kit online at the church website http://www.providentliving.org/.

New Cannery Procedures

I went in to work a shift at the Lindon Cannery a couple weeks ago and a couple things have changed. It used to be that when you sign up you would show up and they would take your order for any number of products in their "storage shelves," and then have you can whatever they were running short on to re-stock for future patrons.

Now they make you wait until everyone who has signed up for your time slot shows up and collect everyone's order forms. Then they look to see what the top 4 products are that everyone collectively orders (giving those items priority). They have a disclaimer that if they have enough time they will fill your entire order, but if there is not enough time, they may not. So, for example let's say I go in wanting 4 cans rice, 4 cans macaroni, 4 cans wheat, 4 cans oats and 2 cans milk and the other people working the same shift as I am also want rice, macaroni, wheat and oats. But I'm the only one who wanted milk. They will can the 4 popular items first and if there's enough time they'll work on the small stuff. They are no longer canning more than what those particular patrons come in with an order for.

Deal on Food Storage Buckets to Store Grain

Here's info I received from our stake lady on cheap buckets to store your grain.

"Payson Fruit Growers" sells food-grade buckets for 25 cents per bucket. They come to the plant containing fruit. After the plant processes the fruit, they rinse the buckets, however, I'm sure you would want to wash them yourself once you get them home. The buckets are white and hold 5 gallons. They have lids that can be replaced tightly, but they do not have a wire handle. The fact that they are smaller than the 45-50 lb. buckets you see at Macey's or Lehi Roller Mill,makes them easy to lift even without the wire handle. If anyone in your Ward is interested, I have several in my garage if they want to see what they look like. Or if you would like to call Payson Fruit Growers their telephone number is 465-9242. They are open during the week from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. They are not open on Saturdays. They are located off the same Payson exit as Wal*Mart. After exiting I-15 turn West, and the plant is less than 1/4 mile on the right side of the street. It's a huge plant, so you won't miss it.

Why Do I Need A Roll of Quarters In My 72 Hr. Kit?

I, myself am guilty of not fully knowing why I would need a roll of quarters in my grab and run bag. Sure I understood that it would be to use at a pay phone, but I didn't really understand what an asset it could be until I read this information I found on another blog which I quote:

"Can you hear me now?"
(The following recommendations where found in the AlphaGeek diary of September 16, 2005)

"Quick, name the public voice communications service that will be brought online first after a major disaster. Home phones? Nope. Business lines? Negative. Cellphones? Not likely.Give up?

The answer: pay phones. Yes, that dying breed, those dinosaur relics of the pre-cellphone age will be a shining beacon of civilization in the aftermath of a disaster.

Recommendation: All emergency kits should include a $10 roll of quarters and prepaid phone cards from two major long-distance providers. Why two major long-distance providers? In the chaos following a natural disaster, especially an earthquake, it's hard to predict which portions of the phone network will be reliable and which will fail. Having two different long-distance providers gives you a much better shot at getting a call to go through.Recommendation: Take one of your city/region maps and go on a payphone hunt. Find at least two payphones within walking/biking distance of home and work and mark the locations of each on the map. When you're done copy those locations to the map in each of your emergency kits.

Next quiz question: are you more likely to be able to complete a call to a local number, a number in a different part of your state, or a number in a different state altogether?

The answer, surprisingly, is that interstate long-distance calls are the most likely to go through in an emergency. This is because these calls are handed off from your local phone company to the long-distance networks at special "tandem" switching locations in every city.

Recommendation: Each family member and each emergency kit MUST have a durable card (i.e. laminated) with comprehensive contact information, including multiple out-of-state emergency contacts. Enlist the help of distant friends or relatives to act as a message switchboard in a crisis. This is a proven, reliable technique for reuniting separated family members when local communications are degraded or offline. If you take away nothing else from the recommendations in this series, take this one and run with it. Take care of it today. Now. Go!

Finally, let us speak for a moment of the oft-overlooked capabilities of our mobile phones. As mentioned above, making or receiving voice calls will be near impossible in many disaster situations. However, I'll let you in on a little secret:If your mobile phone can register with the network, it is very likely that you will be able to send and receive text messages even if you can't make a voice call.

Recommendation: Everyone named in your emergency plan should have a mobile phone capable of text messaging, and should know how to send and receive text messages. Using a single network provider for the whole family will further increase your chances of getting text messages through quickly during a crisis. "

Hope This Helps Someone!

Recent News on Wheat Storage

So I'm not sure how many people will actually check this blog out, but I wanted to come up with a place where I could just note random things regarding food storage. I got an email from our Stake Preparedness Lady yesterday with the following email attached. Just so its easier to follow, her name is Kathy and this was her email:

I read that wheat was going to be extremely short this year, so I went to the Cannery on Friday last week to purchase additional wheat for our home storage. On previous trips to the Cannery, I was always able to purchase the quantity I desired. This trip, I was limited to four 25-pound bags. I placed an order for the additional quantity, however, was told that they were unsure as to whether they would be able to get it, and would have to call me. I just received the following article concerning wheat/flour at Maceys Grocery Stores. I thought you might be interested!

Kathy

-Below is a copy of that article involving Macey's Grocery Store-

During our department meeting at Maceys the store director gave us acopy of this letter and said that wheat prices will be doubling in thenext three weeks and the stores will be limited in what they will beable to get from the warehouse. Wheat bread will be about $4.00 a loaf soon. I have noticed in just a week the price of wheat has went up$7.00.
Flour AllocationFebruary 21, 2008To all our valued retailers,We will be allocating all the flour out of the warehouse due to thenational, and international conditions stated in the followingarticle. We are also being allocated by our suppliers. Please barewith us. As soon as the conditions become manageable we will lift theallocations.
World wheat prices are at record highs and show no signs of lettingup. The world wheat market is facing a perfect storm of factors thatare relentless in their ability to force wheat prices to never beforeseen levels. Since December wheat has risen by 66% on top of the 83%increase in 2007.
In early 2007 the markets rose as a result of competition between cornand other crops for planting acres. A large portion of the US corncrop was being diverted from food to fuel as governments mandatedincreased percentages of ethanol in gasoline and diesel fuel.
In early spring one of the biggest US wheat crops on record was beinghurt by excessive rain in the west and a drought in the east. Asyield and quality fell wheat futures rose further.
In early summer with US harvest complete, problems started to surfacein Europe . Severe heat and drought followed by excessive rain atharvest has forced many traditional exporters to import.
In January of this year the US Department of Agriculture revealed thatthe US Hard Wheat Crop was much smaller than the world hadanticipated. That has forced buyers to switch to Spring Wheat drivingthat market to historic highs and wheat stocks to critically lowlevels. No one knows how high the market will go or if or when itwill come down.
Flour prices have risen by 40% since mid December and we have beenunable to stop the rise as grain is not being offered for sale whilethe markets trade up the daily limit. Prices will change untilstability returns to the grain trading markets. There is no good newsin the short term. Supply will continue to shrink while demand growsand various commodities compete for available acreage. All grains arerising along with corn and oil seeds.