Staff of Life

As somebody very much interested in the subject of nutrition, I've spent a good deal of time pondering the Word of Wisdom (LDS scripture on health) and reading various viewpoints. One point which draws several opinions, you probably wouldn't realize, is the meaning to the phrase "Staff of Life." For instance, one author wrote that a staff weakens a strong person, but it can save a weak person's life (I don't know if that is true, but just to showcase one viewpoint). Personally I think grains are *not* the ideal food, but rather "Staff of Life" means we can depend of them; and during times of famine, grains are the ONE food group with a multi-generational shelf life that will sustain us nutritionally. Throughout history, civilizations have used grains stored in silos to survive famines, even for 10 years!

In my research I have been impressed to find out that grains have a balanced macronutrient ratio, providing us with 80% carbohydrate, 10% protein, and 10% fat, which research shows is ideal. Grains have small amounts of every mineral and vitamin except vitamin C, which we can obtain with wild edibles if needed.

ANYWAY the reason I am sharing this is because today was another FOOD STORAGE day in the Jones household! We have at least a full year's supply of rice, wheat, millet, and oatmeal (in addition to lentils, beans, dried fruits, canned tomato products, and frozen and freeze-dried fruits and vegetables)

Here is our messy kitchen while we did the canning as a family.






Food storage (in our ward, at least) is something that people are either gung-ho about, or scared to death of. I hope that by blogging about this I can show how easy it is. Dry-pack canning is really very simple. But I guess the overwhelming part is learning to can what you eat and actually using recipes, and obtaining all the small things to make food taste good, etc. We are pretty lucky in the fact that I'm a horrible cook, so we eat simple meals anyway (Lentils and rice with a bit of tomato sauce, onions, garlic? We're good!) and we are vegetarian for the most part, so we don't have to worry about canning meats which can be a bit more complicated.

I got into food storage to ease my worries about natural disasters, but also because I love to go shopping. One day a few years ago, it occured to me that here is something I can throw money at, and it's actually a good thing! I can "go crazy" buying cases and cases of something, and not feel guilty about it! A lot of people feel that putting your money in shelf-stable food is a better investment than putting your money in the bank!! One reason is because in a natural disaster (or extreme fuel inflation), this same food will increase in value multiple times over.

So my fun new splurge lately has been buying freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, which don't come cheap, but I am glad to round out our starches with some color, flavor, and denser nutrition.

We are talking about starting an annual tradition of living off our food storage for a month. No setting foot in a supermarket for one entire month! It would be an adventure, hard for me to limit my fresh food intake, but I think then we'd realize how blessed we truly are to have fresh foods, not to mention so much choice at the store, so many variations of dishes, etc. Just think about it - most of the world's population lives on a few staple starches plus spices their entire lives, anyway!! (...and they have better health than we do...) What we call food storage is just REALITY for most human beings. How adventurous is that? I think it would be great for kids to learn about food production, social science, and what a commodity food really is.