Some (more) long term food storage results AND some new MRE choices

[surviort_wwdnet]

That looks like a can headed for the landfill if it was mine. What was the exp. date? I've never heard of that brand before, but I know there are Walton stores in Australia.

[Lowdown3]

It's tossed for sure.

Walton Feed later renamed Rainy Day foods. They were/are a large mostly wholesale outfit.

This one was from mid 1990's. I didn't look at ingredients but "egg mix" leads me to believe a scrambling egg mix type blend- eggs PLUS something else, sometimes just milk, sometimes more.

Whole eggs by themselves (no milk, etc.) seem to store better.

[Lowdown3]

What you think? Still good or no? Home canned pickles and preserves from 2009'ish.



Tasted fine. Pickles were a bit soft but might have been when packed, I don't remember. The preserves also tasted fine, got some in the fridge right now to go on some bread made with 29 year old wheat and similar age dry milk.

Unlike 99% of our other storage, the home canned jars were stored inside our house which for 3 months or so of the year does use air conditioning (deep summer). Because of the EXPECTED shorter life span of home canned jars/quarts we always kept these in the houses.

[Lowdown3]

How about some Hard red winter wheat that was stored hard... 27 years in high heat high humidity- look at the can. Surface rust on the lid and all over the can itself. FWIW, these double enamaled cans really have held up a lot better than some of the silver colored cans in the same environment.



Opened up-



Notice the large (for a #10 can) oxygen absorber. These are cans we packed back when we had a commercial cannery in the late 90's. You'll usually see a 250cc or 350cc absorber in #10s, we went larger with a absorber in #10 cans as we did in Superpails also.

Right into the K-tec electric mill (yes we have about 5 options in manual grinders also including a Country Living)



And the end result-



Bread with 27 year old wheat.

[Lowdown3]

Hard red winter wheat packed back in 1998 when we owned and ran a mid size commercial cannery.




We opened that cannery in response to high "Y2K" preparation demand for long term storage foods. At the time, the major LTS food manufacturers were backed up "20-24 weeks" yes, 6 months... And we opened a mid size cannery in a few months and started producing our own #10 cans, Superpails like the one in the picture and offered product by the can, case, bucket or year unit. Late in 1999 as demand was winding down we closed that cannery according to plan and not long after moved to S. GA.

Here is the Superpail with the lid removed-



Showing mylar still sucked down well after 28 years.

And mylar cut open showing product still good after all these years in HIGH HEAT and high humidity storage in S. GA



We've been making a lot of bread at home lately and our #10 cans of Hard red winter wheat from this time period seem to be about run out, so I grabbed a bucket. We use an electric K-Tec grinder for quick, easy milling, but we also have about 5 manual grinders including a Country Living, Back to basics, original Corona mill, one of Lehmans and another one that the name escapes me on right now.


Here's another pic, I took this pic because so many folks over the years that do not regularly use their LTS always ask "what do you do once you open the mylar?" First and foremost your food doesn't go "POOOF" and disappear into mid air. Some items that are very hydroscopic- like any "powdered" items (butter powder, egg mix, milk, etc.) should be re-sealed if you aren't going to continue to use them very regularly. If you packed correctly and did not "cut off the excess" of the mylar like some of the johnny come lately OCD types on Youtube show, you can just scoop what you need out and either A. Re-seal or B. Simply roll the mylar back on itself. Whole grains, beans, etc. will stay good "opened" like years for year, especially if you simply roll the mylar back on itself like so-



What are you rotating from your LTS now? How did it go?

[Lowdown3]

So the 1990's Folgers coffee- even the wife who is a bit of a coffee snob- was impressed by how it held up.



Been drinking it every morning for about 3 days now. Smells and tastes normal.

Wish they still made coffee in true #10 type all metal cans and not this plastic and foil BS... May try the Asian store next time I'm in Jax to see if they have coffee still like that???

Been working on the can of Mt. House Italian Pepper steak. Have had that about four or five times now.

As is often the case, "serving size" suggested is relatively small-



But I would assume most folks know that this is easily stretched with rice. A pot of rice made for 3-4 people with 3-4 "servings" of this mixed over the rice is a great way to stretch the more expensive entree out a little more. Supplement with some fresh veg from the garden as possible.

MRE cocoa- yep, same as it ever was. Early 1990's cocoa, stored in high heat/high humidity in S. GA still good after all these years. Hopefully the Nattick chart worshipping "how's my sticker look" MRE crowd pays attention to that :) In case you missed it, there was a big thread in general about MREs a while back and some were pee'ing their pants because the little indicator sticker on their MRE cases didn't look 100% perfect even though the meals were fresh. Some worried that "the back of the fedex truck is hot" and that would make them inedible, etc. One argued with me that they would listen to the gubmint charts- instead of real life/real world results. LMAO.

Commonly regurgitated info on the net is dangerous, it had some people believing that "white rice won't store six months" and similar non sense. This new "prepper" crowd is to analytical as it is- overthinking and under doing. We have to be careful with crazy claims of short shelf life if for nothing else that it gives these types more consternation and feeds their inaction. In the end, your family is either going to have food to eat or they won't. It's stupid to think people will go hungry because of piss poor information on the net.....