*December is Baking Month*

By Stryder

01 December 2004

December is baking month for me. Most stores in my area have baking supplies on sale in December and it is a great time to stock up. Baking is great fun, as far as I'm concerned, and I really enjoy it, as do my three kids. We bake most of our own bread and like to bake, cook and make stuff from scratch most of the time. When TSHTF I don't want to be lerning how to bake and cook along with everything else I have to be doing. Prior Month's suggestions are on my web page at http://www.alpharubicon.com/~stryder/survive.htm.

Buy what works for you! When I say baking I mean things like corn starch, baking powder, vanilla, other flavorings, baking soda, vinegar, etc. Baking is just a "catch-all" for the things I need around to cook, preserve, and bake.

December is Baking month. The sources I have say try for a goal of 50 lbs. of baking supplies per person/per year in your storage plan. For me that works about right with a family of two adults, a teen and two pre-teens. Fifty dollars this month will buy about 44 lbs. of baking supplies, enough for about 0.75 man-years.

Storage

Baking Powder - 18 months unopened

Baking Soda - 24 months

Butter, dehydrated - 8 years

Cinnamon, Ground - 18 months

Cinnamon, Sticks - 10 years

Cocoa in mylar pouch - 5-6 years (some literature says indefinatly but the color and flavor goes wrong for me after about 5 years)

Corn Starch, vacuum sealed - indefinately

Vanilla Extract, unopened - 36 months

Vinegar, unopened in original container - indefinately

Yeast - date on package (At room temp about 24 months)(frozen will double life to about 48 months)

If you use yeast past it's date proof it to first. Most times it is still active but very slow. Bring a 1/4 water and 1 teaspoon sugar to about 100 degrees F., add the yeast and wait 10 mins. If the yeast is still active it will foam up and can be used, just deduct 1/4 cup of liquid from your recipe.

Flieshmans -1-800-777-4959

Here's my list for December:

12oz. Baking Powder 3 lbs. $5.00

6 oz. Baking Soda 10 lbs. $5.00

12oz. Cinnamon, Ground 1 lb. $8.00

12oz. Corn Starch 3 lbs. $3.00

5.0z. Cocoa 2.5 lbs. $5.00

12oz. Vanilla Extract 0.5 lbs. $10.00

5.0z. Red Wine Vinegar (1 gal) 8 lbs. $2.00

12oz. White Vinegar (2 gal) 16 lbs. $4.00

5.0z. Yeast 0.5 lbs. $8.00

If you're good to go on all cooking and baking goods, spend the $50 on some cooking and preserving books. serger mentions three good ones in his food article *For FNG's starting out, food things*. I would mention three others that come to my mind, Electric Bread by Innovative Cooking Enterprises (will really get you started making bread at home in your bread machine), The Sunset Cook Book of Breads, edited by Sunset Books (for non-machine baking), and The L.L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook by Angus Cameron. Your library of critical information on all things, cooking, tracking, weapons, alt. energy, commo will be VERY important when you're counting on it after TSHTF.

This has been a BIG learning experience for me and I want to thank everyone who emailed me about this project. A couple of things I learned:

A year-long project is tough to stick with but very worthwhile in the end.

I ended up with at least 1/2 a man year of extra stuff in my storgae for about $50 a month and I am much farther ahead than I would be otherwise.

I learned a lot about local stores and what they stock and their pricing.

I learned how hard it is to stick to a strict schedule of formatting and posting to the web and really appreciate the work that goes into the Rubicon site even more now.

And I learned a lot about my own food storage program, where the holes were, what we use and how much, etc.

Remember too that I buy what I need and use. You should buy what you need and use. I get these results based on my part of the country which is upstate NY, my weather, my storage location, my storage equipment and my experience with food and food storage. I'm not looking to debate if I pay too much for ground coffee or that your pasta doesn't last as long in storage as mine so what do I do differently. In general, just remember the old expression, "your mileage may vary" but I really hope this is some use and help to some folks.

Now - Get out and train like your life depended on it!

Stryder

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