Storing Sugar For Long Term Storage In Humid Environments

In previous posts I've talked about storing sugar for long term storage since it never spoils, is a calorie dense food, can be used as a preservative (jams, jellies), relatively cheap, hard to produce, and makes an excellent barter item. The five enemies of long term food storage is: light, moisture, temperature, insects/varmints, and oxygen. The humidity can be very high in Arkansas with 100% humidity not uncommon. If I do buy sugar, it can easily turn into a sugar brick within a few months. Our local Kroger ran four pound sugar packages on sale for 99 cents each (1.5 cents/ounce) which is more than half the usual cost.

104 pounds of sugar

Here is my solution: The local Chinese restaurants put uncooked rice in their salt shakers to absorb the moisture. I placed about 3 pounds of sugar in a Quart Ziplock freezer bag, added 1/4 ounce rice between to two bags, then vacuum sealed the contents.

After many years of backpacking, there is no better brand than Ziplock. The Quart size will allow me to gently massage the sugar back into granules if this experiment fails.

I bought a Ziplock Vacuum Sealer for $10 as a Black Friday special last year, and ideally two people and two sealers would make the process go much faster. One making the bags, and the other sealing them.

Between the sealer bag and the Ziplock bag, I put 4 ounces (1/4 cup) of rice, then vacuum sealed the contents. In theory, the plastic(s) will allow some exchange of air and the rice should act as a moisture barrier between the two bags. Sugar does not have an expiration date, so unless a major failure, these should be good to go for 25 years with the plastic determining the failure date.

I've got some more vacuum sealing to do, but the finished products are placed in these square food grade buckets for the pantry.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on my idea of long term storage for sugar in humid climates.

(104 pounds of sugar = 182,520 calories = $25.74 = 91.26 days of 2000 calories /day)


Keep Right On Prepping - K

The Great Thing About My Work

The great thing about my work is that I get to meet quite a few different people. This one patient works at the Remington Arms plant, and I asked him about ammo sales. "It's dropped off a cliff since Obama left office.", was the patient's reply. They told me that their client base has been stockpiling ammo for a long time, and this is a great, probably the best time to purchase ammo. I suspect that I should continue to purchase ammo and consider it an investment in future shooting fun.

I also get to meet people from all corners of the state, and can pick their brains about the region that they live.

I've really been getting the itch to purchase some land for our future homestead, but with over 900 bucks a month in childcare, it'll have to remain on the back burner  for a while longer. We aren't willing to go into additional debt. We are kinda caught between the kid's education, which is the main reason we haven't moved, and wanting to live out in the country. Plus, my wife has to have high speed internet for her stay at home job. We've talked about a good time frame, and perhaps as soon as three years we could buy 5 to 10 to 15 acres, have our house custom build for prepping, sell our current house, and live the dream. Until then, we are living below our means, saving money, and expanding our skill set.

Theoretically, we could max out our budget, stop contributing to retirement, and do all this now. We hate living on the edge, and worrying about bills/money. The small farm will have to wait...

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Alive and Busy

Just a short update to keep the blog current, and to keep the few loyal readers informed. Wow! It has been really busy at our household. We are transitioning into the school routine and getting all three of the boys ready or motivated, depending on their age. It leaves me with about 2 hours of  "free time" to run errands, housework, clean,  projects, and other misc. tasks that pop up.

The Doctor, our three year old, is really blooming. His vocabulary and personality are really starting to shine. In the photo below, the parents didn't get up soon enough when the good Doctor wanted some morning milk. So, he helped himself to an ice cream treat. This is what happens when you catch a few more minutes of sleep at our house. It's hard to get mad when he is beaming a bright smile telling you that "I've got ice cream!" 

We have been trying to teach him to take turns watching TV with the other two, but the only thing that he knows is that every turn is "My TURN!".  Sounds like the chorus at a political rally.  Don't worry readers, we will teach him the old ways of respect, earning your way, being a light for the world, and doing the right thing when no one is watching.

Red Ant with Pincers, our soon to be 9 year old, earned another stripe in Cuong Nhu ("Kung New") and by the next testing will be a yellow belt. He is so proud of himself. He has worked really hard and will be ready to demonstrate the first full form at the next testing.  His school work has been good, but he needs to buckle down on spelling. He is a rock star in the other subjects, and has already learned his multiplication flash cards even before being required.

Row, our soon to be 12 year old, has transitioned into sixth grade and doing well. He has all Pre-AP classes, and adjusting to going to many different classes per day. He is definitely our rules kids. He is a rules follower, but I try to offer teachable moments when it's not okay to follow the rules. For Example: Please speed when you are taking someone to the hospital for a life threatening event or when government oversteps there authority. For those readers interested, read How Do You Kill 11 Million People? by Andy Andrews.

That just leaves the parents in this update. Sweetheart has been asked to work "voluntary" (read mandatory)  but recommended over time each week for the last year. The money is nice, but time has become a scarce commodity for her. She is still training for her marathons, and races while going to bootcamp most mornings.

We are teaching Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey's program, at church again this semester. The leadership has decided to add another three classes to this course, so it extends it to 12 weeks instead of 9. We provide lunch to about 40-50 people, with the grateful help of another couple, every Sunday afternoon. This is the first semester that we have talked about stepping back from teaching. We love helping people get their finances in better shape, the achieved status in church, and subtly spreading the prepper mindset, but the weekends are crazy trying to get everything accomplished. I also tend to create some unnecessary stress in our marital bliss on Sunday mornings trying to get things ready for church. I'm trying to correct this behavior, but it's a work in progress.

We have officially paid for our Walt Disney World trip in January without going into debt. The majority, if not all, of our extra cash has been towards airfare, on-property hotel, and tickets. We only have food and souvenirs to save up for now.  It seems that everything runs about $400 per person no matter what the line item. Speaking of which, our two oldest boys will be at Disney on their real birthdays. What an awesome way to turn 12 and 9! Sweetheart was able to snag all of our reservations by getting up at 5:00am to register them online. Which means, our boys will have a huge birthday dinner at their chosen restaurants of Be Our Guest and Via Napoli.

I've got a few projects on the back burner, or currently working. For JUGM, at Haze Gray and Red Clay, I've got a block of cheddar cheese in the spare refrigerator as an on going experiment in cheese storage. I'll be picking a warm day to crayon wax them and then store them under the house. Our local cheesemaker, through a conversation, recommended keeping certain cheeses in the vegetable crisper to age. This was his optimal storage technique for the Arkansas climate.

For Sandy, at Oklahoma Transient, as promised, Ill be doing a tutorial post on learning to stitch wounds in a SHTF scenario.  I was the winner of her giveaway for the Voodoo tactical kit. Thanks again! Money has been tight, but I was finally able to order suture needle and thread from Amazon. This is a skill in which the viewer will have to practice this skill set. Watching a video or reading about it does not make you competent, just enough to be dangerous.

I bought a lot of sugar on sale ( 4 pounds for 99 cents) at Kroger, and will be doing a short post on how I think packaging it for long term storage in humid climates might work best. Another experiment in action.

Thanks for reading and Keep Right On Prepping- K and family

9-11

19 Moslems hijack 4 airplanes and kill over 6000 people. The enemies of America celebrated.

Never forget who your friends are...

Keep Right On Prepping - K