Long-Term Storage of Beans for Two

 

Marvelous, nutritious beans. Photo credit: martin_hetto/Pixabay.

I noticed a couple months ago that our bean preps were lacking.  That's partially because hubby doesn't really do anything but kidney beans.  But that's no excuse because I love all sorts and they really are some of the best sources of cheap, nutritious protein.  I sprout them, put them in soups, chili, use them as meat extender and make bean burgers.  I've seen some preppers even putting black beans in sweet baked goods instead of oil.

We're doing some of our long-term preps in buckets with the food sealed in mylar bags first, i.e. rice and wheat.  We could definitely do the same thing with beans but once I open a 5-gallon bucket of beans, I think it would take me a longer to use it up than rice or flour since I'm the only one who would be consuming them.  Hubby says he'll eat anything if SHTF, but that means he'll eat the canned meat first and then the beans.  So we decided to put beans in 1-1/2 gallon mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.  We've been able to fit approximately 13-15 pounds of beans in one.  Then we store them in buckets for extra protection but I suppose that isn't strictly necessary.  So far we've been able to fit 2 bags in a 4-1/2 gallon bucket but we may try larger and see if we can fit 3.  We put two different varieties of beans in the bucket.

I know this isn't the most efficient use of bucket space.  But this way, when we open a bucket we just have to open one of the bags without breaking the seal on the other bag of beans and exposing them to air.  We'll get much less bored with one type of food that way.  Of course in a SHTF situation I'll eat what we have (though I hope anyone reading this is storing more than just a lot of beans).  But we're in the beginning stages of food prepping for two and this works for us.  Later, when we're able to tackle extremely long-term storage, then we'd just pile a whole mess of beans in a 5-gallon bucket (in mylar first) and tuck it away.  People with a bug-out hideaway or bean eating family probably wouldn't fool with what I'm doing now.

To see what I was talking about earlier, Crystal with Store This Not That shows you how to make her one bowl fudgey chocolate cake with black bean puree.  She uses canned beans but you can use dry beans from storage as well after they've been soaked and cooked.  She has some excellent videos on her channel, Outsmart Dinner, so you might want to stick around and check out a few more.




Related reading:

My hummus post

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