Food Storage Challenge: Day 6

They aren't pretty, but they're good. I would have made bread even if we weren't in an imaginary emergency because I like whole wheat bread and I like that I can make something healthy for my family from scratch starting with grinding the wheat.

Day 6 of the Food Storage Challenge will certainly turn out to be no problem for our family. We have plenty of food still left. I could probably do this for another week if I just had eggs and milk.

Speaking of eggs, I did a little research on how to store them.

Yes, they do store for a long time in your fridge when stored properly. My cousin mentioned that you could rub mineral oil on the shells and put them back in the cartons in the fridge (bottom shelf in the back, not the door) and they would last up to 6 months.

There were plenty of websites that gave instructions for storing eggs out of the refrigerator. There was a lot of different information but most suggested not washing the eggs when you plan to store them on the shelf because they have a protective coating on them that will keep them fresh longer. Since I buy my eggs from the store or from a farmer who washes them, this isn't really an option for me. Not that I even want it to be.

Another website said that eggs could be frozen. However, yolks will turn lumpy and gelatenous when frozen, so, you need to freeze the whites and the yolks separately. Whites need no special treatment, but stir in a half teaspoon of salt or a tablespoon of sugar for every one cup of yolk you are going to freeze. Use the sugared yolks for baked treats and the salted yolks for your savory cooking. A great idea I found was to freeze the whites in an ice cube tray so they freeze in single egg portions.

Freezing eggs seems like the best option for me and one that I will probably take advantage of.

The other big emergency egg information was all about egg substitutes.

Thanks to information from my visiting teacher, who recently attended a food storage seminar, real egg substitutes, such as dehydrated eggs, are usually expensive and have a short shelf life. The best option for baking with eggs is unflavored gelatin like Knox. Instructions on how to make the substitution are here.

Whew! That's a lot of egg information, but the good news is, there are ways to store eggs, or to store things that will act like eggs. This is good news for me indeed.

As a final note, I plan to have a bonus Food Storage Challenge Post tomorrow or Sunday, not that we will be extending our challenge time, but because I would like to tap into our water storage and see how easy or hard it is. We have 2, 50 gallon food grade water barrels filled with water. The water was changed out in October, so that's good. But we have to employ the use of a special pump, which we've never before tried, to get the water out of the barrels. I also want to drink the water and see how it tastes.

Robert does not want to drink the water. Something about surgery and not wanting to get sick, blah, blah, blah.

I guess I'll take one for the team.