Feeding one person for a year $112.35 Options

[CrabGrassAcres View Member Profile]

This will supply nearly 2,000 calories/day for one year with adequate protein and fat. If you know what wild foods to forage for greens or can grow a small patch of greens, you can provide vitamins at no additional cost. You will also need salt and will want some other seasonings. You may be able to grow or forage for fruits, nuts, peppers etc.

This is prob one of the more boring diets in existence, but my mother told me this is the diet that kept her family alive through the depression and WWII. They did have a garden and grew lots of collards.

1. Pinto beans, 50 pounds at Sams Club for 25.43 1500 cal/pound = 75,000
2. Field corn, 50 pounds at Feed Store for 6.50 1500 cal/pound = 75,000
3. Bakers liquid shortening 35 # at Sam's 22.49 3500 cal/pound = 122,500 calories

Buy one container liq shortening $22.49, 2 bags of beans $50.86, 6 bags of corn $39.00, Total 112.35

[dogmom4 View Member Profile]

So what do you do with field corn?

[CrabGrassAcres View Member Profile]

Corn bread, tortillas, mush, polenta, corn nuts, hominy, grits.......

[dogmom4 View Member Profile]

Is this the same thing as cracked corn like I've seen at feed stores or is it whole corn like popcorn?

[Aint2nuts View Member Profile]

We use a LOT of rice and beans in our everyday cooking. Cheap, easy to make, and tastes good.

I never thought of how much corn we eat, but we go through a fair amount of that too.

[CrabGrassAcres View Member Profile]

The cracked corn is field (dent) corn that has been run thru a grain mill. Popcorn is a flint type corn. You can use the cracked corn and remill it to corn meal, but it is much better to get whole shelled corn and mill that. I've seen bits of cob and stuff in with the cracked corn. It is easier to clean stuff out of the whole corn before grinding than to try to clean the cracked. Also, the whole corn will stay fresh much longer than the cracked.

[Cowgirl View Member Profile]

One wants whole FIELD corn, not pop corn. Pop corn is much costlier than field corn.

Also, if you get whole corn as opposed to cracked corn, you could plant it if you had to. So it will store better, AND it will be potentially useful to grow more corn if you need to. It will be a hybrid, if you buy it from the feed store. And so it won't grow uniformly when planted like the hybrid (F-1) seed would - once grown out, the seed from the hybrid will not grow "true" to type - that takes many generations of carefully selecting seed to save, which is how a new variety is created. But it WILL grow corn, and that may make all the difference.

[dogmom4 View Member Profile]

So where do you get field corn from?

[Cowgirl View Member Profile]

You get whole field corn from the feed store, generally in 50 pound bags. At least, it is sold at feed stores in the Midwest - cannot speak to what is available on the coasts.

[dogmom4 View Member Profile]

Thanks CG. I'll call our local feed store to see if they have it. More questions...does field corn have any chemicals put in it? And, if I'm going to store this can it just be put into the 5 gal buckets or do I need to do something to it?

[Cowgirl View Member Profile]

Unless you buy organic grain, or raise it yourself, ALL grain has been farmed using chemicals, so yes, there may be some chemical residues in it. But that is true of all the grain products you buy at the grocery store, cornmeal, bread, flour, etc. If it isn't organic, you are getting some farming chemicals in your diet. It probably won't kill you soon, anyway, and having some food, even non-organic, is probably better than starvation.

The grain you buy at the feed store will not have been treated like non-organic seed corn, however, as it is assumed that it will be consumed by critters rather than being planted. Non-organic seed corn (corn you buy specifically as seed) has been treated to help prevent disease issues when planting, particularly with early planting in cool, damp soil which is the modern preference.

It comes in feed sacks, which are something like dog food bags if you are familiar with those. Sacks like that are susceptible to rodents, of course. And sacks like that are not for really long term storage, as they are not impervious to oxygen. So, if you want to store this away long term, put it in buckets, and deal with it as you would wheat - the bags and oxygen absorbers, etc. would be helpful to extend its storage life. If you intend to start using it immediately and to convert your diet to eat out of storage (at least in part), and if you are able to store it somewhere where there are no rodent issues, then you don't have to get so extreme in your storage method.

[CrabGrassAcres View Member Profile]

Tell the feed store guy you want animal feed corn, deer corn or for chickens, it is basically the same thing. Do NOT get corn chops, which is cracked corn.

I store mine in mylar bags with O2 absorbers in blue totes or buckets. I keep a bucket in the kitchen with a Gamma lid that I use out of regularly. I grind it in my regular grain mill and eat from it several times a week. I find the local corn is cheaper to buy than rice or wheat and I use it to stretch my bucks and give me more variety in my diet. You won't believe how much better tasting it is than the stale corn meal from the grocery store.

[Dee View Member Profile]

We grow acres of field corn and yes it's full of herbicides and fertilizers (both chemicals) as is everyone elses, unless it's certified organic. It's also genetically modified which, in part anyway, means it's ready for certain herbicides to put on it that won't kill the corn stalks but will kill all other weeds. If there are others I don't know of them but what we grow here is called "Round Up" ready (a chemical). All of this is used, not necessarily to feed the world, but it's what is economically feasible, or so I'm told.


We grow acres of soybeans also that too are Round Up ready.

[dogmom4 View Member Profile]

I have whole dried corn...now I need to know what to use to grind it with...I have the Back to Basics from this site... http://waltonfeed.com/hand.html. In the description it says it easily mills corn but at the bottom of the page it says...Note from web page author: This grinder will not grind large seed like corn or coffee beans.

So, I'm guessing I can't use it for corn. Plus, I thought I saw somewhere that people don't use the same grinder for wheat and corn because corn gums up the blades? So what does everyone do if they want to grind a variety of grains?

[PureCajunSunshin... PureCajunSunshine View Member Profile]

Around these parts, 'deer corn' and 'feed corn' are two very different things...

Deer corn is a lot cheaper, and contains more 'trash' in it. Lots of broken kernels, too.

'Feed corn' is much much cleaner, and more wholesome. 'tis only slightly more expensive...

[PureCajunSunshin... PureCajunSunshine View Member Profile]

Originally Posted By: dogmom4

So what does everyone do if they want to grind a variety of grains?

(this is a repost from a thread about whole grains...) http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ubbthrea...true#Post167336



I don't have a grinder (yet)...

For years and years, I've used two rocks for grinding stuff.

If ya'll ever find yourselves without a working storebought grain grinder (for whatever reason: broken, stolen or just don't have one), consider using what the ancients used: grinding stones. I have a pair of very old ones that I use from time to time, and I can say this: grinding wheat by hand is hard work!!!! Grinding dried field corn with it is much easier, and grinding millet is easiest of all. I have not tried grinding popcorn with it (yet).

My larger grinding stone is about the size of a car's steering wheel, with a depression hollowed out caused from years of use. Eventually, the action of the smaller handheld stone grinding the grains, acorns, whatevers against the larger stone formed a handy hollow in the larger stone, making the job easier than if it were just a plain flat rock...

If the stones are reasonably hard, and not apt to bits crumbling or flaking off as you work, any two stones with a slightly rough texture should get the grinding job done. From a bit of trial and error, I learned that a gentle thud with the handheld rock smacked against the grains (that are sitting in the little hollow in the larger stone), then a pushing or dragging action of the smaller handheld stone against the larger one, with the grains inbetween the rocks, does a pretty good job of rendering the grain to flour...

Oh hey, it takes a loooong time to grind wheat this way...it takes me between a half hour to forty minutes of energetic handgrinding for less than a cup of wheat flour.

My old antique grinding stones are of Native American origin and were originally used to grind softer stuff than wheatberries...maybe dried acorns that had the tannins leached out, or maybe wild grass seeds, corn, certain roots, etc. That's what I use them for, and they do the job well!

[PureCajunSunshin... PureCajunSunshine View Member Profile]

BTW, parched corn is great stuff.

Corn that has been cooked over medium-high heat in a lightly-oiled heavy skillet is a traditional Native American "fast food". It also filled the bellies of pioneer men, women and children, trappers and well, just about everybody...not that long ago.

Parched corn is super easy to grind into grits sized particles (even with a bowl and a glass jar). As can be expected, it can be cooked like regular old corn grits, too!

It also makes a great snack or trail food, with a 'make-you-sigh' roasted corn flavor.

*Sharon reaches for her bag of parched corn*

[CrabGrassAcres View Member Profile]

I like it parched too, Sharon. I put it in a slow oven so I don't have to stand over it, stirring the pan while it parches. You can add parched corn or corn meal to nearly any dish to give it more flavor and stretch it out.

I use my Whisper Mill to grind the corn. There are manual grinders just for corn. You can get them on ebay. I also have a very old huge grinder with a wheel that can be hooked up to an exercise bike or to the PTO of a tractor or any motor that can accept a vbelt. I bet I could use the treadle of my sewing machine to run it too.

You need to check the corn before buying a large quantity. Ask the feed dealer if it is GMO. Usually they will not be selling GMO because it has to be kept separate from nonGMO grains. "Deer corn" in my local is used for feed and is clean. That is what I normally feed my animals and myself. If all you can get is not real clean, it can be cleaned by pouring it from one container to another in front of a fan. If it is really dirty, you can wash some in water and spread it out to dry before grinding. The hull will keep the corn from absorbing water unless you really soak it a long time. Usually you need lye in the water to get the hull off. What I've been buying has not needed to be cleaned.

[dogmom4 View Member Profile]

Is this what you're talking about Trish? http://www.shop.com/Manual_Corn_Wheat_Flou...376455-p!.shtml

The corn I ended up getting came from my local food coop..so I know it is organic and is clean. It was a little more expensive than feed store corn but I get a 10% discount for buying it in bulk and a 16% discount on top of that for doing volunteer hours in the store.

[CrabGrassAcres View Member Profile]

There is an identical grinder on ebay for quite a bit less:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?s...op=1&fsoo=1

Then there is this one;
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BIG-HOPPER-CAST-...1QQcmdZViewItem

They look the same except one has a larger hopper. Shipping may be more or less depending on your location.

I haven't used either. Some people say they like them fine and others don't. There is also the corona brand. I expect any of them is better than two rocks! LOL