Saturday, February 6, 2010

Preparing Wisely Emergency Supply & Food Storage

In an effort to keep my children from killing each other in their spare time (which ends up being almost every Friday), I decided it was high time to take them to a local store that is owned and operated by Troy and Tracey Adair in Mesa Arizona. It's called Preparing Wisely Emergency Supply and Food Storage. It sounds like a mouthful to say. Given my love and adoration for anything food, grain, and preparedness related, I was excited to take a short trip. Part of my wholesome Mormon upbringing has been the use of basic grains and food storage. We always used a lot of wheat, especially whole grain hard high protein wheat. So, when Tracey told me that there was a bag of Wheat Montana Prairie Gold high protein wheat with my name on it in her store, I jumped on it. Fifty pounds made it into my van along with 10lbs of Wheat Montana's all purpose flour and 7 grain rolled cereal. So, I am a gooseberry for a good bag of wheat. Folks we have a winner.
I may be simple, but I'm not stupid. My sons milled wheat by hand for over 2 hours and didn't get bored. This wheat is now my all time favorite. I'm not just saying it. The bread we got from the fresh milled wheat was perfect. I could tell the wheat was very fresh. Because it was a "white wheat" it made a very nice light bread with a nutty mild and earthy wheat flavor. Very very nice texture.

I wish everyone could try it.
A few other cool things I found at their store..kitchen sprouting trays and food choppers.
Water storage barrels and literally tons of wheat and other grains.
Honeyville Grain being one of my favorite food storage companies, can be readily purchased here at their store. Hooray for that! Remember the meatless wonders made from vital wheat gluten flour? They have #10 cans of it. That is where I got mine.
Here's the kicker. We have the Victorio hand mill (around 60$) for grinding wheat and other grains. Cussing Granny bought it from Troy and Tracey a year or two ago. It's pretty slow, but it makes flour. Troy let use borrow the store model of the Wondermill Jr. Handmill to take home. We compared them side by side. I must say, for just over 200$, it is a smoking deal for the Wondermill. I'm getting one very soon. There are several types of hand mills in existence with varying difficulty of use. I just want one to mill flour if we didn't have electricity. That along with my solar oven, we would be able to still bake bread and have food. It just makes simple sense, especially with all the emergencies that happen, to be prepared for anything, right? Global Sun Ovens has been shipping solar ovens to Haiti by the boat load. The mill isn't super fast, but it gets the job done. Electric mill is faster...by about 200%. I like putting my kids to work with the hand mill though, it makes them appreciate bread. Is that wrong?
The Wondermill does cracked grains, "cream of" grains, nice fine flours, and nut butters.
What did we do with the 7 grain rolled cereal? We made my grandmother's oatmeal cookies with a dab of homemade jelly right in the middle. Yes, it was fantastic. Would I visit this Food Storage Supply store again? You bet...I'm a friend for life. Much Thanks to Troy and Tracey for the wonderful samples of fabulous products. I'm hooked. If you are ever in town, may I highly suggest stopping by. Oh...if only for the cookie supplies. Good news, they do have an online store for the out-of-towners. Check them out. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the low prices on whole grain. I know I am.
Preparing Wisely
Emergency Supply & Food Storage

144 S Mesa Drive Suite D
Mesa, AZ 85203
(480) 964-3077

Online store:
www.preparingwiselyonline.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Back to Basics grain mill is a joke. I bought one back in '97, used it once and have never used it since. It takes more work and energy to make a loaf of bread than it's worth!

You *might* want to look at the Family Grain Mill (made in Germany) for ease of operation and its wide variety of grinding (from cracking grains to fine flour) to great variety of add-on attachments.

See http://www.internet-grocer.net/family.htm

mlebagley said...

I love that the boys enjoyed grinding the wheat! Lets them feel all manly and strong, eh? I have a hand grinder like that too, and one Sat when my son and his friend ran out of stuff to do...I set them to work. It was wonderful! This sounds like a very cool store! I'm going to check it out!

Angela said...

I've used that wheat montana flour before--it is fantastic. I've got a bread recipe coming up on the blog I hope this week sometime that uses 6 grain cereal--you could use 7 or 9 grain in it as well. Just one more way to use rolled grains ;)

Chef Tess said...

Anonymous...The Back to Basics grain mill? I don't have that one, but even if I did, I think the main reason we have a hand mill is to keep my kids busy. The Victorio fit my MIL's budget and we actually like it. I'm always open to looking at different mills though. Thanks for the input. Angela...you of all people would have used the prairie gold wheat. Oh everyone...Angela still sells grain mills too, and they are amazing. I'm looking forward to your post on the rolled grain. Always love it. Mle...I think this store would be right up your alley. Love you all.

Chef Tess said...

Just bought 100lbs of the wheat today. It's on special for the month of February for 25$ 50 lb bags. Well worth the price for non chemical treated wholesome grain that's perfect for bread.