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One of the problems with stored food is the inevitable deterioration of the vitamin content. You don’t have to worry about the mineral content going anywhere but vitamins are notoriously fragile. While many have asked for the best kind of multi-vitamin supplement for long term storage, the answer for the survival community is simpler. Many of us have buckets of wheat stored. So make wheat sprouts and wheatgrass juice.
Vitamins increase substantially during the sprouting process. In regards to wheat, vitamin B-12 quadruples, other B vitamins increase from 3 to 12 times and the vitamin E content triples. Vitamins A, K and others also increase. Amino acid levels (the building blocks of proteins) similarly increase and fiber content increases three to four times that of whole wheat bread.
Dry seeds, grains, and legumes are rich in protein and complex carbohydrates but contain no vitamin C. Fortunately, the sprouting process creates 20 milligrams of Vitamin C per 3.5 ounces of wheat.
Sprouts can be eaten in as little as 48 hours after soaking (and rinsing). No light is required for the first few days and at this stage, they are more grain than vegetable. Over time (and with light) chlorophyll begins to form and they transition from grain to vegetable. Eating them takes a bit of getting used to. Young sprouts can be eaten whole and are very chewy, and sweet. No cooking needed. They are an excellent G.O.O.D. food for your survival pack. All you need is a glass mason jar and a mesh cap. Go to your local health food store and ask for the plastic ventilated tops that fit over mason jars for sprouting. If you want to decrease the weight, put them in a stocking or plastic paint strainer mesh (available at your hardware store) and then into a plastic wide mouth bottle. As you travel, the wheat will convert into chewy nutritious little snacks. In terms of travel, if you think that you will have access to water (hiking near a river or other other water source) but no cooking fuel (wintertime and it’s wet) then this is an excellent option. They sprout while you hike. If a member of the party has dental problems, make a mortar and pestle from two rocks and crush the sprouts before eating them. Remember, we don’t manufacture cellulose, the enzyme that other animals have to break down plant fiber. If you don’t cook or juice your vegetable, you must chew (or crush) them to get anything out of them.
Here is a list of other seeds/grains/beans you can sprout as well as how to sprout in a jar.

If you have the time and inclination, you can go from the sprout stage to the grass stage. Again, this shifts the wheat from grain to vegetable. This will change the relative protein, carbohydrate and vitamin composition so I suggest you use your powers of observation. If you crave the sprouts at one growing stage versus another, honor it. It’s your body telling you that given your current state of malnutrition, that stage of the sprout you are craving contains the maximum amount of what you need. Wheatgrass juice is a little sweet and many will get nauseous even if they drink only an ounce at a time. It is very potent stuff, but not dangerous.
Here is a link for sprouting to the grass stage including techniques to sprout without soil or trays (you can even use a baby blanket):
Be mindful that when going for the grass stage, hygiene is everything. You must start with clean grain or mold will grow on them.
Wheatgrass juice can be chewed but this is very labor intensive. Ann Wigmore who made wheatgrass juice famous ate grass from her lawn with her grandmother during the war in Germany and attributes it to her and her Grandmother not starving to death. I think that a wheatgrass juicer is a very sound investment, as important as any other in my survival kitchen. No, a regular juicer will not work. You will need a wheatgrass juicer. With it you can also juice other leafy greens if you like. Manual wheatgrass juicers are not overly expensive unless you want to go stainless steel but they all work pretty much the same way. [JWR Adds: Used wheatgrass juicers can sometimes be found on eBay for very reasonable prices.]
If you have wheat then you have bread and vegetables if you know how to juice. In the summer months, if you have grass growing nearby and it hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides and other lawn chemicals you have a garden you may not have been aware of. While not all grasses are necessarily safe to eat, you can experiment with a drop at a time. As with all suspect plant life, first put a drop on your skin and see if it gets irritated over the next few hours. If that works, next put a drop under your tongue and spit it out. Was it bitter or soapy or was there a milky sap? (A survival botanist who wants to elucidate/correct this would be appreciated.) If not and if you feel okay after another few hours, next try to drink a drop. With some experimentation you may be able to determine if the grass varieties growing wild in your local meadow are safe for consumption.
While many other sprouts are also useful and certainly more tasty and easier to manage (mung, buckwheat, adzuki) wheat is something that anyone reading this blog is likely to have in abundance. You can, however, sprout any grain or bean too increase it’s vitamin content. Also, sprouting does not mean you must eat it raw. You can sprout your beans and grains and then still cook with them. The chinese do this with mung beans in their cooking. You will lose some of the vitamin content by cooking them but you will still end up with a meal many times higher in vitamin content than otherwise. – SF in Hawaii

Hi,
If food for long term storage is put in a plastic five gallon bucket with silica gel and a mylar bag, how much does it matter how humid the outside air is after it is completely packed? For instance, if the only place to store the food is in a shed outside will humidity in the air get into the bucket? How important is dry storage air to the time the food can be successfully stored.
Thanks, – C.N. in North Carolina

JWR Replies: Food grade plastic food storage buckets are designed to be air and moisture tight when properly sealed. Once sealed, they should not gain any moisture over time. As previously noted, in damp climates, it is best to do your food storage packaging during a dry month of the year. Be sure to enclose several oxygen absorbing packet and a silica gel desiccant packet. Inspect each lid’s rubber gasket for softness and for any foreign matter before seating the lids. Use a rubber or leather mallet to seat them firmly. BTW, you will probably find that you’ll need a “lid lifter” tool for when you eventually open your buckets. (These are sometimes called “bucket opening wrenches” by some vendors.) They are available from Ready Made Resources, Mountain Brook Foods, Nitro-Pak, and a variety of other Internet food storage vendors.

Mr R.:
To follow up on B.B.’s article, the following piece may be from Kurt Saxon, or another brilliant reality-based mind like that. I apologize in advance for not having ironclad attribution on this.
Awesome info in any case. The small stainless steel cookers/cups ( Thermos “Thermax” model ) will do the same thing on a smaller scale. Once again SurvivalBlog nails it with great information. – M.P.

SAVING MONEY WITH A THERMOS BOTTLE
First the thermos. There are three kinds but only one is practical. Forget the cheap, plastic ones lined with Styrofoam. These might cook oatmeal and white rice but do not have the heat holding power you need. Silvered glass thermoses are fine, but a bump will break them. Also, since you are going to do actual cooking and will use a fork to remove the contents, they will not hold up.
The only practical cooking thermos is the WIDE-MOUTH Aladdin Stanley. It is lined with stainless steel, is well insulated and will keep steaming hot for up to 24 hours and holds a quart. It is also unbreakable, with a lifetime warranty.
Most foods cook at 180 degrees or more. We are used to boiling, which is 212 degrees, and foods do cook faster, the higher the temperature. But if time is not important, cooking at a lower temperature is even better as most vitamins are not broken down. Thus, if you cook at a minimum heat, you save nutrition.
Then you need a heat source. If you are in a non-cooking room, buy a cheap, one burner hot plate from your local Wal-Mart, Target, Sears etc. You will need a one quart saucepan. You will also need a special funnel to quickly pour the pan’s contents into the thermos, plus a spoon or fork to help the last of the food into the funnel. To make the funnel, cut off the bottom four inches from a gallon plastic milk or juice container.
The first step in thermos cookery is to fill the thermos with water up to the point reached by the stopper. Empty the water into the saucepan and make a scratch or other indelible mark at the water’s surface inside the saucepan. This will allow you to put just enough water in the saucepan, as too much will leave food out and too little will give you less cooking water.
Just to test how the cooker works, start with four ounces of wheat. You do not need to buy 60 pounds. You can buy two pounds from your health food store for about $.80 This would give you eight meals at 10 cents each.
In the evening, put four ounces in your saucepan, plus a half-teaspoon of salt to prevent flatness, even if you intend to sweeten it. Fill to the mark with water. (If you have hot water, let the tap run until it is hottest. Tests have shown that less energy is used in using hot tap water than in boiling from cold.) Bring the contents to a rolling boil, stirring all the while. This will take from three to five minutes.
Then quickly, but carefully, swirl and pour the contents into the funnel and help any lagging matter from the pan to the funnel and into the thermos. Cap firmly but not tightly, shake and lay the thermos on its side, to keep the contents even.
Next morning open the thermos and pour its contents into the saucepan. With four ounces of dry wheat, you will now have at least 3/4 pound of cooked wheat and about a pint of vitamin and mineral enriched water. It has a pleasant taste. Drink it. You can now put milk and sweetener on it or margarine, salt and pepper, etc. If you can eat the whole 3/4 of a pound, you will be surprised at how energetic you feel for the next several hours. An added bonus is its high fiber content.
For lunch, prepare a few ounces of hamburger or other meat chopped finely, plus chopped potatoes and other vegetables the night before. After breakfast, put these and the right amount of water in the saucepan and prepare as usual. At lunchtime you will have a quart of really delicious stew. Since nothing leaves the thermos in cooking, as contrasted to the flavor leaving stew cooking on the stove, you can understand the better tasting, higher vitamin content of thermos stew.
The brown rice dishes could also be either a main course or desert. Brown rice has a much greater swelling factor than wheat so four ounces of rice will pretty much fill the thermos. You can put vegetables and meat in it to cook or try a favorite of mine. It is four ounces of brown rice, 9 cents; one ounce of powdered milk, 10 cents in a large box; two ounces of raisins, 22 cents; one teaspoon of salt; some cinnamon and four saccharine tablets. Cook overnight. This is 46 cents for 1 1/2 pounds of desert.