Deep, Deep Storage!

“Deep Storage” is a term used in Food Storage that refers to storing the basics to sustain life in time of great need- basics such as grains, legumes, non-fat dry milk, and sugar. Many of these items can safely be stored, following storage guidelines (including temperature- at or below room temperature) and proper packaging, for up to 30 years. Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been counseled to prepare for times of need, for decades. Those who have chosen to follow the direction of our Prophet and other Church leaders have been blessed for their obedience with an assurance that they have chosen wisely and are prepared.

One couple who have followed the prophet with strict obedience is Merlynn and Martha Tanner. One look at their storage room- with its slanted shelving that rolls the next cans in their storage stock to the front position so they can be rotated in a timely fashion and the every-ready wheat grinder and storage wheat that provides for the most heavenly whole wheat bread on earth

- is to know that Merlynn and Martha have always practiced provident living on a daily basis. In addition, their big chest freezer has always been full to overflowing and their fruit room has showcased beautifully bottled fruit and vegetables- all from their once gigantic and productive garden, raspberry bushes, grapevines, and fruit trees.

The danger, however, with Deep Storage is that sometimes when basics are “squirreled away” they can be forgotten since they are “out of sight, out of mind.” Merlynn and Martha had an unexpected lesson in this unforeseen danger this past week. They arranged for someone to give them a bid for blowing additional insulation in their attic. (The gas and electric companies are giving big rebates to help homeowners make their homes more energy efficient.) When the insulation guy was in their attic, he discovered a cache of sugar that had been stashed away in the attic for deep storage….

Enter David and Jan. We went down to Payson on Saturday to spend the day with Mom and Dad, visiting, bringing lunch, and helping out wherever we could- you could call it an early birthday gift for Dad’s 93rd birthday. Of course, the item of highest priority was removing the sugar from the attic. David climbed up into the attic and found a carefully placed platform stacked with 6 large bags, each holding 6 ten-pound bags of sugar. If you do the math, it works out to 360 pounds of sugar! He found a carefully recorded date on one of the bags- February 15, 1968! Forty-one years of deep storage!! David slit open the big bags and then passed the 10 pound bags to me and I climbed down the ladder and stacked them up in the kitchen. Up and down 36 times, but it was good exercise for a day when I didn’t get on the treadmill, lift weights, etc.! (Dad and Mom did take several bags from me, over my protests, since it wore them out.) As I carried the bags down, I marveled at how they were just like big white bricks and thought, “Hey, you could build a sugar igloo or a fortress for a good ol’ fashioned snowball fight out of these!”…. (FYI- The attic yielded an additional surprise, another evidence of M & M’s frugality- Venetian blinds that had been stored, just in case there might be a need, after new windows had been installed years and years ago.)

When all the bags were down, we discovered that three had small holes, so I cleaned out a big storage bucket and emptied the bags in there one at a time, breaking up the sugar clods with my hands. Amazing- the sugar was still pristine after 41 years! As far as Mom and Dad were concerned, there never was any question as to whether the sugar should be thrown away. It was carried down to the fruit room and stacked on the shelves and is ready to can more fruit or preserve more raspberries in the future. And, they had a plan that reflects the generosity that has always accompanied their provident living and obedience- when the grandkids come for a visit, a bag of sugar will be shared. Of course, they insisted that we take several boxes full of bags of sugar, to be shared with our kids when they come to visit, and the rest to go into storage in our basement… hopefully, not “out of sight, out of mind,” but on much less than a 41-year rotation!

Just a short P.S. to this post. . . Merlynn Tanner- almost 93 years young! He and David are showing off their "matching shirts," after moving the sugar and then pruning. David and his Dad make a good team- Dad directs and David does the work. Both were happy with the results.