Who is this PrepLady person?

My name is Becky Goodrich.  In 2006, I got tired of hearing the prophets tell us to be prepared.  I had worked on the committee to provide $25 disaster kits to each family in our ward, but I had not gotten any long-term food storage in my home.  So I bit the bullet and took the money out of savings to buy wheat, cornmeal, oats, pasta, rice, beans, dry milk, oil, sugar, etc.  I had those white, 5-gallon buckets stacked all over my house:  up to the ceiling in the office; on their sides under beds; in the back of closets; down in the cold basement; underneath tablecloths as night stands!  But I had gotten food into my home.  That was the easy part.

Then I needed to know what to do with everything I had purchased.  I had a mentor in my ward who taught me to make 4 loaves of wheat bread in 1.5 hours.  I had made white bread on a Montana ranch during my high school years, but hadn’t touched it since.  So I got to learn all over again.  Once I had bread under my belt, I moved on to the other items the LDS.org website told me to buy.  I started with beans, which I knew something about from the ranch, and moved on, finding recipes from the thousands available that tasted good, worked in high altitudes and didn’t break the bank to make.  

I allowed myself to fail again and again on these recipes, which is really hard for an OCD perfectionist to do!  But I knew that, once I got it right, not only would I know how to make things, but they would be edible in an emergency.  My family were my guinea pigs, so much so that now they ask what class I'm doing when something new shows up on the dining table!

I didn’t just try recipes--people do that everyday.  I also did my research on each of the food items.  I wanted to know what I was dealing with, so I compiled information from my parents, neighbors, the internet and books about where the food came from, how it was processed, its nutritional value.  When a piece of information was the same from multiple sources, I considered it gospel.  I wrote all those notes down and thought maybe other people would be interested in knowing what I had found out.

So I started teaching classes in my home for free to anyone who would listen.  I figured we didn't ALL have to reinvent the wheel.  I had already done the hard part in finding the information and testing all these recipes; why not let everyone benefit from that?  So I began with Beans 101 in January, Oats/Corn 201 in February, Rice/Potatoes in March, Non-bread Wheat in April, 1.5 hour Bread making in May and Water Storage in June (when everyone is spring cleaning their garages).  I wanted people to taste how good the food could be and see how easy it was now that the testing stage was over.

We tasted black bean brownies; pinto bean bread, cake and fudge; bean Orange Julius; our own oatmeal packets better than Quaker; scrapple; corn waffles; British flapjacks; rice cakes; potato cakes; Spanish tortilla; English scones; German pancakes; our own sweetened condensed milk for Key Lime cheesecake; dry milk meatballs; SOS mix for sauces and soups; and a WHOLE bunch of other, yummy items.

We have learned how to grind beans into flour and use that for gluten free food.  We've learned how to use gelatin when we don't have eggs.  We know the protein count of the different grains.  We found out how powdered eggs taste and which powdered milk tastes the best.  We learned how to extend our ground meat with cracked wheat.  We've used butane stoves to cook these items.  We've discussed how to get our kids (and husbands!) to eat these items.

We've learned which containers NOT to use for water or food storage. We know now what documents we'll need in an emergency and how to make a family evacuation plan.  We've made household inventories for emergency and insurance use as well as ID cards for each person to put in their disaster kits.  We know how to shelter in place, seal off a room and maintain sanitary conditions in an emergency.

I have modified that schedule to add gluten-free items, including bread, to the oats/corn class.  I added Dry Milk in March and put rice/potatoes with the wheat presentation.  I summarized before, during and after emergency information from multiple websites into a book that I sell for the printing price only.  I teach my disaster/first aid kit, water storage and food storage presentations all over the valley to religious, civic and county organizations.  I do all this for free because I don't want anyone to miss out on good information just because of money.

It's important to me that I have done all I can do to inform, motivate and assist others in preparing their families for the eventual emergency.  It hurts my heart to think of moms and dads telling their kids they don't know where to find food or how to stay warm when an emergency hits.  Not if there's anything I can do about it.

Becky Goodrich, The PrepLady
preplady911@gmail.com and preplady.blogspot.com