I have long bought regular old salted butter from Costco and placing it in the freezer as purchased in the standard 4-quarter paper box package. Back in 2011 I had accumulated 12 cartons, and foolishly, i had allowed some of them to be past their use by date.

Now I love butter, and had a few cans of Yoder's put away for SHTF. Damn, those little cans are expensive.

Soo I decided to make my own ghee out of the standard old costco butter and can it. I started with a single pound. There's lots more canned ghee on my shelf now. No refrigeration necessary.

I tested that first batch 14 months later in 2012, and it was good. damned good. So good, I made and have stored 15 pounds of butter to date since then. That's a virtual fortune when priced in Yoders.

It's so easy a cave chick can do it :)

1) Use regular old salted butter. Place it in a non metallic pot and using low heat, bring it up to 250 degrees f. Then using a candy thermometer, hold it there at 250-260 for 10 minutes while you spoon off all the salt and froth that comes to the top. It will be a lot. skim all you can, and discard.

Next, get a bunch of mason jars and new lids. The really SMALL jars, like for jelly. 6 ounce size or so. Put them in your oven and heat them to 250 degrees, while you are preparing the butter.

When you are done skimming, (you dont have to get it all--just the worst of it) Carefully pour about 4-5 ounces of the ghee into them, wipe the jar rims well and cap tightly with new bands and lids. After the jars cool, the lids will pop in, sealing them.

Try making just one pound's worth. You will love it. Sometimes I restore the salt with a shaker when using it. Depends on the bread.

Next: Bread.

Wheat buckets are good, but wasteful and inefficient. When you open the bucket, you have a resealing problem. Plus their cost is an abomination.

You can go to your local AG farmer's Co-op and buy a 50 pound sack of seed wheat. (same stuff that is in your buckets for 2-3 times less cost). $36.80 here.

Save up all the (Triangle 1) water bottles you can. From 12 ounce water bottles to 1 gallon size. Rinse well and dry them.
Use a funnel and fill them with wheat. In the larger bottles I add an amazon oxygen absorb-er pouch, but I am not sure it's even necessary, provided your bottles are tightly capped.

Now, one only has to pick a size that is needed for the use at hand from storage. No need to reseal. A pint size water bottle makes a good sized loaf when ground and fluffed.

Finally... yeast. The 1 pound vacuum sealed yeast packages last OVER 20 years in a freezer. I promise. I know for a fact. But, you still have a reseal problem once you use some from the pack.

But, Not necessarily. What you really have is a thinking problem

When I open the package, I place it in 3 pint mason jars. Seal all three with new lids and bands, date them and place 2 back in the deep freezer.

take the third and place it in your refrigerator freezer. use it to bake with. Just take your frozen tablespoon of yeast to proof and bake with (give it 5 minutes at room temp, first)

Put your jar of yeast back in the refrig freezer till next time.

I'm good till SHTF with yeast, butter and bread. Mebbe then I will go back to sourdough, like granny did.

Cheers