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Long term food storage.

3K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  JaXXas 
#1 ·
I want to start off by saying I have used the search feature I have been lurking around for a couple weeks. Decided to join because there is tons of great info here.

I am just getting into food storage and have a couple questions, I am going for a variety of different food. I have started with canned vegetables, meats, fruit for short term. But I am looking to get into dehydrated with either jar/mylar/02. My main question is can I use a cheaper dehydrator preferably $30-50 range? I am kind of working on a budget here. I know apples are a good fruit to start out with can anyone give some other options for beginners corn, cucumbers, carrots etc?

Also, what would be the most cost effective way for different sizes. I plan on having larger sizes i.e gallon bags in 5ga buckets. But would it be more cost effective to buy say pint size mylar bags(if they make them) or would a better route for smaller sizes be canning jars?

I am sure I will have more questions in the future, so thank you in advance!
 
#2 ·
I used a dehydrator I got for about $20 (which would be about $40 in today dollars) for 15 years of dehydrating foods. I have a fancier dehydrator now and it gives me more options. The end product is the same, however - dehydrated food. :) The key to dehydrating food for long term storage is it MUST be dehydrated to a "snap." That means when you bend it in half it snaps not folds. With foods that are too small to test that way, a piece should shatter when smacked with a small hammer or the flat side of a meat mallet.

Any less dehydrated than that and the amount of moisture in the food will allow it to spoil.

Mylar bag size - a 5 gallon bucket will hold 1 - 5 gallon mylar bag, or 4 - 1 gallon mylar bags. It seems like a tremendous amount of food in a 5 gallon bag but something to think about is that when you are using your long term storage foods you will most likely be preparing from scratch 100% of the food your family eats - no runs to the store, no purchased snacks, treats, breads, etc. Certain foods will be used a lot faster than you think about. Wheat and flour for breads, rice, oatmeal, etc.

I do store some of my food storage in 1 gallon mylar bags and some in 2 gallon mylar bags. I store a wide variety of beans and don't want 10 5-gallon mylar buckets of beans open at the same time. So, depending on the variety of bean, I store some in 1 gallon, some in 2 gallon, and some in 5 gallon bags. (Some varieties I have in a couple of the sizes.)

I use quart mylar bags that have a zipper top (to use after the food is unsealed) for some of my spices. I also use them to make some homemade premade meal mixes for individual servings. I don't store ingredients like beans, grains, dehydrated vegetables or fruit in the really small ones because when we are breaking into the mylar packaged food I'll be doing a lot of cooking. :)

Oh, beginning dehyrator friendly foods - carrots, peas, green beans, broccoli, etc. are all dehydrator friendly for learning. As you get more comfortable you will find ways to do many other fruits and vegetables. In case you don't have a ready supply of inexpensive or free fresh vegetables, here is one thing I do. From time to time my grocery store has huge sales on flash frozen vegetables. You can lay these out, still frozen, on your trays and create inexpensive dehydrated vegetables. They are already blanched and ready to dehydrate. :)

In the Farming, Gardening and Homesteading section there are many threads with advice and ideas on dehydrating. Check it out for information and ideas.

In the General Disaster Preparedness section there is much information on packaging with mylar along with water purification, and many other important topics.

Welcome to the forum! Enjoy. :)
 
#3 ·
Very informative reply! Thank you. You gave me the best idea, I have a market basket down the road they sell the frozen bags if vegetables(2lbs for $1.00-1.99 I believe). What about the frozen bags of fruit salad? I think this might be a good/cheap route when the farmers market closes down for winter soon.

I went to look at dehydrators earlier some have different heat settings so I thought I would hold off until I get some feed back. What temperature do you usually want your vegetables/fruits set for? What kind of shelf life can you expect with properly dehydrated and sealed vegetables/fruits?

These are the ones I am looking at.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nesco-Ame...479596ca7dc2&bucket_id=000&findingMethod=p13n


http://www.walmart.com/ip/Snackmast...479596ca7dc2&bucket_id=000&findingMethod=p13n
 
#4 ·
I had never thought of the bags of fruit salad. That could make some delicious treats. :)
I'll have to check them out.

With proper dehydrating and packaging, you can get 20 - 30 years out of the stored foods. The enemies of food storage are moisture, oxygen, light, and heat. Proper dehydrating takes care of the first, proper packaging with mylar and O2 absorbers takes care of the next two.

The last concern is heat. If you can store your foods at temps. below 70 degrees, it will last the optimum time, for example in a basement. I can only plan on about 10 years before I rotate my foods as I can only get my food storage area temperatures to about 74 degrees for most of the year.
 
#5 ·
I have a variety of food storage. Freeze dried, dried and canned. By far the cheapest is dried. I probably have 2-3 times as many calories stored in dried foods as I have in all others at one eighth the cost. And I dry food from my garden all the time. But given the time it takes it's (versus your income levels) it seems far cheaper to buy. I practice mostly for the learning experience. Both gardening and preserving. ymmv
 
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