Food Preservation

Anyone doing this ?

I took the easy way out & just picked up a vacuum sealer. I guess that counts as food preservation ... http://www.foodsaver.com/Index.aspx

SMITTY wrote:I took the easy way out & just picked up a vacuum sealer. I guess that counts as food preservation ... http://www.foodsaver.com/Index.aspx

Those food sealers do an ok job for the short term but if you want to store anything long term you need to use the food sealer to seal Mylar bags (dry foods). I have white flour, oatmeal, pasta, sugar, and rice stored that way. My foodsaver will seal the mylar bags but not vacuum the air out so I use air eaters. Drop an air eater in the bag and you are set for 5 or even 10 years depending on the product you are storing. If you do this be aware the mice will get in them so store the bags in metal trash cans. Both the air eaters and the mylar bags can be gotten off line.

http://providentliving.org/channel/0,11 ... -1,00.html will get you started. There are several companies that sell food in bulk for food storage. http://www.dutchvalleyfoods.com/ is one of them. Costco often has a better price. While picking up stuff on sale is nice, remember the reason it's on sale is that it's old product already. You many not want to store it long term; garbage in, garbage out. Remember, store what you eat and eat what you store. Rotation is everything in food storage. One thing I do is every time I go to the store is pick up something for food storage - if I am making spaghetti for dinner one night, I pick up enough for two meals and put one in storage. If I buy a can of chicken I get two. You'll be surprised at how fast your supply will grow. Go for it, Lisa

lowfog01 wrote:

SMITTY wrote:I took the easy way out & just picked up a vacuum sealer. I guess that counts as food preservation ... http://www.foodsaver.com/Index.aspx

Those food sealers do an ok job for the short term but if you want to store anything long term you need to use the food sealer to seal Mylar bags (dry foods). I have white flour, oatmeal, pasta, sugar, and rice stored that way. My foodsaver will seal the mylar bags but not vacuum the air out so I use air eaters. Drop an air eater in the bag and you are set for 5 or even 10 years depending on the product you are storing. If you do this be aware the mice will get in them so store the bags in metal trash cans. Both the air eaters and the mylar bags can be gotten off line.

http://providentliving.org/channel/0,11 ... -1,00.html will get you started. There are several companies that sell food in bulk for food storage. http://www.dutchvalleyfoods.com/ is one of them. Costco often has a better price. While picking up stuff on sale is nice, remember the reason it's on sale is that it's old product already. You many not want to store it long term; garbage in, garbage out. Remember, store what you eat and eat what you store. Rotation is everything in food storage. One thing I do is every time I go to the store is pick up something for food storage - if I am making spaghetti for dinner one night, I pick up enough for two meals and put one in storage. If I buy a can of chicken I get two. You'll be surprised at how fast your supply will grow. Go for it, Lisa

lisa what do you cook with the canned chicken ? we do make great hot wing hoagies with them but trying to find other stuff i can make ????

RAYJAY wrote:what do you cook with the canned chicken ? we do make great hot wing hoagies with them but trying to find other stuff i can make ????

Any casserole you make out of cooked chicken can be made with canned chicken. I regularly make chicken pot pie, fried rice and something my kids call "chicken junk." Chicken junk is fast and they love it. Take 2 Ramen noodle packets, 1 can of chicken, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 can chicken broth. Fix the noodles in the chicken broth, no water, adding only one flavor packet, add in the cream of chicken soup and mix in the chicken. If needed add some water. It thickens while it cooks. It's excellent with peas and carrots added. Clean up is easy. This is great to make over a campfire. I also use my canned Chicken in a variety of soups. My family's favorite is a chicken based Tex-Mex Tortilla soup. I also store smaller mounts of turkey.

Along with the canned chicken I store chicken broth and variety of other canned ingredients; lots of tomato sauce and green chillies for flavor. These are the items I buy one of to use in my meals I've planned for that week and one to put in my food storage. Doing that will build up your supply fast but won't break the bank by doing it in one swoop. Just be sure to pay attention to the dates stamped on everything so you are rotating your stock. There are many, many websites that have food storage suggestions and recipes to make with them. Good luck, Lisa

The old man has been canning since I was a kid, used to be a family project. Mostly tomatoes he'd go pick from farmers field but now he has room for huge garden, should be interesting in the fall.

One tip I can give you especially for cauliflower. Make sure everything is thoroughly washed. If you have any dirt that's why it turns pink. AFAIK nothing wrong with it but it doesn't look very appealing.

Morning,

I saw this article this morning about the food situation in Japan. That's as good a reason to start thinking about starting a food storage program as any but hopefully, that scenario won't happen in the United States. However, there are some situations that are more likely to cause a disruption in our food supply and cause the cost of food to skyrocket. First, the cost of producing the food will only go up with the cost of gas. Food storage can help you mitigate the increased cost. It's always better to buy low rather then high. On top of that what happens if the transportation industries - truckers and trains - refuse to ship product due to the cost of fuel. They can't run if they can't make a profit. Only the government runs that way. Everyone else goes out of business. Most of our city hubs only have a few days supply of food and other products we use daily. Think about what happens with the forecast of snow. Around here the store shelves empty in hours. Would there be a real possibility of riots in the cities; who knows but the possibility exists. in I'm not trying to scare anyone but rather getting you to think about it. Doing something is always better then doing nothing. Lisa

http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011 ... ears-japan

lowfog01 wrote:Morning,

I saw this article this morning about the food situation in Japan. That's as good a reason to start thinking about starting a food storage program as any but hopefully, that scenario won't happen in the United States. However, there are some situations that are more likely to cause a disruption in our food supply and cause the cost of food to skyrocket. First, the cost of producing the food will only go up with the cost of gas. Food storage can help you mitigate the increased cost. It's always better to buy low rather then high. On top of that what happens if the transportation industries - truckers and trains - refuse to ship product due to the cost of fuel. They can't run if they can't make a profit. Only the government runs that way. Everyone else goes out of business. Most of our city hubs only have a few days supply of food and other products we use daily. Think about what happens with the forecast of snow. Around here the store shelves empty in hours. Would there be a real possibility of riots in the cities; who knows but the possibility exists. in I'm not trying to scare anyone but rather getting you to think about it. Doing something is always better then doing nothing. Lisa

http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011 ... ears-japan

we live in the country....... got the 270 and lots of bullets will never go hungry................LOL


we keep a supply of food on hand, we may can a lot of stuff this year, with all of the farms in our area it not worth it to grow a garden, plus were keep some of our money right here in the town where we live, I even buy all of my milk from a local dairy, the milk taste so much better

RAYJAY wrote: we keep a supply of food on hand, we may can a lot of stuff this year, with all of the farms in our area it not worth it to grow a garden, plus were keep some of our money right here in the town where we live, I even buy all of my milk from a local dairy, the milk taste so much better

We are going to try the farmer's market this year and freeze things after packaging them with the food saver. I started yesterday, not with the farmer's market but got a huge bag of broccoli at Costco that I split into 3 family sized portions and frozen them. The problem with our local farmer's market is the price; they charge an arm and a leg and act like they are doing you a favor. It maybe time for a day trip. I did the same thing with some Brussel sprouts. We'll see how that goes. I may have to get a new boxer freezer but I hope not since my kids are aging out of the house. It will be interesting. Lisa

lowfog01 wrote:

RAYJAY wrote: we keep a supply of food on hand, we may can a lot of stuff this year, with all of the farms in our area it not worth it to grow a garden, plus were keep some of our money right here in the town where we live, I even buy all of my milk from a local dairy, the milk taste so much better

We are going to try the farmer's market this year and freeze things after packaging them with the food saver. I started yesterday, not with the farmer's market but got a huge bag of broccoli at Costco that I split into 3 family sized portions and frozen them. The problem with our local farmer's market is the price; they charge an arm and a leg and act like they are doing you a favor. It maybe time for a day trip. I did the same thing with some Brussel sprouts. We'll see how that goes. I may have to get a new boxer freezer but I hope not since my kids are aging out of the house. It will be interesting. Lisa

Lisa you did blanch the broccoli and the Brussels??

good link on freezing

http://www.pickyourown.org/freezing_broccoli.htm

RAYJAY wrote:Lisa you did blanch the broccoli and the Brussels??

good link on freezing

http://www.pickyourown.org/freezing_broccoli.htm

Yep, I remembered from the depths of my memory that you had to. My parents always did a lot of canning and freezing stuff. Thanks for the link, I'm sure I'll be referring to it often. Lisa

Yes,any veggies that you freeze need to be blanched what do you mean,THE DEPTHS, Lisa? All of a sudden I feel real old.

freetown fred wrote:Yes,any veggies that you freeze need to be blanched what do you mean,THE DEPTHS, Lisa? All of a sudden I feel real old.

LOL we are really old ..................

RAYJAY wrote:

freetown fred wrote:Yes,any veggies that you freeze need to be blanched what do you mean,THE DEPTHS, Lisa? All of a sudden I feel real old.

LOL we are really old ..................

Sorry, it's been quite a while since I lived with my parents. So much so that it's at times it's hard to tell the facts of my memories from the fiction. Lisa

Food question..... If you were thinking of getting & keeping a supply of rice, what kind would you get & how would you store it?