Posted on 10/15/2016 3:14:20 PM PDT by Paved Paradise
That sounds great ! I'll bet they were excellent .
I'll bet you could add them to a pie, cheesecake, bread with fruits and nuts, or even add to a bread pudding, or a rice pudding as a surprise .
I really want an Excalibur——my Nesco doesn’t get the slices really dry, unless I run the silly thing for 2 days. After 8 or 10 hours, the apple pieces are rubbery, and only last for a week or so before getting moldy.
A guy I know says he’ll build me a solar dehydrator...when he has time. Like, never.
Stock up on bbq sauce. As Sipsey said, “The secret’s in the sauce.”
Find a brand of canned tomatoes that has the inside of the can coated. Those shouldn’t pick up the metallic taste as much.
Tuna is a very high priced item. There are only 2.5 oz of meat inside a small can.
A little indignant there?
Canned food. You won’t need water.
Save out a few seeds to plant.
Tomato seeds need a little extra help before storing for the next season. Place them in a container with water. Place it in a warm location for a few days until it starts to get scummy. Pour the contents in a tea strainer and rinse. Let them dry for a few days before storing.
Build your own solar oven on the cheap and quickly. Big cardboard box, foil and tape. I’ve used the “Cookit” with success - http://solarcooking.org/plans/
Has info on everything you need to know about solar cooking, water purification, etc. - http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Cookers_International_Network_%28Home%29
Yup , ... and get some heirloom seeds too.
A friend of mine in New Hampshire grows beans his great-grandfather grew, and keeps at least 1/3 of his harvest in his freezer in case of crop failure.
That's four generations of heritage and survival, and every time he plants, he remembers and honors his great-grandfather.
It doesn't get any better than that: honor and appreciation !
Raise cows for meat - don’t dehydrate or freeze dry them......
RE: canning...
I’ll probably try that one of these days. Both of our mothers passed last year (wife’s and mine). One of the things I “inherited” was my mom’s canning setup. A Mirro 16 qt cooker, probably 18-20 boxes of jars, boxes of lids & rings, some other stuff. Doing it that way is a lot cheaper. Heck, we’re still eating her canned green beans from the early 2000’s.
Next purchase will probably be a good dehydrator.
Good points. However, my interest was in how long I could store the canned tomato sauce we normally eat, which is cheap but good. We eat tomato recipes a lot, and it's nice to know the real shelf life. I can store a year's supply on our normal diet and just rotate through - eat the oldest month and replace it. Since the brand we eat lasts longer than a year, it's not worth paying for a more expensive brand if all I want is a single year's supply, or even up to two years.
My approach works if we have a one-year emergency, more or less, but it falls short if we have a longer crisis that starts with several years of Venezuela-style shortages. I've been planning for a crisis that would not go on forever. My preparations may be based on a bad plan if Hillary wins, given what the far left is creating in our country.
As for tuna, that was just a question of variety for our diet. I buy tuna on sale, and I wanted to know its shelf life, since I already have what seems like an unlimited supply of squirrel meat. Fish is much further from home, but I'm not storing enough tuna for even one year.
I’ve gone 2 years on store brand tuna in water.
You probably know but others might not. Test old lids because after several years, they will not seal properly and you don’t want to get sick. If a jar doesn’t seal, process it again with another lid or put it in the fridge to eat in a few days.
A MUST BUY is the Ball Blue Book https://www.amazon.com/All-Ball-Book-Canning-Preserving/dp/0848746783/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476623882&sr=8-1&keywords=ball+blue+book+of+canning+and+preserving . The rules have changed since the mid 70s so don’t rely on old info. It goes without saying get the print version, not the kindle.
The only person on the internet I’d trust for such, and even then verify with the Ball book, is Susan from https://www.youtube.com/user/imstillworkin . She does her research and explains the hows and whys.
On general cooking, a great how and why book is https://www.amazon.com/Shirley-O-Corriher-Cookwise-Hardcover/dp/B01FMVZPSS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1476624311&sr=8-4&keywords=cookwise+by+shirley+corriher
for
Thank you!
My last hitch in the Army when we went on FTX’s, we were offered C’s or LRP’s. Most of us took the C-Rats, better tasting, didn’t have to fool around trying to soak up the LRP’s, etc.
BTW, when in Vietnam, we ate C’s dating to the 40’s. Never thought anything of it.
I’d love it if someone would start making them again. But considering it’s just canned food, we could essentially put our own packages together as individual meals.
We’ve found it to be a very good investment. We have the nine-tray model, bought about five years ago; they make bigger ones, but the one we have is excellent for our purposes.
My emergency food supply consists of what we eat all the time, and I make it my self. For example, when chickens or beef roasts are on sale, I purchase 15 or 20 lbs. and pressure can it.
For the Chickens, I use quart jars. For the beef, I use pint jars. They are packed raw and with bones in, if there are bones. I only add a pinch of salt. These are superior flavor to any that I have tasted in a can. It is edible straight from the jar, but I use them to make quick casseroles, soups, or chicken and dressing. I usually get a couple of extra turkeys at Thanksgiving sales and do the same.
I do buy the Dak hams and bake them in the toaster oven, or in the big oven with roasted veggies. I also buy plenty of tuna fish, canned salmon, and clams. Once a week we open a can and make tuna or salmon salad. The clams we use for chowder. The Salmon and Tuna have longer than a year shelf life on the use by date so we got a little more than a year’s supply, and simply buy a replacement can and put it in the back of the supply shelf.
I do have several cases of number 10 cans that I got from the LDS on line store-it was cheaper there than else where. This stuff is good for 20-30 years. They used to have a starter case that had beans, flour, rice, wheat etc. One case was approx. what was needed for 1 month, so I got 3 month supply of those, then had to buy individual cases. I especially like the flour in cans, as what we get at the local grocery always has bugs. So I have enough of that to last 5 years or more.
We grow veggies in the summer, and what we don’t eat, I can, freeze or dehydrate. I have several different types of powdered milk, in cases that are good for twenty years. They are in # 10 cans, and don’t confuse them with instant milk in boxes which have a short life.
The cheapest and pretty decent tasting is Nido, made by Nestle, and which I can get at Walmart, so when one can is used, we replace it. I use it for cooking and making yogurt, but sometimes, drink it, because we are out of milk, and I don’t want to make a trip to town to get fresh.
The rice I have stored was purchased from Walmart in 10 lb. bags (100lbs total). I put those in smaller 1 or 2 lb mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and sealed closed. Then I put them in Mylar lined 5 gallon buckets with desicant.
I bought a couple of cases of oats from LDS, since I can grow oats, and wheat, I don’t keep as much of those, but rice would be hard to grow here.
I buy olive oil, coconut oil, and ghee for cooking. Sticks of butter are packed in vacuum bags in the freezer. I don’t use margarine any more. Real butter doesn’t have to be refrigerated when in use. I also have some lard, but I don’t like the “extra” ingredients that are in the lard at our local stores, so I don’t have much of that.
I still buy peanut butter, but can grow peanuts here. I plant enough each year give me a few nuts for eating and a few for planting, but I could always plant extra, and make my own.
My Ball Blue Book has recipes for soups, so that is going to be another thing to try this winter, and if I like them, then we’ll quit buying canned soup too.
We have several recipes for jerky, and I like to make that with hamburger, because it is easier to chew. I tried several things like the Mountain House stuff - didn’t like any of it. We used to do a little back packing-most of it got thrown away, and it’s expensive.
So I had to come up with some other way to stock the pantry. I have quite a few dehydrated veggies that we grew, and can make lots of things with those, and current produce we have harvested, and my canned meats.
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