I think you can eat and can sweet corn but hard or dent corn which you can store in buckets requires lime to release the nutrients. You could probably make cornmeal but I don’t think it provides what you need.
I guess I need to look into corn some more. It is one of the few items I didn’t store to begin with - probably because it wasn’t on any of the lists I consulted either - for whatever reason. I recently added some cornmeal, since I saw it prepacked on Honeyville and Emergency Essentials and realized I would really miss it!
How do you use the lime in processing your corn?
As a culinary professional, I call BS.
Lime is used to make hominy, and masa harina de maize. And is required for those only.
Straight grinding of maize makes corn meal, just like you buy in the store. That's for people. I don't grind it so fine if it's for pigs or dogs, and some relatives.
I live this stuff. I don't just read. I'm planting corn again this year so I can make my fresh masa for tamales and tortillas, since I have a well used tortilladora and comal. And I'll grind a bunch for cornmeal, for polenta, cornbread, &ct...
/johnny
Sweet corn can also be blanched and dehydrated. If you buy the large bags of frozen corn you can pour that corn straight into the dehydrator, as you can with all frozen veggies. They are blanched, which preserves the color and nutrition content. I have also blanched and dehydrated potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, celery and other veggies.
Fruit can be dehydrated, but is best if an acid (lemon juice or Fruit Fresh) is used to prevent oxidation. I have dehydrated tons of apples, bananas, peaches plums, grapes become raisens, etc.
The benefits of dehydrating are that it takes perishable food, and makes it into a long term storage item that doesn’t require refrigeration . It takes the water out of food that, was once heavy, and becomes very light. It takes bulky food and makes it compact. A 20 lb bag of potatoes if peeled and diced will fit into a gallon size ziplock Baggie once dehydrated, with a little room left over or more.
Meats can be made into Jerkey.
In a SHTF scenario, it is best to use up the contents of your fridge first. However if you have a solar dehydrator, and the power goes out and it looks like it might not come back on any time soon, if you have a solar dehydrator, you could save much of your refrigerated food by dehydrating. The foods you can’t dehydrate could be eaten first.