By The Ready Store

What is a READYpack? These 6-can collections are a great way to test out new products while still getting the bulk savings!

READYpacks are collections of 6-can food storage items that are typically bundled with like items. So for example, the Gourmet Vegetable READYpack includes 1 can of Diced Broccoli Florets, 2 cans of Potato Chunks, 1 can of Zucchini Slices, Cauliflower Pearls and Asparagus.

If you were to purchase all of these items separately, you’d pay a little more than $116. However, if you purchased them together in the READYpack, you’d save $11!

We have a wide variety of READYpacks including collections of fruits, vegetables, just-add-water meals, meats, dairy products, breakfasts and more!

You can typically save 8 – 10 percent when purchasing READYpacks instead of cans individually.

Take a look at some of our selection of READYpacks here.

If you have any questions, please let us know! We’ll try and answer the question as quickly as possible!

By The Ready Store

Dehydrating can be a very fun activity and save you space and money! While dehydrating isn’t an exact science, there are a few tips and tricks that you can use to dehydrate your food in the best way possible.

Take a look at our list and add your tips too! Comment below to tell us your tips and tricks!

General

1. Dehydrating foods can result in a loss of some nutrients, although the foods will still be nutritious. Vitamin C is most commonly destroyed by heat.
2. The fiber content of fruits usually remains the same after dehydration. Take this into consideration when choosing what to preserve.
3. Humid air can slow down the dehydration process.
4. Dehydrated fruits and vegetables are lower in fat than regular produce. However, their calories are higher per serving because of their density. For example, you would receive the same amount of calories from 1 cup of fresh apples and ½ cup of dehydrated apples.

Preparation

1. When dehydrating food, you should always start with fresh, good quality food. Bruised and old foods don’t tend to yield good results.
2. You can dip your apples in a bath of lemon juice and cold water. This will keep the apples from discoloring when dehydrating. You can also dip fruits in orange or pineapple juice.
3. Although it’s not necessary every time, blanching or dipping your food before dehydration can prevent against bacteria.
4. Try and slice all of your foods to the same size. This will help all the food dehydrate at the same rate.
5. Cook potatoes before dehydrating. If not, they will turn black in the dehydrator. You can also put potatoes in the fridge the night before dehydration to make it easier to peel, cut or shred them.
6. Steam low-acid foods before you dehydrate them. These include things like beets, corn, peas, beans, broccoli, pumpkins, etc.
7. You can ask your butcher to slice your beef for dehydration. They will usually cut it to ¼-inch thick.

Dehydrating

1. Try to dehydrate the food as quickly as possible. The higher the temperature the better. However, if you make the temperature too high, the food will become hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Be aware of the temperature at which you are dehydrating and be sure to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines.
2. Many fruits and can be pureed or blended beforehand to be made into fruit strips or rolls. Instead of adding sugar to the mix, add honey or corn syrup.

After

1. Be sure to cool all the food before you store it.
2. Store the dehydrated food in airtight containers or plastic bags to keep out moisture.
3. It’s recommended that you freeze your dehydrated meat. Many times, dehydrated meats can still go rancid.

Just for fun

1. You can dehydrate tomato sauce from a jar! It will look similiar to a fruit roll-up. They can then be easily rehydrated with water! It’s a great way to bring sauces on camping trips without having to pack in heavy, bulky jars!

Summary
We’ve also created this awesome cheat sheet that you can use. You can also print off the PDF and keep it with your dehydrator for reference.

You can also print this cheatsheet off to keep with your dehydrator. Click here. (PDF)

*Please note that these numbers do not apply to our American Harvest Snackmaster Express. With the Snackmaster, you can dehydrate food faster and easier.

So, what tips and tricks do you have? Comment below!

By The Ready Store

You might have noticed while shopping for food storage that you have come across cans of meat TVP and others without the TVP distinction. For example, Saratoga Farms offers a Freeze-dried Ground Beef but they also offer a Beef Crumble TVP. What’s the difference?

What is TVP?
TVP stands for Textured Vegetable Protein. Basically, TVP is high-fiber, high-protein meat substitute. It’s made from soy flour after the soybean oil has been extracted. It is cooked under pressure and dried. You might have also seen TVP being called Textured Soy Flour (TSF).

Another major difference is that TVP is dehydrated instead of freeze-dried. So, when you prepare the TVP you will need to cook it for a bit before it’s ready to eat.

Uses of TVP
You’re probably more familiar with TVP than you realize. TVP is used on a wide scale at restaurants and in public schools. The TVP is rehydrated and has a great shelf-life, so many companies use it for the benefit of storage and shipping.

You’ve probably seen TVP on pizza toppings, as bacon bits, in sloppy joes and more!

Benefits of TVP
TVP is more affordable. Since cuts of meat can be pretty expensive, this is a great substitute that doesn’t lack for taste. You get the similar taste for less price.

It’s easy to prepare. All you have to do is add water to the TVP, simmer it for a few minutes and it’s ready to use in your family’s favorite recipes. You can also substitute it in meals by just adding a bit more water and letting it simmer for a few minutes longer.

Substitute for diets. TVP is a great substitute for vegetarians or people on a Kosher diet.

Would you rather have meat?
Higher level of protein. While TVP is a great substitute for protein, if you compare a cup of TVP to a cup of meat, the regular freeze-dried meat will have more protein in it.

Less sodium. Since salt and other flavoring is added to the TVP to make it taste good, more often than not they have higher sodium levels.

Less soy. TVP will have higher soy levels than meat. If you are on a low-soy diet or want to avoid soy, meats will be a better choice.

Calories can be one of the most important aspects of a food storage meal. It is important to find a food storage supply that is balanced and provides enough calories in case of an emergency. EverydayHealth.com states:

As a general rule, people need a minimum of 1,200 calories daily to stay healthy. People who have a strenuous fitness routine or perform many daily activities need more calories. If you have reduced your calorie intake below 1,200 calories a day, you could be hurting your body …

“Consuming less than 1,200 calories per day may make it difficult to meet vitamin and mineral needs via food,” says nutrition therapist Andrea Spivack, MA, RD, LDN, with Penn Behavioral Health at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. (Read the original article.)

Typically, the first outward sign of undernutrition is a drop in body fat, according to Medline Plus, a service of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. In serious cases, bones protrude, cheeks appear hollow, hair falls out and skin becomes inelastic and thin.

Other symptoms of undernutrition include loss of appetite, irritability, unresponsiveness, fatigue and an inability to stay warm. Patients will find it hard to complete everyday tasks due to weakness. More serious complications can also occur, depending on the severity of the calorie deficiency. (Read the original article at LiveStrong.com)

By The Ready Store

Many times, we get asked how someone can effectively compare food storage supply kits from one company to another. We’ve collected a few tips that you can use but also collected some tips that food storage companies use to try and trick people when comparing food storage supply kits.

Take a look and let us know what you think. Please comment below and tell us how you compare food storage supply kits.

What to look for when comparing food storage supply kits

Calories per day
One of the best ways to compare food storage is by comparing how many calories you’ll be able to consume each day. The average person needs between 1,300 and 2,400 calories per day to maintain health. Children usually need between 1,000 – 2,000 calories per day.

If a company doesn’t advertise how many calories are in their food storage supply kits, it’s probably because it’s not very flattering. We have seen a variety of companies that sell kits with calorie counts as low as 500 calories per day! That’s the equivalent of eating a single Big Mac from McDonalds for your one meal a day!

Variety
Other companies will try and stuff their kits with filler calories like sugary drink mixes or crackers in order to bump up the calorie count. Be sure that you get a variety of foods in your kit so it will be worth eating when the time comes. Some products on the market only come with 10 meals. Imagine eating just those 10 meals over the course of a year – that would get old pretty quickly.

Dehydrated vs Freeze-dried
Many times, companies will compare a kit of dehydrated foods with a kit full of freeze-dried items. This is a little misleading.

Dehydrated items typically have a shelf-life of 10 – 20 years and they typically require some a longer cooking time (increased fuel requirements too).

Freeze-dried foods typically have a longer shelf-life of 20 – 30 years and require less cooking and fuel. Some are great eating them just straight from the can like our fruits and veggies.

Don’t be fooled when a company claims a better price when they’re really comparing apples and oranges.

The Ready Store offers dehydrated kits, freeze-dried kits, or mixes of both.

Food sources
Most companies are hesitant to share where their food is grown. Be sure that your food is coming from a reputable place and that the company isn’t cutting corners by purchasing food from cut-rate growers from locations of the world with bad track records of safety and quality.

Food packaging
Your food storage will typically come in three different types of packaging: Mylar pouches, #10 cans, or buckets.

Mylar bags. Most meals inside of a mylar bag pouch will last 7 – 15 years. Companies that state that their pouches have a shelf-life of 25 years are making claims without hard evidence or they are expecting you to store them in constant 50 degree temperatures which is not realistic.

#10 cans. Food inside of #10 cans will typically have a shelf-life of 10 – 30 years depending on whether the food is dehydrated or freeze-dried. Make sure that your cans are sealed correctly. Read our post about what to look for with #10 can sealings.

Buckets. When purchasing a bucket of food storage, your best option is to have the food come inside of an air-tight bucket with a Mylar bag inside that bucket.

Oxygen absorbers. It’s important to have an oxygen absorber inside of your bag or can. Make sure that the absorber is high quality and will help preserve your food. Some companies advertise that they will flush the food with nitrogen before they package it. An oxygen absorber will work better.

What the nitrogen flushing companies aren’t telling you is that they include an oxygen absorber because in the end that is what works best. Companies, like Oregon Freeze Dry – parent company of Mountain House, that have been in the business for almost ½ a century, have dropped nitrogen flushing altogether for 02 absorbers because they get the job done.

Shipping & additional costs
While many companies have comparable prices, don’t forget about the shipping costs. They need to be added into your overall purchase price. Some companies require tax to be paid on all orders. With The Ready Store, only customers from the Beehive State are required to pay sales tax.

What NOT to look for when comparing food storage

While there are many things that you should look for in a food storage supply kit, there are also many things you don’t need to worry yourself about. Here are a few examples:

Number of cans
The number of cans in a food storage kit can be misleading. How much do they fill each can? What are the cans full of?

If you’re getting as much nutrition and food out of less cans, then you’re not losing anything.

Saratoga Farms fills their cans and buckets, on average, 20-30 percent more than other competitor’s brands. This saves you precious storage space.

Servings
A lot of companies that skimp on the amount of food in their kits will typically highlight their serving count instead (like we mentioned above). Even when you’re comparing serving counts, be careful. Some servings vary by size (1 cup vs ⅓ cup) or preparation (dry serving vs prepared serving).

Weight of the kit
Freeze-dried foods weigh considerably less than dehydrated foods. A kit that has a lot of dehydrated foods will weigh more but have a shorter shelf-life.

More than anything, supply kit weight should only be considered when determining shipping costs. However, not all companies charge by weight.

What questions do you  have?
We try really hard to provide you with a quality product that you and your family will enjoy. We also want to help you understand your purchase and be as transparent as possible. If you have any questions, please let us know and we’ll try and answer it!

We also want to know your tips! Share below what things you have found helpful when comparing food storage supply kits.

I looked through some of our older blog posts from years gone past and realized that we should recycle some of them as many newer visitors will have never come across the information, so without further ado here is an oldie but goody!

Oats are an incredibly versatile and valuable whole grain like wheat, barley, rye, and corn. Like all whole grains, oats have three major parts:

• BRAN: a protective outer covering which is a mostly inedible but rich in fiber which the seed used to nourish itself until it germinates and sprouts. Most oatmeal purchased in stores have the bran removed
• ENDOSPERM: the largest portion of the seed the provides the energy the germ needs to grow and sprout and gives the grain its starchy texture. The oat endosperm contains no gluten but is grown and processed parallel with other grains to such an extent gluten may be present in the final product.
• GERM: a small nutrient packed portion of the grain that is essentially the baby plant which will germinates and sprout.

Continue reading…

The term “food storage” is used rather loosely in the emergency preparedness industry. Depending on who is sharing the information it can mean anything from a pail of beans to the canned food in your pantry. In this blog we’ll briefly outline the  different types of food storage and make you aware of their pros and cons.

Food in your pantry

This is the starting point for your food storage. Depending on your family size, having enough food to last you at least two weeks in your pantry is one of the most cost effective ways to have food stored. I came from a large family, so we had a large room where we stored many weeks worth of food. It worked great for the family because my mom rarely had to run to the grocery store in a hurry. She would use our storage room as her grocery store and then restock that when she went shopping. I strongly recommend having a well stocked pantry with food that you are eating and will eat.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

• Make sure you buy food that you’ll eat – I see people make the mistake of buying canned food at a case lot sale, but it is food they never want to eat. So even though the food was a great price, the food just sat in their pantry.
• Shelf life – This brings me to my next point of the shelf life of wet packed canned from you local grocery. The best rule of thumb is that your canned food will last at least 2 years. A lot of canned food will last much longer than that, maybe even up to 5 years. Foods that are high in acid content such as tomatoes and fruits will be closer to the 2 year range. If the canned food is past the expiration date, you should carefully inspect the food (the sniff test) and then make your best determination whether it is still safe to eat.

Once your pantry is stocked and you feel comfortable there, you need to consider more long term food storage products. These fall into three main categories:

1. Dry bulk food items

2. Dehydrated foods

3. Freeze-dried foods

Dry bulk food items

The items in this category include wheat, beans, rice, rolled oats, sugar and other staples. They are typically bulk packed in either cans or buckets. These items can be good to have around, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Preparation - It is difficult to turn these dry bulk food items items into something edible. If you are going to store food in this way, then you have to go all the way. You will need wheat grinders, lots of fuel (to cook these items into something edible) and additional ingredients to make the food usable. Just the fuel alone will be difficult to store and in the quantities you will need. So just remember, you have to go all in with this approach or you won’t be able to use it when you need it.

• Shelf life – Most of these items will store for a very long time. If stored properly, the wheat, beans, rice and oats will store for many, many years and probably many decades.

• Taste and Nutrition – These dry bulk storage foods typically will give you excellent nutrition. As for taste, that depends on what you can make out them. A pot of beans, doesn’t taste that great without some other ingredients added to it.

Dehydrated Food

This type of shelf stable food is processed using high heat. The high temperatures remove the moisture from the food which gives allows for the extended shelf life. The two things that really affect shelf life are moisture and oxygen. Here are few things to consider with dehydrated food:

• Shelf life – because of how the food is processed, the shelf life for most dehydrated items is 5-10 years. A few items might be a couple years longer and a few items might be a couple years shorter (such as dairy). So all that being said, dehydrated food is on the shorter end of the spectrum for long term shelf life.

• Taste and nutrition – again, because of how the food is processed using high heat, it actually damages the food and removes nutritional value as well as flavor. You will find with dehydrated food that it just won’t taste quite as good (sometimes it will taste awful!) and the food will look a little off.

• Preparation – most dehydrated food requires that you add and cook it. This requires fuel and a stove to be able to do so. It is easy to prepare, but it does take time. For example, dehydrated soup mixes will require cooking for up to 30 minutes. Over time that will use a lot of fuel.

Freeze-dried food

Freeze-dried food uses a unique process to make the food shelf stable. Rather than using high heat, it uses low heat in a vacuum chamber to slowly remove the moisture from the food. Because of how it is processed, the food retains nearly 100% of the natural nutrients, enzymes and taste. Freeze-dried food is my choice for long term food storage because it is the best in all three categories. Here are a few things to consider with freeze-dried food:

• Shelf life – freeze-dried food will give you the longest shelf life. You will get at least 25 years and more than likely much longer. I have heard of 40 year old freeze-dried food being tested and it has lost very little taste or nutritional value.

• Taste and Nutrition – This is another outstanding quality of freeze-dried food. It tastes like fresh food. The entrees, fruits and vegetables taste fresh and not processed. The flavor isn’t muted or dull. It will also retain the same texture, color and look of the fresh food. Because it is processed in low heat, the food retains 99% of all the fresh vitamins, nutrients and enzymes of the fresh food. This food tastes so good that I eat it regularly for my lunches and I know many other people that do the same.

• Preparation – again, another exceptional quality of freeze-dried food is how easy the preparation is. This food is designed for just add water simplicity. All you have to do is add hot water, stir and wait about 5 minutes and you have a meal. Because of that, your fuel costs are very low and you don’t have to spend valuable time in the preparation.

Remember with food storage that the most important thing is to start. But, I want to make sure you are spending your hard earned money on a product that you will use and will last.