Freeze-Dried or Dehydrated

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.

Continue reading » · Written on: 02-15-10 · 27 Comments »

27 Responses to “Freeze-Dried or Dehydrated”

Tim wrote:

As a Chef I carry a large supply of foods at home already. I have also used my skills to develop a long term storage plan by canning my own fruits, vegetables and precooked meals.

February 15th, 2010 at 10:30 am

Rebecca wrote:

Freeze Dried Foods are the best! I couldn’t imagine my food storage without them. I read somewhere that someone who was without power (due to an ice storm) had thought she was prepared… she had her food storage, and 8 days without power or hot water should have been no problem for their family. But what she said she would have done over is to have more “easy to prepare” meals around. It was stressful for her to have to entertain her small children and create a meal using her food storage, all without electricity or heat. So that really hit home with me. I now have more than 60% of my food storage as freeze dried meals!

February 15th, 2010 at 10:31 am

Bob Myers wrote:

You sre confincing but the outlay is a bi amount and buying in small quantities is even more expensive. I’m trying.

February 15th, 2010 at 10:38 am

Vivian Bowman wrote:

I wish that you could get the freeze dried foods in smaller cans for those who only have 1 or 2 in the family.

February 15th, 2010 at 10:52 am

Luis D Rey wrote:

So Freeze dried food is the best to have, since water seems to be the only thing needed and withing 5 minutes one will have a ready meal,
However, suppose that there in no Electricity nor a wood stove, then, what device you know or suggest to have for this kind of situation?

Yours,

Luis,

February 15th, 2010 at 11:20 am

Jan Williams wrote:

There are a lot of us empty-nesters approaching retirement, and a flood more coming, who would like pouch-size entrees for 1 or 2 packed in cans for 25+ yr shelf life instead of the much shorter shelf life of pouches. Also, why couldn’t they pack them in small square easy-open cans, like Spam or sardines? This would make for much denser storage, without a lot of wasted space like small cans. #10 cans may be fine for larger families, but they sentence us singles and couples to using them up quickly once opened.

February 15th, 2010 at 11:32 am

Eric wrote:

Luis,

Try a JetBoil. I use one backpacking because it’s light weight, compact and can boil water in a few minutes. It works really well with freeze dried food. One canister of fuel can last for a week if used sparingly.

February 15th, 2010 at 12:15 pm

Michael wrote:

Luis,

I have a small Kelly Kettle I carry in my ready bag. They have larger kettles to choose from too. I’m thinking of getting a larger one for home. The company is in Ireland, but I got mine within about a month of ordering.

https://kellykettle.com/

February 15th, 2010 at 12:47 pm

Pat B wrote:

Options for heating your food/water during a power outage:

Sterno canisters: These are relatively cheap and easy to store but it would take a while to boil small amounts of water (say 20+ minutes for a quart) and you would need to somehow suspend the pot over the canister and block wind and heat loss

Backpacking stoves: as Eric mentioned, you can use a small stove designed for backpackers to quickly boil water. However, like the Sterno canisters, they do not cook large quantities well. And you need to balance the pots on top of a relatively fragile base. Cooking for many people with this can be cumbersome and you are limited in what you can cook. I am not saying it is impossible as I camp quite a bit with an MSR Reactor or a Snow Peak Gigamax and can whip up food for four easy enough, it just would not be my first choice at home

Coleman-type camp stoves: a Coleman camping stove that uses both gasoline and Coleman fuel (otherwise referred to as white gas/fuel), has a more ready supply of fuel (your car). You can also use it with your regular pots and pans and can handle larger meals more readily.

Outdoor grill: This can work really well especially if you have a side burner that you can put a pot or pan on. However, if it is an ice or snow storm, you may not have access to it. Also, propane canisters drop pressure as they get colder.

Wood stoves: expensive to purchase and install if you do not already have one. If you do, then you are good-to-go and not likely reading this comment

As with any type of open-flame heating system, watch out for fire hazards and carbon monoxide poisoning!

Enjoy!

February 15th, 2010 at 12:50 pm

Dave B wrote:

How long does the food stay good after the can has been opened?

February 15th, 2010 at 12:56 pm

Sam wrote:

Hi – In my experience, the best heating source if the little propane cylinders coupled with the little camp stoves and single burner camp stoves. They heat fast, the cylinders last a VERY long time and they store very well for many, many years. We had a hurricane and lost power for two weeks, to conserve gasoline for the generator, we used the single burnet stoves to cook our meals. We did not use up the one new cylinder in 2 weeks. Get the “middle” sized ones, 16 ounces or so. If you watch and the big box stores, you can catch them on serious sale serveral times a year. Stock up.

February 15th, 2010 at 1:21 pm

Sam wrote:

Dave – opinion only, I have not tested it; but I can’t imagine that freeze dried food would not last at least 2 weeks after being opened.. there is basically no moisture in it; the cans have a sealing lid and are filled with nitrogen, not oxygen. Nitrogen is heavier than air, so anything taken out of a freeze dired can should not be “poured”, it should be scooped. If immediately sealed and kept in a cool, dark place; my guess would be at least 2- 4 weeks.. ( we always eat it faster, because it tastes so good. ) Think about it, how long does a box of opened cereal remain good after opened ? It is not even filled with nitrogen. As long as you fold over the bag and put it in the pantry, I think opened cereal is good for a month or so ?

February 15th, 2010 at 1:35 pm

Carrie wrote:

Great info!

My wish for a blog post in the future: How can I keep refrigerated medications cool in the summer without electricity or a generator?! Should I keep a supply of instant-cold packs and a small cooler, or is there a better solution?

February 15th, 2010 at 2:35 pm

John In The Appalachians wrote:

We have ‘lost power’ 6 times in the last five months-from several hours to 3 days. Bummer.
We too started with ‘wet canned’ food from the store. Then we started to can our own from summer’s surplus…a little work but tastes so gooood! Then we started to stock up on bulk items, but these guys are right…fuel(plus speed, comfort and convenience) is the issue when things aren’t going your way!
when our power is down no well water, no pressure system…no water. I have a supply stored but, boy do we humans use and waste a lot of water! And I hate doing dishes even when the lights are on!
Freeze dried is soooo convenient, simple, quick and tasty during emergencies when the household system isn’t working.
This is for Luis and anyone else who has the cooking problem. A foul weather kettle that heats up water in a few minutes-using leaves, twigs and chips. You could probably use dried dung!! It’s called a Foul Weather Kettle and was invented in Ireland, where they use it to make their cherished afternoon tea on construction sites, etc. Ideal for quick hot water for a bowl of something delicious from The Ready Store.
http://www.garrettwade.com/small-foul-weather-kettle/p/48C02ddd01/
I also have a propane stove, but it’s more gear and storage and what do you do when you run out of little canisters of gas? These things are so trick….really simple and elegant….using any available fuel at hand. And a #10 can of Chicken Teriyaki! I’m getting two so I can have one in the car at all times.
When are you folks going to make freeze dried stir fry?

February 15th, 2010 at 2:42 pm

Sue wrote:

I’ve opened freeze-dried foods and then used the plastic lids to cover the leftovers in the original cans. The corn and peas lasted for months and stayed dry and crunchy. The apples got damp and sticky after a week. Raspberries didn’t stay crunchy, but neither did they get as damp as the apples after a week. It seems that each freeze-dried food has its own expiration timeline after opening, and that the vegetables outlast the fruits. I live in the desert so people living in more humid areas may have to use up the leftovers faster or move them to a more air-tight container.

February 15th, 2010 at 3:53 pm

Sue wrote:

FOR VIVIAN: Some freeze-dried foods (mostly fruits) do come in the smaller cans. I’ve been buying them from Honeyville Farms. They have a few hard stores around, as well as an online store.

February 15th, 2010 at 3:56 pm

sue wrote:

I am looking for vegetarian main meals.

February 15th, 2010 at 6:21 pm

sue wrote:

I am a vegetarian and am looking for vegetarian main meals.

February 15th, 2010 at 6:23 pm

jadc69 wrote:

even with freeze dried foods you are going to need water. For those of you who are ready to jump in and just buy a years worth or even 3 months worth of food consider where the water is going to come from.. If the electricity is out for extended periods there wont be ANY water.. So Buying food is a great idea just dont fall into the trap that you are now set because you have a bunch of freeze dried food. Its a good start but its just that a start. And one other thing you might want to consider. If you have a years worth of food and dont believe in guns yu better be prepared to give it all away about month 3 because there are those that will be willing to take it from you.. Just a thought

February 15th, 2010 at 8:53 pm

William wrote:

This is for Carrie

I don’t know what your situation is but other that using ice packs your only option may be a small electric referigerator that can be powered by an inverter from a bank of batteries. Figure 4 100 amp hour batteries hooked to a 750 Watt inverter for a day’s power. The batteries can be charged from your car or with a small generator and a 40 to 100 amp battery charger. Plan on running the generator a couple of hours a day. You might be able to charge your batteries from solar panels as well.

Or you could use a gas referigerator. A gas referigerator will use about a 100 lb cylinder of propane a month.

I have a camp which is off the grid. I have used a gas referigerator for many years. Lately I have been using a small electric referigerator driven by an inverter powered from a battery bank. This summer I intended to add some more batteries to the battery bank and put up some solar panels.

Hope this helps

February 15th, 2010 at 9:17 pm

HomeSchoolMom wrote:

William-

How did you learn so much about energy storage and transfer? (the Battery info?) Do you have a book you can suggest?

February 15th, 2010 at 11:56 pm

tysmwest wrote:

Home School Mom

Go to http://survivalblog.com/ James Wesley Rawles web site.
In the archives you can search for information on batteries, solar, other power issues. This has been a hot topic with several recent informative posts.
Hope this helps.
God Bless.
Tysm

February 16th, 2010 at 4:01 am

countrygal wrote:

A wonderful website that may answer a lot of your “how to survive” questions is: http://www.survivalblog.com

February 16th, 2010 at 8:38 am

Survival Mom wrote:

For Sue: I am vegetarian also. I recently found efoodsdirect.com. They have many freeze dried entrees made with tvp instead of meat.

February 16th, 2010 at 9:57 am

Mike wrote:

If you have a vacuum sealer just put extra from #10 cans into a quart or pint jars and vacuum seal it. jars are much cheaper then the food and work for both large or small families. you can use inverter in car for power. a pint of dehydrated mixed vegies in my cast iron pot is ready to go from in front of my fireplace by the time the next meal comes around(learned from ice storm)and cost no extra energy to fix.

February 16th, 2010 at 11:23 am

Sam wrote:

1) having water : I agree that you must have a reliable source of water. If you have a well, you can simply install a self priming hand pump and even w/o power, you can get water. Without a well, you should invest in one of the hand powered water purifiers. You could use water from a ditch or river; whatever. Look around your place ( walking distance ) unless you live in a major metro area, there is most likely some natural source of water nearby. 2) food absorbing humidty: put a little pack of food grade silica gell into your opened cans. They can be bought at many places. 3) regarding keeping medication cool, William is right on; but also, I have seen solar powered small coolers / heaters. They work using a semi conductor based heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the chip to the other allowing for one compartment to stay cold ( even frozen ) and the other side to stay hot. I have seen them at auto parts stores and camping stores. They are small, but would work great for medication. JADC69 – right on target. Tell NO ONE that you have a stock of food. If we have a major disaster, effecting a major metro area or larger area; within 3 days you will see looting and attacks. When we have a hurricane warning, the stores are completely out of almost everything within 24 hours max. Imagine if there was no way to quickly resupply that store … perhaps ever..

February 16th, 2010 at 12:07 pm

William wrote:

In my previous life I used to be an Electrical Engineer. So Electrical stuff is second nature to me.

Also I have a camp that has been in the family since before I was born that is off the grid. I grew up living at summer at the camp with gas lights, stove and refrigerators. Other than flash lights the only electrical stuff we had was an AM/FM radio.

In later years (since the late 90′s) I started having a computer at camp to tinker on. First a desktop with a LCD screen and later laptops. I ran the computer off an inverter that I plugged into my pickup truck (I would normally let the truck idle so as not to run the battery flat since I am up there alone a lot.) I have also used various generators over the years. The truck is good because it is quiet but the truck uses quite a lot of gas. The generators use less gas but can be quite loud.

What I did last summer was use a small generator (1800W) to charge a couple of deep cycle batteries (110AH). I would run the generator a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours around supper time. I used an off the shelf 40A battery charger to charge the batteries. I then had an inverter connected to the batteries to make AC power.

When I was running a laptop and printer a 400W inverter provided plenty of power and one deep cycle battery would last me about a day.

Last summer my gas refrigerator died. It may be repairable but it will be $400 or $500 to repair and $1200 to $1500 to replace. Also to repair it will cost me a couple of days on the road that I could normally spend at camp. I replace the gas refrigerator with small electric refrigerator (2.7cuft). This small refrigerator is more than enough for my needs since I normally have a few eggs and a steak or two in it while I am up at camp a couple of days at a time. I had to move up to a 750W inverter to power the small refrigerator since the 400W inverter did not provide enough starting current for the refrigerator.

This summer I plan to add a couple of more deep cycle batteries so that I should be able to run the refrigerator a little more than 24 hours without starting the generator. Also I plan to add some solar panels (about 200W) to provide some power to charge the batteries and to allow me to leave the batteries at camp over the winter. I am in Maine so that the winters are both long an cold. If I left the batteries at camp all winter without charging them a couple of times during the winter they would probably run down and freeze. When they froze they would have a good chance of bursting. The solar panels will keep them charged.

Most of what I have learned about small generators and batteries has been from experence reading. Most of my knowledge about solar power has been from visiting various web sites and reading what is written there.

The cost of running the generator is not excessive. I currently use about a gallon of gasoline a day when I am at camp to run the refrigerator, computer and printer.

The small generator was about $400 and should last many years at 50 to 75 hours of operation a year. The 750W inverter was about $80 and should last 4 or 5 years (Note normally what fails in them is the fans). The batteries are about $80 each and should last 4 to 5 years (Note cycling them twice a day is quite hard on them).

I have run out of things to say at the current time and I is time to go to bed. I will check back here in a few days. You can reach me via email at “wehATexit150.com”.

Have a good day.

William

February 28th, 2010 at 7:32 pm

Tim wrote:
As a Chef I carry a large supply of foods at home already. I have also used my skills to develop a long term storage plan by canning my own fruits, vegetables and precooked meals.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Rebecca wrote:
Freeze Dried Foods are the best! I couldn’t imagine my food storage without them. I read somewhere that someone who was without power (due to an ice storm) had thought she was prepared… she had her food storage, and 8 days without power or hot water should have been no problem for their family. But what she said she would have done over is to have more “easy to prepare” meals around. It was stressful for her to have to entertain her small children and create a meal using her food storage, all without electricity or heat. So that really hit home with me. I now have more than 60% of my food storage as freeze dried meals!
February 15th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Bob Myers wrote:
You sre confincing but the outlay is a bi amount and buying in small quantities is even more expensive. I’m trying.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Vivian Bowman wrote:
I wish that you could get the freeze dried foods in smaller cans for those who only have 1 or 2 in the family.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Luis D Rey wrote:
So Freeze dried food is the best to have, since water seems to be the only thing needed and withing 5 minutes one will have a ready meal,
However, suppose that there in no Electricity nor a wood stove, then, what device you know or suggest to have for this kind of situation?

Yours,

Luis,
February 15th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Jan Williams wrote:
There are a lot of us empty-nesters approaching retirement, and a flood more coming, who would like pouch-size entrees for 1 or 2 packed in cans for 25+ yr shelf life instead of the much shorter shelf life of pouches. Also, why couldn’t they pack them in small square easy-open cans, like Spam or sardines? This would make for much denser storage, without a lot of wasted space like small cans. #10 cans may be fine for larger families, but they sentence us singles and couples to using them up quickly once opened.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Eric wrote:
Luis,

Try a JetBoil. I use one backpacking because it’s light weight, compact and can boil water in a few minutes. It works really well with freeze dried food. One canister of fuel can last for a week if used sparingly.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Michael wrote:
Luis,

I have a small Kelly Kettle I carry in my ready bag. They have larger kettles to choose from too. I’m thinking of getting a larger one for home. The company is in Ireland, but I got mine within about a month of ordering.

https://kellykettle.com/
February 15th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Pat B wrote:
Options for heating your food/water during a power outage:

Sterno canisters: These are relatively cheap and easy to store but it would take a while to boil small amounts of water (say 20+ minutes for a quart) and you would need to somehow suspend the pot over the canister and block wind and heat loss

Backpacking stoves: as Eric mentioned, you can use a small stove designed for backpackers to quickly boil water. However, like the Sterno canisters, they do not cook large quantities well. And you need to balance the pots on top of a relatively fragile base. Cooking for many people with this can be cumbersome and you are limited in what you can cook. I am not saying it is impossible as I camp quite a bit with an MSR Reactor or a Snow Peak Gigamax and can whip up food for four easy enough, it just would not be my first choice at home

Coleman-type camp stoves: a Coleman camping stove that uses both gasoline and Coleman fuel (otherwise referred to as white gas/fuel), has a more ready supply of fuel (your car). You can also use it with your regular pots and pans and can handle larger meals more readily.

Outdoor grill: This can work really well especially if you have a side burner that you can put a pot or pan on. However, if it is an ice or snow storm, you may not have access to it. Also, propane canisters drop pressure as they get colder.

Wood stoves: expensive to purchase and install if you do not already have one. If you do, then you are good-to-go and not likely reading this comment

As with any type of open-flame heating system, watch out for fire hazards and carbon monoxide poisoning!

Enjoy!
February 15th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Dave B wrote:
How long does the food stay good after the can has been opened?
February 15th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Sam wrote:
Hi – In my experience, the best heating source if the little propane cylinders coupled with the little camp stoves and single burner camp stoves. They heat fast, the cylinders last a VERY long time and they store very well for many, many years. We had a hurricane and lost power for two weeks, to conserve gasoline for the generator, we used the single burnet stoves to cook our meals. We did not use up the one new cylinder in 2 weeks. Get the “middle” sized ones, 16 ounces or so. If you watch and the big box stores, you can catch them on serious sale serveral times a year. Stock up.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Sam wrote:
Dave – opinion only, I have not tested it; but I can’t imagine that freeze dried food would not last at least 2 weeks after being opened.. there is basically no moisture in it; the cans have a sealing lid and are filled with nitrogen, not oxygen. Nitrogen is heavier than air, so anything taken out of a freeze dired can should not be “poured”, it should be scooped. If immediately sealed and kept in a cool, dark place; my guess would be at least 2- 4 weeks.. ( we always eat it faster, because it tastes so good. ) Think about it, how long does a box of opened cereal remain good after opened ? It is not even filled with nitrogen. As long as you fold over the bag and put it in the pantry, I think opened cereal is good for a month or so ?
February 15th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Carrie wrote:
Great info!

My wish for a blog post in the future: How can I keep refrigerated medications cool in the summer without electricity or a generator?! Should I keep a supply of instant-cold packs and a small cooler, or is there a better solution?
February 15th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
John In The Appalachians wrote:
We have ‘lost power’ 6 times in the last five months-from several hours to 3 days. Bummer.
We too started with ‘wet canned’ food from the store. Then we started to can our own from summer’s surplus…a little work but tastes so gooood! Then we started to stock up on bulk items, but these guys are right…fuel(plus speed, comfort and convenience) is the issue when things aren’t going your way!
when our power is down no well water, no pressure system…no water. I have a supply stored but, boy do we humans use and waste a lot of water! And I hate doing dishes even when the lights are on!
Freeze dried is soooo convenient, simple, quick and tasty during emergencies when the household system isn’t working.
This is for Luis and anyone else who has the cooking problem. A foul weather kettle that heats up water in a few minutes-using leaves, twigs and chips. You could probably use dried dung!! It’s called a Foul Weather Kettle and was invented in Ireland, where they use it to make their cherished afternoon tea on construction sites, etc. Ideal for quick hot water for a bowl of something delicious from The Ready Store.
http://www.garrettwade.com/small-foul-weather-kettle/p/48C02ddd01/
I also have a propane stove, but it’s more gear and storage and what do you do when you run out of little canisters of gas? These things are so trick….really simple and elegant….using any available fuel at hand. And a #10 can of Chicken Teriyaki! I’m getting two so I can have one in the car at all times.
When are you folks going to make freeze dried stir fry?
February 15th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Sue wrote:
I’ve opened freeze-dried foods and then used the plastic lids to cover the leftovers in the original cans. The corn and peas lasted for months and stayed dry and crunchy. The apples got damp and sticky after a week. Raspberries didn’t stay crunchy, but neither did they get as damp as the apples after a week. It seems that each freeze-dried food has its own expiration timeline after opening, and that the vegetables outlast the fruits. I live in the desert so people living in more humid areas may have to use up the leftovers faster or move them to a more air-tight container.
February 15th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Sue wrote:
FOR VIVIAN: Some freeze-dried foods (mostly fruits) do come in the smaller cans. I’ve been buying them from Honeyville Farms. They have a few hard stores around, as well as an online store.
February 15th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
sue wrote:
I am looking for vegetarian main meals.
February 15th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
sue wrote:
I am a vegetarian and am looking for vegetarian main meals.
February 15th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
jadc69 wrote:
even with freeze dried foods you are going to need water. For those of you who are ready to jump in and just buy a years worth or even 3 months worth of food consider where the water is going to come from.. If the electricity is out for extended periods there wont be ANY water.. So Buying food is a great idea just dont fall into the trap that you are now set because you have a bunch of freeze dried food. Its a good start but its just that a start. And one other thing you might want to consider. If you have a years worth of food and dont believe in guns yu better be prepared to give it all away about month 3 because there are those that will be willing to take it from you.. Just a thought
February 15th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
William wrote:
This is for Carrie

I don’t know what your situation is but other that using ice packs your only option may be a small electric referigerator that can be powered by an inverter from a bank of batteries. Figure 4 100 amp hour batteries hooked to a 750 Watt inverter for a day’s power. The batteries can be charged from your car or with a small generator and a 40 to 100 amp battery charger. Plan on running the generator a couple of hours a day. You might be able to charge your batteries from solar panels as well.

Or you could use a gas referigerator. A gas referigerator will use about a 100 lb cylinder of propane a month.

I have a camp which is off the grid. I have used a gas referigerator for many years. Lately I have been using a small electric referigerator driven by an inverter powered from a battery bank. This summer I intended to add some more batteries to the battery bank and put up some solar panels.

Hope this helps
February 15th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
HomeSchoolMom wrote:
William-

How did you learn so much about energy storage and transfer? (the Battery info?) Do you have a book you can suggest?
February 15th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
tysmwest wrote:
Home School Mom

Go to http://survivalblog.com/ James Wesley Rawles web site.
In the archives you can search for information on batteries, solar, other power issues. This has been a hot topic with several recent informative posts.
Hope this helps.
God Bless.
Tysm
February 16th, 2010 at 4:01 am
countrygal wrote:
A wonderful website that may answer a lot of your “how to survive” questions is: http://www.survivalblog.com
February 16th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Survival Mom wrote:
For Sue: I am vegetarian also. I recently found efoodsdirect.com. They have many freeze dried entrees made with tvp instead of meat.
February 16th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Mike wrote:
If you have a vacuum sealer just put extra from #10 cans into a quart or pint jars and vacuum seal it. jars are much cheaper then the food and work for both large or small families. you can use inverter in car for power. a pint of dehydrated mixed vegies in my cast iron pot is ready to go from in front of my fireplace by the time the next meal comes around(learned from ice storm)and cost no extra energy to fix.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Sam wrote:
1) having water : I agree that you must have a reliable source of water. If you have a well, you can simply install a self priming hand pump and even w/o power, you can get water. Without a well, you should invest in one of the hand powered water purifiers. You could use water from a ditch or river; whatever. Look around your place ( walking distance ) unless you live in a major metro area, there is most likely some natural source of water nearby. 2) food absorbing humidty: put a little pack of food grade silica gell into your opened cans. They can be bought at many places. 3) regarding keeping medication cool, William is right on; but also, I have seen solar powered small coolers / heaters. They work using a semi conductor based heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the chip to the other allowing for one compartment to stay cold ( even frozen ) and the other side to stay hot. I have seen them at auto parts stores and camping stores. They are small, but would work great for medication. JADC69 – right on target. Tell NO ONE that you have a stock of food. If we have a major disaster, effecting a major metro area or larger area; within 3 days you will see looting and attacks. When we have a hurricane warning, the stores are completely out of almost everything within 24 hours max. Imagine if there was no way to quickly resupply that store … perhaps ever..
February 16th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
William wrote:
In my previous life I used to be an Electrical Engineer. So Electrical stuff is second nature to me.

Also I have a camp that has been in the family since before I was born that is off the grid. I grew up living at summer at the camp with gas lights, stove and refrigerators. Other than flash lights the only electrical stuff we had was an AM/FM radio.

In later years (since the late 90′s) I started having a computer at camp to tinker on. First a desktop with a LCD screen and later laptops. I ran the computer off an inverter that I plugged into my pickup truck (I would normally let the truck idle so as not to run the battery flat since I am up there alone a lot.) I have also used various generators over the years. The truck is good because it is quiet but the truck uses quite a lot of gas. The generators use less gas but can be quite loud.

What I did last summer was use a small generator (1800W) to charge a couple of deep cycle batteries (110AH). I would run the generator a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours around supper time. I used an off the shelf 40A battery charger to charge the batteries. I then had an inverter connected to the batteries to make AC power.

When I was running a laptop and printer a 400W inverter provided plenty of power and one deep cycle battery would last me about a day.

Last summer my gas refrigerator died. It may be repairable but it will be $400 or $500 to repair and $1200 to $1500 to replace. Also to repair it will cost me a couple of days on the road that I could normally spend at camp. I replace the gas refrigerator with small electric refrigerator (2.7cuft). This small refrigerator is more than enough for my needs since I normally have a few eggs and a steak or two in it while I am up at camp a couple of days at a time. I had to move up to a 750W inverter to power the small refrigerator since the 400W inverter did not provide enough starting current for the refrigerator.

This summer I plan to add a couple of more deep cycle batteries so that I should be able to run the refrigerator a little more than 24 hours without starting the generator. Also I plan to add some solar panels (about 200W) to provide some power to charge the batteries and to allow me to leave the batteries at camp over the winter. I am in Maine so that the winters are both long an cold. If I left the batteries at camp all winter without charging them a couple of times during the winter they would probably run down and freeze. When they froze they would have a good chance of bursting. The solar panels will keep them charged.

Most of what I have learned about small generators and batteries has been from experence reading. Most of my knowledge about solar power has been from visiting various web sites and reading what is written there.

The cost of running the generator is not excessive. I currently use about a gallon of gasoline a day when I am at camp to run the refrigerator, computer and printer.

The small generator was about $400 and should last many years at 50 to 75 hours of operation a year. The 750W inverter was about $80 and should last 4 or 5 years (Note normally what fails in them is the fans). The batteries are about $80 each and should last 4 to 5 years (Note cycling them twice a day is quite hard on them).

I have run out of things to say at the current time and I is time to go to bed. I will check back here in a few days. You can reach me via email at “wehATexit150.com”.

Have a good day.

William
February 28th, 2010 at 7:32 pm

Freeze-Dried or Dehydrated

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