Dehydrating Foods Using Solar Ovens

by Douglas Hoover

Solar ovens are easily transformed into a food dehydrator using a solar oven dehydrator kit. It is known that solar ovens cook the food instead of drying it due to the high temparatures reached in the cooking chamber. But a solar dehydrator kit controls the temperature of the oven in order to allow you to dehydrate the food and store it.

In the simplest of terms, dehydrating food is removing the moisture content from the food. This will inhibit the growth of microorganisms which are the primary contributing factor in the decaying process. So drying the food and removing the water will prolong and preserve the life of the food.

The Secrets of Basic Food Storage

The following videos are part of an informative and interesting lecture on the ins and outs food storage. The lecturer shares some very useful tips and advice on how to best create your food pantry to store and preserve your food for emergencies.

Part 1

How To Pack and Store Dry Goods

Tess Pennington shows us the different ways we can pack food for short and long term storage using mylar bags and large food grade buckets. She also demonstrates the use of oxygen absorbers, vacuum seals, and a heat seals.

The shelf life of your food can go up and beyond 20 years if you employ some of the food storage techniques outlined in this awesome video.

Food Storage Tips To Prevent Food Poisoning

Following the right tips can help you retain your food's nutritional value, while preserving its appearance, texture and flavor. Exposing foods to light, heat, moisture, and air can decrease nutrient value, and increase the risk of food poisoning.

Food Storage Is Closer Than You Think

The population in general is not prepared for an emergency. Most people do actually think that having a supply of food is a good idea but they usually live pretty much day to day or week to week as far as groceries and food are concerned. The convenience of stores and supplies makes it seem unnecessary for most people to worry about this issue. There is a small percentage of people who could say that they are truly prepared for emergencies, whether they be natural disasters or personal financial problems, but they are quite a tiny minority.

What Can You Do With Your Food Storage

Before you begin preparing your food storage, you first have to come up with well thought out plans. Wheat will do you no good if you don't have other baking items necessary to make edible food out of it. Using the information from the book Marlene's Magic with Food Storage as a general guideline, I have compiled a list of different food items you can cook depending on what items you currently have in your food storage. This should be a starting point for anyone when determining which items to begin accumulating or to see what items you should add to really enhance your meal options.

Long Term Food Storage Basics

This video will teach you the rudimentary basics of long term food storage, showing you how to use food grade buckets, mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers.

Btw, I think the girl in the video is cool because she is really interested in food storage ;)

Three Ways to Prevent Your Food from Spoiling

There are additional measures you can take that will slow down the deterioration of your stored food. You can use a combination of these methods, depending on how and what kind of food you are storing.

Oxygen Absorbers

Oxygen absorbers resemble tea bags, and are used to absorb the oxygen from the food container. They work by trapping the oxygen in a special mixture. This method -- although very new -- is very effective and safe in removing the oxygen in the container; just make sure to seal the container thoroughly after inserting the oxygen absorber inside it.

What Causes Your Stored Food to Spoil and Deteriorate

Food is vulnerable to breaking down and spoiling prematurely for a number of reasons. The following factors outlined below are some of the most commons reasons why food expires prior to its presumed shelf life.

Shelf Life of Common Food Items

Stored food will eventually lose its nutritional value as time takes its toll it, even if you are able to protect your food from the elements and creeping insects and rodents. It is important to have a good concept of what shelf life is and how you may best use this concept to your advantage. All foods have a shelf life that determines the period for which they are good to consume .

Where Should You Store Your Emergency Food?

Prior to storing your food and emergency supplies, you have to choose a location in the house that will best suit your needs. The most appropriate storage place would be a dedicated room close to the kitchen that you can use to place your emergency food supply.

Your food should be stored in a dry, cool area that is away from sunlight and remains at constant temperature. This condition is important, because, as we have already discussed, temperature fluctuations can degrade food quality and reduce its shelf life.

You should, therefore, seek the coolest location in your house, which will in most cases be the basement, and make sure that it is away from all possible heat sources. Alternative locations could be garages, preferably insulated, crawl spaces, spaces under stairways, and spare rooms. If you have no alternative but a room that contains a fair amount of moisture, be sure that it is regularly ventilated so as to avert the accumulation of moisture in that room.

What Are The Economic Advantages of Food Storage

Although the economic advantages are not readily recognizable, long-term food storage ensures your family members are well provided for during times of crisis and hardship. Storing food necessitates that we intelligently plan ahead and store items for future use. Because there is detailed planning involved, food that will be used is stored, rotated and consumed before date of expiration (freeze dried food notwithstanding). People who fail to properly plan their food storage often end up wasting their food due to poor management. Food should be protected from conditions that will cause it to deteriorate.

Storing food is more valuable to you during a crisis than having money in the bank. You never know if banking services will be available during times of crisis. Logically, it is more important to first concentrate on building your stockpile. Is the economic advantage of food storage now getting clear?

How to Plan Your Long Term Emergency Food Storage

Viewing emergency food storage as a necessary expenditure instead of an unnecessary investment will compel you to begin stocking that food right away.

The fundamental rule to begin storing food is to stock what you use, meaning spend your hard earned money on supplies you use on a day to day basis. It is best to store extra items that you and your family already consume, and to build on that -- if you so wish -- with emergency supplies (i.e., freeze dried foods, MREs, etc.) Building your food stockpile is an incremental process. Your first goal should be to build a one week food  supply, and gradually increase your food storage to your set goal -- be it a 3 months, 6 months or a year's supply of food.

Common Errors People Make in Emergency Food Storage

People interested in emergency preparation usually buy as much food as their budgets allow them. Some may choose to purchase large amount of foods such as rice, powered milk, wheat, beans, dried fruits and vegetables -- those people are also under the false assumption that they are prepared. In fact, neither group is. Planning your food storage according to a generic food chart is also not the way to go as it is not designed particularly for your family's needs. You may be mindlessly throwing away money by following the chart word for word. In addition, some of your family members may not be fond of some of the food items on the chart, and may not eat them. There is also the likelihood that you may not use any of the foods items you have stored if you regularly don't use those items during regular cooking. Subsequently, the food that you have stored in the pantry will just sit there and will not be rotated. If there is a food item that you don't use during normal times, how do you expect to use it during times of severe duress?

All You Need to Know About Food Storage Containers

Emergency food storage is increasingly becoming a hot subject. Building up an adequate long term food supply can provide a necessary food source for any type of emergency. There are a variety of types of foods used for food storage but generally they are prepared in a way that allow for long term storage. A very common type of food storage comes as a dehydrated or freeze dried food. Freeze drying the food allows it to become incredibly storable and because of the much lighter weight, incredibly portable. The actual storing container for the food can be an important concept. Space becomes an issue when you're looking at storing survival food for an extended period of time. There are two main types of food storage containers for emergency food that I would recommend; square or round plastic buckets. Some food storage vendors package their food in traditional round metal containers but these generally don't provide the space saving or stack-ability feature that allows you to store a lot of food in a small amount of space, generally in the space of a washer and dryer. Let's look at both food storage container options:

Where should you store emergency survival food?

Survival Foods come in a great number of sorts. The most familiar selections are dehydrated food, freeze dried meals, MRE's (Meals Ready To Eat) and emergency food ration bars.

The favourable news is that these foods taste better than ever and then you have got a good deal of choices (e.g., it's possible to eat up a gourmet meal of spaghetti with meat sauce, a side of beans or broccoli and blueberry cheesecake for dessert - all from freeze dried meals).

Each variety of emergency food has its own rewards and flaws. And now it's up to you what food you end up picking to buy. Where should you be storing survival foods?

Ten Steps For Beginning Your Emergency Food Supply

Assembling your food storage can feel like a difficult chore. What do you stock? How much of it? How the heck do you utilize wheat? Where do you purchase these items? And how do you save it all? All of these questions come to mind when you seek to start out. We have split up the process up into ten elementary baby steps which will hopefully cause the task feel less overriding.

How to begin: Put together Disaster Kits (including 72 hour kit food kits) for your whole family, have an Emergency Plan in place , includes the accessories your computer is backed up, and prepare your space to guarantee you have a open, clean storage area .

Survival Gear For Beginners - Long Term Survival Food Strategy - Part 1

By Locke Dauch

There are several things to consider when preparing your survival gear and supplies. Generally it is a good idea to have both a short term and long term strategy in regard to survival preparedness.

Keep in mind that a preparedness strategy needs to be customized to meet you and your family's individual needs, in terms of disaster planning, there is no such thing as a one size fits all plan. We will touch on some basic questions you may want to consider when planning and creating a survival kit.

In regards to a plan you will want to cover all the bases. This means you will want to think about both short term and long term strategies.

Emergency Foods Preparedness with Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods

In looking back at the lives of my parents and grandparents, I remember seeing a lifestyle of food cellars where they stocked up and stored food in case of an emergency, or to get them through a hard winter Though that tradition was slowly vanishing for many years, it is now being renewed more than ever, due to all the environmental & economic challenges we are seeing around usIn looking back at the lives of my parents and grandparents, I remember seeing a lifestyle of food cellars where they stocked up and stored food in case of an emergency, or to get them through a hard winter. Though that tradition was slowly vanishing for many years, it is now being renewed more than ever, due to all the environmental & economic challenges we are seeing around us. In light of recent earthquakes, severe snow storms, power outages, floods, etc., many thousands of people are now storing freeze dried foods and water, because it is so important to be prepared for any emergency.

Freeze Dried Food Versus MRE

By Kevin Taylor

There are a lot of people looking at survival food and supplies for the first time due to concerns about an economic depression.

At first you can see MRE as a good choice as it is totally ready to eat. MRE or meals ready to eat are the type of food rations the military uses.

There are two general types of MRE out there; military and commercial. The military version is for the military and it prohibited from re-sale to consumers. You can find military MRE on eBay. Commercial MRE comes from the same food companies that produce the military MRE except that it has been branded as for consumer use. Some of the contents are different and MRE enthusiasts generally prefer military MRE however commercial MRE has sufficient calories so that your daily requirement RDA can be met with 2 meals.