Preparedness for when

vanoonoo

mardatha wrote: »

Just a general Q re storing and keeping veg. What's your preferred option ?
tinned
dehydrated
frozen
..and why?

we have primarily fresh and frozen veg with a small amount of tinned and a tiny amount of dried stuff

at the moment, it's the convenience factor which dictates the preference but I am fascinated by the dehydrator references on this thread and have started looking into getting one. husband doesnt eat much in the way of veg unless I force it on him and hide it in things but I think dried fruit could be a good thing to store for us. I reckon too, dried veg would hide a bit easier in things!

Fifer73

vanoonoo wrote: »

:T didnt realise there was one really local to me and the next meet is this coming friday so as long as this cold is gone, guess where i am heading! :A thank yooooooooooooooooooooou fantastic fifer!

Hi Vanoonoo
Hope its of some help to you :beer:
Let me know how it went if you do go

vanoonoo

defo will do! gonna try and get husband to come too as between us we might stand a chance of understanding things better! I have no clue how it all works but if my radio signal ever reaches fife I'll be sure to give you a shout out!

missrlr

Well thank you grey queen I am lucky, but I feel utterly inadequate having grown up with a uber large shed (30foot long 18 wide) and wood store, and shed and garage all crammed to the rafters with prep stuff. I console myself that there were 4 of us then and only 2 of us now. Perhaps growing up in a house with no central heating until I went to uni was a good thing! Halls were a revelation in warmth shared houses back to normality (no heating)

Now need to get a plan for more veg, and get to grips with this dehumidifier malarkey

2tonsils

Yes Shegar I saw your post about that, its sad that so many people are leaving Greece, not only the foreigners who settled here but the young Greek people as well. Many of them feel there is no hope of them ever getting a good job here. I can't say I blame them taking a chance elsewhere. There are very few benefits payable here. Unemployment benefit is really low and restricted to only a few people. Child benefit is only paid if you have 3 children or more. There are no emergency or housing benefits of any kind for anyone. My friend has been paying insurance stamps for 18 years and has now been told she will not get any pension as she will not have time to pay in the full 20 years they now ask for (it was 15 till earlier this year) so her contributions of 250 euros a month have amounted to nothing after 18 years of paying them. I feel so sorry for her and there is no method of appeal here against the decision as it was made law.

I was interested in the comments on what you store food wise. I guess we are all different in that respect. I have celiac disease so have to store gluten free flour to make things with. I also store rice, gluten free pasta, stock cubes that are gf....tinned meat, fish, fruit and other bits and pieces. Lots of spices to flavour things with and cooking things to make cakes and flat breads. I also have a large supply of dried beans and pulses and some nuts and seeds. Salt and other essentials like lots of good quality honey, olive and sesame oil. Protein powder in big sealed sacks. LOng life milk, tea, coffee and water in large quantities...and two freezers of food , some of the which is cooked and can be eaten cold once defrosted.

Interested to know what foods other people stock up on...

ginnyknit

welcome misslr, you sound well prepped and are in the perfect place here.

mar I love my dried stuff, takes up less room and cooks like fresh plus once dried doesnt cost to keep as a freezer does. Am always looking at the cost of electric now. Do like tinned for lots of things and packet mixes are a godsend ie cheese sauce, chilli and custard.

linda wondered if you are from manchester as we call them entrys too although all the 'back entrys' now are gated here and they call them 'alley gates'. I call them alligators

I have a candle obsession and check the prices everywhere I go. OH used all mine when he got ill as a nightlight due to terrible nightmares until I bought an electric one from Lidl ( I think) which is fab but the bulbs are difficult to get - note to self need bulbs this week! After some work I have found Ik*a are the cheapest and best inless you see them in the CS's.

Popperwell

TeaCake, the tealights and candles, had a bit of tidy up and found the ASDA TL's were approx £3 for 100 and the candles were purchased at Morrisons...

D&DD

Mar one of the principles I work into my food storage is flexibility for different scenarios.
When I first started mine I started with dried goods the usual stuff
Pasta,rice,sugar,salt,flours,pulses etc.
Then the spices,baking powder stuff like that it was very haphazard at first as there was so much to learn!

Eventually I settled on a 2 week menu plan and storing the stuff to make it all thats how I work at the moment when the power is on..plus I worked out how many loaves of bread we eat a week plus a cake or two plus meals and snacks and worked out how many bags of flour,sugar etc I needed to store for this for 6 months,then a year now I reckon I have enough for longer *a lot longer if you factor in a daily dose of cous cous*

Now its just a case of rotating and topping up,I usually only buy stuff when on sale as I can now afford to wait three months or so for the next one!

I have 3 freezers,one mainly meat and herbs plus a drawer for everyday veg,chest freezer for foraged and homegrown fruit and veg and the fridgefreezer is the junkfood,bread,icecream,and batch cooked stuff.

I have dehydrated fruits and vegetables too in case the freezer breaks or the power was to go out for an extended time..the dehydrater also works off my weza in case of powercuts so the freezer food can be dehydrated.

The third line of defence is tinned stuff lol its the sort of last resort for us as we don't eat a lot of tinned stuff but will if needed when its made into a meal (disguised in other words!)

ooh I almost forgot canning! Add preserving of allsorts to the list too as I bottle,pickle and jam too another source which is handy when theres no power as the bottled fruit can be eaten as tinned fruit,jam spread on a buttie etc

thriftwizard

mardatha wrote: »

Just a general Q re storing and keeping veg. What's your preferred option ?
tinned
dehydrated
frozen
..and why?

Dehydrated, for preference, though I definitely have more tinned at the moment. But my dehydrator is chugging away at this very moment, hopefully rectifying the situation!

As for why, I think there are two main reasons. One is that once dried & sealed in an airtight jar, you don't need any further energy to keep it. I don't keep a lot in the freezer as I've lost my freezer contents twice now; never mind SHTF scenarios, it only takes a mouse to nibble through the cable or something to wear out inside & your stores are a soggy mess. The second reason is the taste - it's a bit like dried herbs; drying concentrates the flavour & something that tasted quite ordinary before it was dried can taste sublime afterwards.

I'm a wee bit dubious of the stuff they use to line tins. I know that dried veg can go horribly wrong in theory, but I have a feeling that tinned food goes wrong more often, especially when the tins get banged around. That said, I buy tinned toms & baked beans by the tray, and get a new tray in as soon as we start the previous one.

I lacto-ferment veg too, usually as a Kimchi, and store it in glass jars, which are pretty much inert as long as the food isn't touching the lid. It doesn't keep indefinitely so it's more of a short-term solution to a temporary shortage, but by gosh, it's tasty!

mardatha

Wow such a lot still to learn and look into - thanks.
Up here an entry is called a close.