Dehydration

So I guess I didn't take a picture of my corn... but I've done peas, corn, broccoli, carrots and today, mushrooms. So cool!! The carrots, that is a pound of frozen crinkle cut carrots, reduced to that amount in the jar. LOL!

My mom came to visit and has been showing me about dehydration from a YouTube video that a lady at dehydrate2store.com puts out there. She's amazing! I need to link her! Anyway, I was so impressed with how much I can store now without taking up so much space! My mom got me a yummy book called Dinner Is In the Jar, and it has cool recipes that are just about dumping from a jar or mylar bag and then adding water and maybe a meat or canned tomatoes or something, and that's it. It's cool for a delicious meal prepped fast.

So I will take pictures of the jars I make with my meals in them. My friend, Jen, inspired this as well, only she goes to those places you prepare a month of meals at a time and then store them in the freezer. These meals don't have to be stored in the freezer, and can last probably 20 years! I'm very excited!

Also, I'm anxious to expand my food storage. I went to help out at the Bishop's Storehouse and I bought some oxygen absorbers and before I left the guy working asked if I had my year supply of food. I said I was working on it, told them about the dehydration, etc. He said with the price of gas going up, that prices at the cannery were going to keep going up as well. (And they try so hard to NOT increase the prices until they absolutely have to). He was saying it is like the parable of the 10 Virgins. The 5 who were wise, had their food storage. The 5 who were foolish, waited until last minute, went out to start doing it, and the prices had gone up and so they couldn't afford to do their storage, therefore didn't have it. I thought it was interesting.

I also read an article about how an earthquake can displace water in wells (etc.) throughout the rest of the world and how in 1992 there was an earthquake in the states that ended up drying up local wells within 3 months. I'm totally butchering this quote, and I am looking for the link and it isn't up on the main USGS.gov site right now, but I could dig. Anyway, it spooked me because I don't want to have some earthquake in Alaska make it so I can't have drinking water here because it shifted it out of our wells/pipes/reservoirs, etc. So I am trying to get more bottled water stored for a just in case thing.

Oh and then Kev and I have been watching the show The Philanthropist on Hulu. It was only 8 episodes and got cancelled but it opened my eyes about ethical international business, and conditions around the world. The last one was about Haiti and it said that kids were eating cookies made of dirt/sand/oil/and salt... and I just thought, ack! (And the people were in huge lines for just a bowl of rice to feed them for that day and they usually wait in line for 3-4 hours) So I want to do what I can so that my family doesn't have to rely on government hand-outs if ever there was a problem. Now, obviously, like with the tornadoes that have happened lately, if my home got destroyed, well, at least I knew I was doing my best. But if something happened to where the government couldn't get help here and I was stuck in my home, I would be happy I had stuff on hand. Or I could help out neighbors or whatever. Anyway, I just want to be part of the solution, not the problem, as I got quoted from my parents, who are doing their CERT training. (Which I just signed Kev and I up to do, which starts in September).

But yes, the dehydration stuff... I looked into the diff of freeze dried vs. dehydration, and it says that freeze dried foods have better taste, but still weighs a little more than dehydrated. And freeze dried is more expensive, and you can't do it at home. My veggies are going to end up in soups and sauces and things that will be taking on additional flavors, so I am not too concerned if my foods don't have a super strong flavor, as long as we get the roughage and vitamins, I'm okay with it. :) But I've already had some meals my mom made as dinners in a jar (just had one tonight) and it turned out yummy! And she used dehydrated carrots and things in hers. The veggies come out beautifully colorful when hydrated again. So to me, the fact that I can do this at home, that it is literally just taking foods like peas out of the freezer and onto the dehydrator tray and then drying them about 10 hours and then putting them in a jar with an oxygen absorber, and viola, I have veggies for the next 20+ years, I'm very happy with that. So thanks for buying a new dehydrator mom, so I could have your old one. Ha!