Preparedness checklist?

[Allsmiles]

For anyone wondering on real world prices:
Harvest Right Medium Freeze Dryer with extra trays and mats from TruPrep was just over 3k.
Avid Armour vacuum sealer was 425 shipped. Still have a few things to get for convenience.
We lost a freezer full of food including several deer, a bunch of seafood and stuff 2 years ago. Freeze drying will eliminate the possibility of loosing everything for power failure or mechanical failure.

 

[Bear44]

For anyone wondering on real world prices:
Harvest Right Medium Freeze Dryer with extra trays and mats from TruPrep was just over 3k.
Avid Armour vacuum sealer was 425 shipped. Still have a few things to get for convenience.
We lost a freezer full of food including several deer, a bunch of seafood and stuff 2 years ago. Freeze drying will eliminate the possibility of loosing everything for power failure or mechanical failure.

Is depending on the availability of electrical power a good idea? Have you considered canning? For that cost you could have a damn near industrial canning set up.

 

[Allsmiles]

Once it processed, just need a little water, think backpacking meals. Both of the units will vacuum seal ball jars also.

 

[steviesterno]

Is depending on the availability of electrical power a good idea? Have you considered canning? For that cost you could have a damn near industrial canning set up.

yeah the cool thing with freeze dry (no pun intended) is that it doesn't need any electrical stuff after it's prepped. A lot of energy to get started but this gives you the ability to basically make your leftovers into Mountain House. lasts 25+ years and much cheaper per meal once you amortize the cost of the machine.

I looked into it before the price jumped up on the device but waited too long to pull the trigger :-/

 

[Allsmiles]

Strawberries and bananas for shorter storage. These are going to be eaten with a week so not in mylar and no O2 absorbers in bag. Toss an O2 absor er and that bag sbould be good for 3-5 years (or so i have been told). Freeze dryer and vacuum sealer are working as they should. Time to do some veggies for long term. Another good thing about this process is that you lock n the price/quality of the food today and not many years down the road. I

 

[Bear44]

Once it processed, just need a little water, think backpacking meals. Both of the units will vacuum seal ball jars also.

Yes, but if the power goes out they're done, right?

 

[Bear44]

yeah the cool thing with freeze dry (no pun intended) is that it doesn't need any electrical stuff after it's prepped. A lot of energy to get started but this gives you the ability to basically make your leftovers into Mountain House. lasts 25+ years and much cheaper per meal once you amortize the cost of the machine.

I looked into it before the price jumped up on the device but waited too long to pull the trigger :-/

Yeah, I'm thinking long term and sustainable use after the SHTF. The amount of food I have in storage for just one year for seven people is phenomenal. So much more than you realize until you really start calculating it. Once that food is secured it's very important to invest in the things needed to create and preserve food long term once things have gone bad.

Any food you have stored is finite.

 

[Allsmiles]

Once they are freeze dried, there is nothing really to hurt them. Think canned goods without the water and weight. Difference is I can make stuff that you couldn't do in a canning process. 10# of freeze dried meals are a lot of easy-to-handle food.

 

[hamburglar3]

Once they are freeze dried, there is nothing really to hurt them. Think canned goods without the water and weight. Difference is I can make stuff that you couldn't do in a canning process. 10# of freeze dried meals are a lot of easy-to-handle food.

It is also easy to mix and match to make combinations. Also when you open canned goods, they start going bad immediately if not climate controlled. Not a problem with freeze dried

 

[Bear44]

Once they are freeze dried, there is nothing really to hurt them. Think canned goods without the water and weight. Difference is I can make stuff that you couldn't do in a canning process. 10# of freeze dried meals are a lot of easy-to-handle food.

I know what freeze dried food is. I have a ton of it. Now explain how you will make more of it once the power goes out and the SHTF. The point I'm making is that once the disaster has happened you have lost this asset that you invested so much in.