Category: Food Storage & Cooking

Hugh – During the time that you evaluated the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer, did you happen to monitor the power consumption? As an off-grid type, voltage, amperage, power factor, and total watts per freeze dry cycle are critical to determine if my available power can support this unit. Also, the length of the full freeze dry cycle is important. Thanks – Roy G. HJL Responds: After evaluating the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer for three months, I found myself very reluctant to send it back. About the time I was mentally figuring ways to extend the evaluation, I decided it was …

Hugh, I just wanted to say what a great article LT wrote. I have been a long time “back to the earth” guy, and the last few years have had me going at breakneck speed to “fully prepare” and put even more things in place. I am an older parent of three young boys and have felt VERY pressed in the last few years to get our 20 acres in order and get some more resiliency in place for what I see as a very uncertain future. My rural upbringing, military service, outdoor education, and EMT background have given me …

HJL, Sorry to bother you, but after reading an article that you linked on Survival Blog I just can’t get this off my mind. It was the Doomsday Prepper meals article, and it said that Wayne Martin “stores canned goods in buckets of cat litter to increase the life expectancy of the product”. Is this to keep the cans from rusting as when kept in a damp basement? I can’t find any reference to that on the Internet except where the cat litter is used as a desiccant alongside of the actual food. Any comment on this would be appreciated. …

Hugh, I started “doing this” in 1979 when I took a class taught by Ron Hood through UCLA extension. Below is the best advice on food storage I’ve seen or heard, and none are paid endorsements; they’re just my opinion: A video by Wendy De Witt entitled “Sensible Food Storage”. The first 22+ minutes are on food storage; the other 35 minutes are on equipment. I believe it is the easiest, most commonsense, and cost-effective method. Also, here is the link to her free doc. Additionally, this woman has a series of ten or more videos on dehydrating that are …

Hello, In response to a recent article on expired food, I just want to say that not all foods are the same. Recently I decided to take an expired case of Chef Boyardee Meat Ravioli on a extended road trip. The case expired in 2012, which was about 2.5 years past its “use by” date. I’ve eaten these plenty of times, so the food was as palatable as could be expected. However within two hours of eating one can I developed a headache. Headaches are very rare for me, so I didn’t pay any attention. The next day after eating …

Dear Survival Blog, There’s a food storage learning curve. It’s is a long journey; my 65 years of life and 40 years of survival learning and self evaluation on products and locations has been very interesting and beneficial. Having submitted a few articles in the past on this wonderful site, I’m going to respond to food preps and storage. This is a brief account, as this is in my humble estimation is the most crucial part of all the survival categories. HJL is right on target with the canned food viewpoint in our current world situation, However the viewpoint will …

Dear Survival Blog, I have been reading your blog for several years. You have a lot of great information, and I am glad that you are putting this information out on the net. However, I have a couple of questions. I want to start my stocking up, but my family does not eat canned food. Is there an alternative to canned food? I know about MRE’s; would that be a possible solution for our food storage? What do you do when there are items listed on the list of lists that you either don’t eat or don’t have access to? …

Hugh, I have been an avid reader of SB for about five years now. It amazes me that folks with what appears to be good common sense are throwing away products they have used to start or continue their prepping activities. Most of these comments say they are tired of throwing out stuff that has gone past its expiration date. With all the long-term storage info available on this site, I cannot for the life of me understand how someone would do this. With good storage rotation practices, first-in first-out, store what you eat and eat what you store habits, …

HJL, I would like to add to the article of the “New Kind of Bucket List“. When stacking buckets I use 1/4″ thick plywood squares a little bit bigger than a 5 gal. bucket about 13″x13”, this way any size bucket can stack. It helps prevent cracking on the inner part of a llid. I also being older and having weenie upper body strength, have been sealing dry goods in smaller sizes and placing in smaller buckets. One little bucket can have a variety of 1,2, or 3 pound bags of food rather than a 40 pound of only one …