For those wondering what happened to the great Paratus Familia blog: They had a domain registration glitch last week. This prompted them to migrate to: http://www.paratusfamilia.com, where they are now back up and running. Be sure to bookmark that new URL. – JWR
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Safecastle’s big Lindon Farms sale ends on August 16. There are great discounts in this sale like 53% off a bucket of freeze dried veggies. Check them out!
It is that time of year when the garden is bursting with its bounty, and I am regularly giving thanks to our Creator for His provision and kindness in giving us a diverse and pleasurable taste and texture smorgasbord for our palates as well as the necessities of nature, mind, and body to work the land and see its fruit come forth. He created the very earth from which they came and provides the balance of nature– the appropriate amount of sun so that the plants don’t freeze or burn, have enough oxygen, and have water and nourishment from the soil. Sure, we also do a lot of work, too, but we couldn’t do it without Him, since our very beings are immensely complex organisms that He puts together so perfectly and gave us intelligence to not only plant, water, weed, and pick plants but to make tools and irrigation systems that simplify this process. What a great God to give us not only all that we need to survive but also the pleasure of a diverse and beautiful world!
With that said, one of the mainstays in our garden is tomatoes. We use fresh tomatoes for salads, sandwiches, pizza, casseroles, and more. However, tomato sauce goes in many, many of our dishes, whether as a major ingredient or as a minor one. As a result, we require literally gallons of the stuff each year, and our tomato plants are bursting with tomatoes right now! I thought my approach to long-term tomato storage might be helpful to some of you, so I am going to share it in detail here.
We grow a variety of tomatoes, though most of our tomatoes are Roma/San Marzano type, because those are the best for paste. I have grown the same heirloom plants using my own harvested seeds for at least six years now and maybe longer. (I have lost track of when I first started collecting the seeds and fermenting them in pots outside during the winter. The first year I did so thinking they would be good food for the birds during the winter, but then in the spring I was given a multitude of tomato plants, and that was the beginning of a beautiful process that has continued. I was “accidentally” blessed with learning how to produce more tomato plants than I can handle and to have to give some away each year. Rather than my “cup” overflowing, it has been my many flower pots that overflow with tiny tomato plants anxious to be transplanted where they can spread their roots and produce.) When picking tomatoes, we keep the varieties separated to make it easier to keep the seeds separate for this re-potting process. This way, I can label the pots by the types of tomato seeds going into them. Processing of each variety is done separately also. To pick, we use plastic one-gallon buckets with handles. I have found that using anything larger tends to get too much weight on the top that can crush very ripe tomatoes placed in the bottom. I believe it is better to use five one-gallon buckets than to use one five-gallon bucket for this reason. Additionally, the one-gallon buckets are small enough that they can be easily cleaned in the kitchen sink or even run through the dishwasher. They can sit in my sink filled with water to let the tomatoes soak a bit before their thorough washing.
To wash the tomatoes, I begin with soaking the bucket of tomatoes in lukewarm water. While I only use organic gardening-approved sprays and fertilizers in our garden, I do use Neem oil products to deter tomato worms and grasshoppers. (I prefer something called Neemix, but it is pricey and difficult to find. I get mine from groworganic.com. A bottle is more than enough for a growing season, even though I spray weekly.) I use it all over my garden and only lightly on the tomatoes, since the borage and marigolds usually do a great job of keeping the tomato worms away from the plants near them, but there are usually some areas of the tomato garden a bit distant from the borage and marigolds that benefit from the spray. When you spray the tomato plants, some of the spray is going to get on the tomatoes themselves, and Neem oil is bitter! We want to be sure to get it off any of the tomatoes. After soaking for at least a couple of minutes, I rinse each tomato and inspect it. That’s all that is required, since we don’t use harsh, toxic chemicals in any of our gardens.
Large, beefy tomatoes- Some large, unblemished, and well-ripened tomatoes are always kept aside for slicing on sandwiches. The others are stacked to be processed into sauce.
Small, cherry tomatoes- Some small, unblemished, and well-ripened cherry (Sweet 100) tomatoes are put in bowls for eating on the counter and for use in salads and soups. (In soups or stews, we call them “sweet bombs”. Just be careful not to serve them too hot or they will burn your mouth when you bite into them and the hot inner liquid squirts out.) The others are set aside to be included in the sauce-making process also. Though they are filled with liquid, it is very sweet and adds more sweetness to our sauce.
Medium, meaty Roma/San Marzano/plum tomatoes- Some unblemish, well-ripened San Marzano tomatoes are set aside to be diced and freeze-dried for future use in casseroles and dishes, but most are designated for sauce processing.
Those that are going to be used for sauce are stacked back in clean buckets next to the sink.
Whole tomatoes store best outside of the refrigerator at room temperature. Those that I am keeping for sandwiches or salads are placed on my counter in a corner out of direct sunlight until I am ready to cut and place a large one on sandwiches or grab a handful of cherry tomatoes for a salad or snacking.
I have had good success with freeze-drying diced tomatoes. (While I have not dehydrated them, I strongly suspect it is practical to do so at a low temperature until they are fully crisp and can be powdered. Just don’t powder them, except to test their doneness.) For long-term storage, all of the moisture must be removed! They are full of sugar and, therefore, can easily spoil if not dried and vacuum sealed properly.
I do not peel the tomatoes; I simply dice them into 1/3-inch cubes. Though I freeze dry diced tomatoes that are cut to about 1/3 inch, they shrink down to about 1/4-inch cubes but plump back up with rehydration.
I lay then in a single layer on our stainless steel freeze dryer trays and put them in our Harvest Right Freeze Dryer. Because there is so much moisture, it usually takes about 36 hours for them to completely dry. (The time varies, depending upon various factors, including condition of oil, humidity, size of tomato cubes, water content of tomatoes, et cetera.)
Then, I store the dried tomato cubes in quart size wide mouth Mason jars, using a vacuum sealing system and FoodSaver jar attachment. I always mark the lids of all of my jars using a black Sharpie permanent marker so that even in a dark situation, I can shine a dim light and read the tops of a box of the jars to find what I need without having to lift jars and look. (I recommend using a black marker, because some of the other colors fade over time or in sunlight.) In this example, I might write on the label: “Freeze-dried Diced Tomatoes 8/16”. On the labels, I always say what kind of processing was used (canned, freeze dried, dehydrated/dried), the contents (including how it is sliced/diced/crushed/ground/shredded, if pertinent), and when the contents were first processed and packaged. This helps me with rotation and to find what I need quickly. Jar lids can be reused and relabeled. To remove old permanent marker, use Goof Off and a paper towel. There is sometimes a faint shadow of the former writing, but the new writing is prominent and easy to distinguish. (I use the lids first for liquid canning and then once I have opened a canned jar of something I re-use that lid for dry vacuum storage, again and again.) As long as you are careful in how you break the lid’s seal, the lid remains in “like new” condition. To remove the lid, I simply use the dull side of a table knife and follow the threads up with the knife in a horizontal position so that as the threads raise the back of the knife up, it breaks the seal. Then the flat side of the knife does not bend the lid to enable any air to get into the jar the next time I put the contents under a vacuum. I can remove a few tablespoons of dried, diced tomatoes and re-vacuum seal the jar to keep the contents good for another five or ten years, if need be. However, it just will not last that long! We do love our tomatoes!
In Part 2, I will share my sauce-making and storage processes. Meanwhile, I hope you are harvesting some delicious tomatoes are your home, whether in bulk on the farm, in a small garden with just a few plants, or from just one or two plants on the patio. Learning to grow, process, and store tomatoes (or any fruits and vegetables) requires that we get started and work at it, and most of us continue learning, adjusting, and improving our processes as time goes by.
HJL,
The writer stated that he doesn’t typically blanch so that he doesn’t destroy the enzymes. However, acid in the stomach will do the same thing as blanching. So it really doesn’t matter whether he does or not, at least as far as “destroying” the enzymes. If he eats the food, the enzymes will naturally break down as the second step of digestion.
An enzyme is simply a type of protein, a molecule that is too big for our bodies to absorb intact. (An very simplistic example: Insulin is an enzyme. If eaten, it will break down and not be insulin anymore. If a healthy person took it as a pill, their pancreas would reassemble it as insulin. A diabetic cannot do that. That is why it is given as injections.)
What really happens when a protein is heated or exposed to acids is that the links between the amino acids are broken down. The amino acids remain intact. Once they are in our cells (I won’t detail the steps of digestion), they are assembled into whatever proteins our bodies need. So, nothing is destroyed. It’s just broken down into building blocks for reassembly. – Nurse Kim
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Hugh,
Just wanted to clarify something that M.P. touched upon but didn’t mention specifically: All commercial frozen vegetables have already been blanched. (I confirmed this with a producer, because I freeze dry them.) So there is no need to blanch them before dehydrating. – Matt R.
Manipulation: The Phony Job Recovery
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BIS Intervenes In The Gold Market To Aid Battered Gold Shorts!
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Wall St. banks ask Fed for five more years to comply with Volcker rule
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JPMorgan to Liquidate Japan Fund After ‘Significant’ Redemptions
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North American Life Insurers “Accidentally” Pile Up Massive Distressed Debt Holdings
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Some good predictions on coming crunch times: over at the great Of Two Minds Blog:
Ultimate Long Game: Autarky and Resilience. A key quote: “Those with surplus food will be the ultimate arbiters of value.”
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Bill Weld Just Compared AR-15s to “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” & Said Pistols Were Even Worse!
JWRs Comment: And he is the Libertarian Party’s Vice Presidential pick? It looks like there are NO good choices for the upcoming election. – JWR
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This is how the US military would put down an armed rebellion – J.C.
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College Professor Bans The Term “Melting Pot” For Being Racist (Sorry Schoolhouse Rock) – H.L.
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Like the plague, such measures can and do spread! Four States to Vote on Gun Control Measures in November, including one that would limit the size of magazines.
“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.” – Acts 9:1-9 (KJV)
Today is the birthday of screenwriter, director, and producer, Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) His many films spanned five decades.
Today is also the birthday is shared by sharpshooter, entertainer, and folk heroine Annie Oakley (1860–1926.)
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Today, we present another entry for Round 66 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 66 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Last night, the Dogs of Doom and I were out for our after-dinner hike when we heard what sounded like voices. But it was coming from the treetops, and soon a crow flew into sight, pursued by an angry sparrow. The crow was smarter, stronger, faster, and much bigger than the little bird, but he was being driven away because the sparrow was out-maneuvering it. I knew exactly how that crow felt!
Nine hours earlier I had been the only customer at the local copy shop, and the owner was helping me find some colored paper, when this sour-looking elderly lady walked in. She glanced over and saw my clip-art picture of a jihadist’s face on the computer screen and, well, had a total meltdown. She was visibly upset so I walked over and asked her if she wanted to talk about it, but she didn’t say a thing. I assured her that I was a retired Police administrator and that everything was on the up-and-up. That didn’t help, and she stomped out and drove off.
Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw her drive back. She sat in her driver’s seat and practiced taking pictures with her cellphone. Then she drove past the front of the store taking pictures of all the vehicles and license plates (I hadn’t parked in front of the store), and then she drove around and parked in the lot further away but where she could see the entrance door.
I pointed her out to the store owner and said what I thought her issue was. He didn’t have any problem with what I was doing and he hadn’t really noticed her, especially since she didn’t say anything, but he did think it was interesting that she was taking pictures. (And he could have been a good witness, had things gone further south.)
Finally, I was ready to leave and decided that I wouldn’t walk directly out to my pickup, so I just planned to walk along the strip mall sidewalk a ways. As soon as I stepped out I heard her engine start and she pulled up to parallel me, so I just stood behind a pillar. Game on. She pulled her car up and got out! I stepped into a pizza shop right there and she followed me in and started trying to take pictures of me from about three or four feet away. I firmly told her to stop but she was furious!
With my back to the lady I explained to the pizza cashier gal that the lady was stalking me and could I please step into their back room, and she said yes. And then I called back to the lady that I was calling 911 and she growled back, “Go ahead!” It was the only thing I ever heard her say.
Unfortunately the local police were tied up in a felony foot pursuit and were unavailable (I was hoping they’d give her a stern talking to), so I slipped out the back of the shop and took my bright yellow Hawaiian shirt off (!), leaving my black undershirt, and jogged back around the building and out to my truck and successfully ditched her. And, at my next errand, I parked my truck around back, went in and bought a different shirt! Hey, at least I a got a really nice new shirt out of the deal!
I’ve done three decades in security (military, bank, commercial) and police work. During this time, I have often been in uniform while out in publicj and never ran into something like this. But “the times, they are a changin’…” (Bob Dylan, 1964) I can’t remember a time when the people in our country were so tightly wound, so on edge, so adversarial. The politics are inflammatory, and we are awash in corruption and lying and treason.
I’d be willing to bet this little old lady is a life-long Democrat who’s going to vote for Hitlary, who hates guns and feels sorry for the poor jihadists.b I’d even bet she thought she was serving her god by standing up for the helpless Muslim refugees! (“They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.” – John 16:2 If she had any idea I was carrying a concealed weapon she’d have probably gone ape on me right there.
And just what was she taking pictures for? Well, not for her Happy Day scrapbook or to show her grandchildren the nice patriotic American “sheepdog”. She was going to share those pictures with all her uber-liberal nutcase minions, to recruit them in her righteous harassment campaign, or, maybe post the pictures of the shameful Muslim-Hater guy on social media. And for the next hour of running errands I couldn’t help but wonder if any of the people I was seeing had been recruited into being her hateful eyes and ears.
And so here’s what gives me pause: What if it had been a couple of angry Muslim males, students from the university in town? What then? What if Crazy Lady had been able to grab a handful of other elderly/liberal loons to come back to the store with her to confront me? What if someone tried to follow me home? And what would they do when I got home? Picket me? Block me in? Dump broken glass on my driveway? Harass my dogs? My wife? Honk their horns every time they drove past? It’s not so far-fetched! And what about you? Do you have bumper stickers on your vehicle (“Infidel,” “Trump,” “Don’t Tread On Me,” etc.) that could “trigger” some tightly-wound nut? How are you going to feel about them following you home? How are you going to handle it if they get in your face to take some nice close-ups while you’re in the checkout line buying ammo? Or you come out of the theater after watching “Hillary’s America,” or walk out of the weekend Gun Show with your treasures in a sack. The time to think it through is now.
Personally, I took all our bumper stickers off the vehicles long ago. Yes, there are causes I very much want to champion but not at the price of some maniac following my wife home from the store. I did think about taking Crazy Lady’s phone away from her while waiting for the Police, but touching her– or her phone in any way would have just led to an ugly struggle and an unhappy newspaper headline– “Muslim-hater Assaults Granny”. Don’t touch the crazies unless they’ve started it or its clear they’re about to start getting physical. And don’t menace them with your concealed weapon unless it’s that time. ?
If you don’t regularly carry a sidearm (and you have a CCW), now’s probably a good time to start carrying every day. Practice retaining your firearm: I would not have put it past the Angry Nutcase Lady to try to snatch my gun from behind me if she had caught a glimpse of it. It was some kind of malicious game for her. And have several force options you can use (force continuum). You can’t just shoot people for getting in your face. Know when to confront and when to evade.
If you don’t know how to tell if you’re being followed (in a car or on foot), there are good resources online you can study. Have a plan (for yourself and other family members) if riots or civil unrest closes the main roads while you’re in the store shopping or at work. Have alternate routes! Know how to get to a friend’s house from different directions if you can’t safely make it home (but don’t lead the Crazy People right to your unsuspecting friend’s house!).
And learn from my mistake, save yourself the grief of photocopying bad guy targets, its worth a few cents more to get them from Law Enforcement Targets / Action Targets (http://www.letargets.com/content/tftt-01-tactical-firearms-training-team-terrorist-target-man-rifle-bw.asp ). And they’re nicer targets! (Shipping’s kinda high, but worth it!)
As for me, I’m going to start carrying a spare shirt with me in the truck, keep my sunglasses in my pocket ready to don, and start wearing my ballcap in public to block the next lunatic with a camera! And I know it sounds silly, but for getting-away-from-mostly-harmless-nutcase-grannies something as simple as Groucho glasses might just do the trick and help you keep your cool (and sense of humor) 🙂
Crazies will be crazy, and its not going to get any better, sorry!
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”– Romans 8:35-37
Trust God. Be Prepared. We can do both.
Dear Editor:
I’ve been reading SurvivalBlog for a few weeks now, and while I admit that isn’t remotely enough time to wade through all the data present, I’m an old school (former) U.S. Marine that has long had a survialist mindset; I see one particular issue that jumps out at me.
The standard advice, for looking for a bugout location or retreat, whether inside or outside of the ‘Redoubt’ seems to be this…
1) Find a plot of 20 acres or more that is, (2) off the beaten path BUT (3) has a well established road access, (4) with a good southern exposure for solar power and growing food and (5) a small stream that either originates on the property or flows from adjacent federal land, but (6) is NOT navigable nor should the property be adjacent to a navigable river. The logic here appears to be that, since just anybody can float down the river in a canoe, they can scope out your property. I think that this logic is backwards, and this is why…
Any crisis that would result in the majority of redoubters heading for their property in the redoubt would have the effect of severely limiting modern transportation methods. We know this is true regardless of whether the trigger is a collapse due to peak oil effects, an X-class solar flare, or an EMP attack by a foreign power. Because modern transportation is dependent upon fuel, and availability of fuel is dependent upon a vast number of variables directly or indirectly affected by any number of different styles of crisis, any Redoubter who is caught more than three days walking distance from his retreat is then subject to the same forces that would create the rest of the zombies, and he is, therefore, a zombie himself. Furthermore, even if he could manage to walk to his retreat, by way of the road network without being waylaid, what should he expect to find when he arrives? Odds are as likely as not that he will arrive to find that closer zombies found his retreat just fine, and won’t care much that he holds the deed. While buying a retreat that is near a cluster of like-minded folks is certainly wise advice, it would still be wise advice if the access to that clustered community was only via the traditional waterways. While it is true that any man with a working boat can scope your retreat from your own dock, far fewer people have boats than cars, bikes or good pair of walking shoes. Therefore, choosing a retreat that is only accessible via a boat or a hard walk through wilderness improves your OPSEC by limiting the absolute number of people who have the ability to approach your retreat at all. Furthermore, the majority of available pleasure boats are power boats; and if there isn’t enough gas for a car, there won’t be enough for a boat trip against the flow of the river either.
Yet, the immediate aftermath of a crisis event is a fleeting problem; so that isn’t even the most important reason why redoubters should favor waterfront property. Owning a fertile patch of land and living completely off the land does sound romantic, and a minority of people have the skillset necessary, but the majority of us still need and will crave both community interactions as well as the ability to trade with others, in order to obtain resources not available on their own property. If all your neighbors own parcels of 20 acres or more, maintaining such social interactions and trading opportunities will require quite a bit of walking even with the best of roads. But let’s take a lesson from history here. Most of the towns in the redoubt founded prior to the invention of the automobile were settled by way of the rivers, and they engaged in local & regional trade via boat traffic on those same rivers. The ‘mackinaw’ boat was developed in this area of the country, as an oversized canoe with a flat bottom; which allowed people to transport large amounts of goods up and down the Missouri River and simply drag the boat up onto the river’s bank. In the absence of hard, paved roads; travel overland by way of either wheels or pack animal has always been difficult and fraught with risks throughout human history; while the whole of the world was explored and colonized using fragile wooden sailboats. So for the majority of human history, trade, travel, and cargo transport was over water, not land. I am of the opinion that, should we need our retreats due to a long term crisis, travel over natural bodies of water will once again become the least risky method available to the majority of mankind. We would be wise to expect this to be true again in the future.
As a reference, the following link is to a particular type of boat being designed by a person with similar views regarding the future, but a different solution. I offer it up as another viewpoint worthy of consideration. – C.
JWR Replies: Your point is valid but not particularly applicable in the Intermountain West, where most rivers are NOT navigable by anything more than kayaks or canoes for more that short distances. This is because of the mountainous terrain of the American Redoubt region. Here, most of the slow-moving navigable rivers are now closely paralleled by roads or highways. And even most of the larger rivers are interspersed by rapids that are worthy of mention in Kayaker magazine.
There are a few exceptions, most notably the vast River of No Return Wilderness of Idaho, which has just a few “inholding” (landlocked) properties that are only accessible via jet boat or via trails. This is where Sylvan Hart (aka Buckskin Bill) chose his retreat during the Great Depression. (See the book The Last Of The Mountain Men, for his fascinating story.)
There are also a handful of lakeshore properties that fit your “boat-in and trail-in only” criteria. One example is a remote house in the “boat-in-only” hamlet of Stehekin, on Lake Chelan, presently listed at our SurvivalRealty.com spinoff web site.
When traveling with (or on behalf of) consulting clients, I have also visited a few properties with dwellings that are on the far side of rivers and only accessible via boat or via cableway “travelers.” But here too, there are just a handful.
There are some ranches and even a few small towns that are easily accessible only via ONE bridge, that could conceivably be, ahem, “blocked” and well-guarded.
Lastly, there are a few inholdings that are accessible via foot trails or jeep trails only. Most of these are patented mining claims that pre-dated the establishment of the now-surrounding National Forests and hence were grandfathered. I heard from one consulting client that he made the narrow road to his micro-hydro powered inholding disappear with a bit of bulldozer work and extensive intentional tree plantings, reducing it to a foot trail only. But this was done AFTER he had modernized, remodeled, and fully stocked its cabin.
Choose your locale and neighbors wisely. – JWR
Core Retail Sales Tumble Most Since January – H.L.
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The Curious Timing of Current Events – It’s All Connected – Interview with Bix Weir
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The Real Reason Brazil Can Still Be “the Country of the Future”
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Central Banks Are Choking Productivity
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Here we go again… Stockton, California Mayor Anthony Silva arrested for lewd conduct with minors. And, almost predictably, we learn that Silva is a member of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns (now part of the “Everytown For Gun Safety” group.)
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How to Invest in Guns for Maximum Profit and Diversification: Podcast Interview with JWR
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Meet Chuño, a space worthy food that the Incas made eight centuries ago – P.B.
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DEA regularly mines Americans’ travel records to seize millions in cash – H.L. (Warning: Autoplay video on the page.)
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Why mechanical locks are still better: Hacker Unlocks ‘High Security’ Electronic Safes Without A Trace – T.Z.
“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Isaiah 1:16-17 (KJV)
This the birthday of country singer/songwriter Buck Owens (1929–2006). His songs typified what has been called “The Bakersfield Sound”.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 66 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 66 ends on September 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Whatever you decide to begin with or whenever you switch to a new item, do a small test batch first. This is a bigger deal than you might think, for a number of reasons. Let me give you a couple of personal examples where I did this step right and where I ran amuck. I have been dehydrating for years now and recently decided to add bananas to my repertoire, even though I don’t eat a lot of them; you know the think when the grid’s down and there is the need for potassium. Bananas should be pretty simple, right? Well, as I mentioned previously, I normally like to dry at the lowest temps possible and I don’t care for blanching if I don’t have to. So I went out and bought a small boat load of these and do my thing. Results? Dried at too low a temperature, they case-hardened. Additionally, they weren’t blanched and ended up with a distinct cardboard flavor. Disaster? Well not if your city is being besieged and it’s a matter of case-hardened cardboard bananas or nothing. However, to keep as a long-term storage product, not that batch; I ended up throwing them out. Here’s another example, this time executed like a pro. Oranges, which were available in five different varieties in the market I frequent, so I bought six of each kind and did a test batch. I found out the Valencias have a wonderful tart flavor and the Navels are a superb classic sweet orange, but the others were bland, I mean really bland once dried. So, I settled on the Valencia and Navel oranges. Had I bought a case of the other three and dried without testing, it would have been another train wreck story. Okay, one more example that landed right in the middle, although had it been done properly could have been another bragging piece. I aced the oranges, so I figured tangerines, being their kissing cousin, was a no-brainer and I could just duplicate my preparation and drying temps the same as the oranges. However, tangerines have much more juice, and they ended up with far less “meat” in the finished product. They were “airy”, if you will. They weren’t a bomb by any means and I didn’t throw them away but were very tart and tasty. Had I done a test batch, I would have known to cut them thicker so the end product was meatier. I don’t know if any of you remember the fried pork rinds that used to be and maybe still are sold in convenience stores, but they reminded of those; lots of flavor, but you have to shove an entire handful in your mouth to get anything to actually chew on. So do a test batch. With fruits it’s suicide not to, especially if whatever you’re working on is a favorite and you intend to put away large quantities. I’d say it’s critical. Now, whenever I dry anything new I go through the entire process of dehydrating, rehydrating, and testing before moving forward with large scale stockpiling.
This point can’t be emphasized enough and just might blow you away, especially if you’re dealing with limited storage space. Dehydrated vegetables (and some fruits) reduce anywhere from one-third to one-sixth their original mass. I do both canning and dehydrating and assure you there’s no comparison to the footprint needed to store the two. My dried goods, for example, are stored in a small two-foot by two-foot coat closet. That closet currently houses, get this, just a tad over one thousand pounds of fruits and veggies! That’s the weight after hydrating or before dehydrating, however you want to look at it. Let me say that a little differently. We’re talking about twenty-four inches square, stacked only neck-high currently with one thousand and thirty pounds of food. Beat that!
Another advantage of dried stuffs, maybe a lesser selling point but still valid nonetheless especially in say a grid-down scenario, is the ability to reseal jars once opened. Think about this closer. It’s almost like having a refrigerator that requires no electricity. With no power, obviously, all frozen storage will be toast. We all know that. But even canned goods (meat in particular or anything wet in #10 cans) would need to be eaten in their entirety once opened. Dried foods on the other hand can be resealed by simply dropping in a fresh oxygen absorber if needed, and they quickly revert back to their original storage state.
As you may have noticed, I have intentionally omitted recommending this or that type of dehydrator. Here’s why. They all just circulate dry air. It’s ankle-deep so don’t get stymied by thinking that you need top-of-the-line in order to get started. You don’t. Yes, granted, some do circulate air better than others, but unless you have the cash to go out and get the best you’re going to end up like me in the beginning, doing nothing. If you can only afford the ten or thirteen dollar units mentioned earlier in the article, get one of those; now you’re up and running. There’s no shame there. The goal is product on the shelf, right? I initially spent good money on a “primo” brand-name dehydrator, and as I said it died in less than a year and yet my second-hand unit (which doesn’t even have a name on it, seriously, and to this day I couldn’t tell you what brand I own. It came with no tags, no model number, no markings, nothing and is still in service and putting excellent quality food in storage. And be honest, when the do-do hits, will anyone, including yourself, really give a rip what the name of your dehydrator is? My unit could be an Acme Dandy Dry for all I know.
So let’s break down the specifics of what a simple example will cost and net you: You’re dirt-poor and picked up one of those units on Craigslist for whatever you could afford. You buy six half-gallon Mason jars at $2.16/each and oxygen absorbers (the 500cc packets, because you don’t have a vacuum sealer) at .30 each. For simplicity, you went to the store in my area and found the bags of mixed vegetables in the frozen section on sale, 10/$10; that’s ten real pounds. I use this example because ten pounds of these fit perfectly into one half-gallon jar. The total cost for ten pounds in the jar on the shelf is…$12.46! For a case of six, or sixty pounds…$74.76 total cost! That’s not bad. Let’s say you’re on a fixed income and after a few months you have managed to store up two cases of these frozen mixed veggies, just two…that’s 120 lbs. at a cost of only $149.52. Shoot, add a hundred pounds of fluffy basmati rice (now you’ve got 220 pounds of food stuffs in the pantry) and you’re eating for a while, and eating well. Put these veggies over your rice and garnish with soy sauce, or maybe cook up in a can of diced tomatoes with some dried onions, celery, and mushrooms thrown in, or switch it up and use a can of cream of chicken/mushroom soup as your base and toss that over rice. Shut up! Get some good seasonings in there, and that’s survival slop gone gourmet! Sit down, now we haven’t even started yet! Let’s factor in those canned meats you have on hand and get some serious creations working here! And oh yeah, you better have some good OPSEC working, because come SHTF starving people aren’t gonna sit congenially by on the sidelines if they get wind those kinds of dishes are being served up at your place! Sorry. I got a little carried away there. Back on point.
Dehydrating is that rare prepping system that doesn’t require a large investment to either start up or maintain, and the initial cost can be arguably one of the least expensive of all categories. Once you have your dryer, you’re simply picking up items while out doing your normal shopping, going home, doing a little chopping, dicing, or opening a few packages. Poof, you’re building surplus. It requires very little effort. I rarely spend more than an hour prepping anything for drying, and in the case of packaged frozen items it’s literally a matter of minutes. The learning curve is minimal– for veggies it’s almost nonexistent, and the price of produce in America today is affordable to even the poorest. Unlike canning, once you start a batch you’re not married to the process for hours on end. It does its thing while you’re out doing life and working other projects. Finally, just to give you a bigger picture of what’s possible, after only two years, I currently have enough fruits and veggies acquired to rehydrate one pound of whatever I want, every single day for three years. And there were many weeks in that two-year period where my unit was just collecting dust. It’s part-time work, and it’s that bountiful.
So whenever I pass by my dehydrator, the door is open, and there it sits empty and idle, almost inevitably I hear this little voice running through my cookie jar asking:
”So tell me again…exactly why isn’t your dehydrator running?”
Hugh,
Please be aware that if you must cancel membership that all claims must have been paid out first. They say that it takes 60 to 90 days to pay. If membership is canceled prior to payout, they do not pay.
I was left with a $1200 bill when I canceled membership. There is one obscure sentence in their booklet that supports them not paying. – M.N.
