Got the last 140 cans of carrots for 50 cents each at Kroger

[PennyPauper]

Got started today doing green and red apples,and pears.My one girl helped place the pieces on the racks but it was more work trying to keep them feed with pieces that were not meant for the trays,but we had fun.Turned it on at 3pm so I'll see how long it takes.Tried keeping all the slices same size at around 1/8 thick.I looked for carrots but at that store I was at they were priced too high.Going to be on the lookout for deals when I hit the stores tomorrow,might have to suspend my walmart boycott for a day Really looking forward to trying some chicken and beef jerky.

[Nickelless]

Let me know how long the batch of apples takes, PP. Did you dip the apple in lemon juice first to keep it from turning brown?

I'd also be interested in knowing what kind of luck you have in keeping apples and other high-sugar foods from sticking to the trays. If you can get some food-grade mesh sheets like the ones Nesco sells, that'd be your best bet, IMO. Would the Nesco sheets fit the brand of dehydrator you have?

[PennyPauper]

Still not done,not fully crisp yet.I figure by 3pm tomorrow they will be ready.So looks like 72 hours for 4 trays.No sticking and the apples have very little browning.The apples are tasty but I really love the taste of the pears,bartlets and a red pear,yum.Was going to try raspberries and strawberries next but my 2 younger girls devoured them already.So I will do a few pineapple slices and experiment with that.Been scouring feebay for a nesco,what wattage model would you recommend?

[Nickelless]

Still not done,not fully crisp yet.I figure by 3pm tomorrow they will be ready.So looks like 72 hours for 4 trays.No sticking and the apples have very little browning.The apples are tasty but I really love the taste of the pears,bartlets and a red pear,yum.Was going to try raspberries and strawberries next but my 2 younger girls devoured them already.So I will do a few pineapple slices and experiment with that.Been scouring feebay for a nesco,what wattage model would you recommend?

I've never shopped by wattage, just by the brand. You shouldn't have to wait that long at all for stuff to dry. That's why I prefer Nesco because all of their models have fans to push the hot air through the chamber and help stuff dry very quickly. This batch of 8 pounds of frozen carrots (which I thawed before I put them in the dehydrator) took just 12 hours using two dehydrators, one 1-pound bag per tray:




Or to further put things in perspective, the total drying time on the 64 pounds (pre-dehydrated weight) of carrots in this photo would be five days, max:



That's one reason why I've been so gung-ho about Nesco since I first used one of their machines about five years ago, and the very reason why I bought 12 of their dehydrators on eBay.

[PennyPauper]

3 days is way to long for a few apple slices.I've been looking for the right ebay deal to pull the trigger on.About $45 with shipping cost included is the best I've seen so far.

[Nickelless]

I think the key is the fan. You also want the mesh sheets to keep stuff from sticking to the trays, and Nesco has those. Have you checked out Nesco.com to see what you could buy directly from the company?

[Nickelless]

3 days is way to long for a few apple slices.I've been looking for the right ebay deal to pull the trigger on.About $45 with shipping cost included is the best I've seen so far.

Actually, I decided today that I'm going to order an Excalibur next Friday when I get paid--Friday is the last day the company is offering a pretty sizable markdown on their dehydrators. I'm getting the 9-tray one for about $220. I think it has a 10-year warranty. I'll just keep my Nescos as backups. What made me decide to go ahead and get an Excalibur is that I'm down to essentially nine working dehydrators--one of the 12 had its motor shorted out by chicken grease a little over a year ago, one appears to have a dying heating unit, and one had the heating unit die today. Of course, all of the Nescos I have were used when I bought them, so they didn't come with a warranty. With the volume of food I'm trying to dehydrate, a warranty would be a very nice thing to have in case I short out another dehydrator!

[Nickelless]

By the way, PennyPauper, how long did it take for your apple slices to finally get dehydrated?

[NDFarmer]

Nickelless,

What is the self life of those carrots?

[Nickelless]

Nickelless,

What is the self life of those carrots?

Well Ron, from what I've been reading, it should be as long as other dehydrated and vacuum-sealed items, which could be as long as 30 years. I'm keeping all of my dehydrated items sealed up in a cool, dark, undisclosed location with Dick Cheney, so they should stay good indefinitely.

[NDFarmer]

I have been thinking about stocking up on some food. The prepackaged food you can buy is quite expensive but I can see with a good dehydrator and a little work doing it yourself you could save a lot of money. Do you vacuum seal the jars too?

[Nickelless]

I only vacuum-seal the mylar bags. There's going to be so little residual air in a jar once you get all of the product in it that there will be even less oxygen--air is only 21 percent oxygen, so you're talking a negligible amount. The bigger risk would be to keep opening a jar and exposing it again and again to air. If you keep the jar sealed and in a cool, dark place, everything should be fine.

FYI, for vacuum-sealing I bought a Snorkel-Vac sealer from Sorbent Systems:

http://www.sorbentsystems.com/sinbosealer.html

[Copper Catcher]

Now I know why you wanted so many carrots!!! It is because you wanted to fix Copper Penny Salad!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,c ... ad,FF.html

[Nickelless]

Hey Penny Pauper, I just realized that I hadn't seen a followup on your food dehydration. How long has it been taking you to dehydrate stuff?

[HPMBTT]

Except in small quantities to be used relatively quickly, I'm not sure about the canned foods thing, as the nutrients value tends to be rather low in canned goods, especially in canned vegetables; at least, that's my understanding anyway. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I try to go fresh or frozen whenever possible. And of course, dry storage is the best for long-term. Am definitely going to do Mylar bags here shortly. There's some good short YouTube videos on packing your 5-gallon buckets. And of course, Survivalblog has the best info/advice on on how to do dry-goods storage.

PennyPauper: Not sure if my PMs are working or not, but I sent you a PM. Let me know here if you don't receive it.

[Nickelless]

Except in small quantities to be used relatively quickly, I'm not sure about the canned foods thing, as the nutrients value tends to be rather low in canned goods, especially in canned vegetables; at least, that's my understanding anyway. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I try to go fresh or frozen whenever possible. And of course, dry storage is the best for long-term. Am definitely going to do Mylar bags here shortly. There's some good short YouTube videos on packing your 5-gallon buckets. And of course, Survivalblog has the best info/advice on on how to do dry-goods storage.

If you can find scientific studies on the (lack of) nutrients in canned goods, I'd be interested in reading them. I've come to understand the opposite, that the shelf life and nutritional content and integrity are pretty well preserved because of the canning process and the fact that canning them stops the processes that cause nutrients to degrade--namely air, heat and light. The stamped "best by" dates on most of my canned goods are at least two years out, but from what I understand (I'll see if I can find links to corroborate this) they will remain nutritious and safe to eat for much longer.

My approach with canned goods right now is that I'm eating the canned vegetables (primarily carrots, spinach and tomatoes, which are among the most nutrient-dense vegetables) as part of my daily diet while I'm buying and dehydrating much larger quantities of frozen vegetables for long-term storage in mason jars. Here's what 64 pounds of frozen carrots looks like after dehydration--it fits into 8 one-quart mason jars:



I've also been buying canned chicken and mackerel (half the price of salmon and tastes almost identical, IMO) by the case and using it regularly, first-in-first-out.


The thing that I don't think anyone should get hung up on with regard to canned goods is insisting on only fresh or organic stuff, as one lady did when I talked to her at the store after she noticed my cart full of canned tomatoes--Kroger was selling canned tomatoes for 47 cents a can, so I went to both Krogers in town and bought every single can. She said that she only buys organic fresh stuff and I replied that that was great IF it was available and could be stored long-term, because insisting on only fresh or organic is useless if the store shelves are bare after a massive run on groceries. I'd much rather follow the compromise of stocking up on the canned foods that have the most nutrition in them so that after TSHTF, at least I have food. The issue isn't whether canned goods are inferior to fresh or dehydrated, but whether any food at all will be available when we want it. With the exception of bread and dairy products (EDIT: And some fruits--I'm sitting here eating a clementine at this moment, but I've got a bunch of banana chips in my bunker, courtesy of BulkFoods.com), I'm now living off of my food storage and using the money I'm saving to buy and/or prepare more food for long-term storage. Like I told someone on another forum, I'm not trying to store up two years worth of food for one person, I'm trying to store up at least one year's worth for two people--my fiancee and me--at the very minimum. Ideally, I'd like to have enough food for four or five people for a couple years. And what I don't use by the time the food gets near its expiration dates will go to local food banks, and I don't think they'll have any qualms about accepting it.

[AGCoinHunter]

Picked up the Nesco square model (FD-80) today on Amazon for $49. Got the expansion trays x2 (Makes 4 additional shelves @ $14 for a pair). Didnt seen any non-stick liners to fit the square model though... This is going to be my first attempt at drying some bounty from the garden...

Nickelless you inspired me, now can you give me some good lines to tell the wife when she asks what the hell I was thinking?

[slickeast]

Ag, just say realcent. She will shake her head and walk out of the room.

[Nickelless]

Picked up the Nesco square model (FD-80) today on Amazon for $49. Got the expansion trays x2 (Makes 4 additional shelves @ $14 for a pair). Didnt seen any non-stick liners to fit the square model though... This is going to be my first attempt at drying some bounty from the garden...

Nickelless you inspired me, now can you give me some good lines to tell the wife when she asks what the hell I was thinking?

Tell her first of all that since fresh stuff won't stay fresh forever, you're doing what you can to seriously extend the shelf life. And if she thinks you can just go to the store and get food whenever you want and that there will never be a problem finding it, maybe you could copy and paste my original post from this thread...

http://goldismoney2.com/showthread.php? ... -inflation

and not tell her where it's from, but tell her that since grocery stores would run out of food in three days or less if something interrupted deliveries, you're doing what you can to not have to depend on grocery stores for food, at least insofar as your garden is concerned.

I've got another site I'm hoping to go live with in the next couple days, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen today as I'd originally hoped, but I'm repackaging a lot of the content on SurvivalPrep.net and am about to go live with StockingUp.net that hopefully will get your wife to see that you're doing the smart thing.

[Caridad]

how are your carrots doing?

[Nickelless]

The carrots are pretty tasty, Caridad! I'm basically living off of my food storage right now for everything except bread and dairy products, since I haven't had time to bake my own bread and I can't have a cow in my back yard. I'm still setting aside 15 percent of my paycheck every payday for food storage, but since I've got plenty of food now to live off of at the moment, I can afford to wait until I see major markdowns on items and then go on my next buying spree. The last big purchase I made was probably about two or three months ago when I noticed canned diced tomatoes on sale at Kroger for 47 cents a can. So I went to both Krogers in town and cleaned 'em out! The stamped expiration date on the cans of tomatoes is 2013, so even though I have about 300 cans of tomatoes in my bunker at the moment (and I'm keeping my eyes open for the next big sale), I don't have to hurry and eat these anytime soon.

The only other things that I've been buying every pay period have been frozen vegetables (mostly spinach and carrots) that I've been dehydrating and continuing to add to my food stash, and coffee. I'm pretty well stocked up on other things right now. My fiancee will finally be moving to town in the next couple weeks, so we're going to be trying some of the hundreds of soup recipes I've got on my computer desktop and we'll give my rice, beans, spices and dehydrated veggies a test-run.

[walt2727]

3 days is way to long for a few apple slices.I've been looking for the right ebay deal to pull the trigger on.About $45 with shipping cost included is the best I've seen so far.

Actually, I decided today that I'm going to order an Excalibur next Friday when I get paid--Friday is the last day the company is offering a pretty sizable markdown on their dehydrators. I'm getting the 9-tray one for about $220. I think it has a 10-year warranty. I'll just keep my Nescos as backups. What made me decide to go ahead and get an Excalibur is that I'm down to essentially nine working dehydrators--one of the 12 had its motor shorted out by chicken grease a little over a year ago, one appears to have a dying heating unit, and one had the heating unit die today. Of course, all of the Nescos I have were used when I bought them, so they didn't come with a warranty. With the volume of food I'm trying to dehydrate, a warranty would be a very nice thing to have in case I short out another dehydrator!

Nickelless,
just wondering if you have gotten the Excalibur and if so, how do you like it? I've been thinking about getting one for a while. Seeing what you are doing with canned/frozen makes me want to start stocking up even more than I already am.

[Nickelless]

3 days is way to long for a few apple slices.I've been looking for the right ebay deal to pull the trigger on.About $45 with shipping cost included is the best I've seen so far.

Actually, I decided today that I'm going to order an Excalibur next Friday when I get paid--Friday is the last day the company is offering a pretty sizable markdown on their dehydrators. I'm getting the 9-tray one for about $220. I think it has a 10-year warranty. I'll just keep my Nescos as backups. What made me decide to go ahead and get an Excalibur is that I'm down to essentially nine working dehydrators--one of the 12 had its motor shorted out by chicken grease a little over a year ago, one appears to have a dying heating unit, and one had the heating unit die today. Of course, all of the Nescos I have were used when I bought them, so they didn't come with a warranty. With the volume of food I'm trying to dehydrate, a warranty would be a very nice thing to have in case I short out another dehydrator!

Nickelless,
just wondering if you have gotten the Excalibur and if so, how do you like it? I've been thinking about getting one for a while. Seeing what you are doing with canned/frozen makes me want to start stocking up even more than I already am.

Nope, I haven't had a chance yet to get an Excalibur. I've had several things pop up since the beginning of the year which have eaten up all of my available cash. I've got a few other things to take care of first, but I'm hoping by summertime to have an Excalibur. In the meantime, I'm giving my 10 remaining Nescos a workout!

[Devil Soundwave]

I thought I had amassed a pretty good store of cans, so I counted them today, only to find I have only enough for one month for me and my girl on a very conservative 2 cans per day.

I don't have any more space for cans.

[Nickelless]

I thought I had amassed a pretty good store of cans, so I counted them today, only to find I have only enough for one month for me and my girl on a very conservative 2 cans per day.

I don't have any more space for cans.

Who says you only have to put cans in the pantry? You could also box them up and put them under the bed, in the coat closet or just about any other place.

Is there a better use for your space than stocking up on food? After all, everyone NEEDS closets full of stuff they never use instead of putting that space to better use, right?