Freeze Drying Digest

[WthrLady]

We've all been there.
Until I figured out a rotation and marking system for my pantry, I was throwing away more than I cared to.
As for LONG term stuff, like those 20/25 year buckets that companies put out, DH and I were just discussing how big of a scam those COULD be.
Heck a dishonest company could fill those with sand and you'd never know. OC I'm sure SOMEONE opens them early, but you're only going to get your money back if the company is still around.
You could open a bucket, even a couple years from now, like of grain or flour, and find that it was infested with weevils. Again, unless the company is still around....and if they are they can blame it on all sorts of things but themselves.
OC if you had a ton of those emergency kits for like a major world event - and they're all crap, and I know lots of people that have them by the palette load, who are you going to complain TO when you have no edible food and the zombies are eating your brain?
I'm sure most if not all of the companies are fine.
They have too much riding on their reputation, but still.

 

[Sally PB]

@WthrLady, that scenario is scary. And all too realistic...

 

[TJAnonymous]

We've all been there.
Until I figured out a rotation and marking system for my pantry, I was throwing away more than I cared to.
As for LONG term stuff, like those 20/25 year buckets that companies put out, DH and I were just discussing how big of a scam those COULD be.
Heck a dishonest company could fill those with sand and you'd never know. OC I'm sure SOMEONE opens them early, but you're only going to get your money back if the company is still around.
You could open a bucket, even a couple years from now, like of grain or flour, and find that it was infested with weevils. Again, unless the company is still around....and if they are they can blame it on all sorts of things but themselves.
OC if you had a ton of those emergency kits for like a major world event - and they're all crap, and I know lots of people that have them by the palette load, who are you going to complain TO when you have no edible food and the zombies are eating your brain?
I'm sure most if not all of the companies are fine.
They have too much riding on their reputation, but still.

Yeah, my level of trust in anything (except Jesus, of course ) has cratered to nil in the past decade. When I first started my prepper pantry, I was buying those big #10 cans of corn, green beans, syrup, etc...

Like... If you are in a post apocalypse, wth are you going to do with a giant can of corn and Ms. Butterworth? Newbie mistake. I gave all that stuff to the local church before it expired.

Now I might buy a #10 can of corn... To FD and repackage. But I'll skip the syrup...it's just liquid sugar anyway.

 

[Sally PB]

If you are in a post apocalypse, wth are you going to do with a giant can of corn and Ms. Butterworth?

Me? I'll bounce off the walls from all that sugar, then explode from the gassy effects of the corn.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Me? I'll bounce off the walls from all that sugar, then explode from the gassy effects of the corn.

Sounds like a zombie smorgasbord..

 

[TJAnonymous]

Trying my first attempt at meat... Thin breakfast pork chops. Cut off the fat which I'll feed to the dogs.

 

[WthrLady]

Large batch of spaghetti sauce with meat on the stove. Dinner for tonight, the rest is being poured, then frozen, then freeze dried.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I haven't progressed to meals yet. I'm still on the simple stuff... I started some apples, bananas, and strawberries...

Next is shredded cheese. Then chicken thighs.

 

[TJAnonymous]

2nd batch of shredded cheese is in the FD. We use a lot of cheese...

Looking over everything I've done so far, it's dawned on me that I really need a strategy on how this is going to get used or rotated.

 

[WthrLady]

I've got a tray of pudding, a tray of spaghetti sauce, and two trays of elbow noodles with spaghetti sauce, and a tray of brown rice in at the moment.
All portioned. Actually, one of the elbow trays is only 2/3rds full, and has a frozen bit of chicken and rice on it as a test. If it comes out amazingly well, I'll make a large batch and do a whole portion tray of it for camping meals.