Storing food for an emergency or natural disaster is very different from
just making a shopping list and going to the grocery store. Emergency
food supplies have to be able to last for weeks, months or even years
without spoiling or requiring power to keep them cold or reheat them.
One of the most important things to look for in emergency food supplies
is food that has been dehydrated, not fresh or traditionally packaged
foods since those will spoil very quickly.
Dehydrated food has had all the liquid in the food dried up. This makes
the food last much longer since the liquid is what traditionally leads
to spoiled food. It also means the food will be very easy to prepare -
mix with water and serve. No stove, oven, microwave, pots, pans or
cooking skills required.
Generally food is dehydrated through evaporation - placing the food in a
high-heat environment to evaporate the liquid. This will stop the
growth of yeast, bacteria and mold in the food to ensure the food has a
long shelf life, sometimes up to 30 years as with the Essential Food
Supply. Professionally dehydrated food has the longest shelf life, since
the food is prepared and packaged using industry standards and
professional equipment.
It is possible to dehydrate food at home, but many people may be
surprised at how long the process takes with no guarantee on the shelf
life. Building up an emergency food supply also requires a lot of food,
anywhere from a short-term, three day supply to the Starter Food Supply,
which will last one adult for three months to the Harvest 10 Pack Food
Supply, which will last 10 adults for one year. The shelf life on these
products is 30 years, so buying more than one package can ensure a
person and their family has enough food to last for years in the event
of an emergency.
Dehydrated food is usually a better long-term option for food storage
than freeze-dried food because it has a longer shelf life. Freeze dried
food is good to have in an emergency supply, but people need to be
careful to mark the expiration dates on the packages so they do not
consume spoiled food in the future. There is a greater variety of food
that can be dehydrated as well, from vegetables to fruit to meat, and
some of these foods can even be eaten without re-hydrating them for
convenience or snack foods on the go.
Even food that has been dehydrated and properly stored is vulnerable to
accidents. Extreme temperatures or sun exposure can lead to food
containers cracking and letting in bacteria or bugs that will spoil the
food. It is vital that the food containers be of the highest quality
like the 6 gallon buckets in the Ultimate Harvester package, and they be
stored in a cool and dark place. Dehydrated food does need water for
most food to be prepared, so people should make sure there is enough
water stored for drinking, cleaning and food preparation. How much water does it take to rehydrate food?
Depending
on what you are cooking and the serving size of what you are cooking,
this will determine exactly how much water you will need to rehydrate
the food in question. Typically for every cup of TVP, otherwise known
as Textured Vegetable Protein, you will want one cup of boiling water.
In some cases, you can add a bouillon cube into the boiling water to
give the meat a little bit of an extra flavor. Some recipes say that
you can place vegetables in with the TVP and bouillon cube to that all
of the flavors will blend together, making the perfect mix for an
excellent meal.
Some people might be asking about what will happen if too much water is
added to the TVP. As most people know, when water boils, it starts to
evaporate. So a portion of this water will be evaporated, and the other
portion will make the TVP moist and delicious to the point where it
will practically fall apart on the plate or be easy to chew and digest
in your system.
TVP is great for people who like to spend a lot of time outdoors.
People for example, who like to go camping, and hiking. It is easy to
store, light weight, and does not take up much space in a hiker's
backpack. You can easily take a bottle or two of water with you on your
hike or camping adventure and just boil it over a campfire or on a
burner in your RV if that is an option that is available to you. You
can put in enough water to make it the consistency for sloppy joe's, or
taco's, it really depends on how much time you have, and what you are in
the mood for.
Depending on the situation, you could easily carry with you a half
gallon jug of water so that you will have it handy when you need it.
You never know what might happen and you will be thankful that you have
thought ahead and prepared yourself for any situation. It is better to
plan for long term sometimes, than it is for a short term situation. If
you should happen to run out of bottled water and there is a stream or
something near by where you are camping or hiking, you could easily boil
this water and have everything that you need right at your fingertips.
SHIPPING TIMESUPDATE! Most items ship same day when ordered by 1:00 pm EST otherwise within 24-72 hours
We appreciate your business!
FREE with any Food Supply Unit:
"Cooking with Home Storage" A fascinating cookbook with over 550 recipes, written for those people who look at all these cans of food and say, "What do I do with all this stuff!!" Written by Peggy Layton - 278 pages.
FREE with every purchase:
"How to Prepare For Any Disaster" a 46 page guidebook. Already distributed over 100,000 times around the world.
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