You might not be getting a reply because the question isn't relating to solar. If you were wondering about the best pressure cooker to use with an off grid solar system, you might get better results ?
I don't have canning advice but if you can stop by "tractor supply" they carry a fancy dehydrator (freez dryer?). It's between 2 to 3 k USD but it's similar to your topic of making food long lasting.I'm getting into canning and could use some advice. Will mostly be veggies such as potatoes, carrots, onions and tomatoes. But also beef, and stews.
What pressure cooker do you use? Tasty recipes?
Kind of doubt any "tractor supply" in Sweden! LOL. but regular dehydrators are widely available.I don't have canning advice but if you can stop by "tractor supply" they carry a fancy dehydrator (freez dryer?). It's between 2 to 3 k USD but it's similar to your topic of making food long lasting.
I don't have canning advice but if you can stop by "tractor supply" they carry a fancy dehydrator (freez dryer?). It's between 2 to 3 k USD but it's similar to your topic of making food long lasting.
I've been watching freeze drying YouTube video's, and REALLY like the technology. Seriously considering it.Kind of doubt any "tractor supply" in Sweden! LOL. but regular dehydrators are widely available.
But we have been eyeing up a Havest Right Freeze Dryer for our place, pricy thou.
Yeah, you're right about that, lots of get rich quick YT vids on these, but the serious ones are out there if you look a bit deeper.I've been watching freeze drying YouTube video's, and REALLY like the technology. Seriously considering it.
If you go to watch videos, scan past all the ones trying to make money on freeze dried candy and look for the serious preppers .... Some are doing a very scientific approach to tracking weight loss so they know how much water to rehydrate.
We made some freezer jellies (i.e. not shelf stable because we didn't properly can them) with wild scuppernongs from the property. They're basically wild muscadines/grapes that are regional in the US. Delicious, like grape jelly you'd buy in a store, but with a little extra flavor unique to scuppernongs.Tasty recipes?
I've been watching freeze drying YouTube video's, and REALLY like the technology. Seriously considering it.
If you go to watch videos, scan past all the ones trying to make money on freeze dried candy and look for the serious preppers .... Some are doing a very scientific approach to tracking weight loss so they know how much water to rehydrate.
I have my first batch of pressure canned meat whittled down to only 547 pounds/pints of meat after eating on it for several years. Had over a thousand jars initially, turns out we don't eat as much meat as we thought we would.
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We use an All American pressure canner. Fits 16 pint jars in it, or I think 8 quart jars. We can use it to "water bath" acidic vegetables but we haven't done any of that yet. So far, we've just used it to can meat and ghee.
Eating three year old jars of meat that we keep in a storage area that stays about 40-50F year round and is dark. So far no issues with the meat.
I would recommend if you get any of the fancier digital units that you research to make sure it's certified for canning meat. Some of those don't actually heat enough to get the meat up to the required temperature in the middle, so may not work.
In the spring we'll be moving our jars to our root cellar on the homestead where we keep our freeze dried food. I know the machines are expensive, but if you want to build a stash of food that will last a long time, they're amazing. We have three of them and they run around the clock. We have about ten years of food for the wife and me stored up between the FD'd food, canned meat, and 5 gallon buckets of dry goods.
If you are trying to future proof from food inflation I'd recommend storing dried goods (beans, rice, pasta, wheat berries, etc) because you can save a ton of calories quickly and affordably over a weekend. All it takes is some oxygen absorbers, mylar bags, and buckets. And you can store it wherever, it can freeze without issue. Pressure canning takes some hours to do though and you have to store it somewhere where it won't freeze. Freeze drying take a long time but it's the best. The end product is more nutritious than pressure canning, WAY lighter and easier to store a lot in a small place, and it can freeze without issue and generally lasts for 25 years (unless you're freeze drying something with fat content, then apparently the shelf life is closer to five years).
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I've looked the All American canners and they look like they are the best. I don't want anything fancy, but I'm willing to pay extra for something that lasts.
The way you describe freeze drying makes me really wanna try it. Will study some more and try to find a good but not too expensive unit.
What kind of food can you freeze dry? Is there something that doesn't work so well?
You can freeze dry most anything with the exception of chocolate, butter, honey, jellies, mayo, peanut butter, or anything high in fat (bacon).
Most everything else can be freeze dried. All your vegetables, fruit, meat (so long as you trim the fat), eggs, coffee, even milk. Meat should be thin cut and fat should be trimmed. Pasta and rice also although you'd only want to do that for ready to eat meals that have those ingredients since those can be dry stored.
This guy does a great job showing what can be freeze dried.
If the money for the machines is an issue, I'd recommend buy a brand new one (or multiple if you're trying to build a stash quick) and run them non-stop for a year (so you'll need a deep freezer to store the food and have it ready). The pumps may well fail around the one year point (in my experience) and the warranty should allow you to get new pumps. Then I would sell the units with brand new replaced pumps.
We have had to replace at least five pumps over the last several years with our units, but maybe that's because we got the oil-free versions. People who use the oil pumps seem to have less issues.
I saw the food writing on the wall a few years ago so that's why we went all in building a stash. We've now got a very comfortable margin of food stored in our root cellar which buys us a lot of time as we build a greenhouse and start hunting. We'll get most of our meat from salmon each year where we're at, moose, and grouse and we'll start raising chickens for eggs and we'll expand our growing (just been growing potatoes so far). But if we have a bad year or the learning curve is too steep, it's nice having a decade of freeze dried food and buckets of dried goods while we get it all figured out. And as people begin to figure out the increasing food challenges and supply chain issues, it will be tougher to get jars and canners and such as those things become more scarce. So I personally would recommend making food prep a priority. Just the money we have saved on inflation from when we started has made it a great investment.
And when we're too old to plant and harvest, we should still be able to manage boiling water and adding it to a mylar bag.
Good to know about the pumps.
I've only seen one brand of freeze dryers and that's Harvest Right. So I don't have much to compare with. Then some DIY freeze dryer experiments on YouTube. What brand do you use? And specific model you think is good?
I agree about building a stash. I'm not a prepper per se, but I like independence, and to eat what I produce. So with a freeze dryer I could be eating my own produce all year around, very appealing. Also perfect to use the dryer over the summer/fall when there is plenty of solar power available.
On my bucket list...some of the locals here make these huge pressure canners so they can batch process moose.