Food Storage Dilemmas-Freezedried Vs. Dehydrated-both flawed!

capesurvivor,

I suggest you get used to rice and beans.  They're easy to store, have good amounts of carbs and protein, and if you grow some peppers, onons, and parsley, they should be tasty enough to live off for at least three months.  Your digestive system will adjust after the first or second week.  

Patrick...there is a 50/50 chance my wife would starve to death before eating those. No kidding.

 And don't say that that would double my food reserve!

SG

If you're only trying to store food for 3 months, why not just buy canned foods?  Soups, beef stew, vegetables, fruits, beans, etc.  Stated shelf life of those items is 2 years, and if stored in a cool environment, they will last many more years.

#1 rule of food storage is to store what you eat and eat what you store.  And yes, start getting more beans and rice worked into your diet now, so you can adjust your diet over time. 

What will you eat when the stored food runs out?  At least with rice and beans in storage you could stretch your money to cover many more months and give your wife at least a 50/50 chance of survival. Or have your freeze dried or deydrated foods, but also some rice and beans, and try to gradually introduce them into the diet.  

 I eat rice and beans all the time (we don't eat fowl or beef in our house).  The trick is to make tasty dishes with them, not eat them plain.   From dried beans and peas and such  I make my own chili, refried beans, split pea soups, southern style dishes withblack beans, curries, and on and on.  Add some basmatti rice in your stores for a different flavor now and then.  We also use dried beans for sprouts which is a good way to get some greens in the winter.   Food shouldn't be dull and even with just the basics it doesn't have to be.  

If you are determined to stick with either dehydrated or freeze dried food, I would strongly recommend buying a small amount and tasting it.  Several years ago I decided to stock some freeze dried food for  short term situations  and bought samples from four leading companies.  Some of it was simply inedible in my opinion.   So sample and taste first.  As for sodium, if this is just to be a 3 months supply of food, don't worry too much about it.

Bon appetit and best wishes.

We regularly get this type of question.  While I appreciate food sensitivities, my usual reply is, "You're storing food for SURVIVAL in troubled times.  Your choice will be either to eat foods with chemicals/wheat/soy/GMO--or whatever you're adverse to--or to STARVE to death."

What do you think you'll do then?  Starve to death in perfect health, or live on with a runny nose??

It never ceases to amaze me how dumbed-down Americans have become!

Bruce Hopkins
Best Prices Storable Foods
http://www.internet-grocer.net/product.h...

An MI in my living room is not survival. Crap food is crap food. I'm, personally, not sensitive to anything but crap. If food purveyors really cared about their products, they 'd let us season/salt them. Bland is better than !@#t.

Not helpful and snide, IMHO.We try not to insult each other here, newbie.

SG

SG;

I have found the best way to cook for health, under both normal and survival conditions, is to start with simple, whole food ingredients.  Yes MRE's have lots of sodium.  But if you buy the constituents (dried or freeze-dried potatoes, veggies, meats, and grains/rice/beans, as tolerated), as well as a comprehensive supply or ongoing garden of herbs and spices, you can season your meals according to your tastes and tolerances.  In addition to being more flexible, this is also a less expensive approach than MRE's.

Another option is to buy and store dried/freeze dried staples, such as meats and grains, and supplement them with crops you can grow and can reliably in your USDA zone. 

In short, I have found that I was not able to put together an adequate food storage program from only one of the available categories.  Our program is made up of a combination of dried, freeze dried, bulk grains and beans, sprouting seeds, canned foods, as well as a large stash of nonhybrid vegetable seeds.  The way I view it, this spreads out the risks and disadvantages among the various forms, so that we won't suffer a total loss of food supply if there are problems with contaminants, shelf life, or compatibility with our immune systems. 

Hope this helps. 

Linda

Thanks, Linda,

Some good thoughts. I was trying to take the quick-and-dirty way out of ordering stuff, hoping to find optimal wares. You may have the best way, though most of my searches for elemental foodstuffs in those categories did not thrill me either.

Jeez, all I want is low sodium food and I can't grow it all myself.

SG

SG... LOL, at times we can't win, can we???  I feel your pain.

Linda thank you for your suggestions.

Cat

SG;

What part of the world do you live in?  US?  What state?