Food Storage Shelf Life

I just got an e-mail from a good friend that stated a lot of canned food and properly-stored dry good will last a long time. Here's the jist:

When stored away from light and heat, in airtight moisture-proof containers at temperatures between 40-70 degrees F:

30+ YEARS
-wheat
-corn
-white rice

30 YEARS
-apple slices
-macaroni (pasta)
-rolled oats
-potato flakes

20 YEARS
-powdered milk

INDEFINITE
The following items have an indefinite shelf life (last a very very long time!) when stored in the original packaging, away from heat and light and moisture (and bugs/rodents!):
-salt
-baking soda
-granulated sugar

Canned foods when stored away from moisture (to prevent rusting of cans) and away from variations in temperature (not in attic or garage) should last 20, 30, 100 years! These include jams, fruits, veggies, and even meats! The vitamins and nutrients degrade but studies show protein levels stay pretty much the same, although the taste ain't all that great!

For items I grow myself, I've been dehydrating then using a seal-a-meal and storing small baggies in mason jars (unprocessed). I'd like to re-pack some of my supplies. I used to buy bulk dried fruits from http://www.justtomatoes.com/ because my kid loves them but am switching to www.thereadystore.com because they have better prices. Need to buy blackberries, blueberries, mango and green peas... he loves these!

Sorry... I digressed! When I buy pasta and huge bags of rice (among other things(, I'd divide in smaller portions and seal-a-meal'd them. But I don't want to keep doing that. I'm thinking I'd like to seal in a mylar-bag and put in a bucket (used and cleaned icing bucket from bakeries). Will buy the supplies after we move (hopefully within another month).

Here's a link for the mylar supplies: http://www.survivalunlimited.com/buckets.htm

I would also like to #10 can (that's the can that things from Providant Pantry come in) my own supplies but I can't find a supplier for a non-Mormon. Anyone have a link and a cost?

NOTES:
1. The info above said "wheat" or "corn" - not the flour made from those. Grains should be stored whole, and ground when ready to use.

2. I can't find info on storing gluten-free grains like quinoa. I'm going to assume that properly sealed in mylar bags or #10 cans that the whole grains of quinoa, amaranth, etc. should be good for at least a couple of years. Hope so.

3. The info said "pinto beans" - sure am hoping it's good for other legumes, like lentils, split peas, black turtle beans, white navy beans, etc. We just don't like pinto beans much.

4. Not on the list was honey but we've all heard the story of honey from ancient Egyptian tombs that was still edible and delicious.

5. Before I store bought-rice, I always freeze it for 2 days to kill any bugs. Starting to do that with almost everything I buy to store!

6. I just read that a lot of dry goods can be preserved in quart canning jars, with just the tight seal of lids and rings, and not processing. Anyone done this?

Preserving Harvests for My Picky Eater

My VHTS (very hungry tween son) is a bottomless pit but a very picky eater. Add to that his food problems and allergies, and we have a problem.

Last year I dehydrated much of our harvest, but I also froze a lot. Didn't do much with canning and pickling. Here it is harvest time for 2009 and we still have lots of the 2008 harvest in the freezer. I got to thinking... what on earth am I going to do?

As I was harvesting yellow squash, zucchini and tomatoes today, I really worked on puzzling this out. How can I get him to eat our harvest several months from now... during the Winter? I expect this winter to be long, hard and early, and combining that with the possibility of a swine flu quarantine, so this could become a very serious problem.

Here's what I've come up with, based on what we grow:

• TOMATOES: He doesn't like these at all, except as pizza sauce and ketchup. However, all of my canning supplies are packed away until we sell the house and move into a new place. So... I'm dehydrating all tomatoes, and will powder and rehydrate to make pizza sauce and ketchup as needed.


• STRING BEANS: He likes this fresh and frozen and canned, but as I said before, I can't can this year. He likes them cooked so I'll freeze these.


• DRY BEANS: He doesn't like my baked beans as well as Campbells or Bush's but he'll tolerate them. I'll finish drying them on the bush and vine (or pick before we move and string up to dry). I'll store them in a mason jar to cook in the winter. Perhaps I can soak, cook, mash, and hide in frycakes?!?!


• YELLOW SQUASH and ZUCCHINI: He likes zucchini better raw but none of it cooked and certainly not frozen first. I'm dehydrating a batch today. I'll store dried in a mason jar, and powder it to hide in pizza sauce or homemade gluten-free bread or smoothies or wherever I can.


• EGGPLANT: Same - dehydrate, store, powder, hide


• CUCUMBER: He hates cucumber unless it's benedictine (cream cheese, onion, cucumber dip) so I'll dehydrate, store, powder, and reconstitute into benedictine during the winter. Hmmm... yum.


• WATERMELON: He hates watermelon too. I know, unbelievable. I'll dehydrate any leftover, store, powder, and add to smoothies.


• PUMPKIN: He loves pumpkin pie. I'll dehydrate, store, then rehydrate to make gluten-free pumpkin pies and turnovers.


• CARROTS: We never have any left over, so we just eat them raw. In the future, hopefully we'll have extras, and we'll dehydrate, store, powder and hide. We don't like the taste of cooked carrots, so this will work.


• PARSLEY: I'm growing flat-leafed and curly, and he won't even try them. I'll dehydrate, store, powder and hide. I can buy more at Vitamin Cottage, already dehydrated.

That's my plan for the little bit we're growing this year. I didn't have the space or time for really anything else this year. When on sale, I'm buying: beets, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, cabbage, cantaloupe, bananas and other fruit. He likes much of those raw, none of them frozen or cooked.

So, as above, I'll mostly dehydrate (at night since the house gets shown during the day), store, powder and hide.

Just remembered that Vitamin Cottage (a local health food store) has mixed vegetables, spinach, parsley and other things, already dried. Especially fruit. I'll stock up on those, store in a mason jar, and powder/hide as needed. All of the dried fruit, whether purchased dried or dehydrated by me, will do well rehydrated and added to his smoothies. Loves it!

Freezing Milk

Local store-brand milk has been pretty cheap lately. $1.58 per gallon of fat-free milk. Take advantage of the price by buying several. For this, you'll need to get the bottles that aren't quite as full, with perhaps an inch or a little more of headspace. Remember, liquids expand when frozen.


Assuming you rearranged your freezer before you left for the store, place the extras in your freezer. Keep in the container it came in. Will keep about 3 months.


Be sure to check on the milk a few hours after placing them in the freezer, to make sure the milk jugs didn't burst when the milk inside expanded during the freezing process.


To use: Take out of freezer and thaw in the refrigerator. Again, check periodically that same day to make sure as it thaws, there's no leak.

How to Freeze Bananas

I love using bananas in smoothies, but they do better when they are frozen. Never freeze a banana in it's skin; it's very difficult to peel a frozen banana! Here are two ways to freeze bananas:

Method 1:

Peel banana. Split in half. Wrap each half in a small piece of freezer wrap. Mark and freeze. Use within a couple of months. Note: I freeze them individually so they are easier to whirl in the blender.

Method 2:

Mix 1/2 cup of white table sugar with 2 teaspoons of ascorbic-acid solution (to use per 3 cups of banana puree). Now... peel bananas. Mash bananas and as soon as you measure out 3 cups of banana puree, combine with the above sugar/ascorbic-acid mixture. Freeze in container. To use, defrost unopened in the refrigerator. Use within three months.

Blueberry Bonanza

My Tween can't handle any chemicals on his food so I buy organic whenever possible. We stopped by King Soopers (Krogers/City Market) to get apples and pears because we were completely out (remember his nickname: VHTS: Very Hungry Tween Son - also known as BottomLess Pit). I noticed the produce stockers were putting up berries: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and yum, blueberries. I chatted with them, and after grabbing the apples and pears (and celery and carrots), examined the berries.

Organic blueberries. Grown in California. 1-Pint Clamshell. $2.50 each. I bought 8 of them, and here it is, 3 hours later, and 2 packages have already been eaten.

We'll be going back tomorrow or this weekend for as many as I can grab. They were sweet and juicy and ripe and ... not at all moldy!

As to the other berries, they had been imported from Mexico, so because produce isn't reliable there, I didn't get any. Just might change my mind tho... $1.00 a pint! Okay, just thinking about them... yep, we'll go get some.

Note:
Although we'll eat plenty of fresh berries, we'll also freeze some (for smoothies) and dehydrate others. Be sure to wash first and then completely dry before placing in the dehydrator or freezer.