Help Me Build Better Long-Term Food Storage (Need Real Feedback)

And mine are working. I purchased 9-6 gal. buckets of Legacy 25-year food about 6 years ago for $3000. I needed more but the price has gone way up (price increases are not the same as price gouging) and the Harvest Right Freeze-Dryer seemed like the way to go. I spent $2000 on the Harvest Right and my plans are to spend another $2000 on food, maybe more, but I will come out ahead because I will have the Harvest Right, the freeze-dried food, and the ability to make more if I choose. I can select the foods that I wish to store instead of whatever comes in the bucket. I have control over the quality of the food also; I can choose organic or regular foods. I can grow my own, or purchase at Farmer's Markets, supermarkets, Wal-Mart, Sam's Clubs, Cosco, etc. I wish Johnnie well in his business venture but he's selling something that I no longer need nor want, as I've basically gone into business for myself, with myself as my only customer.

 

I am an alive grumpy old man and I plead guilty to being too political. I have heart problems and almost all of the commercial freeze dried foods have way to much salt for my use. I have a green house and raise a lot of my food and dehydrate a lot of it. Haven't used a frying pan in months and most of my food is prepared from my older long term storage foods. A lot of it 10 or so years old and quite a bit given to me from people who want to get rid of dated stuff. I find that in stews and soups dehydrated foods work out well. I totally agree that freeze dried food is the best tasting food for long term supplies. I also find out that many foods can be dried with a regular dryer. Dried tomatoes with dried onions, spices, peppers and a little olive oil, not a long term survival item, made into a sauce and put over long term storage rice or pasta make an excellent meal. Have own chickens so have eggs and chicken for cooking. Freeze dried meat is very good, but you can get along fine without it at the moment.

I kind of got away from the LDS concept of food storage for some future event after the 2000 period. Now store long term food that I eat and use daily. Now that the wife has passed, I am cooking for one person and try to get about 4 oz of protein a day. I find that for me while freeze dried is very good, spices and peppers to make the rice and pasta dishes tasty is more important. If I were younger I would really want a freeze dryer as a lot of the foods are very expensive to buy now. I think that there may be a market for freeze dried foods that aren't high in sodium and sugar. Using those items rather than spices etc to flavor the foods seems to be the rule now and most people seem to consider foods without them bland. If you lose your "taste" for those items, they seem to salty and sweet. Some garlic and spices will taste much better after you are weaned off the salt and sugar.

 

Doing candy is easy and skittles don’t make that much of a mess. I always freeze dry candy when we have bake sales at work to benefit the cancer society.