Food Preservation Tips That Will Protect Your Survival Garden And Meat Supply

Survival food is always near the top of any prepper “must have” list. Growing and raising your own food as well as watching for great deals on long-term storage food are common and potentially life-saving preparedness activities.

Learning how to preserve your garden crops and livestock offerings will help stretch your prepping budget dollars and ensure that your loved ones will not starve during a long-term disaster. Heirloom seeds should always be used when planning a survival garden; hybrid seeds might grow well for a single season, but do not offer annual planting capabilities.

Preserving garden yields, especially in an old-fashioned natural manner, is a skill at least two people in your family (mutual assistance group) should learn. Cross-training is key when it comes to any homesteading or survival skill. If only one person knows how to preserve food, reload ammo, skin a deer, and that person dies during the disaster, the rest of the family or group could suffer greatly as a result.

Some feel that natural food preservation methods prevent deterioration and therefore allow the food to last longer. However, naturally preserved food may never last as long as the 20 or so years commercially manufactured long-term storage food is supposed to remain edible. But of course, the home food preservation process will likely increase the shelf-life of fruits, vegetables, and meat produced on your own land significantly.

Dehydration

Dehydrating food is a process in which water is removed from the food. While dehydrating dairy products is difficult, it is not impossible. Dehydrating milk would be an extreme hardship and would probably fail without specialized commercial equipment. Sour cream, cottage cheese, and most other types of cheese can be dehydrated in a home electric dehydrator or via a solar dehydrating set-up made with simple materials most folks have lying around their garage. Eggs, which are also found in the dairy section of the grocery store even though the USDA classifies them in the meat and beans category, also dehydrate easily.

When dehydrating, slice, cut, or tear the food items as thinly and uniformly as possibly for thorough and uniform drying. Lettuce cannot be pressure canned, but it dehydrates more quickly and easily than any other food item I have ever placed on my home dehydrating trays.

Dehydrated foods are commonly believed to last for more than a year. The open-ended “use by” date is rather vague and likely used in dehydrating machine instruction booklets to avoid potential lawsuits. I have safely and effectively used thoroughly dehydrated food after multiple years of storage in a cool, dry place. I store my dehydrated food in vacuum-sealed storage bags or mason jars that have had the lids vac-sealed as well.

Reconstituting dehydrated food is quick and easy as long as you have access to water. Directions for reconstituting food varies a bit depending upon the type of food used, but I always go with a “less is more” philosophy. For example, when I scoop two tablespoons of my dehydrated egg powder from a mason jar, I mix in one tablespoon of water, stir, and wait five minutes before checking the results. Add water in small amounts, stir, and wait again until you achieve the desired results.

My Egg Dehydrating Recipe

• Place 1 dozen eggs into a blender or food processor and mix until extremely well blended.
• Place plastic dehydrator discs into each of the trays you will be using.
• Pour half of the egg mixture into each tray.
• Repeat the steps until all your trays are filled with about a half-dozen eggs.
• Set the dehydrator to 135 degrees, or the fruit and vegetables setting.
• The processing time will vary dependent upon the power of your chosen dehydrator. I have three, all different sizes and brands, and the eggs are typically done in about 8 to 10 hours.
• Powdering the eggs is optional, but makes for more compact storage and exact rehydration to avoid runny eggs. To powder, dump the eggs back into your mixer or food processor and blend into a fine powder. This will take about a minute or two.
• Seal the powdered eggs inside mason jars and store in a cool dark place. In my experience, the eggs are safe to eat for at least two to five years, possibly longer.

Vinegar Food Preservation

Many foods last a lot longer if they are dipped in vinegar. Vegetables have been preserved using the vinegar method for hundreds of years. Many refer to this process as pickling or fermentation. Commonly vinegar dipped vegetables include carrots, pickles, turnips, green beans, cauliflower, leeks, green tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Vinegar comes in a lot more flavors than most people realized. The taste variety may offer a morale-boosting thrill to those living through a long-term disaster.

Fermentation or pickling helps to control spoilage by actually permitting the food to “spoil in a controlled manner.” The vinegar allows “beneficial” microbes instead of “harmful” microbes, to do the spoiling.

During the pickling process, a form of alcohol is produced that helps to preserve the vegetables and extend its shelf-life. Cheese, bread, chocolate, cured meats, beer, and wine can all be preserved in this manner.

Sugar and Salt Curing

Sugar and salt curing have been used to preserve meat and fish for centuries. Honey, which is a natural source of sugar, has often been used to preserve food for centuries. If honey is in short supply, making a syrup from sugar cubes is a great sugaring alternative.

The salt and sugar curing method of food preservation is most often combined with smoking. The sugar and salt increase osmotic pressure, destroying some of the bacteria found in the food. The curing process also enhances the growth of “beneficial bacteria,” and some feel it helps to improve overall taste.

The salt helps to dehydrate the food and harmful microbes that would contribute to the decomposition of the food.

Neither yeast nor mold can grow in salt-cured meat or fish, allowing the food to be preserved for at least several years to come.

Rosemary Extract Food Preservation

Rosemary extract is made from rosemary leaves and can be used as a natural food preservative. The added antioxidant properties of rosemary and the pleasing aroma from the leaves are an added bonus when using the extract to help preserve food. The extract boasts a sweet taste.

The rosemary extract, or oleoresin, helps to prevent oxidation and deter spoilage. Two components of rosemary, carnosic acide, and rosmarinic acid, are believed to be responsible for making food preserved in this manner far more shelf stable. Both of the acids reportedly inhibit the free-radical chain reaction, which prompts  the oxidation of fats and oils.

Rosemary extract can be used for natural food preservation.

Fermenting with rosemary extract is most commonly used on baking products, meat, potatoes, and dehydrated soups.

Sorbic Acid

Sorbic acid was first able to be isolated from berries during the 1800s. The acid is routinely used in food preservation, both in its natural form and from a synthetic version made in lab. During the 1940s it was realized that sorbic acid possessed antimicrobial properties that made it ideal for food preservation.

Sorbic acid is used both in natural and synthetic form to preserve food.

Sorbic acid helps prevent the growth of yeast, fungi, and bacteria and therefore helps keep food fresher for a longer duration of time. Sodium sorbate, calcium sorbate, and potassium sorbate appear to be the most popular versions of the acid used in food preservation and are readily available at grocery stores and pharmacies.

Sorbic acid is not the same as ascorbic acid; the two should not be confused or used interchangeably in recipes and projects.

Supermarket items that often contain sorbic acid to enhance shelf life include cheese, yogurt, dried fruit, fish, meat, pickles, olives, soups, packaged salads, jellies, syrups, wine, beer, soft drinks and baked goods.