Canning your own food is a great way to build up your emergency food supply, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. There are several steps involved, but the trick to easy canning is to 1. get organized and 2. keep it simple. In this article I’ll demonstrate a very simple recipe for canned meat.

Like many of you, I suspect, we’ve got a few too many tomatoes at this time of the year. One of our favorite ways to preserve our modest harvest is with our solar dehydrator. There’s nothing like the taste of sun dried tomatoes, but unless you live in a very dry desert climate like Phoenix, Arizona you can’t just set fruit out in the sun and expect it to do anything but go moldy. In most places in the world, including here in Los Angeles, the relative humidity is too high to dry things out in the sun. Solar dehydrators work by increasing air flow to dry out the food. The one we built uses a clever strategy to get air moving without the use of electric fans such as you’d find in your typical store bought electric dehydrator.

Freeze-dried food pouches make convenient, light-weight camping meals. You don’t need any extra dishes beyond a spoon or fork to eat with and a pot to boil water in. You can also use pouches of freeze-dried food as long-lasting food stores in case of emergency. Freeze-dried foods are almost as nutritious as fresh, and they can be stored at room temperature for years. Making Freeze-dried food a great option for long term storage.

This article was originally published  by David Nash of Shepherd School at The Survival Mom web site. Any person who has begun to seriously prepare has had to make compromises between current wants and future needs, how much to spend on preparations, and how many people to stock supplies for.  If you’re married, you need to have a spouse that
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Here is one way to seal a Mylar bag inside of a typical five gallon bucket for long term food storage. If you are storing food (rice, beans, wheat, etc.) in a Mylar bag inside of a plastic bucket, you will not need to use food grade buckets  – because the food itself will only be
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When building your food storage supply, DO NOT put all your eggs in one basket. By that I mean don’t simply go out and buy bags of beans and rice and call it good. Although many good emergency food supplies contain a healthy proportion of foods like beans and rice, it is somewhat difficult and requires a good bit of thought to ensure that you include lots of variety. Think of all the food groups. Pay special attention to spices and the things you add to food to make them taste better. Don’t forget the deserts, sweets, and drink mixes, as these are ‘happy’ foods which could ease hard times during disaster.

Melting animal fat is called rendering and it’s a simple process, a dirty job, but simple. The most common animal fats used are those of pig and cow which is called tallow. But other fats can be used in a pinch. Bear, sheep, goat, beaver, opossum, raccoon and groundhog. Cut the fat into small chunks
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Canning 101 pickles, fruits, jams, jellies, etc.  By Jackie Clay http://www.backwoodshome.com For some reason, (definitely unknown to me) canning, as a method of very long term food storage, fell into disuse. Maybe it’s the hurry/rush syndrome many folks have become addicted to, necessitating “instant” foods, microwave ovens, and mixes for everything from pancakes to casseroles.
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