Member
Joined:
May 2025
Posts:
177
EE: 0% (0)
USA
Posted: 6/25/2025 11:15:25 AM EDT
[Last Edit: AlaskanBushDweller][Edited]
You don't have to be worried about our supply chains, or government actions, or AI or the economy or corporate overlords saying "eat ze bugs" in order to benefit from getting a freeze dryer and freeze drying two decades worth of food. If you simply want to make money, there is a very good chance that food prices will go up, so having a large stash of food will give you a very healthy return on investment that you're unlikely to make in the stock market. And if I'm wrong and somehow magically food prices go down then eat that food and leave your FD food in the garage until food prices go back up, similar to holding stock. And in the absolutely improbable scenario that food prices go down and stay down...well, you can literally eat your losses. There's no need to be a dOoMeR to recognize that freeze drying a large stash of food is an exceptionally smart move to make. 48 Bins of Freeze Dried Food Anyway, here is what 48 bins on a shelf looks like. Many people could store this much food in their garage. Will last for 25 years (perhaps less for meat and cheese). No need for refrigeration and it can freeze without issue since the water has been removed. This is more than a literal ton of food and specifically these bins hold: 56 pounds of eggs (500 eggs) 239 pounds of cheddar cheese 132 pounds of mozzarella 219 pounds of bell peppers 919 cups of tomatoes 95 pounds of onions 105 pounds of zucchini 209 pounds of green beans 246 pounds of broccoli 231 pounds of corn 192 pounds of Rotel 102 pounds of cream cheese 358 cups of spaghetti sauce 199 pounds (303 10.5 oz cans) of various soups 24 avocados 35 pounds of ham 124 pounds of thin cut pork chops 24 pounds of rotisserie chicken and roast turkey 10 pounds of potatoes 236 pounds of peas 33 bananas 71 pounds of okra 36 x "ready made" meals (4 taco bake, 2 chicken pasta, 16 gumbo and 14 tuna noodle) |
"Behind every successful homesteader is a woman with a good job." - an Old Timer I met
Member
Joined:
May 2025
Posts:
178
EE: 0% (0)
USA
|
Weights are pre-processed weights. So food you'd eat with water content in it. Updated the title to clear that up. We did some potatoes just to test them out but our thought is it's just too easy to grow them and save seed potatoes for the next year. Same reason we stopped at 500 eggs, once we get chickens it will be easy to meet the egg needs (we think). |
"Behind every successful homesteader is a woman with a good job." - an Old Timer I met
Member
Joined:
May 2025
Posts:
179
EE: 0% (0)
USA
|
Nice, really nice. I have got to get my FD repaired and get started up again, now that my heart-related medical issues seem to be under control. That's a lot of work but you must be really proud of it. I noticed no beef on your list. Is there a reaon for that or you just don't like FD beef. |
Member
Joined:
May 2025
Posts:
180
EE: 0% (0)
USA
|
Originally Posted By MyrnaTheMinx: Nice, really nice. I have got to get my FD repaired and get started up again, now that my heart-related medical issues seem to be under control. That's a lot of work but you must be really proud of it. I noticed no beef on your list. Is there a reaon for that or you just don't like FD beef. Glad to hear your issues are under control and you can get back in the saddle with storing food. Always good to meet somebody with a Freeze Drying machine, it's a real indicator of somebody who thinks ahead (and is fortunate enough to be in the position to get one). It was a bit of work (although IMO compared to pressure canning it's not very hard, it just takes a long time which is why we got three machines) and we feel very fortunate to have the stash we've created. We figured while we build our homestead that rather than jump headlong into gardening, it would make more sense to FD food while it's still available on shelves which gives us time to learn how to grow food. Our garden is still small but we're close to building a greenhouse and scaling up based on our successes and failures. We love beef but didn't go with it simply because we have so many moose here that once we start harvesting them we'll have tons of it to store away. Plus we are still working on a five year old stash of pressure canned meat which includes beef. We went a little nuts and won't be pressure canning meat anymore I don't think. Five years later we still have three hundred jars of meat to get through. So far it hasn't gone bad but if we had freeze dried it then we wouldn't feel a rush to eat it all. Edit: the wife informs we have some FD beef but it's minimal, just enough to test out the process so it didn't make it into the spreadsheet. We are going to get a few chickens here soon but we don't want to harvest them, we just want the eggs, so we are going to do a bunch more chicken...those Costco rottiserrie chickens are cheap and taste great and then we can make stock after we clean the meat off, so just a great deal. We have tons of grouse around here but they don't taste anything like chicken, they actually taste more like beef, so our mainstay of meat will be chicken and pork (we won't raise pigs). |
"Behind every successful homesteader is a woman with a good job." - an Old Timer I met
|
A freeze drier is our next appliance purchase plan right now. Got something else to tick off the list before we can get it, but we are looking to get the medium HR and oil-free pump. Having your list is nice as a reference for us. Mind walking through your process on handling the food with that much volume? I know a bit at a time so to speak, but any tips for others (like me) looking to start a long term storage? |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Member
Joined:
May 2025
Posts:
181
EE: 0% (0)
USA
|
Originally Posted By Buckshot4U: That's a heck of a stockpile! Probably a stupid question, but do you make your own cheese, or is that all store bought? Originally Posted By Buckshot4U: That's a heck of a stockpile! Probably a stupid question, but do you make your own cheese, or is that all store bought? We're getting there. Hoping to get two decades for the wife and me saved up because it's such a great investment. I'll expire before some of the food. It's all store bought, we have only dabbled with growing food at this point. We might get a couple goats and try to make some cheese but that will be in the future. Originally Posted By turtle2472: A freeze drier is our next appliance purchase plan right now. Got something else to tick off the list before we can get it, but we are looking to get the medium HR and oil-free pump. Having your list is nice as a reference for us. Mind walking through your process on handling the food with that much volume? I know a bit at a time so to speak, but any tips for others (like me) looking to start a long term storage? Great to hear it, it's nice to see folks taking care of their families, such a smart move to make. For us we got the one medium machine and a deep freezer, and an extra set of trays. That way we could have one set of trays "on deck" in the traditional freezer ready to go while a batch was freeze drying (by putting the trays in frozen you save some time since the Freeze Dryer doesn't have to freeze them). Then once done, we'd put the other set of trays in and start a new batch and then wash the trays and put them on deck. And of course we'd load up the deep freezer to have food ready. But the main downside of FD'ing is it takes so long. So we bought two more machines, two more extra sets of trays, and two more deep freezers. If you do this, you want to make sure the trays fit in your dishwasher (I think all fit in normal dishwashers except for their new XL machine). We wanted a comfortable buffer of food stored up so that's why we got three, thinking we can sell two of them after we get our stash completed. We also went with all oil free pumps and they last about a year before breaking we've found. Apparently the new pumps they use are better but I don't have an experience so don't really know. The machines are a little noisy but not horrible and they put out some heat so you'll want to have a cool or well ventilated place for them. And they use a bit of electricity. And they can be annoying with maintenance and not drawing a vacuum and having to adjust seals and such. We also did a lot of soup and sauces in the FD so that we can use them for our stored dry goods (rice, pasta, etc). For a strategy, if you have the room, that should be the first thing you do in my opinion. Buy rice, beans, quinoa, pasta, wheat berries, etc in bulk and put them in five gallon mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and then put in food grade buckets. The buckets can be expensive. But this is the quickest and cheapest way to store lots of calories quickly and they will store just like FD food does except they require a lot more room and are much heavier. Good luck with your FD purchase, I think it's a great investment but only if you're serious about using them. I'm not sure they do well over time with maintenance issues and such and you lock in the food savings now by using them now. Our thought is the machines should always be working until we get our stash built (but of course life doesn't always make that possible). Enjoy FDing, you're going to love it! |
"Behind every successful homesteader is a woman with a good job." - an Old Timer I met