Thinking ahead

For quite some time I've felt the need to gather up some supplies.  Mostly of the food type :-)  With the uncertain times we live in, it only seems prudent.  Of course there was so much to be done around here that it has only been a thought.  As I've looked into it I've been a bit overwhelmed by the how, and what.  How to do it and what to use.  I've been reading, and watching some videos.  I love the idea of canning.  I really love the idea of canning meats. Goodness knows how long it takes to defrost meat to be able to use at dinner time.  Plus there are veggies and fruits to consider as well.  But when I factored in the veggies and fruits I had to start think of *where* I would put all of this.  Then I came across the idea of dehydrating foods.  I was going to just skim over it as I really didn't think you could do much in the way of dehydrating.  Boy was I wrong!!  It looks like this would be the best way to preserve our fruits and veggies.  They would take up a lot less space, and they retain most of their nutrients.  With canning, the veggies and fruits loose up to 60-80% of their nutrients.  With dehydrating they only loose 3-5% of their nutrients.  There is a blog and a whole bunch of videos about dehydrating that I would love to pass on as they have so much information and inspiration.  I'm pretty excited to have found a solution for being able to store more food without taking up a lot of space. 

The blog (which has a lot of info in the "helpful hints" section):
http://www.dehydrate2store.com/

There are videos on the blog above, and different videos (by the same person) on their youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Dehydrate2store#p/u/14/DfQg0hzFihM

I hope you find the videos as informative as I have.  We have a five tray dehydrator that we've had for a few years now.  I never thought of using it for all the various foods and herbs.  I also was given a food saver that I haven't utilized yet, but now I can't wait to pull it out and see how this all works.  I don't have the best of these things, but I will use what I have to see if it will be what will work best for us.  I'll let you know how it goes.  On my most recent shopping trip I bought an extra bag of frozen blueberries and strawberries to give it a whirl.

Back to work I go :-)  I don't have to do as much work for our "bug" problem as before.  That will let us work our way back into our regularly scheduled program.