How do you intend to use the food thru the winter? If you want to have a bowl of green beans on your table, you would probably opt to freeze. But if you want to mix them into soup, you could probably dehydrate.

A lot is a personal preference thing. With dehydrating, you need to buy the dehydrator. And then there is all the electricity to run the dehydrator. Some people have issues with mold after dehydrating, if they don't get all the moisure out. So they opt to vacuum seal or get oxygen absorpers. But once your food is dehydrated, it has a longer shelf life, and has no cost associated with storage.

With freezing, most people recommend a vacuum sealer for long term freezer storage. Then there is the electricity to run the freezer year round. Halfway down the page, there is a thread on ziploc vs vacuum sealer. You may want to read up there.

I opt to can most of my food. If you do your research, you'll find that there is very little risk of botulism if you follow the instructions (I looked at the CDC stats recently, there are more incidents of infant botulism and wound botulism that cases of food borne botulism, and of the food borned botulism, very few cases are from home canned food). I got most of my jars for free on freecycle/craigslist. I also got my pressure canner for minimal cost on CL. At this point, my only cost is new lids, as well as the electricity to run the canner. I find with my home canned food, my optimal shelf life is 2-3 years.

Lots of great info from Pixie above. Canning has the longest shelf life and the most readily useable quality of food and I strongly encourage you to reconsider that as canning for two is common and very cost effective and very safe when done properly. Millions of us are living proof. But if that is out then I 'think' dehydrating would be the next cheapest option for the best quality and longest shelf life.

Freezing storage is just too short by comparison in my opinion - 6 mo. to 1 year vs. multiple years with canning and dehydrating (with proper storage) plus electricity is the most expensive power source and you risk losing far too much with just a power outage.

But the real issue in my mind is that some things simply don't dehydrate at all well and even some that do have limited uses. And it can be expensive in terms of power useage and equipment if you want to do bulk amounts and it's time consuming.

Freezing, I agree is best with a vacuum sealer - a quality one, not one of the cheap models. It will double the storage life of your food over just using ziplocks.

Bottom line if my only choice was freezing in ziplock bags or dehydrating I'd opt for dehydrating. But canning honestly puts both of them way down the list in preferences.

Dave

I think you will first have to assess you and your spouse's tastes and preferences then decide.

For us, it would be:

1) Canning. If you're fearful of botulism, stick with tomato products and fruits, which aren't botulism risks (the fruit) or as long as current guidelines are followed (the tomatoes).

These products also are good for beginners and don't require the purchase of a pressure canner.

2) Freezing. I find we like foods like corn much better frozen than we ever would dehydrated. For us dehydrating would be a waste as we'd never eat them. But see my comments on the other thread regarding freezing.

Also, some dried products are probably cheaper or as cheap purchased in bulk and stored air-tight than being dried at home. There are many stores, co-ops and online bulk suppliers who provide a vast range of beans, grains, dehydrated vegetables, dried fruits, etc. While the price per pound in some cases might seem quite high, when you consider you're not buying the water and you're not paying for the electricity, it really puts the cost in perspective.

3) Dehydration. I can and do dry foods, though not very often any more. Again, it's personal preference.

The freezer also has other uses beyond the obvious. You save huge amounts of money making home "mixes" (i.e. pancake mix or baking mix - that is "Bisquik") and they're healthier. If I make a quick bread or cake, I normally mix up additional ziploc bags of the dry ingredients, label and put in the freezer for long-term freshness.

Freeze cookies baked or as dough. You can freeze chocolate chip cookies dolloped on a cookie sheet, frozen raw and then bagged up for later baking in whatever amount you want. Same with scones or even cinnamon rolls.

If you can get into the baking habit and focus on homemade granola, homemade cereal mixes, baking mixes, breads, you'll save huge amounts.

Above all, it will keep you out of the stores. That's the biggest saver of all.

Carol

I do all three. Canning far outweighs the others.
There's just two of us now.

We just prefer certain foods processed a certain way.
Frozen corn, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, diced onion, peppers and meats.
Canned jams, jellies, pickles, relishes, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, peaches, pears, applesauce.
Dehydrated onions, garlic, mushrooms, apples.

It really does depend on what you cook and personal preferences. Some people swear by frozen green beans, I like mine canned. That's part of the attraction. You can preserve what you like.

I agree that you can certainly can pickles, jam/jelly, juices, tomatoes with nothing more than a big stock pot and a few jars/lids. Not a botulism risk and such a sense of satisfaction and self-sufficiency. Try that and see if you like it. Is it worth it to you. Each of us must decide.

Any of the three are going to cost something to get started.
Bags, machines, pots etc.
Is your family worth it? It's relatively minimal and you control what goes into your food, where it comes from, container sizes. Very personal decision.

Deanna

I dry a lot of fruit and some meat. Veggies, not so much. My family does like dried zucchini chips.

All of those are eaten as snack food and not cooked with.

I dry mushrooms and cook with those. I do a very small amount of sun dried tomatoes to use in salads. Other than backpacking and a few soup mixes, I don't find dried veggies very useful for cooking.

Since my family eats very little canned food and doesn't eat jam, I haven't canned for years. Meats, casseroles, baked goods, sauces, peaches, and berries are all frozen.

I've got fresh fruit from June to November, then a couple more months of stored fruit, and then we eat dried fruit and frozen fruit until the next crop comes in.

My family prefers fresh veggies, so we eat from the garden until that is gone and then I buy fresh from the store. If you are buying the veggies to process and not growing them, you would have to get screaming deals on the purchase to make it worth your while.

Frozen from the store can be a very good value and in many cases is more nutritious than fresh as it's prepped and frozen right after picking while "fresh" can be not-so depending upon transport time and how long it's been in the store.

I do agree that buying fresh and then freezing, canning or dehydrating is not necessarily cost-effective.

Be aware, also, if you are apprehensive about botulism risks with canning that dehydration is not fail-safe either. Drying meats and even some foods like tomatoes can also present food safety issues. With all of these preservation methods there is a learning curve.

Carol