Here's a link that will trigger all kinds of ideas!!
I have it bookmarked fro quick reference!!

Deanna

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP

You should find a wealth of information at the National Center for Home Food Preservation (see link below and take a cup of coffee/tea with you - you may be there awhile). Check the left side of the page - HOW DO I? section.

I'd also suggest dehydrating foods. That's how I preserve a lot of seasonal things for later use. I only have the freezer on my side-by-side refrigerator, so I have to use the space wisely. I don't like to can anymore. I think it's a huge energy hog, so it may actually be an expensive way to preserve food, and the food is high-heat processed which destroys much of the nutrition. I like nature's original "fast foods", as whole as possible with the least amount of processing....

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation

Great minds, grainlady!

Deanna

I'm another fan of dehydrating foods. I have a 9-tray & a 5-tray Excalibur. I'm been using them since the '80s & have never had to replace a fan.

Dehydrated foods store so much easier than canned goods. Properly prepared, nutrition for dehydrated foods is also higher. I also use a vaccum packer to increase shelf-life. One of the things I liked about dehydrated foods over canned is that I could open a quart jar of dried tomatoes...remove a few for a stew & reseal the rest. I could dry down many pounds of tomatoes & they'd fit in a quart Mason jar. I could get an entire lug of strawberries in the same size jar.

When our kids were all home we maintained a full year food storage program. Dehydrated foods I always kept on hand:

Tomatoes, carrots, onions, herbs, ground beans for refried beans, strawberries, pineapple, papaya (yummy!), bananas, fruit leathers, jerky, granola, potatoes, apples, peaches, cherries...oh, while I'm thinking about it...I also made soups & dehydrated. I did this a couple different ways. Some I dehydrated & powdered into an "instant" soup & some I used solid trays & dehydrated into leathers that could be reconstituted easily. Also did the same thing with mashed potatoes...dehydrated & ran them through the Cuisinart into a powder. They reconstitute so much better than grocery store brands. I put together jars of dried 'soup stuff'. Gosh, I could go on for a long time listing everything I used my dehydrators for...rather than bore everybody here's a link to Excalibur & Amazon has cookbooks for dehydrating. I'd also imagine Grainlady could recommend some good current ones. Mine are all from the 80s.

Here is a link that might be useful: Excalibur Dehydrators

Tricia, do you have any specific books or online references to drying things? I have a "cheapy" dehydrator..and just don't use it but to make apple chips...LOL But I'd love to use it more.

Terri, I just pulled out my tattered copy of 'Preserve It Naturally!' & discovered it's published for Excalibur. It's published by Weston Publishing, hard cover, 140 pages. If it's still available, it's great to get you started. What I love about it is that it's coded as to where you live. Humidity levels in the air makes a huge difference in safely dehydrating foods. The recipes/times that I used in CO would not be safe here in SE CT. From glancing at my book, it's clear I dehydrated tons of corn, mushrooms, carrots, beets, cabbage (savoy & red), sweet potatoes (I ground the sweet potatoes & used in place of pumpkin in pies, cookies, etc.), & chili peppers.

I also dehydrated tons of ham for 'ham & bean' soup. Also dehydrated chicken but I never trusted it (?) & would toss the vac-packed bags into the freezer. But, I could get about a dozen chicken breasts in one Zip-Lock bag. Man, I've made hundreds of pounds of jerky over the years. Never refrigerated that.

If you get into dehydrating, I've still got most of my recipes using the dehydrated veggies/fruits/meats, etc.

/tricia

dgkritch - I thought the same thing (great minds) after I read your post. I must have been hunting and pecking in my usual profuse way while you were profound with few words.

Everyone else...
The link above to the National Center for Home Food Preservation has a lot of dehydrating information.

"Making & Using Dried Foods" by Phyllis Hobson is probably my favorite book. Not only does it give detailed information on how to do each type of food, but there are also recipes using each food. I also use "Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook" by guess who??? Mary Bell.

A "new" method called DEHYDROFREEZING is getting my attention. It's a combination of drying and freezing. In dehydrating you normally remove 80% of the moisture in fruits and about 90% of the moisture in vegetables. In dehydrofreezing you remove about 70% of the moisture and store the fruits or vegetables in the freezer. Better flavor and color (take up less space than raw). These foods MUST be frozen to prevent bacteria growth and mold since they are only partially dried. They reconstitute in about half the time it takes for traditionally dried foods.

I also think vacuum-sealing in canning jars using a FoodSaver goes hand-in-glove with dehydrating for longer shelf life of dehydrated foods.

Then the next trick is using these stored foods.

-Grainlady

A manual defrost freezer keeps food much fresher too than a standard defrosting freezer. I have had both kinds (and they were both large uprights) and for the past 10 years have only used a manual defrost freezer. I defrost it once a year and it's a good time to organize and sort the freezer.
Chest freezers are supposed to be the best but I prefer the uprights.

Welcome Lyfia!

I don't freeze or preserve enough to post anything else that's helpful, but as you have witnessed, there are enough folks here that collectively, we know everything. LOL

Bubbe (Aka Renée "too" as there was before me, and still is that wonderful, other Renée)

I've heard you can freeze whole milk!

Shaun, you can, but it doesn't necessarily come out of the freezer in the same quality as it went IN. My family and I used to live (for 2 years) on the island of Adak, in the Aleutian Islands. It was recommended, when we went up there, to bring a freezer with you. So we brought our 13.2 cu ft chest freezer (manual defrosting variety). We used to have it FILLED with milk and other items - because in the winter, it was often difficult for the dairy flights to get in, and the barges to come up from Seattle. The milk just never tasted the same, though - our girls were small then, but even they noticed it.

Bumblebeez, we've had our chest freezer for about 27 years. Except for the time when it was in transit between Adak and the Lower 48, it's been in constant use. Yes, things get lost in it quite easy. Yes, it's a pain to defrost, but that's a good time to reorganize and find all the things you lost in it. But the energy savings (SDG&E's, not mine!) is greater than an upright. I also believe that you can get more stuff in a chest freezer than in an upright, because of the lack of shelves. (Of course, that same lack of shelves and such is what causes one to lose things in it - so it's a trade-off.)

BTW, when my freezer isn't completely full of frozen-or-freezing foods, I put gallon jugs of water in it. It's a good place to keep your emergency supply of water while keeping the freezer running efficiently. (A full freezer saves more energy in the long-run, I'm told.)

DonnaR/CA

If I was really into preserving food I would have a chest type Donna. But I like the uprights because I can easily find stuff and it's just the three of us. Lots of room for my Christmas cookies!
But it's the manual defrost that is really important. We don't keep anything in the freezer over the refrigerator except ice and those blue cooler things.

Thanks for that info Donna. I have never done it but did hear you could. Don't think I'll try it now that you said that!

I also dehydrate foods in my old Harvest Maid. I love it, it has a fan and a temperature setting, 9 large trays and it's great for making yogurt too. I get my dehydrating information from the Ball Blue Book and from Michigan State University's web site, Preserving Food Safely.

I do freeze eggs, but I beat up two, put them into a separate container and use them for baking. I don't freeze milk because of that change in texture mentioned above.

I like some things frozen and some things canned. I always blanch and freeze asparagus, then I thaw it, put it on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it, just like fresh asparagus. It's pretty darned good (although not as good as fresh, LOL).

I also freeze corn, but I can carrots and beans. I freeze celery and peppers, usually already chopped and measured, to use in salsa, Habanero Gold jam, chili, etc. I don't care for stuffed peppers but my stepmom tops and cores them and stacks them, one inside another, for stuffed peppers. She takes them out frozen, stuffs them and bakes them. I freeze french fries by the tens of pounds, and I've chopped and frozen onions but even double bagging them the whole darned freezer smelled like onion. I would think shallots would be the same, but maybe if you have a foodsaver it would help with the aroma. I dehydrate onions and shallots since Craftyrn sent me a jar of dehydrated onions and I found how handy they were!

I freeze swiss chard and collard greens, just steam them and freeze them in ziplock bags. I even freeze sliced green tomatoes to fry in the winter and I grate extra zucchini and pack that into ziplock bags for zucchini bread in January.

Oh, and welcome to the Cooking Forum. You might try checking at Harvest too, lots of canning/freezing/drying/sausage making going on over there!

Annie

I freeze milk all the time, shaun.
When we had four teens at home, we'd go through a gallon plus per day. No way I was stopping at the store every couple of days (I normally shop for major stuff once a month).

We were all big milk drinkers and no one ever complained about the taste/texture. Even teenagers!! :+)

Try just a half pint or so and see if you like it. It may be a matter of preference, taste sensitivity, etc. If you don't really like it, you can still use it in baking or something. It won't be wasted to find out!

Half and half is 'nother story. I don't freeze that!

Deanna

WOW! I knew I could cound on all of you and thanks for the welcome and the great links too. I'm not sure I'm ready for dehydrating although several things sounds great that way too and easy to store. I think I'll have to take one thing at a time. I will save this though for future reference as it sounds like a good way to go as well. Baby steps for me though.

I really appreciate the sharing of personal experiences too. This really helps a lot. I've definetly learned some new things.

The info on freezers are good too. We currently only have two fridges with their freezers, but I'd like to get a freezer only.