Long Term Food Storage

Just in case some folks have not heard of it

or have been hesitant to try,

I would like to share a method we use to store food for long periods of time.

It is hot oven canning.

It really is a simple process.

I have oven-canned many things: 

beans, rice, flour, dehydrated veggies such as corn, green beans, celery, peas, carrots, onions, mushrooms, (the list could go on.)

From the information I have gathered, this method preserves dry foods

for 2 to 12 years.

It depends upon the source.

I have a friend who found a jar of dehydrated green beans that had evidently missed rotation and happened to be 7-8 years old.

She thought "Well, the worst that will happen is they will end up in compost."

She said they were fine.

As with any food storage, we use and rotate our stock.

If you've followed here for some time,

you are probably aware that we don't eat a lot of grains.

We do eat some though, and when we do, we don't want it to be stale.

So one of the items I oven can is rice.

I can put it in 1 meal size jars so we are not opening 

more than what we will use.

The process is quite easy.

Just gather clean dry jars and lids/rims of appropriate size and add the dry food.

Here I am showing rice.

Preheat the oven to "warm."

For my oven, this is about 175 degrees.

Place the uncovered filled jars on a baking sheet into the oven 

until the contents are an even temperature.

This is where there is some variance.

For these small jars of rice, it took about 40 min. since it is dense.

If I were doing small jars of green beans, it might only take 15-20 min.

The food item needs to reach the same temperature as the jar.

Also, the larger the jar, the longer it will take.

I have quart jars of dried beans.  I think they took just over an hour.

When the food item reaches the desired temperature,

remove only one jar at a time.

Lid each jar as you remove it from the oven - one at a time.

This is not difficult, but is important.

If  the whole tray is taken out of the oven, by the time the last jar is lidded,

the contents may be cool enough that the jar won't seal.

Allow the jars to completely cool before storing them.

As with canning any item, the lids will "ploink" indicating a proper seal.

Using this process, I am able to purchase a larger quantity and not have to purchase that item for a long time.

These small bags of rice were on a very good sale so small bags it was.

                                                                      

Disclaimer: I am sharing something we practice.  I am in no way responsible for the decisions you make.  Please, do your own research and make decisions you are comfortable with based on what you discover.