Home Made Survival Foods

You can try to dry, vacuum-pack and otherwise prepare food for storage. Vacuum pumps are available commercially or can be constructed in your own home. You can use them to seal dried food in mason jars and other containers.

When packing foods for storage, you want to eliminate oxygen. Bugs, such as weevils, and other organisms that can destroy your food need the oxygen to live. That’s why commercial companies who prepare survival food pack grains, cereals, pasta, beans and other foods in nitrogen-filled containers. You can accomplish a similar packaging yourself by using dried ice.

Simply take the 10 pounds of noodles (or 25 pounds of rice or other dried food) you picked up from the warehouse and put them in an appropriately sized plastic bucket with a lid that can create a good seal. Then add several chunks of dried ice. As it sublimates, your bucket will fill with carbon dioxide, which will displace all or most of the oxygen (since carbon dioxide is heavier, the oxygen should rise to the top and out of the bucket). Place the lid on the bucket, but don’t seal it all the way until you think the dry ice has completely turned to gas. Remember, as soon as you open the bucket the air will come back in.

on my last post, I talked about using dried ice to as a starter but like I had said once the bucket as been open the C0-2 will return. So to over come this problem out in the field or at you remote cabin where you will not find dried ice, you can get the same solution by using small tea candle. After you have open you bucket simply light a tea candle inside the bucket 3 to 4 niches from the top rim and seal it tight, what will happen is the candle will use up all the C0-2 in the bucket and the candle will go out. the best thing is the next time you open your bucket just repeat the proses, the less food you have in the bucket the longer the candle will stay lit. Note: don't move the bucket around until the candle is out