{"id":1738,"date":"2017-10-12T17:21:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T17:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=1738"},"modified":"2017-10-12T17:27:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T17:27:29","slug":"grocery-budget-tips-tip-10-can-dehydrate-freeze-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=1738","title":{"rendered":"Grocery Budget Tips: Tip 10 &#8211; We Can, Dehydrate &#038; Freeze Food"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome back to our grocery budget savings tips.\u00a0 I am sharing the top 20 ways I keep our grocery budget affordable for my large family.\u00a0 To learn more, read our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=1671\">introduction<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style>\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 25%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1738 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20160917_182922_HDR-e1488943919894-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1615\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1615'>\n\t\t\t\tSalsa\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_3868-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1393\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1393'>\n\t\t\t\tDehydrated pantry items\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_2919-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1207\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1207'>\n\t\t\t\tHome grown green beans being put up\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DSCN0182-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-708\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-708'>\n\t\t\t\tLined up, ready to dehydrate\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DSCN0181-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-707\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-707'>\n\t\t\t\tDehydrating lemons\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMAG1210-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-535\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-535'>\n\t\t\t\tCanning carrots\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/1554566_10153428671229768_5895217615327550318_n-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-352\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-352'>\n\t\t\t\tThese are the finished potato slices.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/fun-1411-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-142\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-142'>\n\t\t\t\tPotatoes in jars\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/fun-1351-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-144\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-144'>\n\t\t\t\tDehydrating potatoes\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/fun-139-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-95\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-95'>\n\t\t\t\tCanned potatoes, a few ways\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1383952_10152277634409768_1184553318_n-300x169-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-53\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-53'>\n\t\t\t\tA view of some of my canning shelves \n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><strong>Tip 10:\u00a0 We Can, Dehydrate &amp; Freeze Food<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Believe it or not, learning how to preserve food has saved us a lot of money over the years.\u00a0 \u00a0I can can large amounts of produce cheaper than I can buy it already canned (when I do it right &#8211; the cost of produce has to make it worth while and I never buy produce from a normal grocery store for canning).\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=51\">I wrote an old blog post about that here<\/a>.\u00a0 It also prevents waste.\u00a0 If I have a large harvest of tomatoes from the garden, I can and dehydrate them right away so they don&#8217;t go bad sitting around.\u00a0 If I am about to go grocery shopping, I freeze the last bits of cheese, butter, milk, bread, yogurt, cream cheese, whatever freezes well that I am planning on replenishing. This saves the food before it goes bad, and keeps it around for a future date where I will need it again.\u00a0 If we used our cream cheese up early, chances are good I still have cream cheese in the freezer so I can pull it out and use it, without needing a trip to the store.\u00a0 While the texture of food that has been frozen is not often like it was fresh, it is still perfectly fine for cooking or baking.\u00a0 As for dehydrating, many items rehydrate just fine for cooking and in some cases &#8211; such as with dried, shredded cabbage and potatoes &#8211; we prefer the &#8220;after&#8221; texture to using them fresh.<\/p>\n<p>There is a certain investment required for preserving food.\u00a0 If you want to freeze a meaningful amount of food, you may want to invest in a deep freezer.\u00a0 We deal with large amounts of food on a regular basis (a few hundred chickens in a season, a couple pigs, garden produce, a dozen turkeys, etc.) We prefer the chest style freezers instead of the upright.\u00a0 If you are going to can food, you will want a pressure canner (that doubles as a waterbath canner in most cases &#8211; this way you can can both low and high acid foods), a jar lifter, jars, lids, rings and a funnel.\u00a0 If you are going to dehydrate, investing in a quality dehydrator is a wise choice.\u00a0 While you can dehydrate in an oven, your results will vary and it will end up costing more in the long run &#8211; plus your oven will be in use for 8-12 hours at a time most times.\u00a0 A cheapo dehydrator will yield disappointing results.\u00a0 You get what you pay for.\u00a0 I have a 10-tray LEM and a 9-try Excalibur.\u00a0 Both are high quality and I am very satisfied with them.<\/p>\n<p>All of these items listed above can likely be found used.\u00a0 You can check local facebook sale groups, craigslist, etc. and of course thrift stores and garage sales.\u00a0 I did not jump into preserving food all at once, so don&#8217;t think that in order to save money you need to shell out tons of money and jump into doing it all.\u00a0 Once year I got my first pressure canner as a birthday present.\u00a0 A few years later we invested in a dehydrator.\u00a0 I stocked up on jars through yard sales.<\/p>\n<p>I will try to tell you how I preserve the following foods, but I am sure to forget some ways.\u00a0 Feel free to add your own in the comments!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Apples:\u00a0 We freeze apple slices and apple pie filling, I can apple slices in apple juice or very light syrup, applesauce, jam, apple pie filling, for the dehydrator we make apple leather (or mix apple with other fruits for leather) and apple chips.<\/li>\n<li>Bananas:\u00a0 We freeze bananas that are too brown to eat and use them for baking or in banana leather (dehydrator).\u00a0 Our hands down favorite way to preserve bananas is plain banana chips &#8211; no coatings, just simply sliced and dried.\u00a0 Sometimes I make banana sticks if I don&#8217;t have enough time to slice (follow the natural separation of the banana and the banana will separate into long strips. I dehydrate these just like that).<\/li>\n<li>Beans:\u00a0 Soup beans are dried on the vine and saved for future planting or soup.\u00a0 I often can dry beans for a much cheaper version of canned beans. Green or wax beans are frozen whole, canned either normal cut or french cut (our preferred way, but it takes longer to cut them).\u00a0 I have also dehydrated beans with great results, but found it is easier to use them canned due to the time it takes to rehydrate them.\u00a0 If you are going to slow cook a stew all day, they are great for that!<\/li>\n<li>Peppers:\u00a0 I like to freeze peppers diced and sliced (no prep, just wash and slice), or freeze them roasted and peeled.\u00a0 I have canned roasted peppers but was not thrilled with the result (taste-wise) EXCEPT banana peppers, which I can as pepperoncini slices or whole peppers (the small ones).\u00a0 I have dehydrated them (peeled) but found when they rehydrated, even after hours of simmering, the resulting texture was not pleasing.\u00a0 My preferred method of pepper preserving is freezing.<\/li>\n<li>Tomatoes:\u00a0 Ah, tomatoes.\u00a0 I usually grow a few hundred tomato plants and preserve them in many ways. Due to the large volume that comes through my kitchen, I don&#8217;t prefer to freeze them because they would take up space.\u00a0 I usually roast them in high numbers and can a couple hundred quarts of sauce.\u00a0 \u00a0 If I have enough to do specialized sauces, I like to can spaghetti and enchilada sauce.\u00a0 I make and can ketchup and tomato paste.\u00a0 I also can diced, quarts, and juice.\u00a0 \u00a0I like to halve my tomatoes and squeeze the guts out before roasting for sauce &#8211; removing the guts cuts down cooking time when I am making sauce.\u00a0 When I want a looser consistency (juice) for chili, I don&#8217;t remove the guts and as soon as the tomatoes are cooked, I run the loose liquid through a food mill and can the results.\u00a0 I like to dry tomatoes, too.\u00a0 I dry a thick sauce or paste into a sheet that can be powdered and reconstituted into paste or sauce.\u00a0 This is helpful for small quantities when I don&#8217;t want to open a can for a tablespoon of tomato paste or one cup of tomato sauce.\u00a0 I also dry tomatoes as a dice and halved (for recipes calling for sun dried tomatoes).\u00a0 Oh, can&#8217;t forget <a href=\"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=1617\">salsa<\/a>!\u00a0 Lots of mild salsa.<\/li>\n<li>Potatoes:\u00a0 Potatoes are another vegetables I preserve in many ways.\u00a0 Dehydrated, we dehydrate slices, dices, and shreds.\u00a0 Canned, we can whole peeled, whole unepeeled (for roasts), large dice, small dice and slices.\u00a0 Frozen, I freeze potato skins, fries, coated potato wedges, mashed potatoes<\/li>\n<li>Squash: Peeled and cubed<\/li>\n<li>Strawberries:\u00a0 Canned as jam, frozen whole or sliced, dehydrated sliced.<\/li>\n<li>Pears: Canned as pear sauce, frozen in slices.<\/li>\n<li>Peaches:\u00a0 We can them in slices, and pie filling.\u00a0 They make a wonderful addition to fruit leather, and we freeze them in slices.<\/li>\n<li>Broccoli:\u00a0 Dehydrated, then powdered (my family isn&#8217;t too keen on the texture of broccoli in meals such as stuffed chicken or broccoli and rice, so the powder delivers the taste without the texture), and frozen whole (they roast up decently for the non-oddballs in my family that does enjoy broccoli whole)<\/li>\n<li>Lemon, lime, oranges:\u00a0 I dehydrate the zest, dehydrate slices (for drinks, or to powder), and freeze juice.<\/li>\n<li>Onions:\u00a0 I usually freeze them diced, or dehydrate them in a small dice for dry minced onion or onion powder.\u00a0 My french fry cutter does a great job of controlling the size of the dice for me. .<\/li>\n<li>Garlic: I dehydrate garlic slices to powder for garlic powder.<\/li>\n<li>Corn: I have had good luck dehydrating corn kernels, I also freeze kernels and freeze whole corn on the cob still in the husk (defrost them roast in the oven to reheat &#8211; they turn out great!) can them as whole kernels and creamed corn.<\/li>\n<li>Beets: I usually just can beet chunks and slices.\u00a0 I did pickled beets last year and they were a hit with the husband, but nothing I need to can in large quantities.<\/li>\n<li>Kale\/Spinach:\u00a0 They are nice frozen, but also make a yummy snack dried into chips.<\/li>\n<li>Celery: I dehydrate slices to powder for use in soups.\u00a0 I have found that no matter how long dehydrated celery is cooked, it doesn&#8217;t usually soften up the way we like celery to soften up.\u00a0 I have found instead that using a celery powder delivers the same taste without the celery chunks.\u00a0 I also freeze celery &#8211; simply slice and throw in the freezer.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Cabbage: Whole heads frozen whole can be thawed and dealt with as if they had been cooked.\u00a0 I also dehydrate shredded cabbage for future use in cabbage soup.\u00a0 We can plain cabbage for quick skillet meals and casseroles.<\/li>\n<li>Cauliflower: I just freeze cauliflower.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve not had good success dehydrating it, ever.<\/li>\n<li>Pineapple:\u00a0 Canning in chunks and rings in light syrup, dehydrating for treats<\/li>\n<li>Pumpkin:\u00a0 I typically roast, scoop out meat, puree and freeze.\u00a0 Sometimes I skip the puree part and just freeze, and I puree it when I thaw it.\u00a0 I also like to make pumpkin spice leather with pureed pumpkin, in the dehydrator.<\/li>\n<li>Blueberries:\u00a0 I freeze them.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t normally dehydrate them.\u00a0 Also freeze raspberries, mulberries and blackberries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I began learning to can long before I had a garden big enough to produce a harvest large enough to can.\u00a0 This is something you can do whether you have a garden or not.\u00a0 I was able to search out affordable produce through small farmers, farmers markets, roadside stands and stores that only sold produce.\u00a0 \u00a0Now, I grow the bulk of the food we preserve which makes it even more affordable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome back to our grocery budget savings tips. I am sharing the top 20 ways I keep our grocery budget affordable for my large family. To learn more, read our introduction.<\/p>\n<p> #gallery-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-2 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1738"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1748,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions\/1748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}