Food storage is important on the homestead. One of the advantages of homesteading is the ability to produce much of your own high-quality food, but if you can’t save that food and maintain the quality and freshness, you lose that benefit.
From a monetary standpoint, food storage is also important. Food that isn’t stored properly and goes bad is like money poured down the drain. Pure waste. Also, one of the best ways to save money on the foods you have to buy is by buying them in bulk, but there again, you have to be able to properly store the extra to keep the quality and freshness intact, or you aren’t saving money at all.
We use a variety of methods to store food, depending on the type of food and how long we expect to have to store it.
Here are a few basic guidelines (this is a work in progress, so please bear with us!)
Storing fresh fruits
Strawberries – one of our favorite preserves! These are often made into jams or preserves and sealed in canning jars. I’ve also made very nice freezer jam from strawberries. Sometimes we freeze berries whole and store them in plastic bags in order to use later in making fruit smoothies or homemade strawberry ice cream.
Blueberries – these are frozen whole and stored in a plastic bag. They make great frozen snacks as-is, or we often toss a handful in as we make fruit smoothies.
Blackberries – made into jam or preserves and stored in canning jars
Peaches – can be frozen in slices, stored in plastic bags and used later to make ice cream. Also makes a wonderful jelly stored in canning jar.
Storing cheese
I usually have 5 pounds or more of a cheese at any time. I used to shred them and store them in plastic bags in the freezer in small quantities, which worked fine for hard cheeses that I planned to use in Mexican dishes. Mozzarella and soft cheeses tended to clump up though, and never stayed shredded. I have started putting them in wide-mouthed canning jars and vacuum sealing them, then storing them in the freezer. This works very well, as even the very soft shredded cheeses come apart easily once they thaw.
I still often store large block cheeses by vacuum sealing them in plastic bags and freezing them. If the cheese is going to be eaten within a fairly reasonable time (usually a month) a block can be vacuum sealed in a bag and stored in the fridge. Vacuum sealing cheese prevents it from molding for a very long time, and works especially well on blocks.
Storing milk
Those times we have excess milk from milking (that doesn’t get used up making something else) we sometimes store it by freezing it in a container that is large enough to freeze it in 4-8 ounce cubes. When thawed, it must be stirred. It won’t be the same as fresh milk, and you probably won’t want to drink it, but it is fine for use in cooking or anything you might want to add milk to. We usually like to freeze extra goat milk quickly since we have a buck pen not too far from our does and the milk doesn’t taste fresh as long as it would if they were isolated.
Storing meat
I used to vacuum seal meat, but it will eventually get freezerburn. I am so glad I remembered what my grandma used to do for frozen meat, and went looking for a large roll of freezer paper. It’s not always easy to find these days, but is by far (in my opinion) the best way to store meat in the freezer long term. If you are packing a lot of meat (I usually am), you may want to tear off and stack a lot of sheets of freezer paper, shiny side up. Make sure you will have access to tape. Do NOT rinse the meat, but just lay it on the shiny side of the freezer paper. Wrap it similar to the way you would a present, overlapping the pieces fairly tightly and taping. Fold the ends in to make a “tail” and wrap it over the seam. You want the paper to sit tight against the meat without a lot of air (none if possible) and seal it well with tape. I love freezer paper for wrapping meat. It keeps the meat fresh for a very long time, gives you a great surface to write whatever you need and won’t fade (I was always trying to read what I wrote on those plastic bags), and if you shape the meat as “bricks” you can stack a lot of them in your freezer space. I try to keep an empty shelf in the freezer so I can lay the just-wrapped meat out and let it freeze quickly, then stack it in the place it belongs.
Storing flour / cornmeal
I often buy flour and cornmeal in 25-50 pound sacks. The main problem with them is that weevils can hatch out and ruin the flour, so when I first bring it home, I place it in the deep freeze for 3 days or so. That generally prevents weevils. If your freezer is at ALL moist, you want to wrap them in plastic before doing this, as some freezers will cause your flour to get wet and can ruin it. If I have enough space in my freezer, I will often leave the flour in there in 10 pound bags, taking each one out as my canister is emptied. That way I can be assured of it being fresh. If you need to store larger quantities or for a longer time, you may want to look into plastic food-grade barrels with sealed bags inside and moisture packets to absorb moisture, but this works fine for me with the limited amount I buy at a time.
I often store my sugar the same way when I buy it in a 25-50 pound bag, but I’ve found a local grocery store sells 10 pound bags for the same price per pound, so I usually only buy 10-20 pounds at a time.
Storing Dry beans
I often buy dry beans in large quantities (and hope to have a good harvest myself soon!). I freeze these for a few days, just like the flour, to prevent insect problems. When I take them out of the freezer, I let them set at room temperature for a day before I seal them up, to prevent any moisture problems. Then I vacuum-seal them in quart-sized mason jars, since a quart of beans makes a perfect-sized pot for me. If I happen to want to cook more, it’s no trouble to simply open two quarts, and I usually seal a few pints as well just in case I want 1-1/2 pots’ worth.
Etc.
I love storing things vacuum sealed in mason jars, since that prevents any possibility of problems with insects, mice, etc. and also keeps the food fresh longer than it would stay otherwise. I use various sizes of canning jars (and even regular jars with canning-size lids) to store all sorts of things: chocolate chips, whole oats, marshmallows, spices, nuts, herbal teas, dried fruits and berries, candies, graham cracker crumbs, etc. Many things that I don’t need to use daily, but keep on hand for baking. What I have found it doesn’t work well with is powdered sugar … I can never get a good seal (or it doesn’t last) so I have to keep rings on those jars.
I use the same method for storing salads and shredded coconut in the fridge.
I also used canning jars (not usually vacuum sealed) to put up cooked beans, soups, and other “wet” foods in the freezer.
Storing Tomatoes
Tomatoes are a special category. They can be canned, of course, in the normal way (because of the new lower-acid varieties it is safer to use a new canning book/chart rather than an old one, since the recommendations have changed). But I have also found that I really like to put tomatoes up in the freezer. Usually I blanch them for JUST a minute, but sometimes I just wash and chop them, and freeze them in batches. I usually try to separate out the tomatoes from their juice and freeze them relatively dry, then some bits separate with juice, so that I use the juice for chili, soup, or making sauce and can have the tomatoes to use in Mexican dishes and the like. They aren’t quite like fresh tomatoes, but they are as close as you can come that I have found.
(updated 4-7-12)
More to come:
Eggs
Canning, making preserves.
Drying/dehydrating (especially fruits, tomatoes, herbs, meats ie homemade jerky)
Preparing dough ahead and freezing it for fresh bread, pizza crust, rolls.
Cooking meals in advance and freezing in portions for quick meals later.
Kitchen tools and supplies
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I wouldn’t. Food expndas when it freezes and then you have an awful mess. Besides, jars take up a lot of space. When I’m freezing soups and sauces, I put in ziplock freezer bags, taking care to get out the extra air. Then I lay them flat to freeze. You can then stack them, or store them upright like books. I also label each one with the item and the date frozen.
As always, you inipsre me. I have several vintage food jars needing to be put to use, and now I know what to do. The other day I was crafting mint tins into cute storage tins. I needed an idea and thought, What would Cathe do? It worked. I came up with a cute solution using something vintage I have on hand. Thank you for sharing your talents and your gifts.
Thank YOU, what a wonderful idea!
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We lived on my grandparent’s farm so I grew up I wahetcd my grandmother, my aunts and my mom freeze, can and preserve food. I remember sitting on our back porch shelling peas and lima beans and shucking corn for freezing. I also helped peel peaches for canning. In addition, my mom and aunts used to make jelly, ketchup, can pears, tomatoes, and so many other things. They entered their products at the state and county fairs and have tons of ribbons. When I got my own home, I also started a garden and would freeze things after I got a freestanding freezer, and can tomatoes and tomato sauce. Passing the tradition on one year, I helped my sister-in-law can peaches and later when my nieces visited that summer, we canned dill pickles. I had such a small kitchen the smell became too much for them and we still laugh about it. I have been impressed with the Atlantic Publishing Group’s Back to Basics series and looked forward to reading this book. Duea has set the book up very user friendly and takes you through the steps of canning very clearly so if you are new to food preservation this is the perfect guide. She follows up that first chapter with troubleshooting canning problems. Chapters on freezing food, smoking and preserving meat, juicing and other preservation methods are included. The Appendix are set up with recipes for each category, such as fruit, tomatoes, vegetables, meats, seafood and a section on recipes for dried food. Throughout the book charts, diagrams, and some black and white photographs are included that help explain the procedures. This book is readable and the newbie to food preservation will find a very helpful guide but the more seasoned cook will also find helpful hints and wonderful recipes. In this economy and with people wanting organic fruits and vegetable more families are gardening today. This book would be a helpful reference to food presentation when you end up with an overabundance of tomatoes, or your local farmer has a surplus and you want to save some money. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for the book review and suggestion, Miriam! I’ll have to look for that one.
Thanks for great information! I really appreciated this, and will be sure to bookmark your site so I can return later on. I hope you’ll carry on the wonderful blogposts, have a good afternoon!
The Complete Guide to Food Preservation: Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Freeze, Dry, Can, and Preserve Food is a comprehensive book cvierong the in’s and out’s of safely packaging food for long-term storage. Author Angela Williams Duea displays an obvious passion for the subject and vividly describes the various aspects of the selection, preparation, and combinations of certain foods so that they may be stockpiled. Whether you are looking to preserve food in order to save money, to have organic options at your disposal, or you are saving the extra from your garden, this book has more than enough information to get you well on the way to your culinary and storage goals. The Complete Guide to Food Preservation is extremely thorough and meticulous in its descriptions of the full range of possibilities when considering what type of preservation method to utilize. I was almost overwhelmed with what could actually be done with even the simplest of foods! Williams Duea keeps her readers from being totally inundated with information by separating the methodology from the recipes; step by step directions for correct preservation processes take up most of the book, structured as easy to find chapters and sections while the actual recipes are located in an appendix. All in all, I found the book to be extremely well organized and edited but I did find two `off’ spots. While very minor, one was a caption noting a picture’s `bright colors’ yet the picture was black and white. The other was a caption about halfway through the book naming the person pictured and what she was doing (ie. `Laura uses her juicer to make fresh and nutritious carrot juice’) yet no other picture in the entire book gives such a personal indicator caption; it didn’t fit with any of the other pictures and captions which reflect a very general and impersonal feel. The Complete Guide to Food Preservation is the perfect read for anyone interested in saving food for the long-term, regardless of reason. As I am completely inexperienced at any aspect of canning, I found the descriptions and processes easy to follow and am excited to try some of them out for myself. Beginners will love Williams Duea’s clearly motivating style and more experienced will find it a useful reference book. An appetizing read!
I haven’t done freezer coonikg in awhile, but I need to get back to it. One of my favorite things is having ground beef (or venison, etc.) already browned and frozen so that it’s easy to add to a casserole, soup or other dish.I hadn’t thought of freezing chocolate butterhorns, but they would be great to have on hand as a quick snack (or even breakfast!)
Great point! I used to cook up 10 pounds or so of ground beef at a time, packaged in small amounts. If I need dinner in a hurry, it’s easy enough to thaw the meat and have it already cooked. It works well for any ground meat I’ve tried so far, if you prefer ground chicken or turkey, for example.
I usually make up 4x batches of cookie dough, and roll it into small balls and place it on cookie sheets lined with freezer paper to freeze, then remove the balls to storage containers (often just plastic ziploc bags). It’s easy to pop 2 or a dozen in the oven and just bake for a couple of extra minutes to have fresh, homemade cookies anytime! It’s also nice to keep making different doughs while there is still some in reserve, so you have the option of different kinds of cookies at any time as well, or even a variety.
you have got a really useful blog i have been here reading for about an hour. i am a newbie and your success is very much an inspiration for me.
yes, you can put the jars in the freezer. Just make sure whteevar you put in them has cooled COMPLETELY. I made jam, put it in the jars, left it on the counter overnight, then froze the jars. They’ve been fine in the freezer for a few months
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There is nothing more reiwrdang than looking at jars of preserves lined up on a pantry shelf, or packages of fruits and vegetables stacked in a freezer. I know living in northern Canada our fresh vegetable and fruit supply was limited during the winter so taking out a jar of peaches was like sunshine peeking through the clouds on a cloudy day. Living in the south now I don’t necessarily have the need to preserve food for the same reason I did before but I still feel the need to preserve local seasonal produce. The book is ideal for the novice because it covers all the basics: terms, hot/raw packs, pressure canners, water baths, and what to preserve. It also covers troubleshooting, freezing, smoking/preserving meats, drying foods, juicing, and fermenting. Angela Wiliams Duea also provides recipes for pickles. There is nothing better than a homemade pickle or relish to enhance a home cooked meal. This year I’m going to make my own pickles and canned tomatoes as soon as they are in season. The local Farmer’s Market always has a wonderful supply of locally grown produce that would be ideal for preserving. Thank you Angela for inspiring me to start preserving again. I encourage others to do the same.
Yes you can put them in the frzeeer ..I make frzeeer jam (I hate canning..it’s too tedious and time consuming) every year so does most of my family and we’ve been doing it for generations. I don’t know why people say you can’t put glass in the frzeeer people froze everything in jars before they had plastic containers! Just make sure you leave enough room at the top of the jar to compensate for the expansion of the food when it freezes.
thanks for posting, please come back and keep doing it again!
How about dehydrating those beirres? Before glass jars were widely available, drying fruits and vegetables was a very common way of preserving them. There are even plans online to build your own simple solar dehydrator, although I’ve used a car for drying strawberries several times and it works great. No extra energy expenditure and the delicious berry taste is concentrated in the dried fruit.Judith
As a matter of fact, I’ve been playing with dehydrating the past few months. I’m not sure where I was when I posted last (I’ll have to read my own post to find out, LOL) but I’ve been very pleased with my dehydrated strawberries and several other things. I’ve heard of people doing it in a car, but I haven’t tried that. My car has a nice sloped glass that would be perfect, I’d bet (and it surely gets hot enough here in summer!). I might have to try that! Thanks again!
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I really wneatd to go strawberry picking this year, but the only local place I could find to do pick your own sprays the strawberries. With strawberries being the number 1 thing on the list of foods not to buy that have been sprayed, I elected to do without strawberries this year. You just can’t get the pesticides off of strawberries. I guess the organic strawberries around here didn’t do well since I never saw them at our local organic store.
Thanks for the info – looking for more food storage ideas. I like your site structure too, pretty easy to find stuff.