Posts Tagged ‘emergence preparedness’

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Some Useful Food Storing Tips.

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Most people enjoy food. It is a source of daily pleasure for many people and various foods are considered to be a part of celebration. Certain foods were served for distinct happy events and various meals. In the past festive meals were considered to be only around some seasonal foods people had on hand, and some foods were not available unlike now. But even though preservation is still popular and many people use it even though everything could be found in stores nowadays. People start preserving food for some other reasons like the risk of emergencies or loss of job. So, below are some of the foods preserving tips that can help you get the best from your purchased or grown food.

If you are growing your own hers and spice, whether you use them for cooking or medical purposes, you can make the most of them is you store them out of direct sunlight and far away from heat. That makes most kitchens to be the worst places to store your herbs and spices. Your garage might be a more suitable place for it.

If you are growing mint, and you have so much, you don?t know what to do with it; you can pick the tops, clean them, place them on a plate and put it in the deep freeze. You will really appreciate this in winter, when you will be able to garnish many desserts with fresh looking mint leaves.

If you love coffee and like to buy it in large amounts, you would know that over time it loses some of its fresh aroma. So, when you open a bag of coffee beans, transfer them to your preserving jar and place them in the freezer. Then you can grind them frozen and replace with new ones. Freezer is the best storage for coffee beans in the house. It will keep their aroma for many months.

If you use a brown sugar, you know that it gets hard eventually. So, if you want keep it soft for longer, you can put a piece of bread or apple in the jar, which will keep your brown sugar soft for more days. Or, if it got hard, you can put a damp cloth over the jar top and it will be soft again in the morning.

Many people like bananas, but they get dark very soon. You can freeze them, just as pretty much all fruits, or store them in the fridge, and even though the skins will get dark, the fruit will still be good.

These recommendations are only some of the food storing tips you can use to get the most out of your purchased or home grown food.

This planet gets tired of us - time to be prepared. Find out more about food storage - this info can save your life and the lives of other people you care about. Visit this food storage website for useful info in the food storage niche.

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Basic Steps To Follow When Canning And Preserving Food.

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Most of us understand the importance and all benefits of preserving and storing food. Food storage s important to have in case of emergency and it will also help us save time and money on grocery bill. But many people are intimidated by the process and the whole idea simply because they don?t know the basic steps of canning and preserving their food. They would like to have home canned food around but they don?t know how to achieve it. If you are new to canning and preserving food, there are three basic steps that can help you master this process. And even though it will involve some learning, there is nothing hard about it.

You just need to have the right attitude and think that if you want to learn how to can and preserve your own food, then you will be able to do it. If you really have a strong wish to master these techniques then you will achieve it. Believe in your abilities to provide your family with healthy food you preserved on your own.

Once you have realized you can do it and you are ready to start, you should know the basic steps to follow for canning and preserving success.

The first step is to choose what you want to can and preserve. You might have your own garden with a lot of fresh produce left, if so then you should definitely use that. Or maybe you prefer buying food in bulk for cheaper prices and then preserve it. You can visit your local farm for more fresh fruits and vegetables for your canning. Anyway, just make sure you can the food you and your family enjoy.

The second step is to have all the necessary preserving tools and supplies handy. Find out what supplies you need for your canning and make a list of everything necessary. You should have everything at your finger tips. It will save you a lot of time and avoid frustration.

And the third step is to find out the methods of canning and preserving you will be using. Make up your mind about which method is better for your needs and then choose the technique or recipe to try it out. Four usual methods of preserving and canning foods help us every day . They are freezing and drying, water bath canning,pressure canning. You can choose the one that suits you best. It depends on your preferences, time, the tools and other factors.

You just have to tell yourself that there is nothing hard about it and you can do it easily. Following these three simple steps will help you get started with home canning and preserving food and provide your family with delicious and healthy foods any time.

Have you heard that food storage can save you from lots of troubles during different emergency issues. Find out more about food storage on this food storage website.

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Food Preservation Methods

Monday, November 30th, 2009

You can store and preserve your food in many ways besides refrigerating. But why do we need to preserve food? A lot of food is seasonal and it will be wasted if we don?t preserve it. If you have your own garden, you would know that most of it becomes ripe at the same time and it is just too much to eat it before it goes bad. That is why food preservation helps you save food for your food storage and prevent a lot of food from spoiling and wasting. Food preservation methods should be safe for the food as well as for us to eat it, so here are the best options.

The first option is drying. By removing water from the food, you stop bacteria, contained in it, from growing and prevent rotting the food. This method involves drying food with the sun, wind or even smoking the food. Drying also hardens the skin of the food, which prevents other bacteria or dirt from penetrating or contaminating it. One of the most popular dried foods for years has been fish and still many people consider it to be tastier than the fresh one. Meat can also be dried but it is usually salted first. You can preserve all red meats like this. Dried fruits are also often used but they undergo changes in taste and texture. Vegetables don?t undergo drying that often because the process takes away all the vitamins and flavor out of them.

Another method of preserving food is by using chemical reaction which kills bacteria but safe to us. It is pickling. Usually vinegar or brine is used for it. If you preserve food using this method, pickled food will last for many months and this method doesn?t need sun or fire like with drying method.

Sugaring is used to preserve fruits. The fruit is placed in sugar syrup. This preservation method is popular with apples, apricots, pears and other fruits. The fruit can be cooked in the sugar syrup and then dried. And sometimes the fruit skins are dried and considered to be delicacies in some countries.

The most commonly used way of food preservation is freezing, as most of us have food freezers at home. The benefit of this method is that you can already buy a lot of food frozen and put them directly into your freezer to store. Sometimes, you can cook the food that is not suitable for freezers and then freeze it prepared. It is great for saving leftover food and pretty much any type of food.

So, there are many ways to preserve food. Mastering some of them will not only help you reduce your food wastes, but also let you save on the grocery bill and fill up your food storage.

This planet gets “hot” - it is high time to be prepared. Find out more about food storage - this knowledge can save your life and the lives of other people you care about. Visit this food storage site for interesting facts in the food storage niche.

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The Proper Way To Store Vegetables

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Did you ever notice that your lettuce doesn?t stay fresh for a long time, even if it was stored in the fridge? Well, storing lettuce can be a pain sometimes, but there are some tips for storing lettuce the right way and make sure it will be fresh and crisp longer.

Very often we end up throwing out the lettuce, because it got spoilt due to improper storage. But, it is a waste of food and money. And if you store your lettuce, whether it is by the head or in a bag, the wrong way, it will go bad very quickly. And if you have a choice of which way to buy your lettuce, it is always better to buy them by heads. You should have noticed that cut and bagged lettuce goes bad and turns brown faster than when it is bought as a whole. That happens, because all the preparing, cutting and bagging of the vegetable takes some of its freshness. And very often, you can see a wilted lettuce that seemed to be perfectly fresh and just got from the grocery store shelves.

You might notice, when you do your grocery shopping, that the lettuce storage is often misted, which maintains the vegetable hydrated all the time. We cannot repeat the same technique at home. But, actually, when it comes to storing lettuce, it is better to dry it off that to store it wet. After purchasing your lettuce, wash off all the dirt and impurities from it, and before storing it, dry all the leaves with a paper towel. After drying the leaves, put them into a sealed and dry plastic bag, which will protect the lettuce from the outside moisture. You can also put some paper towels inside the lining of the plastic bag, because condensation will eventually occur. This procedure will add about a week to your lettuce being fresh.

Make sure you store your lettuce plastic bags in the fridge crisper. You can also set your refrigerator to middle temperature and keep the humidity level low. High humidity will help your lettuce leaves acquire moisture. And the low temperature may freeze the moisture in the leaves and cause them being mushy. If you have other vegetables for making salad in your fridge, keep them in separate plastic bags and never add to lettuce bag, because juices from them can make your salad wilted.

If you remember and use these quick tips about storing your lettuce, you will always have fresh salad. Lettuce is the most important ingredient for salad, so following these recommendations you will be able to keep your lettuce fresh much longer and enjoy tasty and healthy salads whenever you wish for it.

Do you know that food storage can save you from lots of problems during all sorts of emergency issues. Read more about food storage on this food storage blog.

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Protect Your Food With Food Storage.

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

There are many modern factors that can make us go back to some old practices that out grandparents used. In case of some emergency, like natural or man-made disaster, the community might be left on its own for awhile. The local emergency providers may only get to you in about three days to assist you in case of disaster, or you can even be on your own for a longer time.

We are used to take a lot of things we have for granted, especially the abundance of food we have in grocery stores. Most families have about one weeks supply of food in their homes. And many families neglect to consider the food storage as one of the most important parts on emergency preparedness. But still a lot of people start to realize the importance of having proper amount of food to help you survive the first 72 hours after the disaster. Or it is even better to have plenty of food in your food storage for your family to survive for a month. In case of weather emergency, fuel crisis, terrorist act or other emergency, we will see the usual food supplies wipe out very fast.

Nowadays, you cannot be sure if you are going to keep your job for the next month or week. Many things happen in the world, which are beyond our control, but they still affect us. That is why preparing your food storage will be sort of your insurance policy, which will protect you in case of power outage, job loss, illness or in case of interruption of food delivery to our local stores.

Do not consider this to be paranoia. It is just time to bring back the common sense that was lost for awhile. You can prepare your food storage with no problems if you use these simple tips.

Make sure you store larger amounts of the basics such as grains, sugar, salt, flour, oil, seeds and other produce like onions, potatoes, cabbage, beets and others. The food you store should be familiar to your family and you should know how to cook it and store it. Don?t forget to rotate your food frequently, in order to avoid its spoilage. Replace the limited shelf life items with the fresh ones. If your budget doesn?t allow you to buy a lot of food for your storage at once, you can buy one item at a time. You can save money, buying food items in a bulk in wholesale markets. Make sure you protect your food from insects and rodents by storing them in large tin containers. It is not that hard to adopt this practice, but as soon as you do, you will have peace of mind about your future.

This planet gets tired of us - time to be prepared. Find out more about food storage - this info can save your life. Visit this food storage website for interesting updates in the food storage industry.

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