# I'm confused...Why do my own dehydrating when I can buy it for cheap?



## colt45on (Jun 29, 2011)

It seems like all of the forums I read direct me to do my own dehydrating, so I am a little intimidated to ask what is probably a newbie question. Why dehydrate the food yourself when there are so many places you can buy it for cheap.

For example, I recently found Emergency Dehydrated Food, emergency food, disaster food, preparedness food, storage food, and survival food. which offers varieties of fully dehydrated meals. It tastes as good as Hamburger Helper and I got one pale of 500 meals for $65.

It just seems like a ton of work to do it yourself when you can buy it that inexpensively. Thoughts?


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

I can control what goes into my food. A lot of companies add artificial preservatives, I dislike that.

I also have the ability to buy cheep, preserve it, and keep the cost down.


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

I think its fine to do either -- but do something! When you are hungry you wont care so much what is in your food but if you failed to prepare you will be kicking yourself!:gaah:


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## catsraven (Jan 25, 2010)

Like Dean, I can control what goes into my food. I like to be able to pronounce what Im eating. A lot of the junk that gos into pre packaged food makes me sick for two or three days.


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## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

I think it is important to learn all types of preservation as we will probably need to pass this on to our yungins! I can food, roll my own cigars, and make my own beer, and continue to improve my skills for survival when SHTF. We need to know all avenues of self sufficeincy. Espicially the beer and cigar part!:beercheer:


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## Cahri (Feb 18, 2011)

colt45on said:


> It seems like all of the forums I read direct me to do my own dehydrating, so I am a little intimidated to ask what is probably a newbie question. Why dehydrate the food yourself when there are so many places you can buy it for cheap.
> 
> For example, I recently found Emergency Dehydrated Food, emergency food, disaster food, preparedness food, storage food, and survival food. which offers varieties of fully dehydrated meals. It tastes as good as Hamburger Helper and I got one pale of 500 meals for $65.
> 
> It just seems like a ton of work to do it yourself when you can buy it that inexpensively. Thoughts?


Very simply......
A) you know where it came from (hopefully your organic garden, farm or your organic market)
B) You haven't added any artificial anything i.e. colour, flavour etc
C) There are no added chemicals, antibiotics, growth hormones or highly processed items 
Period in a nutshell.....I rest my case. Find some time


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

I dehydrate either what I grow or get really cheap. So, for example, when I have tomatoes coming out my ears, I put them on the dehydrator to preserve them & store them in recycled glass jars from applesauce, pizza sauce, bacon bits, etc. It doesn't get much cheaper than that.

Some things are significantly better homegrown than store bought, like tomatoes & bell peppers & that holds true even when they're dehydrated. 

I like to store individual dried fruits & veggies instead of already mixed. As tasty as 500 meals of hamburger helper sounds, we prefer variety. The same ingredients, cooked & seasoned differently, make a completely different meal. 

The nutritional content of all food degrades over time. It will still give you calories but not the vitamins & minerals necessary to maintain health. Most of my dehydrated food goes from garden to dehydrator the same day, locking in the flavor & nutritional value. I use what I dry, so nothing I have stored is more than a few years old. 

Plus drying strawberries makes the house smell wonderful!:2thumb:


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## Frugal_Farmers (Dec 13, 2010)

colt45on said:


> It seems like all of the forums I read direct me to do my own dehydrating, so I am a little intimidated to ask what is probably a newbie question. Why dehydrate the food yourself when there are so many places you can buy it for cheap.
> 
> For example, I recently found Emergency Dehydrated Food, emergency food, disaster food, preparedness food, storage food, and survival food. which offers varieties of fully dehydrated meals. It tastes as good as Hamburger Helper and I got one pale of 500 meals for $65.
> 
> It just seems like a ton of work to do it yourself when you can buy it that inexpensively. Thoughts?


Welcome to the forum and great question.

It all boils down to personal choices.

Many other have already pointed out being about to control your food source and other great point.

We take a little different approach to things, but still have the natural food at the top of the list.

All of our preps and the lifestyle we live today is based on becoming self-sufficient as possible.

When we have expendable money available to us, we threw money at whatever we desired to spend it on. Sure, you could spend money on preps such as dehydrated product, but doing it your self also provides you skills you may need if TSHTF. If money becomes of no value, how would you resupply in the long run?

We try to experiment with a variety of self-sufficient skills and practice these skills as often as possible. By practicing these skills, you learn your shortcomings and shortfalls and adapt your plan to improve on your deficiencies.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

I can dry my own lots cheaper then buyin it. Plus nobody can track what I'm dryin in my own home (paranoid? eh, maybe) cause I'm payin with cash what be hard ta do when orderin stuff.

I control my portions an what goes inta my own bags an jars.

Best ta be deversafied an now how ta do lots a things an have the tools an equipment ta do so. Plus, some a there portions really take 2 ta 3 a them servins ifin yer gonna have somethin ta eat. 

We also can meats an other things like cheese an butter. Make beer, wine an other things ta boot. The more we can do fer ourselves the better. Plus the money we save on doin our own we can spend on stuff what we can't make ourselves.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Echo all sentiments above.
You control whats in it. Now when SHTF, youll be happy for the food, no matter where it comes from. $70 totally worth it, even if its of questionable/unknown nutritional value.
Theres also a lot to be said for doing it yourself. I have yet to do it, I am waiting to get a dehydrator and sealer for free.
Coot also brings up a great point. Paranoia.
Maybe its over the top, but 'they' could track your purchases, but at least in theory if it comes down to that then the first place they will be checking is this kind of site and that point would be moot. But I for one would rather be as under the radar as possible.


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## colt45on (Jun 29, 2011)

Frugal_Farmers said:


> Welcome to the forum and great question.
> 
> It all boils down to personal choices.
> 
> ...


Good points. Thanks


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## Quills (Jun 14, 2011)

For me, it's not so much about having dehydrated food on hand (although that is nice) but about having another method of preserving the bounty.

I have an Excalibur dehydrator (thinking of buying a second, actually) which is going non-stop pretty much from July through November. The quantity of food I preserve for winter -- we provide for about 90% of our own food needs -- requires that I take advantage of every method possible to store food. My dehydrated food is simply one part of that.

I canned over 1000 jars last year, filled three freezers, and have probably 100 quart and gallon sized jars full of dehydrated fruit and vegetables. I like "overlapping" processes in order to get more processed each day.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

It is easy to pick up the phone and order stuff on the credit-card and have delivery 2 weeks later, its also easy to visit Walmart and fill up a shopping cart with pasta, rice and sauces. Six weeks later the supplies at home are gone, the store is closed and you have no easy way to replenish your food-stocks ... 

Knowing now how to do it and perfecting your skills in canning, dehydrating, smoking, etc is the best choice. I am still learning those skills, and I am still doing things the easy way - combining multiple methods of getting food / water to the home gives you backup-plans to the backup-plans ... 

Good luck with your quest


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## JackDanielGarrett (Sep 27, 2010)

I priced dehydrated hash browns and oh wow. A bag of frozen hash browns are $1.99 US. Thaw and dehydrate, a lot cheaper. I thin slice onions on my slicer, dehydrate and crush into flakes with my hands. Combine the two and you have the makings for a fine breakfast...or supper.


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## Frugal_Farmers (Dec 13, 2010)

Quills said:


> For me, it's not so much about having dehydrated food on hand (although that is nice) but about having another method of preserving the bounty.
> 
> I have an Excalibur dehydrator (thinking of buying a second, actually) which is going non-stop pretty much from July through November. The quantity of food I preserve for winter -- we provide for about 90% of our own food needs -- requires that I take advantage of every method possible to store food. My dehydrated food is simply one part of that.
> 
> I canned over 1000 jars last year, filled three freezers, and have probably 100 quart and gallon sized jars full of dehydrated fruit and vegetables. I like "overlapping" processes in order to get more processed each day.


I am most impressed with your food preserving.


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## Quills (Jun 14, 2011)

Frugal_Farmers said:


> I am most impressed with your food preserving.


Thank you  It's an 18 hour a day job from the beginning of August until November or so, at which point, I sleep until Christmas


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

the way you go depends on how much cash you have. if you are just starting buying some things will start you off quicker but when the stores close where will you be . buy a bow of pre-done food, but start a garden now and experiment with ways YOU can keep it. such as canning,drying, freezing, salting, smoking, and seed saving for the next year. I have had trouble starting seeds but am trying different things to get better results. Did the best this year and think I found out what i was doing wrong. if I had waited until the skill was needed then I would be up the river without my paddle (food). Do what you can but practice everything now when you can go to the store and buy.


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## petedewd (Jun 23, 2011)

I looked at your link. A "serving" does not equal a meal. 

For example, they say a serving of soup is one bowl. A bowl of soup has 100-200 calories. So it would actually take 3-4 "servings" of their soup to provide enough calories for a meal.

A 150lb man needs about 1850 calories a day to maintain his body weight if he is sedentary. 1850 calories/3 meals = 617 calories per meal. 

Now if he is working outside most of the day, around a campsite, hunting, sawing wood he prob needs 2500+ calories per day or about 12 servings of that soup. So 500 servings would last about 42 days. For one person.


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## petedewd (Jun 23, 2011)

colt45on said:


> For example, I recently found Emergency Dehydrated Food, emergency food, disaster food, preparedness food, storage food, and survival food. which offers varieties of fully dehydrated meals. It tastes as good as Hamburger Helper and I got one pale of 500 meals for $65.
> 
> It just seems like a ton of work to do it yourself when you can buy it that inexpensively. Thoughts?


BTW admin is this not spam?


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

petedewd said:


> I looked at your link. A "serving" does not equal a meal.


I looked, too. You can buy the same beans, lentils and rice (and bullion cubes) locally.

I don't see the savings in buying from them.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Oh yeah......

don't forget: "You get what you pay for"

and also: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"

also: _Caveat emptor _is Latin for "Let the buyer beware".

$100 for 25 lbs?!?!?!?!

Yeah, get real......


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## colt45on (Jun 29, 2011)

LincTex said:


> Oh yeah......
> 
> don't forget: "You get what you pay for"
> 
> ...


Are you saying "yeah, get real" that it is too good to be true, or that it is a bad deal and is overpriced? I compared it to wise foods and thought it was a pretty good deal next to them. Nutritionally seems about the same except Wise Foods seems to be taking up most of their serving count with Ensure-type drinks.

i understand the ideas everyone has presented about controlling what goes into the food and that type thing, but I am not quite as hardcore as a lot of y'all. I was just looking for a way to create a nice little stockpile of preparedness food. Is there a better way to do it than the link I originally posted for those of us that just want a quick food-insurance policy?


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## colt45on (Jun 29, 2011)

petedewd said:


> BTW admin is this not spam?


Why is it spam? Are we not allowed to post links?


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Here is a link to the forum guidelines.I didnt think it was spam ( I am NOT a moderator), but it could have been construed as such, maybe as a clever marketing ploy? Ususally people will give a disclaimer ("I dont work for these people") if they post a link to a merchandisers site.

SEE BELOW!


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## rhrobert (Apr 27, 2009)

colt45on said:


> Why is it spam? Are we not allowed to post links?


Because you're a liar, a spammer, and most likely a scammer.
It's your site, you didn't stumble on it...you own it, Colton, and have changed servers 3 times since you registered it in April of this year.

Registration info is public information, yours is posted in the Mountain House Meals thread. Pay the extra $12 a year to hide it if you want to continue the facade of not being connected to it.

Try being honest once in your life, and stop playing the innocent.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

rhrobert said:


> Because you're a liar, a spammer, and most likely a scammer.
> It's your site, you didn't stumble on it...you own it, Colton, and have changed servers 3 times since you registered it in April of this year.
> 
> Registration info is public information, yours is posted in the Mountain House Meals thread. Pay the extra $12 a year to hide it if you want to continue the facade of not being connected to it.
> ...


:congrat: :congrat: :congrat: :congrat: :congrat:


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## HarleyRider (Mar 1, 2010)

Well, that was fun!! Learned a lot about dehydrating (which I haven't gotten into yet ) and got some free entertainment at the end to boot. 

About the only thing I have done along these lines lately is vacuum-pack some veggies and other stuff for the fridge, although once I did dehydrate some strawberries. 

(Very nicely done rhrobert!) :beercheer:


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Yeah, smelled like a skunk to me, too - but I didn't make the effort to follow it up. Thanks, rhrobert! :congrat::congrat::congrat:

Honestly, though, if he'd just said, 'hey, I have this dehydrated food company, and I'd really like to know why some of y'all dehydrate your own food to see if maybe there's something I can do that would be of interest to you' - that would have been totally different.

Lying sucks.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

colt45on said:


> Are you saying "yeah, get real" that it is too good to be true, or that it is a bad deal and is overpriced?


Bad deal.

$100 will buy a lot more preps than 25 lbs of food.


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## BadgeBunny (Nov 2, 2010)

I'm kinda amused that he is using the same screen name on several different sites. 

There is a TON of good info in this thread though :2thumb: so it's kinda hard to be too aggravated ... well, except for the part where he acts like he's a babe in the woods trying to help all of us out with his "find". 

And people wonder why I don't trust anybody any more.


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

keep your friends close and your enemies closer. make sure you know where their soft spot is  I try to keep my enemies ahead of me that way I can see where they are and what they are doing. :ignore:


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## proactivecanning (Jun 8, 2011)

*Buy Certified Organic*

It is easier to just buy it already canned. All #10 can products are not the same.

*Only buy Organic *
*Pay close attention to can content weight. Example: Freeze dried sweet corn should hold 1.8 pounds. Many suppliers only pack 1 pound. *
*Make sure the product has a sticker label and not just a label that is colorful and flashy and only held on with a few drops of glue. Remember, this food is going to be store for a long period of time.*
*Product packaging date needs to be on the bottom or side of the can, not just on the paper label. Labels fade and fall off over time if they are not a sticker label*

Hope this helps

ProactiveCanning


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

proactivecanning said:


> It is easier to just buy it already canned. All #10 can products are not the same.
> 
> *Only buy Organic *
> *Pay close attention to can content weight. Example: Freeze dried sweet corn should hold 1.8 pounds. Many suppliers only pack 1 pound. *
> ...


thanks, Welcome to Proactive Canning Company - The Equipment, Supplies, The Peace of Mind

 wow, I really never realized just how much money I was saving by doing it myself...


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## BadgeBunny (Nov 2, 2010)

The_Blob said:


> thanks, Welcome to Proactive Canning Company - The Equipment, Supplies, The Peace of Mind
> 
> wow, I really never realized just how much money I was saving by doing it myself...




Ay,yi, yi ... $52 for 2 lbs of cherries ... YIKES!!


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## rhrobert (Apr 27, 2009)

Ai AI AI is right...holy crap...I'll just keep dehydrating my beans.. $430 for 15 lbs..ouch. Maybe it's just me..I don't know, but seems like everyone and his brother just started a business catering to the preppers


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## Genevieve (Sep 21, 2009)

You can't beat getting fresh fruits and veggies in season and then dehydrating them and storing them. I just did 8 quarts of sweet cherries and tomorrow I start on yummy fresh peaches. I'll also be doing 3 of my home grown cucumbers and a zucchini. The cukes I plan on drying crisp and then pulverizing into powder for dips and salad dressings.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Genevieve said:


> The cukes I plan on drying crisp and then pulverizing into powder for dips and salad dressings.


That sounds great! Do you make/use any other veggie powders? I keep thinking I need to do this to sneak more veggies into our meals.... just hoping for some ideas...


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## neldarez (Apr 10, 2011)

Genevieve said:


> You can't beat getting fresh fruits and veggies in season and then dehydrating them and storing them. I just did 8 quarts of sweet cherries and tomorrow I start on yummy fresh peaches. I'll also be doing 3 of my home grown cucumbers and a zucchini. The cukes I plan on drying crisp and then pulverizing into powder for dips and salad dressings.


I'm with goshengirl...........please share what else we could use as a powder. Also, your zucchini....do you slice that and dry it for soups later? or do you shred it? I want to know lots and lots about dehydrating. I now have 2 excalibur 9 shelf driers, I want to dry scads of stuff......:2thumb:


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

For making powders-I often have leftover tomato sauce when canning(and making dinner etc.) and if you have the fruit leather trays for your dehydrator it drys down like a fruit leather and if you dry it as crispy as you can get and then powder it, you can use it with anything-the kids like the spaghetti or pizza sauce powdered on hot buttered popcorn. Or plain you can add a few tablespoons of the tomato powder to soups or cream sauces. My grand daughter just likes to eat the rolled up "tomato" leather just right out of the dehydrator!

Green and red sweet peppers powdered are great and of course any of the hot peppers... This year we are going to try and dry the smoked red jalapenos that we get(chipotale)-we have frozen them before and used them up but when I went to buy some already powdered I almost fainted at the huge price tag!:gaah: even on the big bottles from the restaurant supply store($32 for 24 to 28 ozs{can't remember which it was right off hand}) Compared to plain hot pepper powder and paprika which was right around $6 to $8 for the same size...


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## Genevieve (Sep 21, 2009)

I'll be shredding both the cukes and the zucchini this time. Food dries faster when it's in smaller pieces I've found. I also do the skins so I get all the flavor and vitamins and minerals, except of course soft skinned things like the peaches,etc. I just did a bunch of potatoes, both sliced and cubed. The cubed I like for soups, the sliced I like for casseroles and frying.I like to leave the skin on. I just scrub them really well.

If you have the leather trays, you can make yogurt drops for snaking. Just take your favorite yogurt, drop by teaspoon fulls onto the sheet. Dyr until firm, then cool and store. You can powder plain yogurt on a leather sheet also.Spread it out nice and thin and even and then dry to crips and then powder.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

to dehydrate most I use the juicer & then dehydrate the pulp 

I just bought $50+ of blueberries for $0.25/pint(6.5oz)   most will be made into jelly but I will be dehydrating some to add to cereals etc 

(slightly OT) I'm curious, when you dehydrate/preserve foods, how much is for 'prepping stores' and how much is for day-to-day use?

For us everything we preserve now is for 'the future' while what we already have, we take off the shelves & eat. That's about as far as our 'rotation system' has been thought out...

At the comparatively leisure pace we're at now we generally save 20%-25% more than the eight of us consume annually, but we have the ability to easily(?) triple production. We also wouldn't consume so much if I wasn't such a big fat fatty  .


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## Genevieve (Sep 21, 2009)

I store half and use half. But thats just me lol


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## ndutchak1985 (Apr 5, 2011)

I do both, knowing how all differant food dry is good knowledge for when you can't jump online and order more up. when you have to grow it in the summer to eat it in the winter.


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## Riverdale (Oct 31, 2009)

Austin said:


> I can control what goes into my food. A lot of companies add artificial preservatives, I dislike that.
> 
> I also have the ability to buy cheep, preserve it, and keep the cost down.


Austin nailed it.


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## Riverdale (Oct 31, 2009)

The_Blob said:


> (slightly OT) I'm curious, when you dehydrate/preserve foods, how much is for 'prepping stores' and how much is for day-to-day use?


We rotate through, although we do put more up for winter, when the fresh food is not available.


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