If you are looking to put food away for really long term storage probably dehydrating would be better than canning but it still has a shelf life of less than three years in most cases. According to the USDA home canned foods are safe to consume for 1 year. Most people who can will go two years or more without worrying.

Truly long term food storage - the kind that lasts for 30 years is grains, beans etc. in mylar bags and pails. Dehydrating is a good way to preserve fruits and vegetables if you need to be mobile because it's not as heavy to carry around. Canning is better for bug in situations because it is ready to eat and does not need water to re hydrate it.

Each method has it's pros and cons - it just depends on what YOU need.

both but for me dried lasts really well for a year and then I see quality issues after that unless you use the maar etc, but as soon as you open and the air gets to things..

I prefer canning, I also break the rules on how long I hold jars, I aim to keep a two to three year supply on basics and have eaten things at the five, seven and ten year poiny in my own home canned food, BUT having said that, I still use the heavy old fashion ratio's in regards to salt, sugar and acid levels, I consider many of the modern ratio's to be good for only three, six months, maybe a year tops.

if I had to pick, I would pressure can, but as I don't have to pick, I do both..

Its a rainy day so Ive got some time for a reply.

I wouldn't say one or the other. Do both. The general rule is, ``Store what you eat. Eat what you store. Use it or lose it` This theory keeps your supplies...rotated.

That said....double and triple redundancy is a virtue.

One of the dozen summer jobs is to build an outhouse size, solar dehydrator (something similar to this but with multi directional heat panels)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVTcnCuX2Qc&list=PL6596CA79D7D15A79

....because food becomes ripe for a short time all at the same time. No time for Martha Stewart survival snacks. Save all that for the winter. Harvest time is like being in a marathon race. Everything is coming in and the race to get it stored can be overwhelming. The solar dehydrator is less fuel energy consuming than canning and should be looked at for a time when canning lids are no more....Or the electricity has disappeared and a freezer full of food is thawing fast and must be saved

I have several buckets of Mylar sealed wheat and corn ( animal grade, BTW) tucked under the bed, that I hope never to have to eat. Hopefully the chickens get it before I die. But that is just back up food. The canned goods are more likely to get used in day to day eating. One of my years goals is to turn sliced apple chips...into winter...pig calories. There is no shortage of apple trees here. Keeping it from rotting to mush is more the issue. Bulk dehydrating will help turn it into better stored animal feed.

Some other thoughts. I also need to build a tray holder over the wood stove to further take advantage of the circulating convection heat. Its burning anyhow. might as well be a dehydrator at the same time (as well as heating water but that's another post)
Also, don't forget the freezer. We have a second freezer that only gets used at harvest time. Some things can be saved to can or dry at a later time once things slow down. Its also helpful with the tomatoes before canning. Taking the frozen tomato and running it under water, will allow the skin to slip right off. Letting it thaw in a strainer causes extra juice to drain out of it for less watery canned tomatoes. Ive tried drinking that leftover juice an its vile. If anyone has a good idea what to do with that juice, please share. One last thought. Don't neglect root vegetables, pumpkins and squashes as the third system. We still have a dozen left in the back room from last years harvest. As soon as one starts to go bad...we know what's for dinner that night (or it goes to the animals)

Just my 2 cents worth...Buy what you regularity eat...just buy ten + times more than enough and rotate. Replace as you use. I love having my own grocery store in the back room. It certainly saves a long drive into town whenever I get a craving.

Good answer cernunnos5! I'd love to see that dehydrator when you get it finished.

Will do. Ill try and get on that project next week but it could be slow. I'm on day 5 (Has it only been 5 days. seems like a month) of smoking withdrawal . The 4th time I've been through this. Im going to be a wreck for the next month.

I think I will do a "Showing Off, Look at Me, Im So Cool" sort of post some time in the fall. Ive been getting a lot of cool stuff done.

I will be interested to see what your success rates are like on that big solar dryer, I took a seminar with a well respecting solar food expect, he is a prof and travels all the time to Africa and south America and other places in the world in regards to food, food drying etc.

he had some very interesting points, including the perfect dryness for human textures vs the drying points that are better for long term storage, that was quite interesting..

But more important to what we are currently talking about, he built five solar dryers himself, plus has worked with different programs to build different massive dryers in climates that it works well in and the amount of food loss was staggering to me, I thought that I was doing things wrong on some of my home outdoor solar experments but point in fact my loss's was about right.. compared to being able to use a controlled electric machine, you need to plan for your built in loss's.

So I didn't go look on the utube to see what what you have planned but I will share his number one tip on if you are positive you want a solar dryer, and that is make sure you put in a two or three times stronger then you think you will need solar powered fan in the unit, if you want the best possible results..

FG

Hi guys
Thanks for the info lots to think about.We are thinking about a dehydrator as a cheaper way to start out first and probably best to learn one thing at a time.I don't have any mylar bags so would I be able to store in ziplock bags in a cool dark place until I get some? Good luck
C5 on quitting smoking.

Mrs.wha

ziplocks will work but glass jars in a cool dark place would be better.. less change of something poking the plastic and letting in air on your product, less chance of bugs eat though to get to said food.

Just a question (as I've never dehydrated items before and have been thinking about it) for those with more experience in this than me....

COULD you dehydrate stuff (veggies for soup as an example) then put it through the canner in a water bath so that the air comes out and it seals off??? Voila?! best of both dehydrating and canning perhaps? Has anyone tried it?

I'd like to try something like this if anyone thinks that it might just work.

let me know what you think.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005TN7H

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGfUwEf810g

There are jar air sealers that will do the job, no waterbath or extra heat required to get the job done..

I have a vacuum sealer that I use for sealing bags that also uses the jar lid attachment to seal jars. My system needs electricity however so the one above is more sustainable 🙂

I use the vacumn sealer jar attachment to seal dried food like rice, beans,jerky and dehydrated veggies. works really well.

If you don't have a jar attachment for your sealer check out oven canning. Pretty simple for anyone to do

http://theprepperproject.com/oven-canning-for-long-term-storage/