You want me to freeze my potato chips? Seriously?
Which is smarter, a squirrel or a human? With the exception of many politicians, you’d have to say that humans are smarter. They certainly do a better job of crossing the street in most cases, although they’re not as good at tightrope walking.
But one area where squirrels have most humans beat, claws down, is in storing food for the winter. Squirrels know instinctively that food that’s available when the weather is warm will not necessarily be available when the cold sets in. So, they store a significant amount of food such as nuts in a wide variety of places and collect it when they need it.
As humans, we have pantries and freezers in one location, so our job is a lot easier. But many of us still don’t prepare for the lean times during the good times. What we need to do a whole lot more of is freezing vegetables and meats that we can eat at a later time, such as when an emergency occurs.
This article ,“Cook Now Eat Later: 28 Items You Didn’t Know You Could Freeze.” is a great read because the writer gets right to the point and gives you all sorts of good ideas about stuff we can stick in the freezer that we would probably never think to freeze. They are:
- Cheese
- Homemade Pancakes, Waffles, French Toast
- Fruit
- Rice
- Pies
- Corn
- Pasta
- Flour and Other Grains
- Pesto
- Mashed Potatoes
- Cookie Dough
- Soups and Chili
- Broth and Stock
- Potato Chips, Crackers and Pretzels
- Milk
- Juice
- Bread, Baked Goods
- Buttercream Frosting
- Tomato Paste
- Diced vegetables
- Homemade and Store-Bought Dough
- Eggs
- Shredded Chicken
- Lemon/Lime Juice and Zest
- Herbs
- Marinated Meat
- Casseroles
- Hamburger
Have you ever frozen any of those 28 items? What are some other foods that you’ve frozen that are not listed in the article? Did they all taste as good as you expected after you thawed them, or did you learn that freezing a particular item was not the best idea? Please chime in with your thoughts.
I am 84 and have a solar, generator that is already charged to 99.97%. I have back up food that would probably last the rest of my life.
I have freezers, and dehydrator. Having been the director of food service in long term health care in Florida, I learned to be a prepper many years ago.
So happy to see so many thinking that way that are younger and have families to prepare for. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Frank Bates and wonderful staff. I have been buying you great products for 2 years. On a tight budget. I
Now have solar generator,aquapur water filter,one year supply of food and seeds. Also have solar panels on roof backup batteries. Keep up all your good products. Your company is a gift from GOD
I freeze a lot of food. .but never tried eggs. How to do it? I also did a little canning.. but I still rely on food4patriots for kits and 72hr.packs..for emergencies . Cant beat it ..Best ever for taste and reliability in the company and products they sell …I have the Alexapur water filter.. great product…saving up for the generator and solar panels which anyone can use.. Thanks Frank
I have been freezing various foods for years, but one thing I tried was a casserole made with angel hair shirataki noodles–the noodles were VERY tough & had to throw it out.
This isn’t just for ‘SHTF’ times – it can make life easier and less costly *now*. Freezing stuff when it’s in-season (and cheaper) makes for availability later. And of course I have backup power to varying degrees by various methods, should things fall apart around us. (never count on only a Plan A, or a Plan B. Having a Plan C, and and outline of a Plan D, etc – is what makes for successful survival).
And FWIW – I’ve been freezing pancakes and waffles most of my life. On weekends, I make a double or triple batch of batter – and then freeze those that escape the hungry maws of my grand kids around the breakfast table. ;-)
Pancakes reheat in seconds in a microwave or on a skillet, and waffles come our crispy and hot from a toaster (electric or campfire variety).
Makes for nearly zero effort weekday breakfasts.
Thank you, dry first, then freeze, I think works even better,
Another Idea Inam doing, i dry hard cheese in rectangles, cut down from store bought size of course, when really dry I drip several times in Parafin wax
Just one thing I would like to say about freezing fresh vegetables, Before freezing you should blanch them, The reason why blanching is done is to the stop enzymes.from working on the vegetables. You let them cool after blanching for a set time for different vegetables look up blanching for the time of the vegetables your blanching. Then just bag them or vacuum seal which we love and its fresh vegetables when you need them?
Thank you for the instructions.
I freeze all kinds of greens including kale, beet greens- and the stems which are awesome!, tomatoes, collard greens and grated zucchini. Get creative and don’t let your veggies go to waste. :-)
What makes you think you will still have electricity to keep food frozen or refrigerated in a real break down of society ? After the complete collapse of the dollar and the power plant employees need to stay home protecting their families and the National Guard has no knowledge of operating the power plants ? !! (;^((
Batteries connected to inverters can provide electricity for freezers or refrigerators. These appliances use very low wattage believe it or not, once they are at temperature. Each of mine uses barely 80 Watts.
Buy 12V deep cycle batteries now, keep them fully charged with trickle chargers until the power goes out. Buy an inverter which turns the DC to AC, large enough to power each appliance. If I plug my frig and freezer both into a single inverter in my garage, it takes approximately 160 Watts to power them. I use a 300 Watt inverter for them both. I haven’t fully tested to see how long batteries last with a particular load so I don’t know how fast this will drain them. I plan to have two sets of batteries, using one, and charging the second while using the first. I have a 2400 watt Yamaha portable generator which I use to charge the batteries. With the charger I have, I won’t take long to charge up the batteries. The gen uses gas. If you use the set up this way, you won’t use as much gas as you would letting the gen run full time to run the appliances. You could of course, use solar panels to charge your battereis, but it would take much longer than a generator. In a long term crisis, if you run out of gasoline, you’d have to have solar power to recharge the batteries.
Note on the generator: If you don’t already have one, buy a propane, or tri-fuel generator. The tri-fuel runs off propane, gas or natural gas. I know, NOTHING is cheap, so do it gradually. Buy 12V DC battereis when you can, and build it up gradually. If you use two batteries plus a 300 watt inverter in each room of your house, you could have TV/computer/ and a light in each of the rooms you use in the house. If your internet provider is still up, you will need to provide electricity for your router to pick up the signal. This requires very little wattage also, so a cheap 300 watt inverter will do, along with 2 batteries.
Don’t even think about running an electric oven or stove top on battery power. You will exhaust them in short order. If you have all electric appliances, buy a two burner propane camping stove, with plenty of propane bottles, OR buy a propane patio grill with a cook top burner on it. You can also use the main grill to boil water, and cook meet, also, just take the grill burner covers off, and do it over an open flame.
FYI, propane in a well sealed bottle (5 gal- 20lb) will keep basically indefinitely. Propane does not deteriorate like gasoline. It’s the fuel to have for personal use without eleetricity.
The only items on the list that I have not frozen are eggs and the chips, pretzels, etc. My grandmother always put half gallons of milk in the freezer. The only about milk is, the higher fat content it has, the better it willtaste when thawed. The non fat milk just gets an odd taste after it’s thawed. I have been freezing stuff on that list my whole life.
Used the seed I purchased from you aand a sjmall garden for the first time in several years. I was able to freeze some okra AND AWUASH. thinking ABOUT CANNING NEXT YEAR. won’t RUIN IF THE POWER IS LOST,.
Pickled okra is one of my favorite snacks! So glad you had a successful year.
I planned on canning tomatoes this year and grew 11 plants from the Heritage seeds I got. Right now I have a few green tomatoes about the size of an egg. It’s the second day of Fall, and I started those seeds early this year, too. This property doesn’t get enough sunlight. I’m giving up on garden growing. Been trying since 2008 with not enough reward from all the work I put into it. Congrats on your bounty.
Do I have a freezer? Yup. In fact two large ones. But I also have solar and windmill generators in case the grid goes down. I have enough food to feed 35 people (My family and friends) for three years at three meals a day. All done a very limited budget. I also have over 3 million seeds. My hidey also sits on one of the largest aquifers in the Southwest. You can do it if you research and plan and use your knoggin.
You rock!
Love, love, love these ideas! I am in my first house that has fruit trees so I am new at figuring out what to do with it. I have green apples, plums and apricots. Could you give me some ideas to prepare them before they go bad or are eaten by the critters? Thank you ;)
Best thing to do is dry it either in an oven or a dehydrator. You can find all kinds of info on the internet. Canning is good too and shelf life may be better.
Cut the plums and apricots in half and remove the pits, and freeze them directly in heavy plastic bags wrapped in aluminum foil. It’s best to suck the air out of the plastic bags before sealing.
In my experience, the best kind of dehydrator is a square-shaped one with shelves that pull out in front. I found mine on Amazon, they come in all sizes. Remove cores and pits and cut the fruit in thin slices. (Dried strawberries are also especially tasty!)
The apricots and plums can also be canned or made into jam or jelly, and don’t forget applesauce or apple butter (Yum!) I’m sure applesauce would freeze well, too.
I learned to can from the older edition of “Joy of Cooking”, It has a pretty thorough section on food preservation and explains a lot of the technicalities,
but there are also a lot of other resources on the subject as well.
Good luck!
So you planned for that rainy day when you find yourself and your family sitting at home in a natural or manmade emergency. You set aside extra batteries, candles should the power go down. You have enough fresh food for 4-10 days. But after that, then what? This is where the rubber meets the road. Survivalist, or prepers (as they are now called); will have the forethought to store extra provisions to last a month or longer.
There are people that will say that if the power goes down your freezer and refrigerator will be useless because all the food will spoil. Some will say that they would cook all the food that can be cooked and saved to be eaten later. (I’ll talk about this later)
Well, if you are a survivalist/preper you would not only store extra frozen foods but you would (can) some of this food as well. If you ask anyone, they will tell you that frozen food is the next best thing to fresh. (Can) food will last longer in case of an emergency.
I have employed all three methods. I buy fresh and eat fresh when it is at all possible. I freeze a lot of items that I use on a week to week basis when it is on sale. Then I (can) my own items so that I will have those extra special treats I so do enjoy.
Here is a list of the items that I freeze: extra turkeys, extra hams (some in cans, others shanks), beef, pork, chicken and lamb. The beef that I freeze is tri-tip, steaks, hamburger and roasts. The pork is pork chops, roasts, and bacon (apple wood), and ribs (both pork and beef.) I also freeze corn on the cob (Husk and all) peas, carrots, broccoli, and other assorted vegetables, plums, tangerines, oranges, apples, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, and kiwis. I also freeze breads, pizza dough, bread dough, and cookie dough, pancakes and waffles. I also freeze fresh herbs such as: mint, basil, thyme, sage, chives and rosemary. I also freeze butter. Butter is very big in my house. It is almost to the point where is might cheaper to buy the cow instead.
The beef that I have frozen, I have hamburger that is not cooked, I have some that I have made into a meatloaf(s), meatballs and loose, for those sloppy- Joes and meat sauces like spaghetti. The corn Husks are used for enchiladas and those Mexican dishes my wife and daughter-in-law cook oh, so well.
What I am saying is this: by freezing you get to feast on those great dishes year-round verses only on those special occasions when the food is on sale. When a sale pops up, you can restock your freezer and make your stores last year or so. It is fun to have on hand that which is needed verses having to pay through the nose for the now.
For those of you that would say that if the power goes out I would have a freezer full of spoil food. I went out and bought a solar generator at http://www.MilitarySolarBackup.com [typed in (BRANDON)]. With the three back up batteries and solar panels; I can run my refrigerator, freezer, and a few other appliances all day long. I am running the power of my home through solar panels on my roof – thanks to Frank Bates “Power4Patriots” “off the grid living” Just a note: I paid $1.00 to my power company for the month of June. This was for taxes only. Never in my wildest dreams did I see this coming. $1.00, one stinking dollar to the power company. Thanks Frank I owe you big time.
I realize that I can write a book on freezing, canning, growing my own vegetables and excreta; but when you combine everything together you start to look pretty good. Things start to get easier because you made the right decisions and you worked your way towards your goal. I don’t expect that there will be a national emergency, natural or manmade; but I am now prepared to out last most emergencies than the Federal Government is. I am working for the long term survival. How about you? Are you ready? Then listen to what Frank Bates has to say. Docendo Discimus (we learn by teaching.)
GOLD STAR! GOLD STAR! GOLD STAR!!!!!!
Awesome work. Feels really good, doesn’t it?!
I am starting at trying to have a survival program for myself (72 old woman). Hope to get some simple ideas how to do that.
I’m 66 and I started gardening and learning to can and dehydrate foods I grew a few years ago. It’s a big undertaking though. If you live in a city with city water and sewer, you might want to think what you’d do if those services were cut off. get water bladders for your bathtubs, and bricks of water. buy some MRE instant foods and have an alternate supply of fuel to heat them. Camp stove? That would be a start.
Glenna, you ROCK. You did something that 98% of the people in this country has not even started to do yet; that is, you took the first step to do something about your current situation. You saw the potential shortage and decided to do something about it. Well done, Glenna, well done.
Hi Michele, Since you were born as a child of the Great Depression; I’m sure we could learn a few things from you.
However, in your situation what I would do is to make a list of things that I usually use a lot of for my meals. I would also include those seasonal items that you may enjoy such as strawberries, blueberries and alike. Then as these items become available freeze them. You may want to get a large freezer to store these item in because your refrigerator freezer will be too small to store all these items at once. Then have some fun. You can freeze meats, cheese, eggs, fruits and vegetables. You can freeze beef, chicken and vegetable stocks; not to mention an extra ham or turkey when they come on sale or day old bread when it comes on sale.
You can look on http://www.youtube.com under the heading how to freeze (what ever you are curious about) and you will find a lot of suggestions to fill your freezer. Best of Luck and have some fun.
It would do everyone good to learn to garden, can & freeze. I raised my family on home grown produce. And sometimes I had to have container gardens because of where I lived or a garden in the front yard. You can also buy reuseable lids for canning jars (tattler is one brand) be as self sufficiant as possible
Peggy, if everyone took your advice, and I hope they do, then they would have some of the best food around; not to mention the fun of growing it. Kids just love watching things grow when they know that they will eat them later and they love to help out too.
A heads up for those who can: The canning lids can be reused. Found this in an old Mennonite cookbook. I wash my lids, making sure no food remains on the enamel or rubber, then store them upside down in plastic boxes. When I need them, I put water on the stove and enough lids for the jars of food I expect to get. I separate the lids as suggested on the new boxes, and boil for 1 hour. The heat can be reduced to a simmer. The rubber should be refreshed. I am careful about how I open the jars so I don’t put dents in the tops and along the sides. If too badly dented or if the enamel is scratched, they will not seal. My daughter tried boiling them ahead, like in winter, and stored them to stay clean. I haven’t tried this, but see no reason why it would not work. I would just heat the lids in boiling water before using, like regular lids from a new box just to refresh the sterilization.
You might want to consider Posting an Article on the Process of Smoking Food, if the power goes out all your frozen goods will go to waste.
Last summer, I picked a lot of wild blackberries. Whatever couldn’t be eaten fresh, I packed into freezer bags and froze, until I had enough for a few batches of jam and pie filling. Then I took them out of the freezer and canned them.
With Thanksgiving coming up, don’t throw away that turkey carcass. I break itt up into a large pot, cover it with water, and simmer it on the stove for a couple of hours. Then I let it cool, remove all of the bones, and strain it. The bones get discarded, the mushy little pieces of meat make a nice treat for the cats and dogs, and the liquid broth gets poured into ice cube trays or muffin tins and frozen to be used later as a base for soup or gravy.
If your fruit gets soft and sqishy when you bag them and freeze them, try putting them on a tray and put them in the freezer until they are frozen, they vacuum seal them. They will stay whole and last much longer without oxygen:)
Please forgive my typos. Was in too much of a hurry to spell check.
We haul fruit in the fall from the western part of Colorado especially in years like this when the blossoms freeze in the spring and we don’t have it. I always tell my customers if they don’t have time to can peaches to freeze them whole. I have had them in the freezer for 2 years and while they look dimpled and ugly on the outside the inside is just as orange as fresh picked, and they can be put individually in a ziploc freezer bag and tucked in among all the other frozen items. When you want a peach, just hold it under running water for a few seconds and slip off the skin then thaw in the micowave if you are in a hurry or let thaw in a bowl for 30 min. until you can slice it easily. To eat them raw I leave them a little frosty. I have frozen almost all of the suggested items except maybe potato chips with great success. I don’t like corn frozen on the cob and I have tried it every way anyone has suggested,I prefer to parboil it and cool it in ice water and cut it off the cob, it doesn’ t take up as much room in the freezer either Tomatos can also be frozen, especially cherry ones and used for salad while still a little frosty
I can a lot of stuff, at least 3-400 jars a year but I still have 2 freezers full. If the power went out I have a coal cook stove in the basement and could can the meat and other things if necessary but the freezer will last 3-4 days if unopened for short term power outages and I am hoping to get a solar backup system that could at least keep my freezer going. Some things are just better frozen than canned, like corn and peas and broccoli. Bread and cheese and other things can stand to thaw and still be good for a while.
A simple solution is move to Wisconsin where you don’t need a freezer six months out of the year, just keep your frozen items outside
Lol. Well, cheesehead, I freeze cheese and butter in my little freezer here in waRm and sunny Florida. Plus Fresh berries, old bananas, leftover pancakes, chicken carcasses, and citrus juices in cubes. I plan to garden next season and have more veggies.
I just made a big pot of turkey noodle soup, so I decided to freeze some to take camping with us. No one would eat it because the noodles “self-destructed”! I won’t be freezing things with noodles in it after this.
TRY FREESING THE “BROTH/MEAT” AND THEN ADD THE NOODLES WHEN YOU BUILD THE CAMP FIRE AND COOK DOWN THE “BROTH” SO YOU CAN ALWAYS ADD WATER
Just a tip about freezing my chicken noodle soup, I add my noodles right at the end just stir in put in containers and freeze, works well for me been freezing noodle soup a long time I am 76
Squirrels are smart and greedy. My peach, pear and plum trees were loaded with fruit.
The squirrels took every one of them …….they left my figs alone.
They are also chewing on brake lines and spark plug wires. Just what kind of winter
is coming?
They are after the wires for the salt that is in them maybe put out a salt lick?
This winter, we’re letting the squirrels eat all they want of the suet and birdseed, because when Squirrel season comes along, we’ll have 6 or 7 nice fat ones to eat. They freeze really well,
Wire insulation is made from soy. The squirrels recognize it’s food. Pack rats do the same.
MY OLD 1988 PLYMOUTH VOYAGER HAD THE RADIATOR CAP STOLEN? AND WHEN I WENT TO TRY AND START IT, THE RADIATOR AND AIR CLEANER WERE FILLED WITH “SHELL BARKS” ALSO AN OLD 68 VW “BEETLE” WITH AN “EXTRACTOR” HAD WALNUTS SHOVED DOWN IT, I HAD A “WALNUT” CANNON WHEN I FIRED IT UP! THE LIL “BEASTIEZ” WILL PUT NUTS ANYWHERE THERE IS AN OPENING!
Squirrels ….Good eaten in gumbo.
Just make sure you cook them extremely well, otherwise you might end up getting rabies from them !!
I read the article and freeze many items on the list, especially diced onions, vegetables, bread and hamburger meat. Living alone, a lot of foods would go bad before I use them so freezing is a good option to save money and food. I also dehydrate a lot of vegetables people give from their gardens and then use them later in soups.
I dry onions, cherries,apricots any fruit. I can as well. I even dried hamburger patties.. Not to great but won’t hurt to try. I have three freezers and they are full most of the time. But my sons keep us in meat. We smoke some meat.
I FREEZE SLIM JIMS/CRACKERS/RAMAN NOODLES/AND ANY TYPE OF PASTA/NOODLES MASHED POTATOE POWDER, IT KEEPS THEM FROM GETTIN “BUGGY” AND THE SHELF LIFE IS INCREASED SEVERAL FOLD! I FREEZE CORN ON THE COB WITH THE “HUSKS” STILL ON AND THEN MICROWAVE IT! TASTED EXCELLENT AND RETAINS THE MOISTURE AND TEXTURE, ALSO BAKE POTATOES AND THEN FREEZE THEM! HAVE ONE IN 2 MINUTES EVEN WRAP THEM IN FOIL AND PUT ON THE “GRILL” READY TO EAT IN NO TIME AT ALL! SAME WITH THE CORN ALL READY IN MINUTES! YUMJ!
I have tried to stay away from freezing – it is a very poor alternative for survival situations as there will not be any electricity. It is – however, a great temporary way to keep your harvest during the busy times of the year and then further process it in the slower times of the year, like winter.
I take the bounty of the garden harvest and toss what I can’t process into the freezer then in the winter i make pie filling to can up with my fruit and I also can up my meat, frozen meals like chili and other casserole type meals can quite well and are much tastier than freeze dried meals PLUS they dont require water to eat them.
So utilize your freezer as a tool – a place to store your food until you can process it into an form that does not require electricity. It is a great thing to have.
MY “CHEST” FREEZER ONLY DRAWS 1.5 AMPS OF POWER FOR THE COMPRESSOR, I HAVE IT IN THE “COLD” CELLAR, SO IT PULLS EVEN LESS! ALMOST ANY SOLAR PANEL WITH EVEN A 200 WATT INVERTER WILL MAINTAIN IT, AS IT ONLY COMES ON ONCE OR TWICE A DAY! I FREEZE GALLON MILK JUSGS IF ANY ROOM IS AVAILABLE, THIS WILL HELP KEEP COLD LONGER!, I CAN USE THE “MILK JUGS IN A “SWAMP COOLER MADE FROM A 5 GALLON CAN AND A 12 VOLT MUFFIN FAN! THIS WORKS FOR ABOUT 5 HOURS! PER JUG, THE FAN ONLY TAKES 10 WATTS OR LESS EVEN AN OLD CHEST FREEZER CAN REPLACE CENTRAL A/C AT A FRACTION OF THE COST, USING OFF-PEAK POWER!
nice!
Freezing is great but what if the power goes out for an extended period of time. Canning is a better alternative. Meats, vegetables, and fruits can all be canned for later use. Also dehydrating on drying is another option.
PULL STUFF FROM THE FREEZER AND “SMOKE” THE MEAT/BARBECUE/ CAN IT DRY IT, SAVE A LOT OF WORK, GET A PROPANE CAMP STOVE, TURKEY FRIER, AND A PELLET GUN! THERE ARE TONZ OF “SEA GULLS” AT THE MALL GETTIN “FAT” ON FRENCH FRIES! YOU COULD COOK AND EAT THEM IN AN EMERGENCY! FEED THEM THE STALE CRACKERS/BREAD THEY LUV IT! THEY SWOOP DOWN AND EAT OUT OF YOUR HAND! TINY OYSTER CRACKERS ARE THEIR FAVORITE AFTER MICKY “D’z” FRIES!