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Show Homo Storage No too Home preserved food can last as long and be as nutritious nu-tritious as commercially canned food. But you have to do It right. If It's handled handl-ed and processed properly it can have the same shelf life as commercially canned can-ned foor, so says Delos Ellsworth, El-lsworth, director of the E.T. Benson Institute in Provo, which specializes in home storage and gardening. Experts from the Genson Institute have traveled ex-tensively ex-tensively to learn and teach food storage and gardening techniques to people worldwide. world-wide. It's ideal if people produce pro-duce as much of their own food as they can. They don't have to have an entire year's supply in cans and cartons. Some of it can be In the ground. The rest of the home storage stor-age should only include food that you are used to eating. Many people store staples such as powdered milk,wheat and honey but those foods aren't part of their normal diet. People changing from their usual diet to one of only staples or dehydrated foods may become ill and even require hospitalization. Keep track of what you eat and build a storage program around that. Don't dehydrate foods just because it's popular. popu-lar. Do it because your family likes to eat them. Buy storage foods in the quantity your family uses. Even if smaller packages cost more per ounce, you save by avoiding the waste and contamination of a large opened container which can't be used completely before it spoils. Your first priority should be for the basics: grains, legumes, flour, dry milk, sugar, honey, salt, oil and water. The second is fruit and vegetables, followed by items like eggs, cheese or meat substitutes. Don't make a home storage stor-age system a one time panic shopping trip that depletes your savings account. In-stea, In-stea, accumulate a supply slowly and carefully. It will cost less and you'll likely store items you can use instead of food purchased hurriedly or frantically. You food storage should not be an emergency supply stashed in a corner of your basement. If it is, the limited limit-ed shelf life of even canned dehydrated foods will eventually even-tually render your storage foods useless. |