Adding to the long-term food stocks

[rightisright]

I use a little trick to vacuum seal those using the Food Saver.

Do tell your trick! Is it the one where you seal the mylar inside a regular foodsaver bag? ... saw that one on Youtube.

[workinwifdakids]

I would think rotation would be a regular part of food storage.

Absolutely agree. However, if I rotate through canned chicken and beef, and have a non-rotating and ever-increasing supply of beans, lentils, pasta, bullion, salt, etc., then it's a very effective strategy - but again, perhaps only for my circumstances (budget, space, climate, and my own cost/benefit analysis).

I think the only, really effective, thing to do is live somewhere which allows you to produce your own food supply, and keep enough on hand to make it through a couple years - at the outside. Its important to provide for crop failures.

Good idea. A freedom garden is a reasonable solution, too, which will let you supplement stored items with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Do tell your trick! Is it the one where you seal the mylar inside a regular foodsaver bag?

This is nowhere as easy as he shows on the video. The key is to keep the top of the mylar bag WAY beneath the upper level of the Food Saver bags. Be ready to shut off the vacuum and seal, too - about one in three mylar bags refuse to vacuum the first time and require re-adjustment inside the Food Saver bags. When the Food Saver bag seals itself, wait a minute. Now bring the Food Saver bag up until the mylar bag inside covers the heat strip. Heat seal. Do not open the mechanism, and after a minute re-seal that spot. Repeat a half-inch lower (sealing twice on the same strip). Now remove the entire item. The mylar will have TWO sealed strips across the top of it, about a half-inch apart. When the mylar is cool to the touch, carefully cut off the Food Saver bag just beneath the seal line (you can re-use the rest of the Food Saver bag). Now take the mylar bag - already vacuum sealed - and HOT IRON it shut with [strike]your wife's clothing iron[/strike] the iron you bought at a yard sale.

I still toss in 02 absorbers.

[randy]

a garden or greenhouse with a bunch of nonhybrid vegetable seeds

Why specify non-hybrid seeds?

[JAG2955]

a garden or greenhouse with a bunch of nonhybrid vegetable seeds

Why specify non-hybrid seeds?

There is no guarantee that a hybrid seed will produce season after season. You might have a hybrid tomato that produces fantastically one year, save seeds, and the next year it does just okay, and the third year the plants are sterile.

Non-hybrid seeds are also called heritage/heirloom seeds in some places.

[Aglifter]

Its not usually done to prevent replanting. I'm forgetting terms, but most modern food is produced by... duploids? Haploids? (I focused on viruses, not plants) It involves having multiple copies of DNA inside the cells, which is a condition created only by hybridizing.

Now, why you want heirlooms is pretty simple. Heirloom strains were bred for flavor. You have a sense of taste, because its how your body identifies which nutrients you need, ergo the "better" a crop tastes - outside of basic sweetness - the more nutrients it has. Modern strains have been bred for transport and physical appearance. Heirlooms may, or may not, have more disease resistance, however.

[JAG2955]

Sure, an heirloom can be a hybrid. A good example is a Mortgage Lifter Tomato. But it will breed true generation after generation. That's why it's an heirloom.

A non-reproducing hybrid does not have to be genmod. If you save the seed from a yellow tomato crossed with a red one, you won't get get an orange one the following year. It will likely be similar to the original plant. Chris mentioned grafting. If you save the seed from a semi-dwarf peach to grow, you will not get a semi-dwarf peach again. You will get a full-sized peach tree. Semi-dwarves are grown by grafting full-sized trees onto dwarf rootstock.

I would wager that heirloom seeds are more resistant to disease as long as they're planted in the same location, Aglifter. That way they're used to the environmental diseases and insects of that area.

Bottom line is you want to save and store seeds that are going to produce for you for several generations. I should probably actually invest in some: http://www.survivalseedbank.com/

[HTRN]

One thing to look out for with saving seeds is distance - if your neighbor is growing tomatoes say, you can almost guarantee crosspollination with yours at distances of less than 500 feet. For most people this won't be an issue, but if you grow Big Boys for eating, San Marzano's for sauce, and cherry 100s for salad..


HTRN

[Aglifter]

Yes, and no on the disease resistance. Sometimes, the heirloom strains are more resistant (many wine grapes are grown on root stock of mustang grapes), but some modern strains have been bred specifically for resisting certain blights, etc.

[rightisright]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnMOV8sW ... re=related

That's a video that shows a much simpler method of sealing mylar using a foodsaver's suction hose. My bags should arrive soon. Will post results.

[arctictom]

Sounds like you are taking the right approach to this , And I second the notion to store things you eat now , and rotate through them, don't forget chocolate coffee, tea , wine, beer, no need to be miserable.