Preserving Your Stash for Sheltering in Place
March 31, 2020
Laura
Preserving Your Stash

It’s week three of “sheltering in place” with two trips to the store – and we just took our last until the end of April. We should have enough, but I need to keep my fresh produce, fresh. Fortunately, I have my handy vacuum sealer.

I got five bunches of celery at a restaurant supply store for a little over $3. I dehydrated one bunch of the celery, and vacuum sealed the rest so I’ll have plenty for homemade stock and soups. I also vacuum sealed carrots and romaine lettuce. We love salad in my house, especially dinner salads, and will be sad when it’s all gone.

You can also vacuum seal food in jars, if you have a jar attachment. Here are some other tactics you can do in preserving fresh food when you can’t leave the house –

* I bought three extra gallons of milk, and took 1 ½ cups of milk out of each jug and froze. Your milk jug may split from expansion if you don’t take this milk out. I put the extra in a Ball jar for the fridge. I did the same for half gallons of lemonade and orange juice. (I could only find a few cans of concentrate)

* Flash freeze shredded cheese. You do this by laying shredded cheese on a cookie tray, and freezing. After frozen, place in a gallon freezer bag. Flash freezing ensures the cheese doesn’t stick together.

* Freezing eggs. Just break eggs individually in muffin tin wells, then pop out and place in gallon bags.

Of course, there’s so much more in rounding out the pantry to ensure you have plenty of fruits, vegetables, and other sundries. This is simply how to preserve just a few basics when coming home from a big shopping trip.

Sheltering in place does not translate into being deprived. In fact, I make a big effort to create extra special meals and snacks for my family during hard times. So light a scented candle, turn off the news, and make a special meal with your carefully planned provisions!

4 Comments

  1. Theresa Raye

    I enjoy getting this newsletter. I had some potatoes that were starting to sprout so I par-boiled them in my instant pot a few days ago. Today I shredded them for hash browns, browned them on both sides in my Nuwave oven, cut into individual servings and froze for later use. Got 16 servings so I felt good about preserving those potatoes for later use.

    Reply
    • LauraM

      Theresa, thank you for reading! It’s always great to rescue produce from expiring. Good for you! I had a few sweet potatoes about to go south, so I cooked them to make sweet potato bread. I’ll be posting the recipe next week! I haven’t heard of a Nuwave oven. I’ll have to look that up!

      Reply
  2. Nancy

    Thank you, some very good tips!!

    Reply
    • LauraM

      Thank you Nancy!

      Reply

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