Blog #7 Fruit Storage

When you put fruit up there are only 2 good ways to do it. Cans that you buy in the store will not last very long in storage, of course that depends on the amount of light, humidity and temperature.  The absolute best way is to save dried fruit, whether you dry it yourself and put up in aluminum cans, canning jars or Mylar bags. Of all the storage forms, dried lasts the longest. You can pressure can fruit that will last for a while; again there is the light/temp/humidity thing. At least when you put up in canning jars you can check the top of the lid for being able to push it down and also being able to see the color of the fruit inside will be a good indication of how the fruit is holding up.

A food dryer is a handy thing to have on hand and especially if it is not an electric one. You can make them pretty inexpensively and we will have a blog about how to do that at a later time. Even after the SHTF you can still dry food if you find it, so it will last longer and you can make jerky on it too and here is where the spices come in handy so the jerky has a better flavor to it.

You can buy your own fruit and dry it, or purchase dried fruit from the grocery store, or buy dried fruit in bulk in 25 pound sacks and put it up yourself in canning jars or Mylar bags or you can purchase dried fruit already in #2.5 or #10 cans from places such as www.wisefoods.com, www.mountainhouse.com, www.readyreserves.com, etc.

Fruit is important to have in your storage for the vitamin C content, other nutrients and fiber. If you have read much about the old time sailors and the scurvy they suffered from, when they were out to sea for a long length of time.  Scurvy is a disease that is totally preventable if only they had known about the Vitamin C, but in our case we know about it and it is easily prevented. There is also fruit rollups (check out package). There is a 100% fruit juice that is in a can and shelf stable, however it will be just like fruit in a can and will not last very long and you have to put water with it because it is concentrated. You can also purchase fruit juices in plastic bottles, but with the acid content they may not last very long either. Make sure you rotate your stock while you can.