We have lots of customers in hurricane country and they’ve given us insight into some problems associated with traditional hurricane preparedness scenarios:
- Canned food is heavy and bulky. Space in the evacuation vehicle becomes high value real estate after you add kids, pet kennels, suitcases, and necessities.
- Canned food is limited in selection. People who have been through hurricanes or hurricane evacuations will tell that peas or stewed tomatoes aren’t all that comforting.
- Canned and boxed food – or anything that doesn’t spoil quickly – can be full of preservatives and other chemicals.
- While adults may be able to soldier through a week of tuna on crackers, not having access to food normality can ratchet up the stress for kids and pets.
- Canned and boxed food flies off the shelves in grocery stores in the days before a hurricane. You get what you can, which may not be much.
- Canned and boxed foods can require boiling or cooking – which requires equipment and wasting precious water supplies.
Having a home freeze dryer solves all of these problems.
- Freeze drying food removes all of the water, which is most of the weight. Entire entrees can be compressed to flat Mylar bags.
- Freeze dried food is nearly unlimited in selection. Freeze dry your favorite comfort meals and snacks and you won’t have to worry about suffering through a tenth meal of peanut butter and stale crackers.
- Freeze drying your own food at home means you can use fresh, whole, organic foods. No preservatives are required to keep freeze dried food safe to eat.
- Freeze dried food ensures food normality for kids and pets. Kids even get a kick out of the novelty of watching freeze dried food rehydrate. If you make your own pet food, you can freeze dry an ample supply and not have to worry about spoilage.
- When you freeze dry your own food for emergencies, you will never have to endure the madhouse of a grocery store or gas station before a storm hits.
- Many freeze dried foods (such as ice cream) is even better without rehydrating it. Otherwise, just add water to rehydrate any freeze dried food. Because you only have to add the amount of water that you took out during freeze drying, you won’t waste precious quarts of water boiling or cooking canned or boxed food.
- If you don’t use the food you’ve stored or packed, it doesn’t go to waste. Freeze dried food and ingredients will last for years if stored properly. Use your stash for fast weeknight meals or save it for the next emergency.
Even if you don’t live within earshot of the ocean, large hurricanes can cause flooding and disrupt power and supply chains hundreds of miles inland. Some storms in the last three years have even been large enough to affect the Midwest. Remember that during an emergency or an evacuation, you’ll likely need more carbohydrates than you normally eat and plenty of protein, so store or pack extra portions to share and keep up your energy.
