Hi Folks,
A post via a friend on facebook. I thought this was an interesting comparison of 3 methods of food preservation: canning, freezing and dehydration.
http://wholenewmom.com/whole-new-budget/which-costs-the-least-dehydrating-freezing-or-canning/
Replies
I love these kind of data comparison articles. :) I like that dehydrating saves a lot of space too. The figures given for the dehydrated stuff are at the very high end... you can get the mesh air dehydrators at the Asian markets for $10 or so and they keep the flies away and work excellently out here. I use all three, some foods just lend themselves better to specific methods- fruits and some veggies for dehydrating, salsa, jellies, and pickles are canned, and any meat is frozen.
Rachel, I also use all three - I try to take advantage as much as I can kick myself to, of the sun in the warm to hot times here to dehydrate (no fuel costs :-). I also am using a small 4 quart pressure cooker so I don't feel the need to pressure can big batches, and a soup pot of water bath canning. Just a limited amount of freezer space, keeps me pointed in shelf-stable options more and more.
That's very interesting site. I hope to try more methods of preservation. Still haven't taking the canning leap. some day, some day...