Adding Fruits to Food Storage
The most common fruits to store and the easiest by far are apples, bananas, peaches, and strawberries.
Let's explore some of the nutritional information and variety of fruits to add to our food storage pantry and garden as well as ways to preserve these healthy selections! We should always: ● Eat a variety of fruit ● Choose fresh, frozen, canned, or dried fruit Fruits should make up about 1/6th of your home food storage inventory. With the modern methods of preserving and freeze-drying having fruit available out of season is very convenient. The ability to dehydrate fruit is simple and can add healthy snacks and side dishes to our diet. Storing and consuming these useful foods keep our vitamins and mineral levels in healthy balance. Stock fruit varieties in fresh whole form whenever possible. To keep a supply store them in canned forms or mylar bags. The best way to have them is fresh from the garden. Grow them if you have the room. It is wonderful to have fresh fruit available. Consider growing strawberries or adding a few fruit trees or vines to your yard decor. With the right care, these plants and trees will produce for you year after year. But what other ways can we add fruits to our pantry? Mentioned above is freeze dried and dehydrated. Let's walk through the orchard and find more ways to keep these awesome foods on hand. Choosing fruits to add to a pantry for preparedness is easy. Find the ones you and your family eat and move to the different forms you may find them in. Below is a list of the common fruits and ways you can find them to store in your food storage pantry.
Apples - One A Day
So the saying goes, "An Apple a day keeps the doctor away." Apples are a great source of vitamin C and dietary fiber. They are an excellent boost for energy supply with their sweet fruit sugars and they are truly one of the easiest fruits to have handy. Use of them in snacks and deserts is simple. Eat them whole or slice them up for pastries and pies or crumble a few chunks of butter and cinnamon for a tasty treat.
NUTRITION INFORMATION 1 medium apple counts as 1 cup in the MyPyramid.gov Fruit Group. For a 2,000-calorie diet, the daily recommendation is about 2 cups of fruit. 1 medium apple provides almost 20% of the daily recommended amount of fiber.
The percentages are part of a recommended daily allowances in a standard 2,000 calorie diet. Freeze-Dried vs. Dehydrated Apples
Compare the nutritional value of dehydrated and freeze dried apples:
Apple Chips (Dehydrated) Serving Size 1/4 cup
Apples, Granny Smith (Freeze Dried) Serving Size 1/4 cups (4g)
Here we can see the calorie counts do drop considerably. There is a change as well in the amount of Vitamin C contained in the dehydrated and freeze dried portions also. Dehydrated apples need a bit of help with some preservatives to keep them fresh tasting and to maintain quality. In looking at these values it is easy to see the freeze dried holds more benefits than that of a dehydrated apple choice. The freeze dried will keep longer as well. Shelf life of dehydrated apples is generally 5 years. The shelf life of freeze dried apples is around 25 years. Keeping freeze-dried apples on hand is an easy decision here. Apple Pie Recipe
Ingredients:
For Pie Crust 2 1/2 C Flour 1t salt 1 C Shortening 1/4 C cold water 1 t white vinegar 1 egg - beaten For Apple Pie Filling 4 large Granny Smith Apples - peeled, sliced 1/2 C Granulated Sugar 1/4 Brown Sugar 1/2 t cinnamon 4 T butter (sliced) *3 Cups of freeze-dried apples may be rehydrated and used for this recipe. Directions For Pie Crust Combine flour, salt, and shortening. Mix until it is like cornmeal. In a bowl combine water, eggs, and white vinegar. Add liquid ingredients to dry and mix with fork until dough sticks together. Divide into 2 balls. Place ball between 2 pieces of waxed paper and roll out. Remove top piece of waxed paper. Place upside-down pie pan over rolled out dough and flip over. Remove last piece of waxed paper. Fit loosely in pan and trim edge 1/2 to 1 inch beyond edge. Crimp edges with fingers. Fill and bake according to recipe. If a baked pie shell is needed, prick bottom and sides well with a fork and bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 2 9-inch pie crusts. Directions For Apple Pie Filling: Take 1/2 of the apple slices and layer across bottom of pie crust in a thick layer. Add 1/2 of the sugar, brown sugar, and 2 T of the butter. Layer the rest of the apples over this and sprinkle the top with the rest of the sugars and butter. Apple filling should be a mound in the middle of the crust slightly higher than the pie tin. Cover with the remaining pie crust, and slice 4 - 1 inch vents in the top crust. Seal edges by pinching top and bottom crust together slightly. If you are really creative cut strips out of the top crust and weave it into a pie top. Baking Instructions For Apple Pie: Place a cookie sheet in oven UNDER the pie pan. The baking pie WILL drip some of the juices out of the pan. Bake 15 minutes in preheated oven at 425 degrees. Reduce the temperature to 350F degrees. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. Peach Cobbler
(Adapted From Deseret Cookbook)
You may substitute any fruit for this recipe - canned, dehydrated, or freeze-dried. If using a dried fruit such as blueberries or strawberries, be sure to let them rehydrate completely before combining with the ingredients. Ingredients for Shortcake Dough: 1 C Sifted Flour 1 T Sugar 1 1/2 t Baking Powder 1/2 t Salt 3 T Shortening 1/2 C Milk (to make soft dough) Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut shortening into flour mixture until fine. Stir in small amounts of the milk until soft dough. Set aside. For Cobbler Filling: 1 C Sugar 1 T Corn Starch 1 C Boiling Water Or Syrup from Canned Fruit 3 Cups Fruit (In this recipe - Peaches) 1/2 T butter or margarine 1/2 t cinnamon Mix in sauce pan the sugar, corn starch, and gradually add the water or fruit syrup. Stir constantly and bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute. Add fruit. When mixed, pour into 10" x 6" x 2" baking pan. Dot with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Drop shortcake dough by spoonfuls over top of fruit and bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. Serve warm with cream. |
Fruit Servings Daily
One serving size is defined as:
Nutritional Information Sources: USDA Canning: Applesauce, Jelly, Jams, and Preserves
Applesauce is one of the more common ways to have apples in long term storage. Gather pre-made applesauce ready to go from your local market or try out a handy recipe for making your own!
The advantage of bottling your own fruits is clear. You know exactly what went into it! There is a bit of work involved when it comes to creating home preserves and bottling home fruits. Following directions carefully insures you not only have fruits and foods on hand in Mason Jars but you are also preserving the quality of the foods you use. There are tons of great recipes in the Ball Canning book to get you started in home processing of fruits. Start with a simple jelly and move on to more complicated recipes! For more about canning - see Freezing and Preserving Fruit Homemade Applesauce Video:Bananas about Bananas!
One of the best fruits to consume for it's vitamins and mineral properties, bananas are an essential fruit portion in a healthy diet. They are grown in tropic zones and shipped world wide. Keep a good supply of freeze-dried or dehydrated banana chips in the pantry.
Store bananas easily in the freezer, too! Simply toss them in when they start to get brown spots and use them for banana bread or muffins. They will keep for about 2 years frozen. Toss em in a blender for smoothies! For more convenient frozen storage, remove peel and place about 3 bananas in a sandwich size zip-lock bag. 3 bananas is the general portion for a batch of banana bread. Keep them whole or mash them down with a potato masher for simple use later. If kept frozen in the peel, they will need to be submersed in water for a few minutes to make soften the peel so that the fruit may be removed. Nutritive Value Bananas are low in sodium and rich in potassium. They also have small amounts of calcium, copper, iodine, iron, phosphorous, zinc and vitamins A, B, and C. A medium banana contains:
Source: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HE/HE60700.pdf Banana Bread - A Perfect Food!
Banana bread is almost a perfect food. With the daily requirements of protein, carbohydrates, fruits, a small portion of fats, and sugars a slice of banana bread can fill the belly with needed sustenance. It can supply a good amount of energy and is a wonderful snack item! Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
1 3/4 C sifted flour 1/4 t baking soda 2 t baking powder 1/2 t salt 1/3 C Shortening 1/2 C sugar 2 eggs beaten 1 C Mashed Bananas Directions: Sift together flour, soda, baking powder, and salt. Add shortening and cream well. Gradually add sugar and continue creaming until light and fluffy. Add a small portion at a time of the banana mixture. Beat until smooth. Turn into a well greased bread pan (8.5" x 4.5") and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees F until golden brown on top and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Makes 1 loaf. For quick banana bread muffins, pour batter mixture into muffin papers inserted into muffin tins. Bake 25 to 30 mins at 350 degrees. Small loaf banana bread will only take about 35 to 40 minutes to bake. Strawberries
Strawberries are easy to prepare and store. Cut them into slices and toss in a freezer. Mash them down into a pulp and create jam with them. They can be freeze dried and dehydrated as well. They also can be made into fruit leather.
The nutritional content of strawberries is high in Vitamin C and minerals such Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Potassium. Peaches
Peaches are excellent healthy snacks and for cooking family favorite desserts. They can be processed by canning and great for picking and consuming straight from the tree. They contain some excellent nutrients. Use them in place of the apples in the apple pie recipe or try a recipe for peach cobbler!
Nutritional value for a serving size of Peaches (3.5 oz ) Calories 39 * Carbohydrates 9.5 g * Sugars 8.4 g * Dietary Fiber 1.5 g *Fat 0.3 g Protein 0.9 g * Vitamin C 8% * Iron 2% * Potassium 4% |
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Images of chicken coop project and brooder and other images property of M Burgess, please, do not copy. Copyright 2015
Images of chicken coop project and brooder and other images property of M Burgess, please, do not copy. Copyright 2015