When I began prepping one of the first things I did was build a Bugout Bag and in that bag I put a few MREs. That is, Meal Ready to Eat in the long form and when I looked at their shelf life I realized they actually weren’t a great option for long term food storage. At least not to me. When I think of seriously prepping food I would ideally like something that is light, compact and healthy. It would also require a VERY long shelf life and an easy way of preparing. It would be really nice if it could be my Great Grandmother’s Chicken Paprikosh recipe. Too bad that’s not possible.
But wait… You’ll never guess? It is possible. Because the Prescott Caliber Club has taken a serious interest in Freeze Dried foods and partnered up with an amazing company to offer some pretty cool products. In the store we do carry a few of the name brand Freeze Dried product and some of it does better than others; But what we like to focus on is self-sustainability. And what better way to help accomplish this than by offering you a product that you can use to Freeze Dry virtually any meal you currently eat and store it in sealed Mylar bags at a fraction of the cost of buying it from the big name brands. An average Freeze Dryer will cost you a little more than buying one years worth of bulk Freeze Dried food. Not a bad deal if you really think about it.
So what company did we choose? Well the best of course, HarvestRight which has a great track record of wonderful customer support as well as an absolutely amazing product. Freeze Drying is a very interesting process and I will try not to butcher it with my RedNeckAbilities, but basically all food has water content as a major part of its make up. Freeze Dryers cool the food (and water) down to freezing temperatures before creating a vacuum void of Oxygen inside the machine. Without Oxygen the frozen water can never take liquid form and upon warming back up it turns to a gas and is sucked out of the machine leaving behind a perfectly preserved piece of food with absolutely no water content inside of its still structural membranes. All that’s needed to restore it to it’s nearly original 
form is a little bit of water and the magic of Osmosis. Clearly some food items work better than others but anything you find in the store that is freeze dried can be made at home. One of the most amazing to me is that raw eggs can be Freeze Dried and blended to make a powder that only requires hot water to be added to have yourself some Scrambled Eggs, 25 years later. And the best part about Freeze Drying? Most food retains over 95% of it’s nutritional value which is huge compared to Dehydrating.
So I think it goes without saying that the Prescott Caliber Club feels the best strategy for Long Term Food Storage is Freeze Dried. And in the long run Freeze Drying your own food is going to be the most cost efficient way of achieving this. Please go online at PrescottCalClub.com to view our selection of HarvestRight Freeze Dryers, if we don’t have the one you’re looking for we can order it for you!
As always, if you’d like to book one of our Shooting Experiences contact us at the Prescott Caliber Club Today!