No Waste Pre-Hurricane Food Preservation
Introduction
This post focuses on different food preparation strategies to avoid short term spoilage when there is the possibility of having no electricity for your freezer and refrigerator.
Some of the tips shared relate to whole grains, while others are applicable to all kinds of food.
Why This Post
Living in Central Florida, we go through hurricane season each year from June 1st to November 30th.
Because we aren’t in a flood zone, we typically don’t need to evacuate but we are at risk of losing power.
We don’t have a generator, but even if we did, sometimes getting fuel for a generator can be a problem so there is still a risk of being without electricity.
A few years back, during hurricane Irma, our home was spared but we lost power for six days and also had to throw out food from our freezer.
This year, we have had the dubious privilege of being impacted by two back to back hurricanes so far: Helene and now Milton.
While our home was spared, we did lose power because of hurricane Milton – this time for less than a day.
Because of our experience during Irma, when I heard hurricane Milton was headed our way, I was determined to save as much of our refrigerated and frozen food as I could.
Given the specific foods in our refrigerator and freezer, I started researching my books on food preservation to figure out the best recipes to use.
Since all this is fresh in my mind, I wanted to share with you some low tech strategies I have learned to minimize food spoilage when you know a hurricane is coming and your refrigerator and freezer is full.
Extra Words of Caution
First and foremost, keep in mind that your life and the life of those in your household – family and pets, are most important.
If you live in a mobile home or in a flood zone and are on the path of the hurricane – PLEASE FOCUS ON EVACUATING to a safe shelter.
As we just saw with hurricane Milton, tornadoes often appear at the beginning of a hurricane over a wide swath of land and they will shred a mobile home in no time.
While hurricane Milton made landfall in Siesta Key on the west coast of Florida, tornado fatalities were experienced 150 miles away, on the east coast in the mobile home community of Fort Pierce.
Your food is replaceable, you are not.
Food Preservation Tips
Tip # 1 Prioritize Refrigerated Food that Will Spoil Most Easily First
It is helpful to prepare raw refrigerated food that is likely to spoil first so that you can consume them in the days leading up to the hurricane.
Example: Guacamole
Because I had a bunch of soft avocados laying around, I decided it was best to mash them down with lemon juice to make a guacamole that we could consume while we still had power.
Lemon juice helps preserve food longer and the guacamole was delicious for several days.
Tip # 2 Cook Down Frozen Vegetables
Example: Slow cooked peppers
As you probably know, defrosted frozen vegetables can turn into a gooey mess if not cooked immediately.
I had frozen organic peppers as a backup for use in different recipes.
I opted to slow cook the peppers that we could consume with different dishes – hot or cold – over the few days just before the hurricane.
Tip # 3 Cook Down Frozen Fruits into Jams, Pastes or Syrups
Example: Blueberry paste
We had just stocked up on frozen fruits for the morning smoothies I make for my husband David.
Specifically, I had about three pounds of frozen blueberries on hand.
Since COVID, the price of blueberries has shot through the roof and not gone down.
I certainly didn’t want to lose the blueberries to spoilage if I could prevent it.
So I searched my books on food preservation and found a couple of promising recipes.
The one I used called for boiling down then oven drying blueberries into a paste with a sweetener added to taste.
According to the recipe notes, the blueberry paste stays shelf stable for several months.
In case you are interest, this recipe comes from Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning.
I packed the paste into small mason jars but I still kept them in the refrigerator as an extra measure of caution.
Tip # 4 Make Granola
Example: Soy Okara Granola
Recently, I have been experimenting with making my own soy milk and I had some frozen soy pulp (okara) left in the freezer.
Searching the internet, I found a very good recipe for adding soy okara to rolled oats and making granola.
The soy okara was dehydrated when making the granola and it turned into a perfect instant breakfast or snack option.
The exact combination I used was : 2 cups rolled oats, 2 cups soy okara, 1 cup whole almonds, 3 tablespoons coconut oil (optional), 3 tablespoons maple syrup, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 2/3 cup raisins, 1/3 cup shredded coconut.
Tip # 5 Dehydrate Vegetables
Example: Vegetable Stock Powder
Typically, I will freeze vegetable scraps ( i.e. kale stalks from making smoothies, green leek tops, etc ) until I have enough to make vegetable stock.
But with the freezer likely to be out of commission, instead, I used the lowest setting in the oven (170° F) to dehydrate the vegetables.
I simply spread them out thinly over a baking sheet, with parchment paper underneath for easy cleanup, and let them dehydrate for about 6 hours, turning them every hour or so.
The resulting dried up scraps easily blended up into a compact powder that can be preserved in a tightly closed glass jar for months.
If you are looking for a stock powder recipe, here is one I have used in the past.
And if you get serious about dehydrating, the Dehydrator Bible is an excellent guide.
Tip # 6 Dehydrate Bread
Example: Dehydrate Sourdough Bread
I typically make batches of whole wheat sourdough bread every few weeks which I slice and freeze.
Based on our past experience after hurricane Irma, freshly baked sourdough bread will last about 5 days at room temperature without molding.
Another way to preserve the sliced bread is to dehydrate it.
You can simply spread out the slices on a cookie rack and air dry over a couple of days.
For a quicker alternative, you can place the sliced bread in the oven at its lowest setting (170° F) for about 4 hours.
Preserved in this way, the bread will easily last a month.
To soften, quickly dip the sliced bread in water and then allow the bread to absorb the water for a few minutes.
The thinner the bread is sliced the quicker the process.
This method of using bread is centuries old and is similar to rusk or hardtack.
Later, when you have electricity back, a great way to use it is to moisten the bread and place it in the toaster or the oven to reheat – it essentially tastes like freshly baked bread.
Tip # 7 Ferment Ripe Fruit
Example: Fermented Pineapple
I had a pineapple on the counter which was clearly ripe.
Normally, I would cut some up for immediate use and freeze the rest.
Again, given the circumstances, freezing was not a good option.
Instead, I decided to ferment the pineapple.
There is a Mexican beverage called tepache made out of pineapple skins and sugar that are allowed to ferment over time.
I figured, the natural sugars in the pineapple would be plenty to help it naturally ferment.
But to kick start the process, I thought adding kombucha with all its healthy cultures, would be even better since I maintain a kombucha scoby and always have extra kombucha on hand.
So I embarked on peeling and cutting up my pineapple into 1 inch chunks.
Because this pineapple was not organic, I discarded the peel.
Then, I simply packed a wide mouth mason jar with the pineapple and topped off the jar with kombucha.
The mason jar was then sealed with a silicon airlock lid to allow gases out but prevent air from coming in (if you don’t have an airlock lid, simply keep the top on very loosely so that air can escape).
The goal was to preserve the pineapples and not to ferment them any more than necessary as I didn’t really want to end up with an alcoholic beverage.
Therefore, I immediately placed the mason jar in the refrigerator, knowing that it would continue to slowly ferment at low temperatures and not spoil even if we lost power.
Tip # 8 Lacto-Ferment Condiments
Example: Lacto-fermented Garlic
Last year, I found 3 pounds of organic garlic at a great price and therefore I froze a large portion of it to use on demand.
Since I didn’t want to lose the 1 pound of garlic I had left, I blended it with some olive oil and placed it in an air tight container in the refrigerator.
However, after doing more a bit more research on this topic, it looks like there can be a risk of botulism with garlic if it is not preserved in a sufficiently acidic environment – hence pickling or lacto-fermenting is a safer option.
The book Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning has a great pickled garlic recipe.
This link also has a detailed recipe for lacto-fermented garlic.
Tip # 9 Lacto-Ferment Nuts
Example: Lacto-fermented Almond Ricotta
Fermented foods contain beneficial bacteria which can fight off the bad kind including mold.
Therefore, I decided to ferment some nuts so that, even if the power went out, these foods would be available for eating and not spoil easily.
One of my favorite vegan foods is almond ricotta.
I normally use rejuvelac to make my almond ricotta, as detailed in this recipe.
Since I didn’t have rejuvelac on hand, this time, I used diluted kombucha – another option would be to use diluted raw apple cider vinegar with the mother.
After the blended almond mixture has rested at room temperature overnight, it will typically be light and airy from the lacto-fermentation process.
At this point, it is fully fermented and can be refrigerated.
If kept at room temperature, it will simply continue to ferment and develop a sour flavor – be sure to keep it in a loosely closed container or covered with a cloth so that gases do not accumulate and explode ( been there, done that ).
Most people will add nutritional yeast, lemon juice, garlic powder or other seasonings to the almond ricotta.
I prefer to keep it plain so that I can use it in sweet or savory applications.
If you are interested in making vegan cheeses using rejuvelac, Miyoko Shinner’s Artisan Vegan Cheese cookbook is a good reference guide.
Tip # 10 Lacto-Ferment Cooked Beans
Example: Lacto-fermented Cooked Soybeans
Recently, I have been making Korean duyu soy milk because it doesn’t need to be strained.
For the hurricane, I figured I would cook the soybeans as for duyu but blend the cooled soybeans with a smaller quantity of home-made kombucha to form a thick mixture that I could later dilute with water, if desired.
The cooked ground soybeans were allowed to lacto-ferment overnight at room temperature before refrigerating.
This resulted in a creamy, very digestible soy yogurt of sorts that I could combine with granola, almond ricotta and fruit to make a delicious breakfast.
As with fermented nuts, you could use rejuvelac, raw apple cider vinegar with the mother or even lemon juice.
A helpful post on fermenting cooked beans can be found here.
If you are interested in making your own kombucha, The Big Book of Kombucha contains excellent step by step instructions as well as many recipes to make pantry staples using kombucha.
Bonus Tip Idea: Nukazuke Fermented Vegetables
All the above tips, I actually implemented this past week.
But there is one additional tip that I did not get to try out which is to preserve vegetables in bran.
The original, traditional Japanese way is to use rice bran.
However, after reading about it in the Wild Fermentation cookbook, where wheat bran is substituted, this piqued my interest.
Considering this is a blog about whole grains, I felt obligated to mention nukazuke fermenting for any adventurous reader out there.
An online recipe for Nukazuke can be found here.
Bill Mollison’s The Permaculture Book of Ferment & Human Nutrition also has extensive instructions for making nukazuke as well as many other ferments from around the world.
Other Useful Resources
The FDA provides helpful food safety guidelines regarding handling food and power outages.
The Florida Internal University also has an online cookbook with hurricane friendly recipes (including several vegan ones) as well as tips on what to stock up.
For tips on how to store whole grains and other dry goods for long term use, please see this post.
Conclusion
There you have it, some suggestions for preserving food prior to a hurricane.
Do keep in mind whenever dealing with food preparation that you want to be very careful to use clean utensils and make sure not to cross contaminate, especially with animal proteins if you use any (meat, milk, fish, eggs).
For optimal safety, please be sure to consult a specific recipe with exact measurements.
I don’t wish a hurricane on anyone.
But hopefully, the ideas provided here will give you some strategies to minimize your food losses when a possible power outage is on the horizon.
If you have any other tips not covered above, please do share in the comment section below so that they can benefit others as well.
Wishing you good health and shelter from the storm!
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional or a nutritionist. This post is provided for general educational purposes. For a full disclaimer, please see here.
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