We have been dehydrating fruits and vegetables for a long time now and if the jars are kept in a cool dark place the dehydrated foods will out last canned by a lot. Dehydrated foods don`t lose nutritive value nearly as quickly as canned foods do and I think are just as good when rehydrated.
Cabbage, carrots, corn, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers,tomatoes, squash, greens and many other veggies dehydrate easily.
We also mix dried vegetables for soup and stew mixes. Also dehydrate cooked and mashed dry pinto beans and others for instant refries as well as the whole cooked beans for soups.
The main idea with all of these dehydrated foods besides for our winter use is for emergegency storage. Cooking time is minutes for most of these. In fact I have simply placed dehydrated vegetables in hotwater, allowed them to rehydrate and eaten them as they are although they are better cooked for a bit they can be eaten this way.
The other thing I like about dehydrated foods is that it is much easier than canning, freezing doesn`t bother the jars as there is no liquid in them so can be stored anyplace, inside or out and as I said they will keep much longer than canned foods.
Another plus is that you can get a lot more dehydrated foods in a jar than canned, like a whole large head of cabbage in one quart jar. I have gotten as many as a dozen ears of corn in a quart.
When you use these dried foods you simply take out what you want and and reclose the jar.
We still do can foods such as our salsa, jams and jellies but most of our larder is dehydrated.
