Vegetables

Freeze Dried foods weigh much less than dehydrated foods and they truly are delicious (but then, so are dehydrated foods - just try some dehydrated apricots or pineapple as a snack sometime. Kids love them!) but the same volumn of freeze dried also produces less food when reconstituted that dehydrated does. There are various discussions to be had about which is better and why, but it the general concensus is that it is usually more cost effective to store dehydrated food.

Many people aren't aware that a #10 can of dehydrated vegetables produces as much food as it does. For example, a can of dehydrated Carrots weighs about 2.5 lbs and will make about 15 1 cup side servings or provide carrots for about 60 soup recipes. The same is true for dehydrated Corn. That same can of Peas weighs about 2.75 lbs and will make roughly 45 soup recipes. A can of Potato Flakes will create 13 Sheppards Pies or about 60 recipes of Potato Rolls. Barbara Salsbury's book, "Preparedness Principles" has a really usefull section where she talks about this in depth.