Ultimate List of Shelf Stable Fruits and Veggies to Store

The best advice on shelf stable fruits and veggies to store!

When it comes to food storage, I’m not the type that wants to store processed meats or containers full of preservatives. I do though, want to stock up on fruits and vegetables for my family, with little to no other ingredients than the fruit or veggie.  But pantry stable fruits and veggies don’t come cheap. I’ve wasted a lot of money on foods that didn’t store well, or didn’t taste good at all!    Of course we know fresh is best, but if you are like me you just want to save up for that rainy day, or the impending Apocalypse!   haha

A friend of mine who is literally the EXPERT on food storage, finally released the book I’ve been wanting to own for years!  Store This, Not That  is a very comprehensive guide of pantry safe foods for your food storage.  She shares which foods not only stored well, but also tasted good!

This brand new book walks you through storing ALL the food you can imagine.  There is a guide for grains, beans, dairy & eggs, fruits & veggies, meats, baking items, sweeteners, spices, sauces, seasonings, drinks and even pet food!   Since we’re all about the fruits and veggies here, I wanted to share her most excellent,”spend on this, but don’t waste your money on these lists!”

Shelf Stable Fruits to store

“Love it? Get it! Don’t let fruit buying decisions bog you down. Just buy what your family will eat. It never saves money to throw away food.”

• Fruit spreads: Shelf stable and super delicious!! You can make and preserve your own, but I stock up on 100% fruits spreads when they go on sale.  So convienient!
• Freeze-Dried Berries: Yum!!  These can either be re-hydrated or eaten as-is! That’s how we like them… I put freeze dried raspberries in my favorite nut-free trail mix here!
• Canned Fruit: It’s so easy to find canned fruit that is preserved only in it’s own juices, without any sugar added. Just check the labels, and stock up!
• Freeze-Dried Mangoes: Tart and delicious-perfect for snacking.  Dried mangoes always have sugar added, but freeze-dried generally won’t!
• Dehydrated & Dried Fruits: Dehydrated fruits can last a long time at room temperature and is a good source of concentrated sugar should you need it in a famine! Definitely stock up

Fruits not to store

There are some great fruit choices available for storage, but in our opinion, these are not them. They did not meet our taste or quality standards.  As always, try it. If you like it, store it anyway.”

• Freeze Dried peaches & pears: According to the authors, they are bland, expensive and fragile! When rehydrated they turn mushy.
• Freeze Dried Apples: Also bland and fragile! Stick with dried apples.
• Canned Berries:  “Mushy blobs of fruit floating in sugar syrup!”  Need I say more?
• Freeze-dried berries that have gone bad- worst offenders: “Blackberries. Crunchy seeds covered in a thin coating of bitterness. Yuck! Grow your own and make jam instead!”
• Freeze-dried grapes and oranges- These aren’t sweet or juicy… exactly the two things that make grapes and oranges so delicious.

Shelf Stable Vegetables to Store

There were a lot of vegetables to taste, and surprisingly our top picks did so well we would feel good about having them as a side dish at dinner, and that is saying a lot!  Others would be good cooked in soups, sauces, and main dishes. Some even made the “eat them dry like candy!” list.

• Freeze-dried broccoli, cauliflower, corn, green beans and peas- These rehydrate so well, you can almost eat them as a side dish or standalone!
• Canned vegetables: An easy item to buy in bulk and stock up on!!  Check for sodium content and keep it at a minimum and you’ll be good to go.
• Dehydrated potatoes: Already popular and easy to rehydrate.
• Dehydrated spinach and sliced mushrooms: Rehydrates well, and is especially great on pizza or in pizza sauce.
• Dehydrated Carrots: Comes in diced or shredded and rehydrates well!

Vegetables not to store

There are some great vegetables available, but in our opinions, a few made the naught list, the don’t-ever-waste-money-on-this-list! Want to know what those are? We thought you would, so here is our most excellent advice.

• Dehydrated corn, green beans, and peas: These lacked flavor or didn’t taste like their fresh counterpart at all!
• Freeze dried chiles: Why buy an inferior product when canned chiles are cheaper and taste so much better.
• Freeze dried tomato dices: Also, canned tomatoes are cheaper than freeze dried and tastes so much better.
• Freeze dried mixed-vegetables: Mixing the veggies made cooking and rehydrating tricky. Some were overcooked and some undercooked… not consistent.
• Freeze dried squash: The flavor is gone, and when rehydrated, left wiht a product that resembled a sponge!
• Freeze dried potato dices: Dehydrated potatoes tasted better and were cheaper.. skip the freeze dried!

So, that is only a teeny, tiny portion of this awesome book!!  Crystal and Debbie REALLY did their homework, and apparently ate a LOT of food storage food! I’m so glad they could do it for us so we don’t have to waste our money (or calories) doing the test on our own!!

Get the book on Amazon, in Costco, or other places books are sold.