Hey yall, we’ve been settin back food fer a long time, ya never know when a winter storm, a tornado er some other man made er natural disaster might require ya ta provide fer yerself. So we store a fair amount a vittles just in case. Besides, if ya find yerself short an don’t wanna go ta the store, its right there in yer root cellar!
One a the things we’ve found ta help preserve some a our food staples besides the vac jar sealer attachment fer our Food Saver be these one gallon mylar storage bags.
Was wonderin how ta make it the cats meow would be ta vacuum seal they mylar bag. The bag be to smooth fer the machine ta suck the air out. So a bit a research an found a feller what had this idear an it works real well!
Take a 2 ta 3 inch strip of a 8 inch wide vacuum bag an place it inside the mylar bag after ya put yer food stuff’s in em. Put that strip down inside the bag with a 1/2 inch space above it to the end a the bag. Reason fer this be the final seal will be on the mylar bag only.
So, lets walk through this once:
1. Put yer food stuff inside yer mylar bag, in this instance we used Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (a one gallon bag will hold 42 oz a oats).
2. Tamp yer bag ta pack the oatmeal down some.
3. Add yer vacuum bag strip inside the mylar bag, leavin a 1/2 inch space at the top.
4. Place the mylar bag in yer vacuum sealer an pump the air out.
If ya done it rite it will squeeze down just like a regular vacuum bag.
5. Now seal the bag, the re-seal that same spot a second time.
6. Now open yer machine an slide the bag down just a bit an seal again, then same as last time double seal it.
7. The last step be ta slide the bag down again (this be where we left that 1/2 inch gap at the top) an seal a third time followed by a double seal again.
If ya done everthin right ya will have a vacuum sealed mylar bag. If not it will either not vacuum down er will have a leak. It takes a bit a practice but ain’t all that hard ta do. It should look like this:
Now if ya wan’t ta make extra sure bout yer seal, run over the edge a the mylar bag with a hot iron. From what we’ve read, these oats should store fer 30 years packaged this way. Yer mileage may varry acourse! Ya can also add in a Oxygen Absorber before ya seal the bags to, sure won’t hurt nothin.
We take these packs an put em in a 5 gallon food grade bucket with a gasketed lid. Keeps the critters out, protects the packs from dampness an it also is a second defense against light. Store em in a cool, dark an dry place.
We get our mylar bags off a E-Bay, cost bout 50 cents each which ain’t much more en what we pay fer regular vacuum bags.
Besure an label yer bags with what be in em an when ya packed em!
Hope this helps yall out!
just wanted to say thanks for this – jumped into an existing site to redesign it and couldn’t figure it out. saved me a lot of time!
Yall be more en welcome! Always glad ta help folks when we can. Be a great way ta store foods fer long term. Keep checkin back, were always workin on stuff ta add.
I use one of the black models of the Foodsaver machine. I use it mostly to seal individual portion sizes of lasagna, spaghetti, etc. Have any of you guys ever purchased from http://www.thevakshack.com ? I have heard great things about them…just wanted to see how they compare to Foodsaver bags. I’m honestly getting sick of forking out so much money at the store for just 26 bags :( Going to give The Vak Shack a try…
I generally buy a brand called Simply Smart from my local farm store. Did the math an they be just as cheap as any others I can order. But if ya can’t find em I’ve heard other folks order from this place an seem ta be happy.