Today, for example, I picked up about a half dozen square containers, about 3-4 gallons in size, to use for storage. I got them from a local bakery which just throws them out after use. Since they're food grade containers it's just a matter of cleaning them out, sanitizing them, and preparing them for the foods I plan to use them for.
The problem is, they've contained eggs or batter, which gets really gross after left standing for a bit. So it takes a bit of scrubbing and washing and bleaching to get them to the condition I'd feel comfortable using them. Now I just need to get bags to put the food stuffs into first.
The other things I did today was vacuum sealed two jars of dried green peas. Not exciting, I know, but I used a brake bleeder valve to create the vacuum. It's not as quick as a Foodsaver, but it's cheaper and gets the job accomplished, creating a vacuum of 20+ millibars or whatever the appropriate term is.I got the bleeder valve from Harbor Freight Tools for $25 and the wide mouth Foodsaver lid attachment off Amazon.com for around $10 (I got a regular mouth lid attachment as well). Using the tube that comes with the bleeder valve, I attached it to the tube from the lid attachment. I put the peas into the jar, placed the lid on top, and covered it with the lid attachment. Then I began squeezing! About 20 or so squeezes later, the gauge read 20+ mb and a seal was achieved!
I'll need to get more jars -- and more food -- but I'm happy with the ability to have a low cost, non-electric means of vacuum sealing food.
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