how to store dried foods cheaply?

I'm looking into storing large amounts of dried vegetables. How can I do this without breaking the bank for mason jars? Will freezer bags work for a few months?

Here is an upgrade to the plastic zip lock idea:
Vacuum Sealer-Food Saver

I have had good luck finding free jars on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. I sometimes use old mayonnaise or peanut butter jars as well. Check with neighbors and friends to see if they will save them for you. Or use a bag inside a five gallon bucket. Happy dehydrating!

Any old jam jar or even bottle will do. You can reuse soda bottles for small items like rice, personaly i keep large amounts of rice in 5L vinegar bottles, I keep all my spices in old jars, generally mustard or roe jars. dried vegetables are kept in huge old pickle jars. and all my beans live in large jars as well.

I reuse all my jars that store-bought stuff comes in so that I don't send them to a landfill. Pickles, salad dressing, mayo, jam, peanut butter, etc.

Everytime dear hubby says "put this in a ziplock bags", my first thought is to put it in a jar.

Dried foods might be best stored in glass jars.

I have not dried veggies though I dry a lot of herbs so I know to make sure they are very dry before putting them in the jars.

Yes! to reusing jars

...and making sure things are crispy dry when jarred.

I like using a lot of small jars for most things.  Every time a jar is opened there's a chance of more humidity entering so for things we use a lot and open and close in the kitchen, I use pint and quart jars.  Gallons for deeper storage in the pantry though.

I've used 'baggies' a bit in the past and I think they are permeable to moisture unless super heavy plastic and with a heavy duty zip lock?  Glass is so much better storage.

In line with Judith's comments, make sure the jars are dry.  I heat them up a little in a low oven before I seal them.

I dehydrated a lot of food for  a while.

Stuff in ziploc bags tends to taste "off" after a few months, especially if stored with other kinds of food. I have thrown out a lot of food stored in ziploc bags, it just doesn't taste good. I tend to only ziploc bags for "going to use in the next month" stuff if I am completely out of jars, and repackaging things into individual portions for camping.

Glass jars are the longest lived, plastic jars are intermediate. I save jam jars, pickle jars, etc. Peanut butter jars and mayonnaise jars are probably my favourite plastic options. You can buy little mylar bags that apparently work well.

I like to save little silica packets from other food I buy and put them in for longer term storage, unfortunately, I store a lot more food than I get silica packets! I think they do help maintain quality, so I am planning on buying a bunch of packets for this year.

Gilbert Fritz wrote:I'm looking into storing large amounts of dried vegetables. How can I do this without breaking the bank for mason jars? Will freezer bags work for a few months?

It has been said elsewhere in this thread but reuse every glass and plastic jar you purchase.
As far as putting things in freezer bags, sure, it will work for a while, but after spending all that effort to really dry fruit and vegetables, do you want to risk losing all of it to a leaky bag or a critter that gnaws the bag open?.
Plastic jars with a dehydrating sachet would work well. As long as you are most likely going to buy jars, make a plan to reuse them. Wash them and dry them well. Keep them matched to their own cover!
I prefer glass jars though. If, like me, you "dumpster dive" or roam thrift shops like "Goodwill" and others, or flea market, many cans be had for a song.
As far as Mason jars, I steam the lids once they are clean, and most of them can be reused, at least once. I have also found at Temu a little gadget that reseals containers. It's great for leftovers in Mason jars (regular and wide mouth)! You just place a lid (No ring!) on your full jar and press the button and it seals. Abracadabra!
Because it uses a vacuum, it's pretty safe. Just don't use them *instead* of canning if the food is to be canned. Many companies are selling them now:
https://www.floreviaboutique.com/product-p-308073.html

Mason jars are expensive, but I'm always on the lookout for somebody clearing out an old hoard of them.  Have got lucky a couple times and have a good collection now.  They're pretty indispensable.  We get a lot of bulk food like lentils, beans, oats, etc in 25 of 50 lb sacks and if they're not vacuum sealed in a hurry, you'll get insects hatching out in them.  Not to mention external pests like mice.  The half gallon size are particularly handy.  I've reused lids a lot and they're good for a few times, though it's good to spot check.  I'll put the rings on loosely.

I store dehydrated and dry things in glass jars, mason/canning or reused, with an oxygen absorber in each one. you can get a big batch if them and store Them in a mason jar- they last years, sealed, before use.

sandy

We have found these mason jar vacuum devices to be very effective when full-on traditional canning is not in order. We use this mostly for dehydrated veggies.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDDX27WT?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k0_1_6&=&crid=32NFFGP7QUYOO&sprefix=vacuum&th=1

I bought a regular and wide jar vacuum sealer and was surprised how well it worked. I did invest in the azure jars with the superb lids because they were well-reviewed for holding a seal. They held a lot better than store bought ball brand mason jars/lids.

The lid sealer attachment was well-reviewed on Amazon and I've been incredibly pleased with it. It attaches with an included tube to the top port of my vacuum sealer.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Gilbert Fritz wrote:I'm looking into storing large amounts of dried vegetables. How can I do this without breaking the bank for mason jars? Will freezer bags work for a few months?

I have also found at Temu a little gadget that reseals containers. It's great for leftovers in Mason jars (regular and wide mouth)! You just place a lid (No ring!) on your full jar and press the button and it seals. Abracadabra!
Because it uses a vacuum, it's pretty safe. Just don't use them *instead* of canning if the food is to be canned. Many companies are selling them now:
https://www.floreviaboutique.com/product-p-308073.html

I have one of those gadgets and it works well to seal the contents of glass jars.  I've sealed dehydrated meat & veg (carrots, beans, mushrooms, beef jerky, etc.) and been happy with popping the seal, using what I need and resealing. Almost all my dried beans and legumes are saved this way.  I also have a vacuum sealer, which works well too, but I am less enamored with the amount of plastic waste that the process generates. This YT videoer gives a lot good advice.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HElNfFqrgfM&t=412s Enjoy!

I second the glass jars and vacuum seals. Let me warn everyone all vacuum sealers are not the same. Someone has a link to Amazon for a portable vacuum sealer and it's the exact one I bought. I thought it worked great until one day I went into the pantry and saw one of the jars of freeze dried broccoli was a different color than the other jars. The seal had broken and the food had to be discarded. When I went back through all the cases of food I found multiple jars had lost their seals. So I no longer trust those little independent vacuum sealers. The food saver type with tubing works much better. Freeze dried fruits and vegetables just put into plastic five gallon type buckets pick up the taste of the plastic. Plus the humidity slowly seeps into the buckets over time. That's with gamma seal lids used too. So glass is my go to. If you happen to have a Harvest Right freeze drier you can use the machine to vacuum seal any jar and those jars don't lose their seal.

Back in 2010 I did an experiment. I bought a 25 lb bag of brown sugar at Costco. Online "experts" said the sugar would get hard in the jars. I vacuum sealed the brown sugar into canning jars. I have used it when baking ever since. Well in November 2025 I pulled my next to last jar of that brown sugar. It's still as soft and fresh as the day it went into the jar. I also did an experiment in January 2024. I sealed walnuts in quart jars vacuum sealed. I left a bag on the shelf. The walnuts in the bag went rancid in less than a year. I opened the jar at Christmas 2025 and the walnuts were delicious. They did not turn rancid. No matter what type of food it stores better in vacuum sealed glass.

For sugar, dried corn, and dried peas I bought 32 gallon galvanized trash cans with lids that stay in place if tipped over. I wanted something that mice and pests couldn't get to down in a basement. When we move to the homestead I need to insure that grain, legumes, and sugar could be stored safely in something that couldn't be chewed through easily. The trash cans are great with food grade liners inside. The liners aren't cheap but came in such quantity that I now have a lifetime supply.

S Smithsson wrote:I store dehydrated and dry things in glass jars, mason/canning or reused, with an oxygen absorber in each one. you can get a big batch if them and store Them in a mason jar- they last years, sealed, before use.

sandy

I just save the desiccant packets from food I buy, and recharge them in the dehydrator or oven to re-use in jars with my dehydrated food. When I lived in the cloud forest of Costa Rica taking photos for a nature reserve's web page, we just had a big wooden box with a lightbulb in it which is where we stored our electronics to keep them dry. We kept desiccant packets in there too, and put them in our camera cases.

Someone suggested using a freeze drier (Harvest Right).
I'm pretty sure it would be great, but the prices gives me nosebleed: $2,000-$4,000 that's too rich for my blood.
They have one at Tractor Supply for $2,500 that I would love to have but... Yikes.
I saw that they were also selling large canisters (gallon sized) of freeze dried onions and freeze dried peas.
I think that if I were to buy that big unit, I would want to own it as part of a co-op, like if a number of gardeners would go in on one unit and then share.
That's the only way I could afford a nice unit like this. (I'm just afraid that we would all need it at the same time!)

Sandy Stacey wrote:I second the glass jars and vacuum seals.

I also store dry goods in vacuum jars. For anything that would oxidize, such as nuts, or get stale or soggy, such as crackers, a vacuum acts like a stasis field, preserving it almost indefinitely. No air means no oxygen, moisture, bugs, or mold.

When I first got a vacuum sealer, I used it for packaging meats for the freezer. Used properly, it does a really great job at this, and I have not dealt with freezer burn ever since. Eventually I got some mason jars, and then realized what a game changer vacuum storage is. All of the dry goods that I used to date code and store in the freezer, only to eventually throw out the remainder after a year or so, could now be stored indefinitely in vacuum jars. And now I just write the year, only for reference, because I don't have to throw any of it out.

Any dry good that goes bad over time can benefit from this. Powdered milk stays pristine white, instead of yellowing through oxidation. Nuts never go bad. Coffee smells the same as when you first cut open the vacuum package. Spices last forever. Baking powder does not lose its efficacy. Any seldom used ingredients can be kept in like new condition.

Some soup recipes involve pouring all the dry ingredients into a pot, adding water and then simmering. You can premix the dry ingredients, and vacuum seal them in a jar, for when you are in a hurry for some soup.

Flour mixes for pancakes or biscuits can be premixed, and vacuumed.

Any dry good, with a true expiration date can benefit from vacuum storage.

There are tricks I have learned or come up with over the years.

Tapping on lids tells you the state of the vacuum. A dull thud means you seal was lost. A clear note means everything is good. I check my jars periodically for vacuum.

A good vacuum negates the need for lid rings. I just buy the lids now, as I have excess rings.

Lids can be reused many times, but gaskets will wear out eventually, although I have some I have been reusing since I first started. The newer ones don't seem to last as long.

Foodsaver makes mason jar sealer attachments. Their regular mouth sealer needs to be shimmed to work reliably. Put a lid on the jar and then stack another upside down, over it. Then seal the jar. The shim keeps the lid pressed down so that it seals properly when you release the vacuum.

The jar rim and lid gasket must be scrupulously clean. Even the tiniest bit of dust can cause a very slow leak. This can  be a big problem when sealing flours, as drawing the air out, creates dust clouds that get under the gasket. I solved this problem by poking a vent shaft, down the center of the flour with a chopstick. Air gets out through the vent shaft, and no clouds of flour rise up to foul the seal. My vacuum sealed flours no longer leak.

Breaking the seal on a mason jar can be difficult, because you don't want to damage the lid. The easiest method I found is using a chopstick, specifically the square handled cooking chopsticks. I put the chopstick tangential to the jar, with the square end underneath the rim of the lid, and spin the jar around until the chopstick is wedged between the rim and the jar thread, and lever the chopstick to lift the lid enough to break the vacuum. No lids are harmed doing this.

Non mason jars can be vacuum sealed through one of two methods. Chamber sealing, or punch and tape:

Chamber sealing involves using a larger container to vacuum a jar or jars inside. Wash and reuse any food jars that have gasketed lids, lightly close the lids, and vacuum them. Tap on the lid to be sure.

Pump -N- Seal sells a kit for vacuum sealing any food jar. It comes with punch, pre-cut squares of sealing tape, and a vacuum pump that goes over the tape covered hole. The pump is operated until the air is evacuated, and the tape seals the hole as the air tries to rush back in. Their kit is handy because it is hand powered, and works anywhere, but you can roll your own if you like. A metal push pin acts as your punch. Electrical tape is thick enough to create a hermetic seal. Any adapter for reusable zip lock vacuum bags can cover a taped hole, so one of those can vacuum your jar.

Vacuum storage, either in bags or jars, can be great for preserving almost anything that oxidizes or hydrates when exposed to air. Metal parts will not rust. Fabrics and leathers will not mold or mildew, and moths cannot get to them. Books will stay pristine, and silverfish can't survive without air. Matches will stay forever dry, and your first aid kit items can be individually waterproofed.

You still need to periodically check for leaks.

And I forgot to add, vacuuming some spices that come in plastic jars, keeps them from caking up.

Some companies sell spices and other things in plastic containers. This is bad faith by design, because plastic containers do not seal well, and any hygroscopic contents will create their own vacuum, by absorbing all the available water vapor, which in turn, pulls in more air containing water vapor, leading to a vicious cycle that fully cakes the contents. Their goal is to force you to buy a replacement, because you can't use it when it has solidified.

So your garlic or onion powder, instant coffee, anything that cakes up and is sold with a plastic lid, should be vacuum sealed, to keep it dry. Some companies use the tried and true glass jars with gasket lids, which most perishable foods come in. Those are the companies who you should give your business, because they are not selling you a purposefully leaky container.