I have opened many of my freeze dried foods and we occasionally use them to make something for dinner or dessert. I keep open cans of onions, carrots, celery (mirepoix), green peppers, diced potatoes, etc. I use them if I run short of fresh and sometimes, depending on what I’m cooking, I use them all.
The potato dices make awesome hash browns. When milk topped $5 a gallon, we began to use the dried stuff. We now have a cow so we have fresh all the time. I buy wheat in 6 gallon buckets and bring my own flour with a grain mill. Two buckets last us about a year so I order 3 to 4 every spring.
The bulk of our storage food comes from “beprepared.com” and it is mostly meat, chicken, fruits and veggies. That is also where I buy my wheat, rice, beans, etc. We also get food every month from “the freezedryguy.com”. As unlikely as the name sounds, they sell top quality Mountain House products. We get 2 cases every month, 6 number 10 cans per case. The Mountain House products are all per-prepared dishes that require only water and heat.
Does this stuff taste as good as what I prepare out of my garden or from store bought? Absolutely not, nothing tastes as good as that. Can you live on it? Well, I lived for 2 years on C-rats, we didn’t have MRE’s when I was one of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, and this stuff makes MRE taste like cheap dog food.
Regarding your chickens, have you tried putting a light on a timer in the coop over winter? Chickens respond to the hours of daylight in a day. They won’t lay like it’s July, but you might see some improvement.
Yep, eat what you store, store what you eat.
/johnny