What are you dehydrating?

[pseudonym]

Spring greens finished, surprisingly Moorish.

Cherry toms in overnight.

[Decaff]

I have more courgettes to do, just gave a bag full to my sister to take home

She was nosy whilst here and accidentally opened my store cupboard of home canned food... in a few words it was "WTF is all that for?" Which changed to "give me a bag and I will take some home with me"

I'm happy to share my gluts from the Lottie but rather miffed about my jars!!!

[pseudonym]

I have more courgettes to do, just gave a bag full to my sister to take home

She was nosy whilst here and accidentally opened my store cupboard of home canned food... in a few words it was "WTF is all that for?" Which changed to "give me a bag and I will take some home with me"

I'm happy to share my gluts from the Lottie but rather miffed about my jars!!!

Hope you get them back..

[geordiejono]

are any of you guys prepping for long term storage? like a few years?, i have about 7 boxes of potatoes to do, i just bought a dehydrator and vacuum sealer but then along with oxygen absorbers but then noticed the warnings of botulism, any thoughts from you guys would be welcome not just for me but to other new members. my aim is to prep and be ready for anything and so with that in mind i want to know that the spuds which will be all sealed up will last 5 years.

looking forward to your views.

[Decaff]

are any of you guys prepping for long term storage? like a few years?, i have about 7 boxes of potatoes to do, i just bought a dehydrator and vacuum sealer but then along with oxygen absorbers but then noticed the warnings of botulism, any thoughts from you guys would be welcome not just for me but to other new members. my aim is to prep and be ready for anything and so with that in mind i want to know that the spuds which will be all sealed up will last 5 years.

looking forward to your views.

I've not been dehydrating for that long myself but have to say potatoes are fabulously easy and very versatile. Botulism is a problem if you are preserving in jars of water and then don't pressure can them in a proper canner. Not a problem on the dehydrator that i am aware of?!

To dehydrate potatoes, peel, slice into half inch slices, boil in water till they just start to soften, drain, add onto the trays and off you go. When ready they are brittle. If you don't do the booking stage then they will turn black on the trays so important to remember that part. I've stored mine in jars with oxygen absorbers and they are great! Add dry into stews or to reconstitute pour over boiling (salted if your preference) water and they will come back perfectly.

[geordiejono]

thanks decaff
what is "booking" i have never noticed that wording in anything i have looked at with regards to potatoes.

thanks
geordie

[Plymtom]

I did some Apples, a pineapple, a couple of kiwi fruit and a fruit leather of blueberry and banana ( because I blanched the blueberries to death in the steamer ) then went and bought some "dried" apples from Tesco for comparison, the Tesco version were not what we would call dried methinks, they were more aimed at snacking than either preserving or survival - far too squidgy albeit moreish, this wasn't prepping as such for me it was playing with the dehydrator, I also put it on a power meter- it turned out it got though 5.18 KWH in about 20 hours, which you have to factor in for that is over a quid for sure or somewhere between what a daughter and a son would use in one shower

It could be worth doing your own expedition meals but for storage in all honesty it would only come into it's own if I was growing stuff myself, the effectively the costs shrink to far cheaper than buying dehydrated food from not too far apart with someone else doing the work

are any of you guys prepping for long term storage? like a few years?, i have about 7 boxes of potatoes to do, i just bought a dehydrator and vacuum sealer but then along with oxygen absorbers but then noticed the warnings of botulism, any thoughts from you guys would be welcome not just for me but to other new members. my aim is to prep and be ready for anything and so with that in mind i want to know that the spuds which will be all sealed up will last 5 years.

looking forward to your views.

I too have just bought a vacuum sealer, this is more because we have suffered from little bugs than for hard core prepping, the main culprit looks to be ready made bread machine mixes ( I started storing everything new in those clip and seal boxes and the only thing infested after a few months beyond it's use by date was the bread mixes) freezing stuff such as grain and flour for a week before vacuum sealing looks like a good cure for a lot of things.

On Potatoes as I'm not bothered about having lumps or slices as such ( again if I grew my own I may feel differently) I'm more likely now to buy "everyday value " died mash stuff, freeze it for a week than vacuum seal it in bags, I do have a large stock of tinned potatoes which I have to reiterate to taste the damn things before you buy tons, turns out the store what you eat-eat what you store rule falls flat on it's face for them, my lot to understate the issue aren't very keen on them but I could sneak mashed stuff into a good few dishes with more ease and joy than feeding Gollum cooked food and elven bread.

[ukpreppergrrl]

I too have just bought a vacuum sealer, this is more because we have suffered from little bugs than for hard core prepping, the main culprit looks to be ready made bread machine mixes ( I started storing everything new in those clip and seal boxes and the only thing infested after a few months beyond it's use by date was the bread mixes) freezing stuff such as grain and flour for a week before vacuum sealing looks like a good cure for a lot of things.

I too had the same problem and the the same source of the problem! I normally freeze flour but wasn't sure if you could freeze the bread mix as it has yeast in it already. Then I realised you can buy frozen yeast, doh , so I chucked the mixes in the freezer too for a couple of days before sealing them in plastic bags and hey presto, no more bugs

[Plymtom]

The Andrew James commercial grade machine arrived this afternoon, one serious bit of kit no more freezer burnt meat yay. I was going to use jars for the flour type stuff but I've had second thoughts, these bags are quite hefty too, probably too hefty for the bugs to bite through ( correct me if I'm wrong) so initially I think I'll seal stuff after freezing leaving it in it's original packaging, the jars I have bought we shall use no doubt, it opens the door to buy some other stuff in bulk, spices for instance, I'm also going to try dehydrating and powdering some eggs, the vitamix blender will make short work of breaking it down, it certainly did the trick on the beef I bought to make pemmican out of, I just needed the blueberries to be drier, maybe next week I'll give that another go, in the meantime the dehydrator is back to drying brass.

[ukpreppergrrl]

I have just been using ziplock type bags, putting the whole paper flour bag into a ziplock bag, chucking it into the freezer for a few days, then putting it in the cupboard. This is obviously not for 20 year storage (that'd be the Mylar bags ), but once you've killed the bugs and eggs that are present in your flour when you buy it, there are no more bugs to get in or out of the bags. You'd have to import new bugs with new, unfrozen flour, to get the bugs back. I've not had bugs since doing the ziplock/freezer regime on every bag of flour product I've bought the moment it enters the house. And I've used some mixes past their best before date with no bugs and no yeast problems. Though I presume there is a limit on how far past the date the yeast would still be active! I guess you could always chuck some fresher dried yeast in if in doubt.