FOOD AND FOOD STORAGE

[fantym1]

Cammalu: yes, there's a learning curve to dehydrating.

"... took awhile but they went bad anyway ..."
Makes me wonder: assuming the pieces were sized correctly, the temp might not have been quite high enuf OR time might not have been quite long enuf.  OR too much humidity - I use 1 of those straw-stirrers to suck out all the air possible b4 sealing the bags. Place the stirrer in the opposite corner, zip the bag to the stirrer, suck out the air & quickly pull the stirrer & press the zip sealed. It'd be better if I had a vacuum sealer, but ...

[fantym1]

Mudbunny: I have a can of that, too! For emergencies don't U know

[Cammalu]

Vacuum sealer. What a great idea. I didn’t think of that. Should squash be all the way dry? Like crunchy dry or like leather dry


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[fantym1]

Vacuum sealer. What a great idea. I didn't think of that. Should squash be all the way dry?  Like crunchy dry or like leather dry

I dry to leather - squash tends to have a lot of moisture, so it's very difficult to get crunchy.

Fruit roll-ups are wonderful "candy", if you have access to a good blender & a way to use fruit that's a tad over ripe as well.

[Cammalu]

I dried some crunchy and some to leather. It seemed it all went bad. Actually it didn’t look bad but you could tell it was by the odor.

We put in a garden in kY in the summer and you know how squash and zucchini get out of hand. I think we dried a million. It was a shame that it was all lost.

I think I’ll get one of those seal things this year when it’s close to harvest.

[fantym1]

That really IS a shame!

In my experience, humidity is usually the culprit when dehydrated goes bad. Not in the drying process itself, but what's in the food container. & KY is a hi-humidity area. Oxygen just causes discoloration of the food - turns it brown, which is why old-timers used to "sulfur" their dried fruit. Moisture allows growth of bacteria. There are anaerobic bacteria. Commercial dried/FD uses oxygen-absorbers just b4 sealing.  Removes the oxygen & the humidity. However, oxygen absorbers are a bit tricky - if you don't reseal the pkg immediately after opening & removing the needed #, whatever's left over is wasted.

I dry to a leathery texture, remove as much air as possible both when I pkg originally & EACH time I use. I don't use oxygen absorbers - if it smells off, I toss; but I haven't had to toss very much
I use qt-size freezer bags, about 1/2 full & pkg 4 or 5 of those into a gal-size. Suck the air out of all bags.

[Texjbird]

    THRIVE FOOD HAS THEIR SPRING SALE THAT STARTS ON THE 27TH OF APRIL,. I DON'T REMEMBER HOW LONG IT LASTS.

I INTEND TO ORDER SOME THINGS TO TRY OUT.  THEY HAVE SMALLER WHAT THEY CALL "PANTRY CANS" AND ALSO THE LARGER "NUMBER 10 CANS".   I WILL ORDER MINE THROUGH THE "LIVE SIMPLE LIVE FREE" YOUTUBE CHANNEL THAT WAS FORMERLY KNOWN AS "TINY HOUSE PREPPER". THEIR THRIVE STORE IS bkeller.  I will use the link that they post on their YouTube.  

Jewel Ann damn thing almost got it right
  I SAID J E W E L L A N N

[Blacktank]

looking at those survival kits and outside of the freeze dried meats i think i can do better for much cheaper so started looking and found this site all about shelf life of products 
https://www.stilltasty.com/

[Texjbird]

Today a friend opened up a jar of JIF peanut butter creamy style that I had dated for 4/ 4 /16.   HE SAID HE POURED OUT SOME OIL THAT HAD RISEN TO THE TOP AND OTHER THAN THAT IT TASTED FINE.  THIS JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER I KNOW WAS IN MY STOCK OF SHELF SAFE FOOD STUFFS IN MY APARTMENT WHEN I MOVED LAST JULY.  THEN IT EITHER WENT HERE TO HIS HOME OR TO A UNHEATED AND UNAIR CONDITIONED STORAGE UNIT OR WAS PACKED INTO THE EYELINER THERE'S THAT EYELINER AGAIN     

ME AND HER AND HIM.   
  ALL THE PARTY POOPERS HERE HAVE CRASHED ON ME.   I NEVER WILL UNDERSTAND THIS SLEEP AT NIGHT AND STAY UP IN THE DAYTIME SYNDROME THAT AFFECTS SO MANY TWO  AND FOUR LEGGED PEOPLE THAT I KNOW AND HAVE IN MY LIFE.

[rvpopeye]

He shoulda stirred that oil back in.
He lost some "creamy" !
skuh kuh kuh kuh kuh

(I couldn't resist , gotta keep my "snappy sense" honed.)