Your Food Storage Equation...

[GaRp58]

Just put another 20 kilos of flour, 10 kilos of sugar and 5 packs of baking powder into a steel spring sealed heavy plastic container. Absolute waterproof, bug-proof and you need to go thru 3 doors to get into the pantry so there are no mice, rat or bug problems and the window is double mosquito netted and stapled. Bottled five liters of red wine and will filter the other 4 liters tomorrow, don't have enough bottles any more...Bottoms up!

 

[Robinjopo1]

I'm dehydrating watermelon for the first time. What size should I make the portions? Do I cut slices or chunks, etc. Thanks.

 

[Danil54grl]

I did strips before.

 

[Robinjopo1]

How thick?

 

[Danil54grl]

How thick?

They were about a 1/4 inch. Will take around 16-18 hours to dry. I much rather like freeze drying melons now I will admit. Drying the watermelon is much more like a jerky, but still good.

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

There's a lot of conflicting information out there about what's better to stock up on. Freeze dried food storage (buckets, kits, MRE, etc) or just non perishable foods.

What are you stocking? Is there a company you prefer? Are you doing a combination of non perishable and freeze dried?

Interested in seeing your ideas.

People's storage protocols most often reflect their outlooks on what they believe is most likely to happen and their time and skillsets.

You store differently if you are figuring on a 5 year lockdown in a bunker somewhere than you do for utilizing land at a BOL indefinately.

I fall into the latter category so I have a years supply of freeze dried food in the event we would all have to go to ground for some reason or if there was a drought and our crops failed, lots of "regular" shelf stable foods from the grocery store that get rotated through, some home canned things and seeds....lots and lots of existing perennial plants and heirloom seeds.

 

[Robinjopo1]

They were about a 1/4 inch. Will take around 16-18 hours to dry. I much rather like freeze drying melons now I will admit. Drying the watermelon is much more like a jerky, but still good.

I took a bite this morning. Still really wet, but I can taste super sweet. As I have mentioned many times, I can't taste except to distinguish sweet, salty and bitter. Can't tell one flavor from another, but this melon is sweet as candy.

 

[Robinjopo1]

Question. I am dehydrating watermelon and there is too much for my five trays. I have extra trays from my broken dehydrator. How many extra trays can I add, if any and does it require that I rotate the trays for even dehydrating?

 

[Danil54grl]

I only have my 5 trays so never did any more at a time, but even then I would rotate for even drying.

 

[Robinjopo1]

May take me six months to dehydrate this. Lol

 

[Danil54grl]

How low does your oven go? Not sure why it wouldn’t work if set on 150 maybe?

 

[Robinjopo1]

My oven has a dehydrate setting, but I've never used it because I thought it would use too much propane.

 

[Amish Heart]

Use the extra trays and rotate. Am assuming you have a circular rack dehydrator

 

[GaRp58]

if any and does it require that I rotate the trays for even dehydrating?

I only make beef jerky and always rotate the lower trays towards the top several times to get even drying.
Before I got a real dehydrator, I used the electric over on lowest setting of 50°C (140-150°F) and held the door open a little bit with a wooden spoon.

 

[Robinjopo1]

Use the extra trays and rotate. Am assuming you have a circular rack dehydrator

Yes the inexpensive Nesco.I like them. My first one's thermostat went to high and the trays warped because it was so hot.

 

[Danil54grl]

Yes the inexpensive Nesco.I like them. My first one's thermostat went to high and the trays warped because it was so hot.

Mine is a Nesco too. Now that I have the freeze drier, I will admit I haven't used it as often as I used to. Still, some things do just fine in the dehydrator.

 

[Robinjopo1]

I saw a video and it said to dehydrate the garlic shapes then powder them.

Anyone do this? If so, any suggestions?

 

[TexPrep]

They were about a 1/4 inch. Will take around 16-18 hours to dry. I much rather like freeze drying melons now I will admit. Drying the watermelon is much more like a jerky, but still good.

How much did it change the taste?
One day the Wife and I decided to juice a watermelon and the juice tasted nothing like a watermelon.
We just dumped it out.

 

[Danil54grl]

@TexPrep It makes it a very sweet type jerkey. You and your wife may like to juice and then make it into a jelly. I have done that many times and everyone has loved it.

 

[Danil54grl]

I saw a video and it said to dehydrate the garlic shapes then powder them.

Anyone do this? If so, any suggestions?

Interesting. How are they suggesting you use a watermelon powder? My first thought is add to smoothies. That may be yummy.