Most of the stuff I dry is really dry, and then I grind it into a powder. Put a dessicant package or wrap some rice in a cloth and use a bread twist tie to secure the cloth around the rice. Usually put this in the bottom of the container.
Sometimes, I also put an oxygen absorber on top and then seal the bag or a mason type jar.
When I freeze tomatoes, I am lazy about it. Cut off the stem ends chop them up and put into zip bags. When they are frozen, then I vaccum out the air. These I use for stews or chili.
I haven’t dehydrated a lot of stuff, since I was using mostly the freezer. Last year I started using the pressure cooker, but I didn’t have enough tomatoes to really can them, so I bought several cases of diced, stewed, and whole tomatoes when they were on sale.
I always thought it would be good to have tomato powder, that way you could make a quick paste or sauce by adding the spices, and just enough water to get the consistency you want. It might not work, but if it did, you wouldn’t have to cook tomatoes all day to reduce it and make pasta sauce or ketchup, and it would take up less storage space.
Have you dried squash? I’m such a scatterbrain, when it comes to preserving food. I just freeze everything. What would happen if the electricity goes out/??? nobama is working on it. Right now I’m just using a borrowed dehydrator, am thinking of getting one a little more pricy with instructions. This one doesn’t have any, even on the computer.