Me, too. I have to improvise where I can. Why you throwing away 40# of brown rice? We got a few things from Provident Pantry; a lot of things we’ll jerry-rig a lot of things in storage. I’m not intending to store up quite as much as we did during Y2K; but learned a lot from that experience - and our job slowed down after that and we had to use our storage out of necessity. We bought one of those manual sealers at an expo and the seals didn’t last too well on some of the stuff. Yukky damp air seeped in and ruined the taste and smell. We did get a dehydrator and I’ve dried some stuff; but if you’re not picky about bananas being “dark” at the center, it’s easier not dipping them. They still taste good.
One thing I have done is dehydrate my own vegtables and vacuum store them in canning jars with an oxygen absorber. There’s instrution in my Preparedness Manual and on our own ChocChipCookie’s blog:
Vitain C powder mixed with water in a spray bottle beats dipping them & is quicker.