How do you dehydrate? I didn’t read the whole thread.
I may need to invest in one of those, if I lose my brown thumb.
Preserving Food: Dehydrating Fruits and Vegetables
http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/uga_dry_fruit.pdf
I use my dehydrator and then vacuum seal the dehydrated food in canning jars. I throw in a 100cc oxygen absorber so when I am done there is virtually no oxygen left in the jars.
VIDEO: How to store dry foods in canning jars
http://thesurvivalmom.com/video-how-to-store-dry-foods-in-canning-jars/
I often buy frozen vegetables when they are on sale. They are cut and washed and ready to go straight into the dehydrator.
Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/imstillworkin/videos for everything you ever wanted to know about gardening, dehyrating and home canning your garden harvests, etc. She not only explains how but why and why not to do something. She is VERY imformative. Her guyfriend, mhpgardener, has a lot of youtubes on growing tomatoes and peppers. Yes, they are conservatives.
For dehydrating, I learned so much from dehydrate2store on youtube and also Wendy Dewitt also on youtube.