I carry two dehydrators. I use them when I am in a place with electric. So it takes some planning, but very worth the effort. I soak, cook, then dehydrate everything from rice & beans, to most all garden foods. I do some fruit, but like someone mentioned It is easy to buy at a Costco or Trader Joe's.

The reason I began dehydrating was years ago for Jerky, but then I learned things like cooking and dehydrating my rice so that I can store it easily and when I go to cook it I only have to add water and it takes 1/8 ish the time for cooking. So it is like minute rice or beans, but yet it is long grain and not white so we still get the food value from it.

I could go on about it, and maybe one day soon I need to do a write up on it. But I learned alot of my dehydrating for the road from a website called www.GNOWFGLINS.com. It is based on eating whole foods in a rather old fashioned way through fermenting and dehydrating. A lot like  the way our ansestors would have done it.

Long story short, I know I put less weight in my food storage because I do not carry canned foods which are heavy, yet I still have easy to use foods. The dehydrating time is rather labor intensive, but then I have more time than money in this RV lifestyle.

And it is amazing how many things you can dehydrate and lose very little food value. It makes sense especially when you can get the food when it is abundant and less expensive and save money in the long run. I love it for tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, etc. So I do make a lot of soups with ingredients like that.

I have not done meat yet, but maybe one day. I use my cast iron Dutch Oven outside in the coals a lot and make soups in it often.

I will quit rambling, but if you have questions let me know. Check out You Tube also for dehydrating video's. I have learned alot from watching them.

Kim