Quote Originally Posted by longrange2 View Post
Great thread, I am thinking about buying one of these. Do you tend to store everything in Mylar or do you put some things in jars or #10 cans? I think it would be good to add O2 absorbers to the packages of anything I wanted to keep longer term
Apologies, and not sure if you will see this, but I was putting everything in mylar bags for storage in tote bins. I would always do the oxygen absorbers unless you plan to use very soon or are doing something like vacuum sealing (and even then) or purging with another gas.

Quote Originally Posted by longrange2 View Post
I?m wondering about taste and texture of items freeze dried at home. Just don?t want to spend $3k if we wouldn?t be happy with the results. With everything going on it would be nice to freeze dry meats and other food items in the event of disruptions to supply train, I.e. lack of fertilizer, rising fuel costs, etc.
Think Mountain House and other FD food brands. Some things will not reconstitute the same as fresh. Just an unfortunate fact. The key is FD food retains something like 97% of nutrients.

Meat: you can FD raw or cooked. The key is trim as much fat as possible. If ground beef get the leanest you can and consider even rinsing it after cooking it up before you FD it. Fat doesn't FD, so fat in/on meat is your enemy for retaining freshness.