Dehydrating is a nice method, too. /johnny says dehydrated foods don’t keep well. We use vacuum bags and a nine-tray Excalibur, and it’s been satisfactory so far.
I'm reading on that and I'm going to do it. A woman in Lake Jackson has done it since the 1980s there and explained how she does it, seals the dehydrated food in vacuum bags in the absence of oxygen. Lake Jackson sits almost in the gulf water so it's very humid there, much more so than where I am.
I will get the Nesco square one and that's the one the Lake Jackson woman has. You have the more expensive Excalibur. Ah, you rich people. :o)
We also do some dehydrating. In 1986, I paid a distant neighbor $20 for a like-new Waring dehydrator. Still using it. I’ve opened it up a couple times, and cleaned the motor & fan, etc and it works great. keep it in the original box, with the manual, when we aren’t using it. Only downside is that it is such a low capacity. Never had any trouble with dehydrated foods not keeping. I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it.