Five Years Ago Today

“LaNae, we care about you and your Facebook memories. We thought you’d like to look back on this post from 5 years ago.” I saw this message when I opened my Facebook account today. Through tears, I reflected on the picture and memories of my kayak floating on the Wabash River. During our fourteen-week trip to the Gulf of Mexico, our meals consisted of food I dehydrated from produce I had grown and meat John had harvested from our wooded property. Five years after posting that picture, I am dehydrating our favorite meals for another adventure on the Upper Mississippi River. In addition, I am investigating new recipes and alternate cooking methods.

Five years ago, while studying the art of dehydration, I discovered two methods: dehydrate leftovers or dehydrate each ingredient and then combine. Now, instead of scooping leftovers into a glass bowl and placing it into the refrigerator for a meal later in the week, I scoop them onto a dehydrator tray and slide it into the dehydrator for a meal several months from now.

I am also dehydrating ingredients. Until I combine them into a recipe, I store them in the freezer or in vacuum-sealed wide mouth canning jars. Two weeks ago, I started making granola almost daily (I need 136 cups), which will live in the freezer until I use it in granola breakfast with milk, mud pie, oatmeal with fruit, oatmeal and quinoa with fruit, pudding with granola, and apple/peach crisp. Once removed from the freezer, I will allow it to return to room temperature before vacuum sealing; otherwise, condensation may form on it. Moisture is not our friend.

Vacuum sealing food for four months takes a lot of canning jars. On March 12, Fed Ex delivered 48 wide-mouth canning jars to add to my inventory of over 100 already full jars. Jars provide a temporary home for the leftovers and ingredients. I will wait until closer to our departure time to vacuum seal into bags the sharp food (rice, spaghetti, etc.), which may poke holes in the packaging, thus breaking the seal. Five years ago, I bagged and vacuum sealed my meals soon after pulling them from the dehydrator—proud of my efficiency. While packing our supply boxes, my stomach churned as I pulled from the tote over 50 unsealed bags, which I had to re-bag and re-seal. What a waste of time and bags.

Well, within a month the 48 empty jars joined the other 100. Instead of buying more, I started emptying jars. Since desserts have proven to stay sealed, I began bagging and vacuum packing my favorite part of a meal. Seeing the ready-to-pack bags makes the trip seem more real. My mouth waters as I anticipate the sweet treat at the end of a tiring day. Soon I will sit on the banks of the Mississippi River watching towboats transport their goods to the Gulf of Mexico. I am smiling!

Besides vacuum sealing desserts, I have added three desserts to our menu: apple/peach crisp, berry shortbread, and peach cobbler. Two ingredients in the shortcake and cobbler are new dehydration items for me—frozen berry medley and canned peaches.  I cut the larger berries in the frozen medley and peaches in half, placed them on the trays, and set the dehydrator to 135. Before sliding the peaches into the dehydrator, I sprinkled them with cinnamon, thinking the spice would make the peaches a tasty snack. That was a waste of cinnamon. Not only did we not care for the taste of the cinnamon peaches, but the cinnamon also turned the peaches brown. (I wonder if dehydrating fresh peaches would make taste better.) On the plus side, they rehydrated well. The cobbler taste test brought a positive rating from John.

In addition to the peach cobbler taste test, I pulled the granola bar off the pantry shelf for our first monthly tasting. Five years ago, the vacuum-sealed granola bars became oily. My hypothesis is the lack of air caused this phenomenon. I removed the bar from the zip-lock bag, pulled off a small chunk, and examined it—no mold or excess oil. So far, so good.

“Hey, John. Try this.”

He glanced away from watching Big Bang Theory. “What?”

I handed him the small chunk. He held it gingerly between his thumb and pointer finger. “What’s this?”  

“It’s a piece of granola bar.”

“I know how they taste.” He laid it on the end table and turned his attention to Penny rolling her eyes at Sheldon.

“This one has been in the pantry for a month.”

He picked up the piece. “It looks ok. Should I be scared?”

Visions of another trial that sent me running to the trashcan flashed before my eyes. Check out our Science Experiment five and a half years ago. “Nah.”

“You try it first.” Did he have a similar vision?

“Um… We should try it at the same time.”

“Okay. One.”

John lifted his hand to his mouth. I didn’t trust him.

“Two.”

 John opened his mouth. I opened mine.

“Three.”

 We simultaneously put the granola bars into our mouths. “Well, what do you think?”

“Tastes like a normal granola bar.”

“I agree. Meet you here again next month….”

Besides sampling desserts and month-old granola bars, we sampled venison jerky. Five years ago, jerky was on my snack wish list but never made the official menu. Yesterday, I dehydrated my third batch. I may be drying it too long but am paranoid about the consequences of undercooked meat. It’s crispy, not chewy. But, I look at it this way—as long as we don’t break a tooth…. After the first batch, I subjected John to a trial run. (Five years ago, we didn’t do this much tasting because everything was new.) During this test, we compared my jerky with that of the local meat market that butchered John’s deer. John couldn’t distinguish one from the other. Score. I used a generic venison jerky recipe for my first batch, but other recipe ingredients (salsa, ginger, lime, maple syrup, V8 tropical blend, margarita) tempted me. I wanted variety. John didn’t agree. When asked, he said, “I like this one.” What I heard was don’t mess with it.  Or, maybe he’s tired of taste tests.

Five years ago, I was living on the river. This year, I am preparing to return. What will I be doing in 2025?