The economics of dehydration

I bought some groceries today. I spent some time walking through the produce section, looking at what fruits and vegetables might be available for a good price. Potatoes of various kinds were around $1 a pound. When I looked at a box of store-brand potato flakes, they were $1.55 a pound. Given that the flakes would, when reconstituted, make up easily 6 times their dried mass, that means that potatoes would need to get down to about 25 cents a pounds before they were competitive with the professionally made flakes, even discounting the time and effort spent making flakes, the energy required to boil/dry/pulverize them, and the water.

In short, it's better all-around to just buy dehydrated flakes. It takes less energy to ship them, and the packaging is even plastic-free. This is not the end of my time dehydrating foods. Some things are not available at all in a dehydrated form, and many others are available only with a lot of single-use plastic packaging. Some are more expensive when purchased in a dehydrated form than when bought on sale fresh and dehydrated at home. Of course, I cannot dehydrates some foods at home and maintain a reasonable quality; eggs, for example, or milk. This is just an overall reminder to me that no one approach is always the best.

Foraging

Today marks day 15 since I had my surgery. I've cut back on my painkillers, and avoided entirely the use of narcotics. I went on a very long walk today; 17 kilometers, give or take. And I came away with some excellent finds.

I came across a roadkill deer carcass, which was obviously not recent but also far from being totally stripped. There were no horns worth salvaging, but I came away with several bones that might prove useful. I also came across a buckeye tree shedding seed pods; I later learned that buckeyes can be used to make a laundry soap, being in the same family as the soapberry tree. Makes me happy I grabbed a couple handfuls. Finally, on the beach, I found a handful of large shells. Upon getting home, I scraped the bones as best I could, and took two of them that still has some fleshy remains clinging to them to the water's edge, where I weighed them down with stones to await the tide. Hopefully that will help soak those remains off.

All of the long bones I got were fractured, but hopefully I can still turn them to some use. Perhaps I can even make a knife from one of them. In time, I should return to where the carcass is and see what other bones I can salvage. One of the shells should work as a vessel to melt and purify pitch in; I still have a large lump of pitch from what I gathered a few seasons ago. And if I can find a good way to pulverize the buckeyes, I plan to peel, pulverize, and dry them for future use as laundry soap.

Pineapple

Dried rings of pineapple at the store are about $7.49/pounds. Chunks are more like $4/pounds. It's getting on to be the season where I start running heaters, if only at night.

And there was a sale on pineapples, 2 for $5.

So on my way home from my attempt to see if there were hickory nuts available at a local park (there were not), I stopped and bought a half dozen pineapples. Once home, I cut them all up (not particularly efficiently) and put them in to dry. Once they're all dehydrated, I plan to weigh them and see just how much money I can save with that level of work. Hopefully, over the next few months as I need to provide heat to my home anyway, I can provide a chunk of it with my dehydrator while also taking advantage of various sales on produce to build up my stock of dried fruits and vegetables. If nothing else, it will substantially reduce the amount of plastic packaging I throw away.

Cordage

On my walk yesterday, I came across some branches that had been pruned from a tree. Seemingly on a whim, I stripped a few pieces of bark from them, and twisted a piece of cord. I doubled it back on itself, yielding a piece perhaps 20cm long. It was deeply satisfying.

Today, I went back to where those pruned branches were. I believe the branches I took bark from were from a mulberry. Anyway, I took a healthy handful of bark strips away from the pruned branches; I twisted a few cm into a cord to tie them into a bundle to carry home. Now, they're all sitting outside to dry; hopefully, that will make the outer bark easy to remove. Then perhaps I can braid a few feet of cordage. I also have several good chunks of pine sap from a few years ago. If I can make a fire drill or a fie plow or some other good way to make a fire, perhaps I can purify that pitch in a shell or some pottery.

Short thoughts

Last Wednesday, I defrosted my fridge and freezer and put cardboard placeholders in both of them to take up space.

Last Thursday, I replaced the water pressure pump in my boat, filled the water tank, and enjoyed having running water in my home for the first time in a few weeks.

Last Friday, I walked to the hospital and underwent surgery.

Last Saturday, I walked five miles. I've walked at least five miles every day since surgery.

Last Sunday, I determined I would never need the narcotics they gave me for recovery.

I've been reading a great deal about seasteading, blue water sailing, trimarans, and the like.

Life at sea

More and more, I find myself thinking about life at sea, mostly aboard a trimaran. I occurred to me how similar offshore sailing is to space travel; a mostly isolated existence, surrounded by an indifferent medium where you cannot rely on rescue, with limited communications with anyone else and where you must rely on the tools, materials, supplies, and skills you brought with you. In some cases, the sailor even must wear a protective suit to safely leave the ship.

According to most sources I've found, trimarans are essentially unsinkable if built properly. They can be destroyed, which means a lifeboat is still prudent. They can be capsized, in which case it's ideal to be able to survive on an inverted craft or be able to right it without assistance. But overall they seem in many ways more desirable than conventional monohulls for cruising purposes.

How would I live at sea? What foods would I take, and how would I prepare them? Where would I get my water, and how would I dispose of waste? Would I compost it? What tools and supplies and skills would I need to deal with the inevitable problems? Which redundant things are prudent, and which are dead weight? I find myself imagining storing everything I own in watertight cases or other containers in the event of a capsize; would I have the discipline to maintain that? Maybe I should keep everything I own now in cardboard boxes, so I can see if I could stand to open and close boxes all the time. In any event, I own a lot less than I did a month ago; save for a few days I spent traveling, I mostly held to my purge schedule. There are still a few major things to get rid of; fine china, silverware, that sort of thing. But I'm pleased by the ability to easily open my "junk drawer" which now contains almost nothing, and with the piles of stuff that are now no longer taking up space.

What about growing food? Or catching it? Fish are an obvious choice, and seaweed may well be a viable option. It's something to think about.