Great video Ryan, all excellent advice! Getting a good dehydrator is such a game changer, and yeah, it can only take one season for it to pay for itself. Kevin Ride's "Backcountry Eats" is a phenomenal book on the subject. I thought some of the commercial chili meals were good before, but after dehydrating my own, it makes them taste like dog food! You're so lucky to have the Cadillac, the Excaliber. I'm extremely happy with the Nesco FD-75A 600w, the best bang for the buck dehydrator. I love how it's modular, I'm up to 9 trays with it now, and the fruit roll sheets for it hold all the liquid in nicely with the lip around the edge. Cheers!

You can easily make your own beef jerky in a dehydrator... Buy beef round roast (it's very lean already but trim any fat off that might still be there). Put meat into freezer so it starts to freeze a bit and hardens up...this makes slicing much easier. Slice into quarter inch slices. Then marinade in a sauce...Jerk sauce, or one of various Asian sauces... Teriyaki works well. Any cheap brand in the grocery store works fine. Then dry on low heat until meat is leathery...not brittle because that's overdone...just to the point where when you try to fold it some meat fibers start to snap and separate along the fold. That's perfect. Then vacuum pack it and you're done. Very easy!