I love dehydrating fruits, berries and vegetables. Why? It is easy! It is also an affordable and shelf stable method that doesn’t need lots of mess cleanup at the end (canning for example). And of late I have had a lot of produce coming through the house that I needed to quickly process but haven’t had the time to spend half a day canning. And while freezing works well I like to have food that isn’t reliant on electricity for not spoiling – too many ice and wind storms for me to trust my eating to a chest freezer.
I have posted a couple of blog posts on my other blog, TrailCooking, on dehydrating lately. Enjoy! More will be coming – I have Rose Hips drying today, something I hadn’t tried before. They will be useful in brewing teas this winter.
And what do I use for my drying? A L’Equip Food Dehydrator
Dried Pumpkin (which is then powdered):
Cinnamon Sugar Dried Apples (great for tart apples):
Chopped Celery and Celery Leaves:
~Sarah
Love the inspiration! I missed the post on apple drying, which I really wanted to read more about. You have inspired me to pull my dehydrator out again. So far I’ve done peaches, bananas, and basil. what do you do with dehydrated items? especially things like celery and celery leaves? my kids lile the fruit rolls i made, but do you eat the things you dry as plain dried fruit/veggies or do you add them to things?
I dry celery to have on hand in winter or when I need 1 stalk worth. None of the grocery stores here sell it by the stalk, I always end up wasting half a head!
Anyhow, with the dried vegetables I often add them to soups, they rehydrate while the soup cooks. Or they can be soaked in water for 30 minutes and then added to meals while cooking.
Dried fruit is great chopped up and added to oatmeal, added to “Lara Bars” and even for snacking on.
Also, I use a lot of it for hiking meals too!
I really, really need a dehydator! I think the big excalibur is going on my Christmas list!
You should! I love using mine to make raw treats as well…..
Is the excalibur the one you have?
Funny is no….all my other kitchen tools are the “big names” (such as my Vitamix), my dehydrator is a Lequip. They sell them on Amazon for $120-130 range. I like it because it is rectangle and matches my kitchen decor 🙂
Oh girl, you just saved me bookoo buckage! Thanks!
Even the cheapie Nesco units ($40 to 75 on Amazon) work fine – although they are not very pleasing to the eyes. As long as the unit has a fan and an adjustable temp range, all is good 🙂 Mesh screen liners are nice to have (Lequip comes with them) and I use parchment paper (Costco big rolls!) for wet/small items. I dehydrate a lot for hiking as well – I dry odd things like artichokes, olives, whole wheat pasta and so on.
Such good tips. I owned a really inexpensive dehydrator once, I figured if it could burn my hand, it wasn’t dehydrating at temperatures appropriate to preserve nutrients.
Eek! I love that mine truly does dry at low temps – and it is never too hot feeling 🙂 Makes me think of my first dehydrator I had though – 1 setting of “Desert Blast” 😉
Exactly. Everything came out scorched! Hehe! Desert Blast! 🙂