Dehydrating Food

Dehydrating is a fairly easy way to preserve some of your produce. Besides what you grow in your garden, you can take advantage of sales from your grocery store or Farmer’s Market.

Dehydrating is the removing moisture from foods. This helps preserve food for long term storage.

My favorite dehydrator is the Excalibur brand dehydrator. In fact, I have three 9 tray Excalibur dehydrators. Out of the dehydrators I have used this one seems to dry things the quickest. It has a fan in the back that allows for better circulation. Cabela's has a nice one too.

Before I had a dehydrator I used my oven. To do this: Preheat your oven to lowest temperature which will be about 170 degrees. If yours goes lower you are lucky. What I had to do was prop the oven door open about two to three inches by putting a rolled up hot pad or kitchen towel in the door. This allows moisture to escape, air to circulate and prevent the oven from getting too hot. Some have bought or made things to use outdoor to dehydrate. In order for that to work, you have to be in an area that has several days over 100 degrees. I don’t get that up here in Idaho. One other thing that does work is putting trays of food in cars with windows cracked open. One problem with using cars, is moisture could build up inside causing rust. If you have old, unused junk cars on your property, you have some great dehydrators!

Some fruits and vegetables you will want to pre-treat them. Lemon Juice is an easy way. You can mix some in water to dip the food in or put it in a spray bottle to spray it. Pineapple juice is another one. Some like to dip some fruit into powdered Jello. Ascorbic acid is another method. Pre-treating helps prevent browning and some methods add vitamin C. Read over the recommended instructions to get more specific information on the different products.

Besides a way to dry your food, there is not much else In the way of tools. A good knife and a cutting board will do. There are other things that if you have them will save time; meat Slicer, mandolin, food processor, salad shooter. Whatever method you use, you want the food you are dehydrating at that time to be somewhat uniform in size to help with even dehydrating.

Spread your prepared food evenly on your dehydrator tray. Dehydrate at 95-105°F for leafy plants and herbs, 135°F for meats, and 120-125°F for everything else. Never go above 125°F unless dehydrating meats. Dehydrate for 8-48 hours.

To dehydrate small things or liquid things, you will need some sheets to put on your trays. You can use plastic wrap, but it is a bit of a pain. I found some on Amazon that were a great price. If you have a different type of dehydrator, I bet you could cut them to fit.

One fast way to get things dehydrated is to blend them into a liquid and spread them out on a sheet. This used to be called fruit leather. Now-a-days people call it fruit roll ups. When doing fruit, you can use applesauce to stretch other fruits. Once I did some with raspberries and some raspberries by themselves. I could not tell the difference. I was trying to see which one had more seeds, and that was still hard to tell the difference between them.

Besides dehydrating fresh food you can invest in saving time for the future. Take extra soup, chili, stew casserole, etc. or make extra, and dry it on sheets. All you have to do is reconstitute it in boiling water and have a quick meal. This is a great way to have some yummy things for work, school, 72-hour kits, camping or backpacking. Make some of this for your elderly parents, college children, expectant mothers – I bet you can make a list of people that would appreciate this.

I have bought frozen vegetables when they were on sale and dehydrated them. So easy! I did not have to plant the garden, pick them, shell them (or whatever). Just spread them out and dehydrate them.

Make sure what you have dehydrated is dry enough. If not, you may have a moldy mess. One thing I have done, is to put the dehydrated items into a bag or jar. After a couple of days, if there is too much moisture, you will see moisture on the bag or jar. Dry a bit longer if that is the case

You spend a lot of time dehydrating. Take time to store it correctly. Store dried produce in clean, dry, airtight containers in a cool dark place. Light can cause discoloration to your product. Vacuum seal in jars or bags for longer shelf-life. For even longer shelf-life, use oxygen absorbers.

There are three links. One for fruits, one for vegetables and then one for herbs.

Try something new

A good way to help you get motivated is to watch some videos. I really like the ones by "Dehydrate 2 Store"