Dehydrating

I bought a dehydrator last year and love it! Not only do I dehydrate my herbs with it, but my food, too! Dehydrated food takes up much less space and is much lighter than canned food, though I can, too.

For example, I made up a dry vegetable beef soup. It is a whole lot cheaper to send to out of state family than jars of soup which will likely break with the 'gentle' treatment by the PO.

I dry, separately, all the ingredients for a large pot of soup. Carrots, potatoes, onions, beans, tomatoes, corn, even the beef is dried then mixed together in a large bowl. In my vacuum bags (sized in 1qt servings) I portion out the soup mix, add beef soup base and vacuum seal. When ready to eat, place in pot large enough to contain soup and twice the water you would normally use. Better yet, use the slow cooker! Let it simmer for 2-3 hours at least. Enjoy!

I bought my very first dehydrator a couple of months ago, and did onions, broccoli and apples. I then put them in resealable bags and put them in the freezer. So far I've only used the onions, but they are WONDERFUL! So tasty, and blend right in to whatever I'm making. I'm hoping to do some large scale dehydrating this summer. Love it!

And the recipe you posted sounds great too, I am going to try it!

I love my dehydrator!! Do any of you sprinkle cinnamon on your apples when you dry them? YUM! It makes a great snack! I gave some dried apples and banana chips to a friend for Christmas last year and she loved them!

I vacuum seal everything, so I don't freeze. I can get a weeks worth of food in a small basket!

I am very greatly interested in dehydrating....I usually can veggies...but want to learn of dehydrating process...Our problem is a limited amount of space...Are the dehydraters expensive??..Does anyone do solar dehydration???...MissKitty

Medicine Mom wrote:I vacuum seal everything, so I don't freeze. I can get a weeks worth of food in a small basket!

I was a little nervous about just vacuum sealing, worried that they were not dry enough and would start to mold... do you use oxygen absorbers? Or, how do you know if every bit of moisture is gone.. I do have a vacuum sealer too...

MissKitty wrote:I am very greatly interested in dehydrating....I usually can veggies...but want to learn of dehydrating process...Our problem is a limited amount of space...Are the dehydraters expensive??..Does anyone do solar dehydration???...MissKitty

After reading all the posts about dehydrating over at HT, I decided on an Excalibur.. I ordered a 'refurbished' 9 tray from the Excalibur company through eBay.. becaue they offered free shipping through eBay at the time.. not sure if they are still doing it. I think it was $159.00, compared to $279.00 for new ones. I also ordered one of the plastic sheets for doing jerky and fruit roll-ups.. they are about 10.00 each.

There are different ways of looking at it, I'm sure.. but people said the small ones took too long..

I don't know what type of dehydrater I have. I actually have two, one we bought (just a cheapy) and one that was given to me. I don't use anything in mine, just vacumn seal it. Seems to work ok for me. But you do need to make sure it's completely dry.

I don't use oxygen absorbers, but probably should. As long as fully dried, there will be no mold. The only one that I am very careful with is meat. It takes a good 24 hours to dry if I don't cut it in small chunks.

Do any of you make leather britches? I used to eat them at my greataunts house when I was small. Loved the flavor and being dried, these green beans don't take up much storage space. wish I had the opportunity to learn from the great aunts now, but I am one of the elders of the family and they are long gone. I am trying to get my sons to make me a rack with screening so that I can dry veggies and fruits using the sun, without having flies on them. Sheesh, with Mother's day at hand, maybe...hmmmm? Blessings, M. A.

I saw someone posting about leather britches over on HT. What exactly is that? I had never heard of it before.

Leather britches are an old name for dried green beans. The pioneers used to string them near the stove and let them dry to keep them for the winter. Sure regret not learning more from my older relatives when they were still with us. I did learn about prickly pear fruit being edible; ate parched corn (loved it), learned that a lump of brown sugar is as good or better than candy if you ain't used to getting candy , learned that you can eat crawdads and that a lot of things aren't necessary to be happy. Having things don't make you happy; being content with what you have does. Blessings, M. A. in TN

Thanks for explaining it to me. My Dad probably knows about that. I remember he use to cut twigs from sassafras trees and give them to us to chew on. He picks poke sallet and cooks up a great dish with it too. He grew up in Alabama. 7 kids and my Grandfather died when they were all young, so Grandma raised them. They did a lot of foraging and living off the land.

Good morning all!!!
Enjoying all the input on dehydration, I am not a "doom and gloom sayer," but any means...and would love to get an electric unit...electric may not always be available...and all our gadgets will not do us any good...I might be able to know how to run an electric unit...with ya'lls and Dwight's help..lol..But I feel the need to know how to do the drying process also the "old way"...Which I believe might come around again...Do others feel this way...MissKItty

I agree, Miss Kitty.. at least there are alternatives if there is no electricity. Some good alternatives have been discussed at HT. Rack drying would work well if you live in a dry climate. I have a very 'down to earth' friend who moved here from the city a few years ago, and she was drying things on the dash and back window of her car!! In fact, right now she's using her car as a greenhouse! So alternatives are out there...

MissKitty wrote:Good morning all!!!
Enjoying all the input on dehydration, I am not a "doom and gloom sayer," but any means...and would love to get an electric unit...electric may not always be available...and all our gadgets will not do us any good...I might be able to know how to run an electric unit...with ya'lls and Dwight's help..lol..But I feel the need to know how to do the drying process also the "old way"...Which I believe might come around again...Do others feel this way...MissKItty

I'll add to MissKitty's post a little bit. GeoPathfinder Solar Dehydrator has a great article on building a solar dehydrator, one I think I could build and that would work well in our part of the Ozarks... but the cost of the stainless steel woven screen for the trays is quite prohibitive... I can buy a complete 9 tray refurbished dehydrator for less. So the thought I'm having is to purchase a refurbished Excalibur unit and then size a homemade solar dehydrator to use the trays from the commercial unit. Anyone got any thoughts????

TIA,

--Dwight AKA Mr. MissKitty

I have heard of using cars to dehydrate too. Or just the good old sun that God provided. Course, you need a way to prevent the bugs from getting it. There are also solar dehyrators you can make. Later today I'll google it and see what I can find on solar dehydrators.

MissKitty wrote:Good morning all!!!
Enjoying all the input on dehydration, I am not a "doom and gloom sayer," but any means...and would love to get an electric unit...electric may not always be available...and all our gadgets will not do us any good...I might be able to know how to run an electric unit...with ya'lls and Dwight's help..lol..But I feel the need to know how to do the drying process also the "old way"...Which I believe might come around again...Do others feel this way...MissKItty

Here's some links for you;

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2006-08-01/Build-a-Solar-Food-Dehydrator.aspx

http://www.homegrownevolution.com/2008/10/build-solar-dehydrator.html

http://www.jrwhipple.com/sr/soldehydrate.html

Hopefully that will give you some ideas. And yes, I do believe the day is approaching that we will not have the availabilities afforded us now.

Having things don't make you happy; being content with what you have does.

I love that! May I use it?

I am sure that isn't original with me, but it is what I believe, so feel free to use it. Even with our children, when they are grown it is seldom the <things> we gave them that they will remember the most, but the time we shared. A church bulletin one proclaimed that children spell love T I M E. Blessings, M. A. ps feel free to correct my grammer also

I did leather britches one time. I dod not like them after they were cooked. I do not think I cooked them long enough. I took kentucky wonders and needle and thread. Tied them up and put them in the room with the wood heater. I have a small dehydrator now that I make jerky and dried fruit with it. I have a vacumm sealer someone gave me. Never used it but am going to look into it now for sure.

You might soak the leather britches for awhile before cooking them to rehydrate them. Then I just add some seasoning meat and simmer till they are tender. Not everyone will like the taste probably, but I do. Blessings, M. A.

I didnt soak them I just cooked them all day. That was probably the problem. I will try it again if my beans do good this year.

I'll revive this thread with, what is to me, good news. MissKitty just ordered the OldGrouch a 9 tray Excalibur Dehydrator for fathers day. Can't wait for it to arrive... but guess I have to....

Getting Squash daily now and the past two days have picked a couple tomato's and the vines are full of green ones. Time for me to be digging out the jars and pressure canners (we have two, both of us "came equiped" with one when we got married)...

life is good on "Our Lil' Farm"

--Dwight

Hi Dwight!

I used my Excalibur yesterday - dried a bag of onions and did it outside on the deck.. otherwise the house is so stinky! lol So now I have 2 quart jars of onion sitting on my counter and it makes me feel so good! Soooo 'homesteady" lol

I covered the jars with cheesecloth so I can give them a shake now and then and make sure they are dry. We had a couple of nice dry hot days so I think they'll be good.

I am new to this, it's only the second time I've used it.

Yes I agree, life is good :-)

It's good when little things make us happy, huh? :-)