Dehydrating

My aunt would dry apples andp eaches ontop of her cars using a sheet to lay them on. She would cover them up at night and uncover in the morning.

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

Yes it is!

MissKitty and I are watching some you-tube videos showing how to dehydrate food, store it, then using it. Lots of new things to learn... Have to pace myself LOL!

--Dwight

Dwight, I saw some sites that said you need to 'pasteurize' the food after dehydrating.. by either freezing or putting in a low oven for 15 minutes. Have you and MissKitty seen that? Last time I put everything in the freezer for awhile, but haven't done anything else with the onions so far. Wonder if I should.

but yes, I'm excited too.. I think I"ll put up much more food this way.. to me, freezing has its drawbacks as far as food storage, and canning is such a mess! lol

but be sure to pace yourself... Father's Day is still two days away ....

Marie wrote:Dwight, I saw some sites that said you need to 'pasteurize' the food after dehydrating.. by either freezing or putting in a low oven for 15 minutes. Have you and MissKitty seen that? Last time I put everything in the freezer for awhile, but haven't done anything else with the onions so far. Wonder if I should.

but yes, I'm excited too.. I think I"ll put up much more food this way.. to me, freezing has its drawbacks as far as food storage, and canning is such a mess! lol

but be sure to pace yourself... Father's Day is still two days away ....

Marie: No, the videos we have been watching haven't mentioned anything about pasturizing. We ordered the/a book from Excalubator also, will see if it suggests that.

According to FedEx the package containing the dehydrator is on a truck our for delivery in our area, so hopefully it will be here today.

life is good on Our Lil' Farm!

--Dwight

Marie: Still nothing found suggesting any need to pasteurize.

We have been reading on the book and experimenting. So far have dried Pole Bans, tomato's, potato's, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash. Getting ready to try bananas and apples this morning. Thus far satisfied with the dehydrator.

--Dwight

I'm glad you are satisfied with the results, that's a good sign! :-)

I'm watching the onions to see how they do, without the 'pasteurizing'.. so far so good. I put lids on the jars now.

How did you prepare the potatoes, did you dice them? Interesting!

Marie wrote:.....How did you prepare the potatoes, did you dice them? Interesting!

The only way we have tried, so far at least :-)

Using mid size potato's:

- sliced them 1/4 inch thick,
- pre-cooked (boiled) them until about 80% done
- put in cold water for a minute or so
- soak in a citrus solution for about 1 minute
- pat dry with cloth then place on dehydrator tray

Citrus solution = 1/4 cup lemon juice mixed with 1 pint water

Haven't been able to start on any fruit today as the cherry tomato's and the larger carrots are still in the dehydrator.

--Dwight

My dehydrator came yesterday! It was like Christmas!
I got a Nesco FD-60. Of course I couldn't wait and I had to dry something. I sliced some onions and now I have perfect dehydrated onions!!!

Today I want to start dehydrating stuff for a veggie soup mix.
Also I have a bunch of tomatoes to dry. Can't wait!!!

The main thing I use my dehydrator for is herbs. Although I have dehydrated onions and bell peppers and they turned out well.

I make alot of jerky in ours. The kids love deer jerky and beef. Hubbys Uncle makes fish and turkey and such too.

I want to try jerky. That has been our son's favorite snack since he was little. Hubs likes it too.
I like it but my teeth don't!

I've made beef jerky, but haven't tried it yet with venison. Amy, how bout sharing your recipe.

I will write it up this evening if my cold meds dont kick my rear end. I cant talk right now cause of a sore throat and the earliets Dr appt I can get is Wed. I may have to go to one of the walk in clinics. Strep is going around and I am hoping that is not what I have. I can not end up in the hospital again this year.

I have done sliced strawberries and they were wonderful. You could break some into bits and add them to applesauce to get strawberry applesauce. It was really yummy mixed together like that. I've also done apples, onions, bell peppers and celery. I even bought bags of mixes veggies on sale cheap and dehydrated them for soups, they worked really well. I have never done the jerky or the hamburger rocks I've seen people do on HT before.

Now that my stove has a standing pilot light and the oven is warm all the time I just toss stuff on cookie sheets and into the oven. I usually will toss the beans that I'm going to use for next planting season in there as well.

Hope you feel better Amy.

...hamburger rocks...

Hamburger rocks are fully cooked ground beef, usually 90-95% lean, cooked completely, then rinsed in water to remove all the fat and dehydrated until brittle. They supposedly reconstitute to the ground beef state they were in formerly. I don't think they season them when cooking them either.

I've wanted to try hamburger rocks, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Amy, I hope you don't have what your kids did. Praying for you.

I love my dehydrators. I make fruit leathers, dehydrated cookies (raw vegan), wraps, marinated veggies, and more..

The wife just did a big batch of Jalapeno peppers that turned red .We got to where we dehydrate lots of things .

Don't know about those hamburgers though

I've never dehydrated jalapenos, but I also dehydrate our bell peppers and this year I did some cayennes and then ground them up to a powder. Works great in the dishes I was to add a bit of heat to.

Wife always loves seeing cayenne pepper grow but someone moved the tags in the peppers at the place we got ours and when they started producing there were none . And those banana pepper once they turn red are grate eating too

I usually pickle my banana peppers, but we did get some red ones this year. Is there a certain way you preserve the red banana peppers?

Wife dehydrated some to have some mild peppers on hand . Also dehydrated a bunch of green jalapenos . We try to keep at least six mounts to a year of all foods on hand . Right now we got two freezers full jars of all kinds of stuff .

One of the next projects is shelves for everything think it will look like a small grocery store .

She bought so many cases of food on sale once the guy at the store brought it to the house on his way home . Good thing is he is my cousin so he won't talk .

I dehydrate crackers- with flax seeds, onions, garlic and seasonings- very healthy for you- easier to make than baked crackers.