I have a friend that dehydrates anything and everything! When we first met she had just found a good buy on a 50 lb. bag of potatoes and she dehydrated the whole thing! I was amazed. Then, I started reading 5 Acres and a Dream and learned about dehydrating a variety of plants for goat minerals. I read about Bacon and Eggs dehydrating things all the time, even tomato skins. That was it. I decided it was time for me to learn how to do this.
pepper in half, taking out the seeds. Then I sliced them into four pieces and laid them on the trays so they don't touch....
I wish I could find a dehydrator that works off of 12 volts. Frank was able to find a 12 volt incubator for hatching chicks.
It's funny how we let fear and uncertainty keep us from trying new things. So, if there is something you really want to try, say a prayer, then have the gumption to get with it. I did and it feels really good. My dehydrator has been drying something now for three days in a row - peppers, cucumber peels and comfrey - and I'm not sure when it will stop.
Until next time - Fern
We use our dehydrator alot. Since we are stickler's for organics we found some great buys last year at Natural Grocer's. Ideally, one would grow all their own organic produce, but we have to pick and choose on our 1/3 acre lot.
ReplyDeleteWe do have quite a variety of things we grow personally that we dehydrate; peppers, yukon gold potatoes, carrots, beets, plums, and a good selection of herbs. The other fruits and vegetables we grow either get canned or frozen.
When organic frozen vegetables go on sale for a good price, at the grocer, then we stock up on bags of peas and broccoli and dehydrate those. I love doing that because they have already been blanched and it's only a matter of opening the package and putting them on the dehydrator trays with mesh screens (to prevent fall through).
Tomatoes sprinkled with a little sea salt make a good dipping chip when dehydrated. When our children were young we dehydrated cucumber and tomato chips for dip. Also, used to do alot of fruit leather, but haven't in years.
Your post was inspirational as I have been avoiding the All American Pressure Canner sitting on my shelf. I keep coming up with alternative ways to preserve rather than attempt it. I will give it a go :).
Glenda,
DeleteI really like my All American canner. Give it a try, I think you will like it too.
Fern
Awesome job! I absolutely love dehydrating. It's a wonderful way to put up tons of room in very small spaces.
ReplyDeleteJust be careful.... it's addicting! *wink*
I enjoy dehydrating!
ReplyDeleteThe girls love the fruit and fruit leather!
Your peppers look great!
Thank you for all of the encouragement! It really is easy to do. One of these days I will try something a little more difficult than peppers or cucumber peels.
ReplyDeleteFern
What a great post! I agree with the others, it's inspiring. I think that oftentimes, the way we do things is out of habit. I find that as I try to develop new habits, the stuff I thought I wouldn't like becomes easier.
ReplyDeleteI have to thank you for linking to me. :) It's always a blessing to be an encouragement to others.
Perhaps you would let Frank take the back off the dehydrator to see what's going on in there. The controls will almost certainly be running off 5V DC (or 3.3V), the heating element is probably 120V a.c. but might just be a low Voltage element.
ReplyDeleteThe element could be switched with a relay or Pulse Width Modulated.
The opportunity exists to possibly convert the dehydrator to 12V.
Alternatively, fundamentally a dehydrator and an incubator aren't very different (a thermostat and a heating element) perhaps you could build trays for a 12V incubator to use as a dehydrator (for hygienic reasons I suspect you'd not want to re-use the incubator for food).
I just found your site, and I'm excited about learning as much as I can! The cost of food since this original post and today (3-22-14) as gone up soooo much, it's unsettling. I'm curious about how you prep the canning jars before you put the dehydrated food in them...do you just wash them in soapy water; boil them, then let them dry; etc. Also do you use a vacuum dealer, one of those vacuum packets, or both...or some other procedure? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI didn't do anything special with the jars for my dehydrated peppers. I was just happy to have actually dehydrated something! These are very good questions, though. Some people have the vacuum sealers that work on jars, and that may be a good option, although I have never used one. If I actually make it to the point that I start dehydrating more things to keep for long term, I will have to make some more solid plans for long term storage. Thanks for the ideas!
DeleteFern