Dehydration

[rnh2]

Who out there dehydrates your garden and fruit crops? What's the good bad and ugly? Best way to do it?

 

[Hippie Rancher]

have dried apricots on a screen outdoors before, they get brown but sure taste better than store-bought
have done tomatoes in low oven but it is gas so it takes forever, dream of getting a good dehydrator but just don't have a place to store it.

 

[Redgully]

My wife has a dehydrator and does heaps. She makes a lot of fruit leather by blending up ripe fruit and drying it in thin layers. Recently thinly sliced strawberries and dried them and are really nice. But my favourite is her dried/preserved figs. She pokes them full of holes, boils them for two hours in vinegar and sugar, drains them and then dries them on low oven, an hour on one side and an hour on the other. Store in the fridge for a year but they never last that long!

 

[KylePries]

I dehydrate apples, peaches, pears, figs, plums, strawberries, carrots, peppers, and pumpkin in my Excalibur dehydrator (https://popular.reviews/best-dehydrators/#2_Excalibur_2900ECB). I definitely recommend you go for a dehydrator if you plan on drying fruits and veggies rather than use the oven cause it's much more convenient for you. Just put the sliced veggies or fruits inside, set it for the time and temperature recommended for the specific product you prepare, and voila, when the time passes, you're done and there's no mistake in the preparation process. When it comes to the bad or ugly side of dehydrating, in my opinion, there's none. Dehydrated fruits and veggies are tasty, last long, you add some variety to your diet, and get some healthy snacks to enjoy year-round.

 

[ccr]

Have heard of using dehydration on tomatoes for picante sauce.