do any of you enjoy dehydrating food? My hubby and I aren't jerky enthusiasts, but I do love to dehydrate fruits and veggies. This past week I dehydrated pineapples, cranberries, raisins and several citrus types. My most unusual was to pit and dehydrate dates. If you dehydrare, what do you like to dehydrate and what is the most unusual food or other that you dehydrated?

It sounds like fun! Do the fruits become sweet on their own, or do you add sugar? Love the pineapple too.

1 comment

by 02kar 23 Feb 2022

I don't add any sugar. Some of what I dehydrate I store for use later in the year or even 2 years. I love my dried pineapple too. It is so sweet and when re-hydrated is perfect in baked goods or chutney.

Yum!! I love dried fruit. I purchase most except bananas. I do my own in my electric oven. They do not look pretty, however they taste like candy.

1 comment

by 02kar 23 Feb 2022

My husband calls the dried fruit 'candy" because the sweetness gets concentrated.

We have a gas range that has a dehydrator feature....we used to make Jim ground beef Jerky, but his waist line was growing too fast as he enjoyed it way too much😁 but we haven't used it for a long time now....have not tried any fruits or veggies, I love raisins and banana chips as well as cranberry raisins.....never occurred to me to make my own...mmmm....

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by 02kar 23 Feb 2022

Please do make your own. I tell people the only ingredients in mine are love and the fruit or veggie. No added sugar, dyes or other yucky stuff

I have two dehydrators and used them all the time for years...I did a lot of beef and turkey jerky...and we have apricot, peach and apple trees on our back hill. I did a lot of dehydrating during the picking season. Dehydrated lots of the fruits and made fruit leathers as well. Life got busy and I stopped several years ago. It does take some time and preparation... I may have to re-visit my dehydrators this year when the fruits on the trees are ready to be picked.

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by 02kar 22 Feb 2022

Please do re-visit your dehydrators. I think of the fruit on trees as free food and why waste it. I find it takes me less time to prep, clean up and put away the dried goodies than to can the produce. And a whole lot less wear, tear and pain with my spine.

This is very interesting….

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by 02kar 22 Feb 2022

It's amazing what you can do with a dehydrator. I keep learning new things. And best of all, it takes a lot less room to store the dried goodies. And in my case, I have no more freezer space and I can't can any more thanks to my unhappy spine.

i haven't dehydrated food for a little while but before all the cost of food going up i would dehydrate 50 pound of sweet potatoes for pups as treats. quite a job but they love them

1 comment

by 02kar 21 Feb 2022

Oh my! That's a lot of treats, but worth it. Part of the reason I began dehydrating was because of the food prices increasing.

I used to love dried bananas and raspberries in my cereal until I learned that the store-bought ones are fifty percent added sugar. So it's twice as good that you can make it yourself.

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by 02kar 21 Feb 2022

And it is so easy to dehydrate bananas and berries. And most everyone can dehydrate too.

My granddaughter loves dehydrated apple slices. I sprinkle cinnamon sugar on them. Coco loves her sweet potatoes, some I cut really small for treats and some larger pieces for chewing. The strangest item I dehydrate is the peel of the Meyers lemon. After I have juiced them, I slice the rind into strips. Once they are crispy dry I pulverize them. Great for adding into salads, baked good fish dishes etc. I give a lot of that away.

Some of the herbs, specially the mint and chamomile

1 comment

by 02kar 20 Feb 2022

Yummm, both my hubby and i love dried apple slices. I've heard of dried sweet potato and have actually powdered the dried sweet potato to use in things like smoothies. I never thought to dry the Meyer's rinds and use with fish dishes.

I don't dehydrate foods, but my good friend gave me a slice of tomato to try fresh from the dehydrator, and it was shockingly SWEET. I told her what a wonderful non-sugar snack that is!

1 comment

by 02kar 20 Feb 2022

Dehydrating seems to concentrate the flavors and sweetness. I dried some lemon slices for a friend and before I could tell her they would be flavor intensive, she bit into a slice. She decided to wait to rehydrate before eating the lemon slices.

Hi Karen. Dehydrating food is something I have never tried so I cannot comment apart from looking forwards to the rest of your replies

1 comment

by 02kar 20 Feb 2022

I'm looking forward to the replies too.