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You should have smelled this house while we were chopping (dicing) onions and bagging them up for the freezer! We double bag them and they don't seem to smell up the deep freeze. I keep a couple of small "portion" bags in a small freezer container in the frig for immediate use.

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Watching for oranges, lemons and limes to come on sale ... want to dehydrate some more. I opened a jar from 2013 (oranges) and they smelled like fresh oranges and when put in a glass of ice water, tasted wonderful!

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  • 5 months later...

I put a dehydrator full of raspberries in yesterday evening and later went to bed. Seventeen hours later they look like they are just barely starting to dry. I set the timer for another fifteen hours and will watch them closely. Sheeesh. I'm glad I still have electricity or else they would be moldy before they dry. Wouldn't one of those home freeze dryers be nice.  :sigh:

 

I got some tomatoes to do next. I just hope the berries get done before the tomatoes start to go bad. I may be eating a lot of tomatoes this weekend.  :unsure:

 

I'm hoping the lemons will wait too. Might be a lot of lemonade in my near future.  :rolleyes:

 

That's what I get for trying to save gas and buying the fruit all at once at Sam's Club.  :pout:

 

 

Well I'll be darn. The raspberries are dry. They just retained their nice red color. Sheeesh, I almost made raspberry dust.

 

Edited by Jeepers
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A little too dried.

 

They will be good added to cereal, muffins, oatmeal and things like that. Eating as is will not be very flavorful. I learned a lesson though. Red raspberries look like red raspberries when they are dehydrated.

 

If I can find that #$%^ battery charger...again, I'll take a picture and give the amounts I got.

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I jarred up my 2 bags of lemons (in light simple syrup)  and the Roma's that I didn't get jarred up are in my deep freezer (and that's a lot of them!).  The lemons I didn't get jarred up I cut in half and put them in baggies (double) and they're in the freezer.  I'll defrost them later and decide if I want to dehydrate or jar them up.

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I don't know why my camera takes such lousy pictures. I don't take enough pictures to warrant buying a new one though. I'm thinking user error.

 

Anyway, I bought 6 trays of 12oz. each of raspberries at Sam's Club. It filled the dehydrator nicely with placing each berry with the open side down. I read where they hold their shape better that way. They did. About 4 oz. didn't make it to the dehydrator because of bad berries. I only ate a couple.

 

I ended up with 2 quarts. I dried them at 135 degrees. I'm not sure how long I dried them because I over dried them. I didn't think they were dried because they retained their color and I thought they were still fresh. So I kept resetting the timer. Next time I'll set the timer for 12 hours and check it every hour after that to see if they need more.

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  • 11 months later...
  • 1 month later...

SWEEEEEET POTATOES!  I must have a couple bushels of them from the garden & Mary does not eat them. Soooo I give some to my Md who is a veggie lover, and some to our friends down the road, and the rest I am dehydrating....slices, dices, and leather-into-powder.  I like them plain, or maybe with some salt and butter, so it wont  be anything fancy.   I tried sweet potato chips, but I did not like the slightly grainy texture of them, so back to more traditional versions except for a couple I'll dry up for dog treats.  I surely don't want them to go to waste (Noooooooooo!  :runcirclsmiley2:  and the canner is still packed in the shed, so dehydrating is my next best option.  

Edited by kappydell
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  • 2 weeks later...

I like mine baked, so I baked them, pureed the pulp, then dehydrated and powdered them.  Instant sweet potato puree.  I kept some of the bigger and more perfect ones for other cooking, but the powder suits me and was easy to do.  I ran across a different recipe for them today - reconstitute to a puree, stir in some crushed pineapple, spread in a baking dish and top with marshmallows.  Bake to melt.  I usually don't do my sweet potatoes with marshmallows, but I liked having the option if the whim suits.

I also had good luck with the bananas I found for 25 cents a pound - sliced, dipped in lemon juice, and dried nicely.  Wish I could find another sale like that...

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

Its that time again!  I cranked up the dehydrator this time to make winter squash powder.  We have LOTS of small Waltham Squashes, so they are cooked, pureed and drying on leather-making sheets.  When dry they will be powdered. 

Also did some broccoli florets, frozen ones that were taking up too darn much freezer space.  God 1 quart jar out of a 22 cup bag of florets.  Much more freezer room now.

As the okra cranks up I will be drying that too, as last years okra kept nicely that way.  Just sliced and dehydrated. The info I found said no blanching, so I didn't and they kept their color.  I tried the seasoned whole crispy okra version and it was very, VERY good, but it won;t store as long because it uses oil (and I don;t need those extra calories anyway).  The slices rehydrate nicely for oven fried okra (I use shake & bake on them, LOL), to toss in my stir fries, and in soups.  Good enough for me, as M does not eat okra.  

I tried dehydrating sliced sweet yellow peppers, but they did not keep their color, so next batch I will blanch first.  No problem getting more, they are producing like gangbusters!  

Edited by kappydell
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May have mentioned this on another thread, but I did 6 trays of granola using my dehydrator.  Ended up with two nearly full gallon baggies, then added dried cranberries and pecan bits.  I'll add some ground flax seed when I open the baggie. Love dehydrators!

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I just ran across some tasty looking granola recipes for the dehydrator....so much nicer than heating up the house using the oven!  I wonder if chex mix would work, too??? 

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Granola?  What’s the recipe?  

 

Our BBQ is registering 250*F daily. Aluminum and plastic sheeting registers 200 *F. Seriously, I really don’t need to use the dehydrator in the summer, but would like to make some stuff. 

 

Hopefully, I’ll process the deer meat into jerky this week while it’s still extremely hot outside.  

 

Kappy, as long as it has minimal chemicals in it, it should be fine. 

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We just snagged a wonderful buy on bananas today.  Two large produce boxes, probably close to fifty pounds, that were just being removed from the shelves to restock.  We paid $5 for them all.  Most were just starting to speckle and will be perfect for dehydrating and freezing.  We love them both ways.  We like them dehydrated to the chewy leather like stage that makes them taste almost like caramel. 

 

Another favorite dehydrated goody is Apple oatmeal cookies.  The basic recipe comes from an old 'Dry It You'll Like It' book by Gen Macmaniman that I've used for years.  I blend three or four raw seeded but unpeeled apples with 3/4 cup oil, a half cup or more of honey, and vanilla in a blender until smooth. I pour it into a large bowl and add about three cups raw oatmeal, a cup of chopped nuts or sunflowers, a cup of raisins or other dried fruit and sometimes cinnamon.  Stir it well and then let it set for an hour or so to soak.  I drop this by spoons full on dehydrator trays and dry until desired firmness.  I store the softer ones in the refrig or freezer but they don't last long here.  The apple base is great alone like a pudding or frozen like a sherbet.  Yum!   

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