kimba Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Question please! Newbie here and just received my dehydrator. Ready to get started! What would you suggest I start with to get the hang of it. My garden is not producing yet but wanted to get some things and try my hand at this. I found apples to be pretty easy too. Tonight I'll be doing some leftover celery (from Easter) and some frozen peas. I've never done either before so it should be interesting. Link to comment
Crazy4Canning Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Some of the easiest things to do are frozen veggies. Peas, corn, whatever. Just spread them across the tray and you're done. I love doing brocolli this way. Cheap, easy, & fast! I cut them into smaller bits with my clean kitchen shears. Celery is also super fast. I slice it on the 'thick' end of my mandolin slicer (WATCH your fingers & hands!) and it dries fast without any pre-treatment. I even slice up the leaves. Another favorite of mine is yogurt dots. I take 8oz of yogurt (a little more or less depending on the container and the flavor I want) and a box of no-sugar jello, then mix it. I drop it by the small spoonful and flatten it a bit. 10-12 hrs later, you get these wonderful-tasting yogurt dots! Just like candy, only good for you! (You want to line the trays with parchment paper or non-stick material!) In cleaning out the pantry for Passover, I found a couple of cans of fruit that had passed the expiry date, so they're going into 'dried' fruit for muffins and trail mix. YUM!!! It's really endless what you can do. Now that I have a larger dehydrator, it's more of a challenge to fill it. It did take an ENTIRE bag of Costco spinach, though. You're only limited by your imagination, so have fun! Link to comment
chinajade97 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Some of the easiest things to do are frozen veggies. Peas, corn, whatever. Just spread them across the tray and you're done. I love doing brocolli this way. Cheap, easy, & fast! I cut them into smaller bits with my clean kitchen shears. Thanks!!! I feel a little intimidated since I have never done this before but I am going to take the plunge today and try some apples and bananas......then who knows some frozen peas! You guys are GREAT!!! Just like everything else I guess it just takes practice, practice, and more practice. Link to comment
OINK Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 C4C, when you say " no sugar" jello, do you mean " sugar free"? Link to comment
OINK Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Today I did 2 trays each of 1lb bags of: frozen peas frozen limas LOL I had to use parchment paper because when I just blithely poured the limas onto the tray they fell thru the holes! LMAO so I did the same for the peas too. lol Link to comment
vigilant20 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 LOL I had to use parchment paper because when I just blithely poured the limas onto the tray they fell thru the holes! LMAO so I did the same for the peas too. lol I didn't think of it when I did my peas. Halfway through dehydrating I kept hearing this plinking noise from the kitchen. It was the peas starting to rain through as they shrunk! So I had to stop and transfer them to fruit leather trays at that point...would have saved a lot of time if I'd have done that ahead of time like you did! Link to comment
debi Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I've got 15 pounds of onions to get ready to go. I'm going to start them about 5 this afternoon though and outside in the shed. I really hate the smell and this way they go overnight, and outside!! Link to comment
vigilant20 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I've got 15 pounds of onions to get ready to go. I'm going to start them about 5 this afternoon though and outside in the shed. I really hate the smell and this way they go overnight, and outside!! Good plan! As soon as the nights start warming up here I need to do another load of onions, this time out in the garage. They are horrible when drying, but soooo handy to have around. Link to comment
OINK Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 eh. they just make your house smell like a sub shop! LMAO! I just bought 3lbs of them myself. Some to dry and some to use for cooking. They never seem to go on sale around here for some reason. Either that, or I missed it. Musta been pre-hydrator LOL Link to comment
debi Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Good plan! As soon as the nights start warming up here I need to do another load of onions, this time out in the garage. They are horrible when drying, but soooo handy to have around. It works great! You sleep through the smell! I generally have three dehydrators of them going so, yea, it can get a bit "powerful"! Link to comment
vigilant20 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 It works great! You sleep through the smell! I generally have three dehydrators of them going so, yea, it can get a bit "powerful"! 3? WOW! Now I'm jealous! I'm wanting more and more to get a second one. The excaliburs look so cool. Maybe after my tax return arrives. Link to comment
kimba Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I did the celery and frozen peas last night. DD17 said it smelled like Thanksgiving I told her it was better then the onions and she said OH YEAH it is!! If I do onions again it will be outside! The celery didn't go very far. I'll need to do probably 3 pounds to fill a pint jar! The peas were easy and came out great! Dehydrating can becoming addicting. As DD10 and I were loading on the peas we were scanning the kitchen to see what else we can do Kimba Link to comment
Crazy4Canning Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Oink, Yes, sugar-free jello. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. Link to comment
debi Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 3? WOW! Now I'm jealous! I'm wanting more and more to get a second one. The excaliburs look so cool. Maybe after my tax return arrives. The Excaliburs do look cool! We have three of the Open Country ones. Nothing fancy, very basic, I think we paid maybe 30.00 or so for each. but they do the job and they do it well. Link to comment
OINK Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Oink, Yes, sugar-free jello. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. Thank you. sounded yummy and I wanted to be clear about the ingredients Link to comment
OINK Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I just have a Nesco. Got it at Bed Bath and Beyond for $59 and they had extra trays 2/$10, so I got one set. I didn't check to see if they had the leather trays tho. Next time! Link to comment
Canned Nerd Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I have the American Harvester (NESCO) too and mine came with the leather and fine screen inserts, but that was a long time ago. Link to comment
chinajade97 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I have the American Harvester (NESCO) too and mine came with the leather and fine screen inserts, but that was a long time ago. Ok, Oh wise ones! I just put the peas in the hydrator. yay! Me. My first experiment. Now, I want to prep the apples and bananas. If I plan to dip what is better honey or pineapple juice? And, I read you dip them and then rinse them off? Is that right? I am so glad you all are out there to ask these petty questions of. Thanks! I would love to try the yogurt dots too. My dd would love them but I don't think I am up to that yet. They probably would not last the night with her. Link to comment
Canned Nerd Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Pineapple juice is a good soaking agent. No rinsing. The acid prevents discoloration and the pineapple adds a bit of flavor. Most of my sliced apples just go into a bowl of water in which I've dissolved a few crushed Vitamin C tablets. I never seem to have pineapple juice around at the right moment. Link to comment
OINK Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 well, I didn't bother to rinse my bananas. I just dipped them in lemon juice in a bowl and then put them on the tray. I did spray some cooking spray on the trays so they wouldn't stick. And as for the yogurt drops, you'll need a leather tray I haven't done apples yet. I'll have to wait until they're in season. Link to comment
vigilant20 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I just got giant bottles of lemon juice at SAMs to spray down all my fruit. Less messy After looking at my lemon and lime photos, someone commented that they didn't think vitamin C could survive dehydrating. Anyone have any good info about this? I guess it wouldn't really bother me, since it's more about stockpiling and preservation for me (my lemons always get forgotten about and go bad )...but now I'm curious. Link to comment
Crazy4Canning Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I use concentrated lemon juice to 'treat' my fruit such as apples & bananas. I'm sure you could use another highly acidic juice, but I've not done it. ** SPRAYING JUICE? Excellent Idea! Seems like you would use less, coat more, and it would be more effecient! Nice. Link to comment
chinajade97 Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I use concentrated lemon juice to 'treat' my fruit such as apples & bananas. I'm sure you could use another highly acidic juice, but I've not done it. Thanks Ladies! I too like the idea of using a spray bottle for the lemon juice. Maybe I can find a spray bottle for the pineapple juice too! My peas are not quite done yet.. But, I am having fun! Hopefully, I will be doing apples and strawberries tomorrow. That is if the family stops munching on them long enough for me to do them.... Link to comment
OINK Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 FYI: One, 1lb bag of frozen peas and/or lima beans equal 1 cup of dried each. Link to comment
OINK Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Just started 3 trays of strawberries and 1 tray of frozen blueberries I had from when they were in season last year. I have a shelf empty in my freezer door yay! Link to comment
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