Good deal on frozen blueberries

[CoM]

The Dollar Tee has a small section of frozen foods. They have 10 oz frozen blueberries ( seems to be about a pint) & 16 oz frozen sliced peaches for a dollar each.

 

I bought 32 bags of the blueberries to dehydrate and had enough to do 2 batches in my 8 tray Nesco, 2 bags per tray worked perfectly. Came out great. There were variations in size and each bag had a few bad berries, but dehydrating frozen foods is so much easier. You do not have to pick, clean, blanch because all that has been done at the factory. Just put the frozen berries in the trays & dehydrate.

 

Come June when the fresh ones are ready I will do some fresh, but I am not looking foward to all the work :-)

[ANewMe]

Lucky you!!! I didn't know Dollar Tree had a cooler section....ours doesn't.

[TurtleMama]

 

You can dehydrate FROZEN fruit?????????

 

Dude, I SOOOOO need to get a dehydrator.

[Violet]

Yes, you can dehydrate both frozen as well as canned, and of course, fresh fruits.

They make good fruit roll ups.

Before you buy a dehydrator, please, give me a chance to let you know which ones are good and those you should not buy. I want to be sure you get a good machine and not waste your money nor food.

 

[TurtleMama]

Yes, you can dehydrate both frozen as well as canned, and of course, fresh fruits.

They make good fruit roll ups.

Before you buy a dehydrator, please, give me a chance to let you know which ones are good and those you should not buy. I want to be sure you get a good machine and not waste your money nor food.

 

Violet, of course I would LOVE to have your advice!! There is a local shop that sells dehydrators. One that I have had my eye on is called an American Harvest Gardenmaster 8 tray dehydrator. It is kind of round and looks to be a nice dehydrator. Is that one that you recommend? I'd love to know what other brands you think are good. This is a very new thing to me, I've never dehydrated any food before, except for a slice of bread that accidentally got left on the counter and got stale! hehehe

[Violet]

Turtlemama,

That is a great dehydrator ! I prefer that one or the Nesco round ones since you can keep stacking trays or use as few as you need at a time. I have the older version of the Nesco, which is American Harvest. I have 2 of them, and have had for over 25 years.

Some like Excalibur, but it is a personal thing. I find them more limiting as you have set number of trays and can't expand like the round one.

One other thing, for drying herbs or small items, get yourself some vinyl window screen and cut to size instead of paying for the expensive mesh sheets. It is fine to do that.

You just don't want any dryer like a Ronco, or one that only has a heat source and no fan, nor an adjustable thermostat.

The one you are looking at has all the good features for safe food drying.

 

[CoM]

Turtlemama:

 

That's the model dehydrator I have, the Gardenmaster pro. It will hold up to 30 trays. I LOVE it! Has temperature adjust. You can do herbs, veggies, etc and all come out great.

 

http://www.nesco.com/category_449f7f01f1ea...n_0c1ca2f61a4a/

 

Frozen shredded hasbrowns come out great too. I store all of my dried foods in mason jars with an oxy absorber in the jar, then vacumn seal jar.

 

Check out this site www.dehydrate2store.com

[AMarthaByHeart]

I bought a Nesco after getting advice from Mrs. S. I haven't regretted it one moment. I bought extra shelves, fruit leathers, and the little screens to keep things from falling through. They are very easy to clean. I keep it running constantly. I love it.

 

I haven't made any fruit leathers yet but can't keep enough dried bananas around here. They keep disappearing. I bought some store bought dehydrated bananas trying to fool the little gremlins into to leaving mine alone. They gagged and wanted to know how I 'ruined' them. Noone would eat them.

[TurtleMama]

Oooh, cool!! I'm glad to know that it's a good one. Next month I should have enough money to purchase that dehydrator! Then it will be time to save for a FoodSaver so I can suck all the air out of things. MUA-hahaha Maybe I can suck all the hot air out of our politicians!! (Sorry, Darlene, I just couldn't resist!!)

 

I think I'm going to check Craigslist for the FoodSaver. I'll get the dehydrator new. I'm so stoked to know that I can dehydrate frozen fruits as well as fresh...even canned! That is so spiffy!