Daylily Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Well, we've set a date for the food dehydrating class! It will be July 22. We'll serve a lunch mostly of dehydrated foods, then have the class. Foods we plan to have for folks to sample include green beans, sweet corn, peas, cauliflower, some type of greens, cherry tomatoes, various dried fruits and fruit leathers. We'll have pinto beans and cornbread for the "main dish". We might do something with potatoes too. We're still in the planning stages. DH and DS will show and tell how they built an electric dehydrator. DD and I will show and tell how to do blueberries, apples, fruit leathers, and more as we decide. Of course we'll talk about general principles and safety issues. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment
homeschoolshe Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 No suggestions, but when I saw the title I was hoping it would be online! I've been thinking about trying dehydrating again. Tried it about 10 years ago thinking it would save money, but didn't think it was worth it, but now that I'm looking at having a good supply of shelf stable foods I'm thinking I should give it a go again. Quote Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Maybe videotape it and put up on youtube so we all can see it? Well those of us that can watch youtube anyway. Quote Link to comment
Daylily Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 I'm sorry you were disappointed! I don't think we'll be appearing on youtube! We're too shy Quote Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Oh, but think of all the people out there that could learn from what you are doing. Quote Link to comment
homeschoolshe Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 How bout these: Cause I really do want to know more about these. How do I know that my food is dehydrated enough that I can store it without worrying about mold? How do I store my dehydrated food? Am I going to have issues with bugs? How long can I store it? Is there anything I can't dehydrate? Or would just be unpleasent dehydrated? I guess some dehydraters would be better than others. Which ones? Any I should avoid? Can I add extra racks to my dehydrater.....say my M-I-L has one and so does my sis-in-law.... Should I run them both separate, or can I add sis's racks to mom's dehydrater????? So I'd really like to know! I suppose I could do a search..... Quote Link to comment
Daylily Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 Thanks! Those are good questions and some I hadn't thought of yet. I appreciate your input. Quote Link to comment
ma & pa steel Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 you can also watch these videos to help you learn. http://www.dehydrate2store.com/videos/ Quote Link to comment
Violet Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I think you need to include safe jerky making. NO ground meats, lean meats only. Then, they need to be precooked or in a vinegar dip at least. Then, no low salt soy sauce. Must be the real salt soy sauce for safety. No safe drying of eggs, no "hamburger rocks ", no cheese. Just to name a few things. Quote Link to comment
TurtleMama Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Dehydrating CHEESE????? Wow. That never even would have occured to me. People try that? Quote Link to comment
Daylily Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Hi Violet, everyone who is coming to the class is a vegetarian so we don't have to worry about jerky. I'm pretty sure none of them will be making any. I will mention eggs and cheese though as some of the folks use them. Thanks! Ma & Pa Steel, those are good videos and quite inspiring. Thanks for the link! Quote Link to comment
Daylily Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 (edited) The class was well received! We had 7 people. One family were out of town at a nephew's graduation from police academy and one older lady wanted badly to come but her husband wouldn't bring her! They want us to have another one. One lady said we didn't have to feed them, just teach them but tasting the food is a big part of it. It makes you want to actually try dehydrating. They all loved the food and went on and on about how good it was. We had beans that we grew and vine-dried, cornbread and hominy from corn that we grew and dried; and these veggies that we had dried: two sweet corns (one we grew and one from frozen corn),green beans, green peas, cauliflower, okra, okra with tomatoes, cabbage, mustard greens; a stir-fry of soy curls, red peppers, zucchini, broccoli, and okra; tofu egg salad with dried tomatoes; dessert was dried nectarines, pears, apples and blueberries. DD put everything in pretty dishes and it looked so nice. After the class, the three ladies jumped right in and washed all the dishes. Edited July 24, 2012 by Daylily Quote Link to comment
Jeepers Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Your class sounds wonderful. I wish there was one close to me. I do a lot of dehydrating but mostly frozen food that is already prepared. Quote Link to comment
Daylily Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Interestingly, they all said the corn that we grew and dried was better tasting than the frozen corn that we'd dried. I had only recently learned that one can dry frozen foods. Quote Link to comment
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