Having fun with a Food Dehydrator

In my efforts to continue to keep up with our food storage, which is on and off again, I found out about the benefits of a food dehydrator. I decided that I REALLY wanted one. The main reason being, that we don't eat a lot of processed food. A lot of stuff that has a long shelf life, isn't always the best for you. We try to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. You can get canned fruits and veggies, but you miss a lot of nutrients and there is often added sodium and sugar. A dehydrator became a great solution for us to have food that we actually eat on a regular basis, stored in our food storage and have a healthy option, as well.

Dan got some extra income from classroom size overages. We put most of it in savings, and used some of it for things we wanted...like a dehydrator! I struggled with which one to get. I could have gotten a fairly cheap one and it probably would have worked fine. Or go for a nicer, more quality one. I decided to go for the gold and get a nicer one. From my research and in talking to people, you want to get one where the air flow is vertical, not going from bottom to top. You want one where the air goes from the back, where it can blow across the food evenly and have a better and even dehydration.

I got the Exaclibur 3500, five tray. I ordered it online from Harvest Essentials, though you can get it on Amazon, or other sites as well. You can get bigger ones with more trays, but I couldn't see myself needing to use 9 trays at a time. Right now the 5 tray one is working great for me. I usually use 3-4 trays, depending on what I'm doing.

Dehydrating is great and it's also a space saver! I did 3 pounds of carrots last week. Here is a picture of some carrots cut up (I forgot to take one myself).

Here they are after! They got so tiny!

This is 3 pounds of carrots. They all fit in a small ziploc bag!

Last Christmas, my brother got us a food saver, where you can seal your food in bags, to preserve them. This is an excellent way to preserve dried food. It vacuums seals it, thus protecting it from oxygen. I've read that dried food, if stored properly, can last up to 15 years!

So far I've done (in orders as you see them) carrots, strawberries, mangoes, apples, and peaches.

I did at least 5 lbs of strawberries, at least 12 mangoes, 10 apples, and 10 apples. These REALLY condense, especially with the food saver sucking out all the air. I've also done pineapple and tomatoes, but don't have enough to put in a bag yet.

I'm trying to take advantage of all the summer time fruits that I can get for cheap. I just got some nectarines yesterday for 33 cents a pound! 

Most stuff takes around 10 hours. It's great because I'll cut everything up before I go to bed, plug it in, it's about as loud as a box fan. Let it go all night and the food is usually done in the morning when I wake up. That way I don't have to hear a loud fan all day when I'm awake.

So far I am really enjoying my dehydrator. I still have A LOT more to do. But slow and steady wins the race, right? Haha.

I still need to experiment with rehydrating food and cooking with it, etc. For now though, my goal is to just build a up a large stockpile of dried foods.

Oh AND did I mention you can make your own fruit leathers (fruit roll ups) and beef jerky with a dehydrator? Yes, you can. I've made two fruit leathers and the kids absolutely LOVED them. I need to make more for my storage.