Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

Ken68

Same here last year, LP, probably lack of natural sugar.

nuttybabe

Ken68 wrote: »

Hi Nutty..how did it go?

Excellent, thanks. The apples were a huge success, I did 12 apples and they are all gone. I made apple and cinnamon leathers, not as popular but still nice. Only hubby likes the bananas but i dont like shop bought banana chips either. Kiwi was next and is my favourite and looks pretty in the jar. Fresh pineapple is also a hit even with dd who doesnt like pineapple :T and also looks nice in jar.

I currently have cucumber with chilli and garlic in there as I low carb so these are for me.

I have been busy

nuttybabe

Hiya

I would be very grateful for some advice please. I store my dehydrated food in either jars or ziplock bags. I do not have one if those vacumme pack things. How long can I keep stuff for?

I started to panic last week and used all my fruit to make cereal bars (which the kids love even though they didnt like the banana or kiwi) and I still have some of the cucumber left which seems fine. I am happy not to buy a vacuum thingy if stuff will keep for a month or 2 but will have to buy one if its just for a week. I know I can freeze but part of the reason I got a dehydrator was to cut down on freezer stuff.

thanks x

[Deleted User]

nuttybabe wrote: »

Hiya

I would be very grateful for some advice please. I store my dehydrated food in either jars or ziplock bags. I do not have one if those vacumme pack things. How long can I keep stuff for?

thanks x

use coffee jars, the ones that have a pull up lid with a seal. From my experience only, dehydrated foods keep for years if kept cool and dark. I am talking about basic foods like courgettes, bananas, onions etc and not fruit rolls. I have quite a lot at 3 years old and the contents still rattle when I shake them

I would tend to not keep fruit rolls for more than a few months. My dehydrated cooked sweet potato pieces are still as new, a year on. I don`t vac pack dehydrated foods btw, I tried it and the sharp edges were piercing the bags so storage in jars or lock n lock is better

nuttybabe

Brilliant thanks, its the dowue egbert coffee jars I am using but I only have 3 of them at the moment. Cucumber is 29p in lidl on thursday so will be dehydrating different flavours

atolaas

If you're worried about the condensation from the dehydrators...would it not be possible to plug them into an extension cord and put them outside? Providing the weather was good it shouldn't be a problem, should it?

Ken68

Yes atoll...that's what I've been doing, now moved things to a shed.
Problem has been having to stay in and watch out for rain and with long drying time, as plums, have to bring them in anyway.

Living_proof

I use mine outside as much as possible as the smell of some food drying is very intense. I think you have to watch how much humidity is in the air as this will affect the performance generally.

Last week I was away and in a CS managed to pick up a small pump action spray which will be ideal for treating some things with lemon juice. I just need the time now to start stocking up. Aubergine is a very good price at the moment.

nuttybabe

I havent noticed any extra condensation, although the house is bad sorwe have a dehumidifyer on constantly so that could be why.

I made lucky charms in my dehydrator today as well as kale crisps. At the moment I have beetroot, pineapple chunks and egg. And tomorrow I want to make bacon jerky. Gonna need more jars

meanmarie

Dried some rhubarb last year, when I poured boiling water on some last week to rehydrate it only partially did so....should I have boiled it for a time....advice welcome as would like to do some again this year if I thought that I could use it next year. On a slightly different note, would I be better off bottling some?

Marie