Preparedness for when

the_cake

Dawn - I have only just started on the dehydrating, very novice still, but learning from my mistakes .... my first batch of courgettes must have been a bit damp, as 2 weeks after putting them into a Locknlock every piece had grown a little white fur coat! They were sort of like chamois leather when I put them in. Hate having to throw things away, but still. My subsequent batches have been dried to crispy, and thanks to Kittie's advice I now check for any sign of damp on the inside of the lid the following day. No sign of either damp, or fur coats, I am glad to report. And I love the way they go really, really tiny, but with a lovely strong flavour.

DawnW

Thanks very much for the dehydrating tips

Unfortunately mine didn't come with an instruction book - it was a cheap one I have had for years, but it works ok.

How do you use the dry crispy vegetables? Do you need to soak them before use?

I love the idea of them taking up so little space and the ability to just keep them in a tin (due to stuffed freezers and groaning larder shelves )

pineapple

I'm sure this must have been posted but what dehydrator do people recommend? And how big? Is going for a small budget model a false economy? The big names all seem so expensive :eek:
Does dehydrating preserve nutritional value?
I'm thinking one benefit - aside from storage - would be a healthier snack for when I have an attack of the TV munchies

boultdj

westcoastscot wrote: »

Karmacat nice to meet you - I tend to bob in and out of the thread :-)

Was interested to read that you compost your B & W shredding? I've always thought that all shredded paper would poison the soil but would love to hear otherwise. I use it at the mo for the chickens :-)

WCS

All ink's now 'should' be vegtable based, which is safe to compost, according to the booklet they sent out with the darlik compost bin[council deal a few year's back]hth.

[Deleted User]

PINEAPPLE I had a cheapy from Fleabay and tried for a couple of years totally unsuccessfully to dry anything, all I dried became mouldy in a very short time. Last christmas the family clubbed together and got me a 9 tray Excalibur which was £300 ish from Fleabay and I haven't looked back since. It dries to perfection anything I have surpluses of and even things like the odd banana which is too soft to eat can be turned into beautiful snackage. It's quite a large outlay but will be the most useful thing in your prepping repertoir in the long run, can't reccommend them highly enough, hope that helps, Cheers Lyn xxx.

westcoastscot

boultdj thanks for that - I didn't know inks were veggie based now - i'll check with our supplier.
WCS

thriftwizard

Shredding, WCS, I act on the idea that its the colour inks that are poisonous .... I've always taken that to mean magazine inks, but thinking about it, stuff we print at home in black and white has *some* coloured ink in it too. So, um, I have no accurate knowledge whatsoever A list on mnn refers to "heavily coated or printed paper"

Karmacat, as boultdj says, virtually all ink used now is vegetable-based, thus pretty safe to compost. It's glossy paper you need to avoid; the dressing on the paper that makes it reflective is very dodgy. So don't use glossy magazines or colour supplements; anything where the paper's shiny rather than matt.

Went to check what make my dehydrator is but I'm still in the dark; it's running, so I can't tip it up, and the figs inside have stuck everything together! But it's a grey rectangular 6-tray one which cost me just under £100 a few years back, and has been worth every penny.

ETA - a bit of Googling has disclosed that mine's a L'Equip.

Karmacat

Thats good news about the inks, thanks! In my current stack of shredded stuff, I'm not sure whether there's glossy paper in there too, so I'll start again, tbh it will mean I'm sure of what I put in the soil. Even though this isn't planned to be my forever home, if it *had* to be, I'd want to be sure ifkwim.

westcoastscot

Thanks for the ink info - my shredding comes from work, so memo's, letters etc so probably usable on the garden, which will make a huge difference. It just soaks up manure/compost, being at sea level and mostly sand/stones.
WCS

grandma247

Courgettes draw moisture from the air fast once dried so they need to be packed in an airtight container fairly quickly after drying. I shred mine and have used them in soups and stews, putting them straight into the pan as they rehydrate during cooking.

Rosemary is lovely on roast potatoes and probably other veg too.