Food Dehydrator

LameWolf

Bananas! I buy them when the F&V stall on the market has them cheap, and make sure there's a good supply of dried banana slices in the cupboard for when we have no fresh, (either I've run out and it's not market day, or they only have them in expensive "hands", not loose for £1 for loads) as bran flakes without banana added is simply not an acceptable breakfast to Mr LW.

Living_proof

I too have a vacuum sealer which I bought at a car boot for £5. It's a Foodsaver and was in the box with the cover still on the plug when I got it! I used to use it a lot when I was still eating meat but decided that some of my veggie meals were worth vacuum sealing to retain the flavour, so when I was given a £30 Amazon voucher for a birthday present I decided to blow it on rolls and bags which always seem like something of an indulgence to me. There used to be a thread on dehydrating but it seems to have disappeared through lack of interest. Today I am putting on the last of the apple leathers, so that's 40lb cooked, dried and frozen for the winter. I may do a few more but it's very time consuming and a trifle boring after the first few trays. I have to remind myself that I'll be grateful for having made the effort when cooking apples are mega-bucks later in the year. I got one of the Lidl veg boxes for £1.50 which had 10 packs of curly kale which I will dry after the apple has finished. Has anyone had any success with kale chips i.e. the flavoured type? I know they are hideously expensive to buy and I have never bought any. I have also dried a tray of runner beans because space in the freezer is at a premium now. I have a couple of books on dehydrating which my daughter bought me and one of them is full of hiking/camping type meals and I will look it out later and post the details on here.

trickydicky14

This thread has got me very interested
On odd occasions I get the chance to use a very nice Andrew James digital food dehydrator that belongs to a friend it comprises of multiple trays with slats that stack.
To date I have only done the basics like bananas apples grapes mango and the like with mostly good outcomes. Even with an instruction manual I found you need to do a lot of experimentation.
I to am a wild camper and would love to know more regarding the dehydration of meals like curry or veg stews.
Can someone help with info on this for example how do you contain the food whilst it is dehydrating and what sort of times are we talking to do the job and any other tips.
If you can help I am very keen on some feedback
Thankyou.

Living_proof

I have an Excalibur so the Andrew James may need quite different treatment so there's bound to be detail on their website about how to use their machine. You are looking at hours, sometimes 24 hours to dry some things but I don't think the cost is exorbitant. 8p an hour has been touted, but I have solar so try and dry when it's bright and therefore free. Not so easy in an English winter and of course if you are growing your own the harvest is about now onwards. I am looking out a good book for hikers and wild campers and will post on here tomorrow.

JingsMyBucket

This thread also has me intrigued. I’m thinking of buying a high level combination toaster oven/convection oven/microwave and there’s one that can go down to 40 degrees C. Would that work for dehydrating without buying a separate food dehydrator?

Living_proof

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

This thread also has me intrigued. I’m thinking of buying a high level combination toaster oven/convection oven/microwave and there’s one that can go down to 40 degrees C. Would that work for dehydrating without buying a separate food dehydrator?

I have one of these anyway and use it daily rather than heat a huge oven. Whilst you may be able to use this for a very small amount of drying the dehydrator I have is about 18 times larger in terms of tray area than my Panasonic combination oven and as someone who has just done a marathon on apples, I can tell you you wouldn't want to try doing that in an oven. Even now I have 8 trays going in the shed until around 6am, although I try not to use it overnight as for me it's more costly. The oven would be fine for a couple of apples at a time, or a few herbs, but very limiting for most things. Most people wish they had bought a bigger one, but I find mine overly large for one person.

betterlife

Thanks everyone for your input!,I actually purchased mine from ebay, its a 5 tier round one, about £23 with free postage, had great reviews so at that price thought I`d take a chance! I`ve not used it yet, but purchased it ready for a glut of cooking apples, elderberries, blackberries, and plans to grow a big selection of veg next year. I also need to purchase some trays for it so I can have a go at fruit leathers. Thanks for the recommendation of a fb group, will check that out in a minute.

VfM4meplse

betterlife wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your input!,I actually purchased mine from ebay, its a 5 tier round one, about £23 with free postage, had great reviews so at that price thought I`d take a chance! I`ve not used it yet, but purchased it ready for a glut of cooking apples, elderberries, blackberries, and plans to grow a big selection of veg next year. I also need to purchase some trays for it so I can have a go at fruit leathers. Thanks for the recommendation of a fb group, will check that out in a minute.

Keep us posted in the results please?

I've just used the last of the stewed pears in the freezer so am making space for this year's crop. Dried pears would be my preference though.

Living_proof

I can't immediately lay my hands on the book I was looking for but for those of you who are interested in trail type food for hiking, fishing etc. this website might help: https://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydrating-vegetables.html#dehydratingspinach and this is the spinach page because that is what I happen to be doing today as found two enormous bags of spinach reduced to 28p each in Asda, and dried spinach is great for smoothies if nothing else.

Living_proof

And this for anyone who has spinach and courgettes to use up like me, this looks quite interesting. I will go away now and leave you all alone! https://www.feastingonfruit.com/spinach-wraps-2/