2026 Frugal Living Challenge

dND

@2Scratters I use mine often. I think I would advise buying (charity shop?) a cheap one and see what/whether you use one. My reason for this is that there are many different shapes and sizes along with solid trays and mesh trays. My dehydrator has solid trays which is great for things like fruit leathers or drying purees to convert into powders. However, the airflow is compromised for larger/thicker things. My trays also slope from the middle to the outer edge which means purees are not uniform thickness so don't dry evenly.

Personally when I ever replace mine I would go for mesh trays as you can always line them but you can't perforate solid trays, and I definitely want level trays.

I'm currently making 'greens powder' but my favourite is saving ripe bananas - the dried slices are lovely in my morning porridge. It also turns out that I prefer dried apple slices to a fresh apple, (tasteless apples tase much better dehydrated 😁). Dxx

2Scratters

@dND thankyou for that information that is really helpful. It will give me a head start on what I am looking for. Another question if you don't mind are they cost effective to run? As I have learnt that a requirement is the length of time to get the job done. Do they double up a small source of heat depending where they are sited? Oops that was 2 questions 😄 I am a begger at wasting fresh fruit so this will be aimed at wasting less too.

2 Scratters xx

lurkeralongtime

2scratters, to dry food you need a warm,dry airflow,hence washing racks and dried herbs on the ceiling near the fire. I have heard of people drying food in the residual heat from electric ovens, but it has to be done every day. I wonder if a small top electric oven would work, using heat from the main oven. Again every day for ages.

My dehydrator manual swears that using it is the cheapest way! It’s a 10 tray tribest with stainless steel mesh trays and paraflex sheets as an option. I use this when I do a marathon in the summer. I don’t peel things as I wouldn’t normally, except kiwi. In the winter it’s in the bottom oven of a Rayburn, or the top oven set low.This is the only source of heat in my kitchen so it’s on.

I have dried kale in a ninja food. Literally walked in the door,crammed the kale onto two racks and set it going. Worked very well but I imagine not so cost effective. The Tribest has different temperature settings for fruit, veg’ making yogourt and proving dough, never used the last two! The fruits and veg take roughly 12 or so hours in the tribest. But it’s a lot of food at once.

It also dehydrates meat, but I don’t eat that. I second the comments on dried fruit and leathers being delicious. Only problems being the cost of food and the cost of fuel.The latter going up 16% in January. One needs at least a maths degree to be frugal these days!

lurkeralongtime

ps. I am drying onion and garlic skins on an old cake rack on the stove and grinding them up. Also citrus peel to use as fire starters. Sometimes I freeze the citrus peels for marmalade, but never seem to get enough.

2Scratters

@lurkeralongtime thank you. I am collecting the onion and garlic skins and I have boobed just thrown 2 orange peel skins away. Should have put them in the freezer at least. Everyday is a school day. The fruit leathers look amazing. I suppose eating better and having to pay a bit more is keeping it in balance. I know which I would prefer. 😉

I like to make utilities work twice as hard for my money. More free water in winter to flush the loo and also save rinse off water into a bucket to flush the loo. Especially as we are on a metre. Keeping the bill under £260pa.

2 Scratters xx

dND

@lurkeralongtime I'm jealous 😁I looked long and hard at those but couldn't justify the outlay.

@2Scratters Are they cost effective. 🤔 I guess they are more cost effective than just throwing food away and rebuying later. I justify the cost with the ability to eat better and of course once dried they don't require more energy such as in a freezer. Currently I've started making greens powder - latest addition to it was the good leaves from the beetroot plants I harvested. I'm not good with cooking myself vegetables so having dehydrated items to hand that I can literally just throw a few into whatever I'm cooking is a boon. The greens powder is to try and boost my cruciferous intake without having to prep anything.

Heat wise they do warm an area a bit - like a slow cooker does. I've also tried my air fryer dehydrator but to be honest it's far too small for me but I might use it to finish off bits that haven't dried properly in the dehydrator when the majority has. Beware of the fruit leathers, I find then so, so morish. 🤣

lurkeralongtime

dND,Iwas lucky when I bought mine, there was an anomaly in a batch of doors when they were manufactured which didn’t affect functionality so it was sold much cheaper. Never having had the correct door I didn’t feel hard done buy. If I can I’ll buy a better quality item if it works cheaper in the long term. I appreciate having 10 trays for the same amount of power as 1 or2and I like the fact that the trays are dishwasher safe. I don’t do as much food prep if I have to wash up by hand. I have found some grated carrot that I dried about 3 years ago,looks fine.

Marmalade-3lb citrus fruit,washed, to include 2 lemons

Pressure cooked in 2 pints of water-leave the fruit whole- I did 12 mins for satsumas recently in instant pot

Liquidise and boil up with 3lb sugar..

The pips seem to gather together as you pour out of the liquidiser,any stragglers can be picked out as you reheat with the sugar.

If you don’t use a pressure cooker cook whole on the hob or in a slow cooker. Needs more water though. Recipe from the brilliant HMSObook of preserving.

dND

@lurkeralongtime I'll keep my eyes open for a good deal as my donut one has it's limitations. But I think it will have to wait until I have worktop space as I can't see myself storing it on top of the fridge freezer as I do with the donut one. 🤣🤣

I'm with you for buying the best you can afford as it saves money over time, with the obvious exception of buying/finding a cheap option to see if it's worth a greater expenditure.
I'll keep a lookout for the preserving book you mentioned - currently £99 on Abe!!! I have loads of other books I can use so that's definitely a back burner book. 🤣