Dehydrating food is easy compared to canning and freezing and it takes up way less space in storage. You can fit approximately 20 dried tomatoes into a one-quart canning jar or self-sealing plastic bag. It would take four of the same quart jars to store the same amount if it were canned.
In order to dehydrate food, you will need a dehydrator. These come in all shapes and sizes from round to square. I first tried a round one that was given to me and I finally gave it away to someone else.
Your best bet is to pay for a quality machine that will last a long time. I bought my Excalibur dehydrator in 2000 and it is still going strong. You can click on the picture of it for more information.
It is the best dehydrator out there in my opinion and has everything you need. The only extra I did was get Brian to make a square out of strong fiberboard to put in the machine when I wanted to put two separate dishes of raw food in there to warm them up gently in the wintertime. See Eating Raw Food Guidelines for more information on that.
The Excalibur comes with an instruction manual that tells you how to go about dehydrating food of all kinds. But I encourage you to experiment on your own and try different combinations and creations. It really can be fun!
I buy over ripe bananas, which are very inexpensive, and dry them for a great snack. Any sweet food, such as fruit, will be that much sweeter when dried because it concentrates the sugars.
You can make a great trail mix by drying your own food. The calorie count is the same, and very few nutrients are lost in the process.
You can dry meat, herbs, and vegetables and make your own fruit leathers and crackers as well. Some old, imperfect foods dry really well and you’ll never notice their imperfections.
Having dehydrated food on hand is great for an emergency when you can’t get to the store. You can put all the dried ingredients for a soup or stew into a bag and just pull it out and heat it in water on a grill or outdoor camping stove.
It’s also great to take with you while traveling, especially if you are flying. You can just pack it into your checked luggage and it’s there when you arrive (hopefully). You can also take it on board with you to eat instead of having to buy awful airport or airplane food.
When you have a bountiful harvest of yellow and zucchini squash and can’t find any more neighbors to pawn them off on, just dehydrate them. Or take advantage of low prices on produce when it comes in season and dry it instead.
Dehydrating food is fairly easy and if you do it overnight, you won’t heat up your kitchen very much. You’ll also save on electricity as the rates often are lower at that time.
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