In the Kitchen - The Dehydrator

A few months ago.. (maybe it was about the time I found myself the proud owner of 200 pounds of fresh apples) I decided that we needed to try using a dehydrator to preserve food that was foraged or purchased at discount prices.  I make a lot of healthy cookies with oatmeal and dried fruit and did not want to pay the cost of dried fruit from the grocery store.  Not to mention that much of it is not organic and is sweetened with sugar before it is dehydrated.  It just so happened that I knew my mother had one in a closet.  :)  So I "foraged" hers.  Here is what it looks like on my bar, sitting on a wonderful antique cutting board just off of the family room.

Since borrowing that dehydrator, it has hardly had a quiet moment.  We dehydrated pounds and pounds of apple slices.  They make great snacks, as a dehydrator just pulls the water from the food but still leaves all the nutritional value intact!  Journey and Mike LOVE dehydrated apple snacks! 

Every once in a while I find a great sale on bananas .. the kind that are getting a little ripe and in a bag for 99 cents.  There is usually close to 5 pounds in a bag so those are pretty reasonable bananas.  When I can find a bag of those, I buy about 15 pounds at one time and use them in our smoothies, protein shakes, freeze some of them for later, and of course, dehydrate a bunch of them.

TIP:  When dehydrating fruit that turns brown in the air (like potatoes, bananas, apples), you can slice them into a lemon juice and water mixture to coat them before laying them on the dehydrator trays.  This will retard some of the browning but be prepared that they will still look a little browner than you are used to when done.  Dehydrated fruits and vegetables can be frozen or refrigerated for a really long shelf life OR they can be kept in plastic bags or glass jars on the counter.  Here is my dehydrated fruit and vegetable collection.

In those jars are all of our sprouted nuts, blueberries, bananas, apples, coconut, pineapple, mango, apricot, potatoes, green onions, regular onions, tomatoes, green peppers, and plenty of supply to make a great "trailmix" snack that is sweet and nutritious.  Those jars are accessed all day long for little nibbles and also used in lots of my recipes!  The dried vegetables are great to keep around for soups and dinners. 

These apples and bananas look a little browned but maintain their taste and freshness.  They are chewy when pulled directly from the jar but they won't break your teeth or anything.   LOL

Dehydrated fruit and vegetables can be re-hydrated by soaking them in a bit of warm water to soften before cutting into smaller pieces or adding to recipes. 

The dehydrator I borrowed from my mother is a good one.  It is a Nesco brand with a variable temperature control on it.  It came with 4 trays and there were occasions that I needed more trays so I was on the hunt for extra trays.  Foraging at a neighbor's garage sale netted me a second dehydrator of a lesser quality but with 4 more trays that were interchangeable with my mother's for a mere $2.00.  What a steal!  Now I will have some back up trays and a back up dehydrator if my mother needs hers back this winter!