Drying/Dehydrating your produce. "Dry it. You'll like it"

[bvar22]

*Cross posted from the Gardening Group

Drying/Dehydrating is becoming increasingly popular among the Organic/Sustainable crowd. Dried foods require less storage space, have loooong shelf lives, require less energy input, offer some nutrition advantages, and are easier/lighter to transport.
There are some good articles on Drying/Dehydrating in the current issues of Mother Earth News and Countryside.

With the price of fuel on the rise, Dried/Dehydrated produce is going to offer huge savings in transportation costs.

We haven't Dried anything yet, but it is definitely in our future.
We planted some figs and grapes this Spring with the idea of drying them, but after reading these articles, we may expand it to blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, and even corn.

1. Drying preserves the vitamin, mineral, protein, and fiber content of foods . . . more so than preservation techniques that expose the viands to great changes in temperature.

2. Dehydrated foodstuffs are actually more flavorful — in most cases — than the original, undried food. (Frozen and canned edibles, on the other hand, are — if anything — less tasty than their fresh or dried equivalents.)

3. It costs little or nothing to dry foods, whereas freezing and canning both require a potentially large initial investment in equipment.

4. Dried goods can be stored in a smaller space than either frozen, canned, or fresh foods. (Twenty pounds of tomatoes, for instance, will — when canned — fill eleven one-quart jars. The same quantity of tomatoes dried weighs a little more than a pound and occupies a single No. 10 can.)

5. Dried foods — when kept dry — remain edible virtually forever.

If these aren't powerful enough reasons for you to begin thinking about drying your own foods at home, consider this: By buying fruits and vegetables in bulk when they're in season (and thus lowest in price) — then dehydrating them for later use — you can enjoy your favorite eats year round, in season or out, for just a fraction of what you'd pay on a buy-as-you-eat basis. If nothing else, food drying is a great way to reconstitute your shrinking food dollar!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/1977-07-01/Make-Your-Food-Dollar-Go-Further.aspx

Another good article on Drying/Dehydrating can be found in the current issue of Countryside.

http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/92/92-4/dry_it_youll_like_it.html






:hi:

[tabatha]

1. Thanks for the info.

Just bought an Excalibur, and did first drying yesterday.
Looking all over for more info.

[bvar22]

3. How did the drying go?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Seriously, I'm looking for First Hand/First Time experiences.
Which Excalibur did you use, and would you recommend it?

[tabatha]

4. Pretty good.

I am soaking and drying a bunch of seeds and nuts - that will then be used in recipes to make burgers, muffins, breads, etc - in the Excalibur. I did not buy the biggest model, because I read that it was somewhat loud. I bought the 5-tray model, and it is not quiet - but not too noisy. For my use, the model I have is probably good. I'll only really know after a few weeks/months. Because, I guess to start, a lot of drying will be done. But then, it could taper off as dried foods accumulate.

However, it is very easy to clean and use. Pretty simple.

[sui generis]

2. mmmmm crispy romaine lettuce chips

:P

[murray hill farm]

5. Hi...tried to rec., but too late.

I read the article in Mother with great interest...and it was a good one. A question that I have, but cannot find the answer to is this....what do you use for storage of the dried items. I cannot stand the thought of using plastic bags. I am wondering if the dried veggies...and dried fruit could be stored in sealed canning jars....any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated. Thanks, Pat

[appal_jack]

6. a friend of mine 'dry-cans' a lot

I haven't tried dry-canning myself yet, but here's a good link that describes the gist of it:

http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9309

It seems like this would be a great way to store dried fruits and veggies almost indefinitely.

-app