Dehydrating Your Own

Bolster · 05-27-2012, 13:22

Do any of you out there do your own dehydration? Fruit, veggies, jerky?

Just starting this myself (solar) and am looking for guidance. My solar oven without reflectors sits at about 150 degrees with the door open a crack. I've put a USB fan in the bottom and run it from my GoalZero panel. Stainless steel perforated trays.

Headed for success or failure, am I?

Bushflyr · 05-27-2012, 13:59

WIN!

I do jerkey in the oven occasionally. The best way I've found it to hang about 5-8 strips of meat from a skewer and hang it on the racks rather than trying to use trays.

Drying stuff yourself is great, but I've found it's not really cost effective unless you can get the fruit, meat, or whatever really cheap. Buying meat from the market and DIYing it seems to be about the same price as just buying jerkey. You do wind up with a better product though.

Just1More · 05-27-2012, 15:40

I do venison jerky (oven) and dry cayenne peppers (dehydrator)in the Fall.

M1A Shooter · 05-27-2012, 17:23

i use a regular dhydrator, not a solar oven but i do quite a bit of fruits and veggies. havedone jerkey in the past but it was to try out quality cuts ofmeat as jerky.

i keep dhydrated veggies on hand for soups andsuch. fruits get eaten too fast to be considered storage.

Bolster · 05-27-2012, 17:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1A Shooter

i use a regular dhydrator, not a solar oven but i do quite a bit of fruits and veggies. havedone jerkey in the past but it was to try out quality cuts ofmeat as jerky.

i keep dhydrated veggies on hand for soups andsuch. fruits get eaten too fast to be considered storage.

Which vegetables work well, or do you like best?

How do potatoes fare?

M1A Shooter · 05-27-2012, 17:43

most of the veggies ihave done are honestly fozen veggies. the blanching work is done for you. peas and corn are probably the easiest. ive also done diced potatoes and they turned out ok. ithink shredded would do better but i havent done any in a couple months. i did figur out that i left the diced potatoes in a bit too long and the edges of sme started to brown like chips. the browned ones dont rehydrate very well though.

Hummer · 05-27-2012, 18:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bolster

Do any of you out there do your own dehydration? Fruit, veggies, jerky?

Just starting this myself (solar) and am looking for guidance. My solar oven without reflectors sits at about 150 degrees with the door open a crack. I've put a USB fan in the bottom and run it from my GoalZero panel. Stainless steel perforated trays.

Headed for success or failure, am I?

Sounds like a good plan to me, solar is good. I first started dehydrating jerky outside my college dorm (40 yrs ago), with meat strips on coat hangers with nylon hose covers to keep the flies off. I use an electric dehydrator and have dried fruit, veggies and venison and use them throughout the following year.

I Shooter · 05-27-2012, 18:31

The wife and I have a dehydrator and we love it. We have used it for years. She has dun a lot of vegetables. She uses them in everything. We have made some beef jerky. I like the kind you grind up then dry. I need to make some jerky, haven't had any in about six months.

Unistat · 05-28-2012, 13:25

This blog has some nifty ideas for how to use some dehydrated veggies and stuff.

http://victorianworkbasket.blogspot.com/

Bolster · 05-28-2012, 14:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unistat

This blog has some nifty ideas for how to use some dehydrated veggies and stuff.

http://victorianworkbasket.blogspot.com/

Righteous source, Unistat. Thanks. I need this sort of detailed instruction; so many places have a fly-by-the-seat of-your-pants approach.

The neighbor gave me most of his loquat harvest (I guess he doesn't like them) and these are definitely better dried than fresh. I've had to employ a few tricks to keep the solar oven low enough, seems to be stable at 140 degrees now, so I'm not complaining.

Here's the setup:

Beneath those perforated stainless screens is a fan that runs off USB hookup. The fan isn't necessary, I'm lead to understand, because convection would take care of things by itself. Couldn't leave well enough alone when I found the fan for $5 at TJ Maxx.

Yes, I know 110v Excalibur dryers are available; they're very nice, but I'm interested in proofing a grid-down system.

Babynine · 05-29-2012, 21:06

I dehydrated a batch of homemade organic hot chili and vaccum sealed it in a pratice run of making my own camping/backpacking meals. I ate it all within a few days because I did not use oxygen absorbers, and it rehydrated very well, and really worked great. I used parchment baking paper over the racks of my locally made Nesco(made in Wi!) dehydrator, and the dried chilli slipped right off the baking paper into the vaccum bags with no cleanup of the drying racks!

I won't be harvesting any garden veggies for another month or more, but I do plan on dehydrating chili again for inexpensive camping meals that are easy to prepare in the woods along with rice cooked in my billy can.

Mountain House is just to expensive for me to eat every day when just doing recreational camping, and lets face it, homecooked food is likely more healthy, and it tastes better too(Mountain House aint bad tho).

***RWBlue*** · 05-29-2012, 21:34

Get a book.

Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook

Amazon.com: Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook (9780688130244): Mary Bell: Books

M1A Shooter · 05-30-2012, 21:27

i watched a bunch of videos on youtube from a user "dehydrate2store" iirc

barbedwiresmile · 05-31-2012, 07:36

Mrs BWS dehydrates a bunch of different peppers - mostly cayennes and tobascos. And also some tomatoes.

auto-5 · 05-31-2012, 19:38

I have a buddy that does 2 does at a time in his smoker made from an old school fridge.

jr05 · 05-31-2012, 20:27

I dehydrate all my own herbs from the garden as well as fruit as fruit from the store, etc.

Cannot beat dehydrating your own food. I do a lot of backpacking and dehydrating your own is pretty much a necessity if you want to pack light and also save money. The store bought stuff is pretty bad most of the time and costs a fortune.

Bolster · 05-31-2012, 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by jr05

Cannot beat dehydrating your own food. I do a lot of backpacking and dehydrating your own is pretty much a necessity if you want to pack light and also save money. The store bought stuff is pretty bad most of the time and costs a fortune.

What are the secrets to your success?