What are you DEHYDRATING today?

[Wifezilla]

We have a "What are you fermenting" thread, and a "What are you canning" thread, and I think we need one for drying.

Got a great way to dry fruit, dry veggies, make jerky...post it here

Right now I have some feverfew flowers hanging in the kitchen and I am about to start harvesting mint and thyme. I just bundle them up and hang them in the pass through between my kitchen and den. Since I am in Colorado and they dry rather quickly, I don't bother with the paper bag. If you have to let things dry for more than a week, I would use the bags to keep off dust.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I think you are right, WZ!
In the dehydrator right now are mushrooms & almonds. Tomorrow will be tomatoes, followed by corn and then I'm trying to get some apples for chips.

The only things real special I've dried are banana chips soaked in lemon juice & honey and fruit leather made with mullberries & blackberries, with the last of the bananas mushed into it & some lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. It was awesome!!!

Everything else just gets sliced & run through a little lemon juice (if it oxidizes) before putting it on the dehydrator.

 

[big brown horse]

Yesterday I dehydrated a lb of soaked almonds. I turned the temp on at 135 and let them rip for about 8 hours.

 

[Wifezilla]

I still need to try the soaked almonds.

Noobie, have you ever dried tomatoes outside? I don't have a dehydrator (or room for one) but I do have some nice flat areas outside and plenty of sun

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I'm getting very interested in drying with the sun, as it increases the vitamin D, especially in ****ake mushrooms. I thought about using the trampoline. It gets hot during the day. What worries me is bugs. How do you handle that? I have cheesecloth, but we have these little tiny bugs here, and I'm pretty sure they would get on it. I know that I can put them into the oven or the freezer to kill any bugs, but I'd rather not KNOW I'm eating bugs, ya know?
The soaked almonds are awesome!

 

[big brown horse]

Do what freemotion does and use your car's dash board. (My mom does it too.) With your windows rolled up you won't have to worry about bugs.

I bought a big square shallow flat basket (how many more adjectives can I get into this sentence!) at good will just to use to dry in my car. (Most baskets can be washed and dried in the sun.) I think free said to line it with tulle.

 

[ORChick]

When I lived in California I found an old white door on the side of the road with a sign "free", so I brought it home, set it out in the side year on sawhorses, and dried apricots on it. The combination of sun and the white color reflecting the heat back up really made the job go quickly. I covered the fruit with cheesecloth, and also put some between the door and fruit to keep the apricots from actually coming in contact with the paint. I think I dried some other things too, but I don't remember. Unfortunately I only found the door the summer before we moved, so I didn't get a lot of use out of it.

 

[Henrietta23]

Blueberries. I haven't done this in a while. I hope I don't ruin them! We got the dehydrator out of the attic and cleaned it up last night. Wish me luck!

 

[big brown horse]

Good luck!

 

[Henrietta23]

Thanks!

Good luck!