Food Dehydrator

[Amaranthos]

Just got a basic model from a relative -- four trays and an electric heating element on the bottom. I've dried some sage and stevia so far, but I'm turning to the idiggers for more suggestions and advice about what works and what doesn't. Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom and experience.

[Denninmi]

Well, really, you can dry almost anything if you cut it into appropriate sized pieces. It just depends on what you want to dry. You can also use it for drying crafts, incubating yogurt, all kinds of things.

The most important thing to remember with that type of dehydrator is the rotate the trays frequently from top to bottom, because the closer to the heating element the faster they dry. If you don't rotate, the ones on the bottom will dry right away, but the top one may still be barely dry.

[w8in4dave]

Yup what Denn said......We love to make jerky ..omg ..I am sure you will love your new toy We love ours ..use the heck out of it!!! You can dry maters ..Anything actually .. We love it but we tend to dry more stuff in the winer than the summer......I don't dry veggies .. We dry more jerky than anything eles

[Alabamy]

We have been drying sooo many peaches, strawberries and blueberries this summer since they are so cheap. The blueberries are the most obnoxious thing, even with blanching they are a pain to dry. I love to dry garlic, onion and peppers and then turn them to specialty spice powders with my coffee grinder. Someone mentioned that watermelon was delicious dried so I am going to try that soon.

You might want to check out www.dehydrate2store.com, she has an extensive youtube channel devoted to dehydrated foods by the same name. The key thing to remember is which fruits and vegetables need to be blanched before drying and which need some sort of acid dip (I like to use oj) to prevent browning.

[w8in4dave]

Hmmmmm never thought about drying watermelon...hmmmmmmmm

[TennOC]

You might check to see if your friend is smirking next time they suggest you dry watermelon, I'm just sayin'.......

[Michelle8]

What type dehyrator do you guys have?

I just bought one off e-bay.

American Harvest~looks like one of the older models. Round with the fan on the top. It is 1000watts with a themostat control. I hope I did ok.

[Emerald]

Originally Posted by Michelle8

What type dehyrator do you guys have?

I just bought one off e-bay.

American Harvest~looks like one of the older models. Round with the fan on the top. It is 1000watts with a themostat control. I hope I did ok.

I have three of them, one I bought brand new and it was about $50 at the time. The other two I bought at yard sales for $1 each- they looked brand new, and I just scored 6 more trays for mine for only $9 at walmart.
I only use one base and I have the other two put away in case the first one croaks. Mine is running right now drying out some oregano, basil and thyme.
You can use up to 12 trays per base(probably more, but I don't have that many) and it has a blower fan, so there is less moving the trays around to keep them drying equally. But I do check every 5 or so hours and rotate as it is easy to do. But with the humidity we are having lately the basil is taking forever to dry!
I also have an older type tray that you can take the middle out of and it basically turns the flat trays into a bigger area so that I can even put my yogurt in the pint jars into it to keep them at about 95 degrees F. I even carved a few apples one year and made ol' folk apple dollies! But I think if you were good at making things you could just make a cardboard ring that the lid could sit on and it would be close to the same thing.
But the trays do get a bit fragile when they get old. So be careful when cleaning them. Plus, I got a whole bunch of the fruit leather trays on clearance one year so I have more of them than I have trays and I do use them quite a bit, even when I dry out my soup beans they keep the beans on the tray nicely. But I also had those mesh liners for the trays and only had two, so instead of buying more from them (very expensive) I bought the plastic mesh for crafts (I looked into the plastic and it is the same stuff) I got the clear and just cut the center hole and trimmed it to fit. Those pieces of mesh were only 3 for a $1.
needless to say, I love my American harvest (the first one was a harvest maid, same thing)
ETA: If you do any of the jerkies- try to get a fruit leather tray and put it on the base under the first tray and that way clean up will be easier. If you didn't get the fruit leather trays, then try to cut a piece of tin foil and put under, the marinade drips allalll over, just don't cover the venting holes.. EM

More ETA: I just saw you got the top blower model, mine are all the bottom heater/blower.

[Denninmi]

I've dried watermelon and muskmelon. It does work, you just don't get much volume in the end. Its tasty, though. Both of them want to stick to the trays really bad, so either flip them very often, or put them on one of those nonstick drying tray liners if you have them.

[grapenut]

Yep! you don't end up with much on drying Watermelon, but the results are well worth it...sweet like candy and good for you too!