Re: fruit leather. I stumbled across a way to make individual "fruit roll-ups" without needing the special trays, or the hassle of covering my trays in plastic wrap. I cut squares of baking parchment so that 4 fit per tray, then spread the fruit puree onto each square. Dehydrate as usual. The dried fruit leather easily peels off of the parchment, but to store, just toss the individual squares into a zipper bag, paper and all. DS LOVES the applesauce "fruit rollups" I made this wayâ¦easy to throw into his school lunches.

plllog- It sounds like you are describing freeze-dried food, which unfortunately, CAN'T be duplicated in a dehydrator. Freeze-drying is a commercial technique that forms a vacuum while the food is freezing. Stored properly, freeze-dried food has a much longer shelf-life than home-dehydrated, and freeze-dried foods are much higher in nutrients than those made at home, and freeze-dried foods rehydrate in a fraction of the time as home-dried foods. I store and use both home-dehydrated and freeze-dried. jennieboyer, Home\-dehydrated foods need to be used fairly quickly because they don't have any preservatives, and the nutrients degrade quickly \- even if they still "look" fine, and may even taste fine, after years on your shelves. Recommended storage times for home\-dried foods range from 4\-months to one year because the quality is affected by oxygen, temperature, and light. Most dried fruits can be stored for one year at 60\-degrees F, or six months at 80\-degrees F. (room temperature is considered 70\-degrees F.). The cooler the storage temperature, the longer the shelf\-life, and this is true for all stored foods. For each 10\-degrees above room temperature (70\-degrees F) the faster food degrades (nutrients are lost, color and texture may change). Because home\-dehydrated vegetables don't have as much natural (or added) sugar as fruit does, vegetables have about half the shelf\-life of fruits. I consider home\-dehydrated foods pantry foods which need to be rotated and used quickly. Unless you are 100% sure a home\-dehydrated food has 10% moisture or less, don't vacuum\-seal it because if any bacteria is present, it could potentially grow into a toxin \- even in the oxygen\-free container. In order to know the amount of moisture, you have to weigh the food before and after dehydrating. For more specific information on the subject, I suggest getting the book "How To Dry Foods" by Deanna DeLong. You can often find this book at the library and used book stores. As a general rule fruits dried at home normally have about 80% of their moisture removed and vegetables \- 90%. Only a small percentage of foods dehydrated are done until they are crispy dry. I do crispy apples for snacks (which store longer), and leathery apples for cooking/baking, which get used quickly. In my case, unless the dehydrated food is being used, they are stored in a dark, cool, food storage room in the basement. I always try to store enough apple slices for a year, but that's the only item I plan on doing that. Even foods that seem bone dry can still have some moisture in it. Each time you open a container of dehydrated foods, it will reabsorb moisture from the air, so make sure you don't leave the lid off a container any longer than needed, and use more small containers (pint and quart jars). The same problem of reabsorption occurs after the dehydrated food is done drying. Once the food is dry, allow it to come to room temperature, then place it in a container/s and be sure to condition it (an important step many people skip and find they have moldy food) before placing it in storage. If you pack warm food into a jar, moisture will continue to be expelled from the warm food and can be trapped in the jar, causing the food to mold. I would avoid using a timed dehydrator because it is possible for the food to sit for a long period of time after the timer has gone off, and it will most certainly have reabsorbed a lot of moisture, especially in a place where there is high humidity. I typically don't store home\-dried foods in large batches \- especially potatoes which are notorious for molding. Crispy apples destined for snacking I place in a snack\-size zip\-lock bag, then place the bags of apple slices in a quart jar. This way each time the jar is opened there is less chance any of the apple slices will reabsorb moisture from the air. There is an alternative method called dehydrofreezing where only about 70% of the moisture is removed, however, these foods MUST be stored in the freezer to prevent microbial growth. There are some advantages to dehydrofreezing \- the food has better flavor and color than traditional drying, and they reconstitute in about half the time it takes for traditionally dried foods. They also take up less space in the freezer than fresh\-frozen food. If you don't have plastic fruit leather sheets you can use plastic wrap to cover the trays, or you could try a produce bag with some cutting required to make it cover the round trays (both will require some over\-lapping). Caution \-\-\- do NOT place the food on the printed side of the bags because the ink is NOT food\-grade. I will also bet once you use a plastic bag or plastic wrap for this process, you will find the stiff plastic fruit leather sheets much easier to use and well worth the money. \-Grainlady

It's really easy. Elery's mother used to string beans on thread and dry them, they called them "leather britches". I don't know why, maybe the hanging green beans looked like the legs of pants? Anyway, it's easy. I clean mine and snap them into approximately equal sized pieces so they dry evenly. I blanch them for 4 minutes, then plunge into cold water, put them on the trays. I have a big Excaliber dehydrator with temperature settings, so I use 125F. Depending on how big the beans are it takes from 6-10 hours, they should be crisp. I seldom rehydrate foods on their own, other than mushrooms, instead I'll throw a handful into a pot of simmering soup. However, you can take a cup of dried green beans, cover them with about 2 or 2 1/2 cups of water and rehydrate for whatever you need them for. I like dried zucchini in soups but I've sprinkled with salt, with garlic salt, with chili powder, etc. So far they're just best in soup although I have a tomato/zucchini gratin recipe I've used them for. The kids mostly like them for zucchini candy, also made in the dehydrator. I've never dried kohlrabi but I have very little luck with tomatoes, they never seem to actually get crisp, they just get leather-y. I wasn't overwhelmed with strawberries either, but apples and pears dry wonderfully and make great snacks. I just store the dried items in quart canning jars since I have a plethora of those, but large amounts have been known to go into Lock N Lock containers or even Ziplock freezer bags. Have fun! Annie

calirose - -I like to use canning jars for nearly all of my dehydrated food I store at room temperature. Oxygen-free (vacuum-sealed) is the best way to store these types of foods. Second best is in an air-tight container. -Not everything will store properly in a vacuum-sealed FoodSaver bag because the food is too compacted when the air is sucked out of the bag. You can't even store chocolate chips in a vacuum-sealed bag very well because they will fuse together and you'll have lumps, not chips. Same with dried fruit. A certain percentage of moisture remains in most dehydrated food and it's usually too moist for storage in the bags. Think about what would happen if you were to take a handful of prunes or dried apricots and squeeze them as tightly in your hand as possible. That's what happens in FoodSaver bags. Then there are foods that are dried until they are crispy dry. If you vacuum-seal crisp things in a bag, you'll end up with "dust" - once again compact storage isn't appropriate. Put some potato chips in a plastic bag and then roll a rolling pin over it. That's about what happens when you put crispy foods in a FoodSaver bag and vacuum seal it shut. I dehydrate zucchini slices until they are crispy dry and we use those instead of potato chips. So if I were to vacuum-seal them in a bag, there would be nothing but dust and bits of zucchini. I store them in canning jars that have been vacuum-sealed with a canning lid on the jar. -When you use a FoodSaver and the jar attachment for canning jars, the food will remain free-flowing within the jars, whether it's moist or crispy dry - but all the oxygen will be removed from the jar. So moist things don't end up a compact lump, and crispy things will remain whole AND all the air will be removed from the storage jar for longer storage. -For the jars of dehydrated food I keep in storage, I use a canning lid on them. Once the jars are moved out of storage and into the pantry, I replace the canning lid with a Universal Lid - designed to be used with a FoodSaver. Now you can easily open and reseal the jar, just like using the FoodSaver canisters. The Universal Lid will work on a wide variety of containers, it comes in two sizes (4" and 5") and is cheaper than buying FoodSaver Canisters. The container that you use a Universal Lid for doesn't have to fit the lid perfectly. It will vacuum onto any smooth rim. -You need to be careful storing dehydrated foods. If you don't dehydrate them properly, they will mold. You need to check them perodically for mold and if you find mold, throw all the food in that package/jar/container away. Don't take out a few bits that are moldy. Unseen mold spores will remain throughout the entire container of food, so trash all of it. Potato slices are nortorious for molding, so I store them in small amounts (pint jars). By doing so, I only expose a small amount of dehydrated potatoes to mold. -When you open a jar/canister, don't leave the food sit with the lid off for a prolonged period of time. Dehydrated foods quickly rehydrate from moisture in the air and it can be enough to cause mold to grow on the food. -Not all dehydrated foods have a long shelf-life, so don't expect all foods to last "forever", but if they are vacuum-sealed, they will last longer. Dehydrated foods need to be stored in an air-tight container and in a cool and dark storage area. -Grainlady