I have a nesco - wish for an excalibur.

I dry a lot of herbs for tea - several mints, lemon balm, anise hyssop, hyssop... herbs for cooking - tarragon, lovage, thymes, leeks.. Fruits - apples and pears mostly. Some tomatoes and a few other veggies.

pears and peaches, even watermelon. Still like jerky however. yes, watermelon...

make your own raisins...

I'm going to pull mine out and try peaches. We bought a house 1 1/2 years ago with a peach and cherry tree. No way we can keep up with all that fruit, don't eat many sweets or jams/jellies. I might pull some of the cherries out to dry and use in muffins.

make yogurt.

dcarch

I have the Excaliber and I use it a lot. As dcarch mentioned, I make yogurt, a gallon at a time, in quart canning jars. I also dehydrate slices of zucchini and toss handsful into soup in the winter. I make zucchini "candy", dried apples and jerky, as well as dehydrating herbs, onions, leeks and various peppers.

I like mine, use it a lot and enjoy the stuff I make in it.

Annie

Things dry here in Ca just by setting them out on the counter for a day or two, so I don't use mine much. I did make fruit leather a few years back after grainlady mentioned it in a thread. That turned out really good. Maybe I should have done that with some of my peaches.

I have one, an Excalibur.

I have yet to use it this year, but I love to dehydrate:

Grape tomatoes (slice them in half)

Asparagus (thin ones, and I often grind them down for soup).

Strawberries.

Zucchini slices

Sweet potato slices.

Onions.

Lamb jerky.

Herbs

I dislike the concentrated sugar levels, and textures of raisins, dried figs, dates, and the similar.

I will have to try yogurt!

So drying is an alternative like canning, if fresh is not available?

then do you vacuum pack dried stuff?have seen one for sale and evaluating if I’ll use it. Something I won’t use is not of value at any price. The one I’m looking at is excalibur 9 drawer, $75

I use nescos and I have a large hanging mesh rack too.

I dehydrate lots of stuff. Tomatoes and peppers, smoked and unsmoked. Celery, carrots, and onions for seasonings and soups. Corn, peas, mixed veggies- kale and greens like nasturtiums, beet, and radish tops. Lots of mushrooms. Citrus slices of all sorts. Cucumber, summer squash, green beans, asparagus, and cabbage- on occasion some lettuce. Sometimes jerky, sometimes non-citrus fruits. All that tends to go into the dehydrators.

Herbs and medicinals, edible flowers, and the like that are more delicate and temp sensitive get laid out on the hanging mesh rack with a box fan nearby to keep up good air currents.

I use a lot of this stuff whole, and also make my own seasoning powders, and stuff like squash, peach, and apple flours for baking.

I do a lot of pickling/canning as well. I find dehydrating an equally useful food preserving action. And for things like tomato sauce, I may can up tomato juice product, and add to it dehydrated tomato slices and tomato powder. Dehydrating can also be handy for when you don't quite have enough of something to be worth firing up the canner, or when you got so much you can't keep up with canning alone.

I do vacuum pack what I dry. Some stuff gets put into bags, some stuff goes into canning jars and vacuum sealed. I do also use my vacuum sealer for other stuff like packaging up meats and the like for the freezer, so I feel it's a worthwhile purchase.

Besides making venison jerky, I use mine to dehydrate onions and garlic to make my own powders. Sungold tomatoes cut in half. Just yesterday I put several Guajillo peppers in mine to dry. I use them when making chicken tacos and add them to the pot of simmering chicken. When drying peppers they dry much faster and more evenly if you slit them first.

We have three. Only use them for jerky.

I have a sealer. We do use it often when getting good deals in chicken, meat.

Things are much calmer at our 2nd home, with plenty of time to dry goodies, make bread, bake. I think I’m gonba get it. Thanks for your input. Yogurt making sounds interesting as I’m a big yogurt eater.

I did get the 6 drawer Excalibur. If you get a good deal on a working 9 drawer one... great!

I mostly do papayas and bananas in my little Salton dehydrator. It doesn't get very hot; the heat level is adjustable, and I use the lowest setting. I store in glass jars, but things are usually eaten pretty quickly - better than candy!

Still a hot item. Just most of us that use them don't really discuss it that often.

I have fruit trees so I use it all the time in the Fall.

I make my own crackers and often use mine for an overnight drying after oven time first. For chips like beet and sweet potato I like to start in my oven, (its low temp starts at 125)....I like to crisp them around 200 in batches, then finish in the dehydrator.

Using the search function at the top, just plug in 'dehydrator' , you will get all the past discussions.

I have the 9 tray Excalibur and use it a lot. I make beef jerky as well as dried fruit: apple, mango and pineapple. I buy apples when they are cheap in the Fall. Peel, core,slice and sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon. It's best to have fruit that is fully ripe but not over ripe. The thicker your slices, the longer it takes to dehydrate.

I do have a vacuum sealer but fruits that are a bit tacky form a huge clump in vac sealed bags...so I usually put smaller amounts into 1 cup canning jars and seal them in my chamber sealer using old canning lids (I use the new ones for canning). Beef jerky tends to have sharp edges that puncture the vacuum seal bags so I just put portions into Ziplocs...it doesn't last long in my house anyway.

Ivwas getting ready to do my maiden run with bananas but recipe says I need paraflexx liners. Are they a must or is there an alternative. Those dang things are $10/ea, so $90 total. I don’t think so. I only paid $67 for the 9 drawer dehydrator so I shouldn’t complain. But I still need to pay $15 for manual. I like having a paper copy.

any other must have accessory?

If you are vaccume sealing, things that are used frequently are better in a fresh sealer. This is a bag that has a zipper and can be resealed many times.

I buy blueberries on sale and flash freeze them on a cookie sheet then seal in fresh saver bags. I can get 3-4 batches of berries for muffins in one bag, then re-seal for next time.

The fresh savers are only about $20 at walmart. Nancy

I got a food saver. I’m asking about dehydrator liners.

For the benefit of future newbie readers, you don’t need paraflexx liners to do leathers or other runny items. Excalibur said you can use parchment paper. Advantage of liners is reusability.

i did buy a set of 9 for $4 (amazon) b/c washable

You can also use thin clear supermarket produce bags. very non-stick and reusable.

dcarch

To use as tray liners?

Sure.

dcarch

I started a batch of bananas. I’m excited. Homesteading Bossyvossy, here I come!

Sorry bossy, I got a bit off track. I just wanted to mention that things being used often can be stored in a freshsaver bag and re-sealed.

Here are my bananas. I gave them a citrus bath. Do they look ok dark to you or is this to be expected w/citrus bath?

I gotta be honest. While I enjoy the taste and the no preservative benefits, it seemed much more trouble than simply peeling the banana and eating it. In Houston the have access to fresh F&V year round, so maybe dehydrating not as necessary? Pls comment on this.

This morning I started peach slices. I’m only using 3 trays. Should tests be placed closed together or spaced? Thanks for your help.

kinda want to do cherries but im pondering the thought of pitting then slicing vs popping in my mouth. Cherries in January would be lovely

Last question: can I peek to observe progress?

I prefer to freeze rather than dehydrate, and I have a large freezer in my garage. I really don't grow anything that I would dehydrate, except perhaps chilies, and those can dry in the sun here. I do buy dried food, however, especially mushrooms, but I also buy a vegetable soup mix and dried bell peppers, in case I run out of fresh.

Yep bossy, you can peek. You should, to check on that’s in there. For me with a Nesco and stacked trays, I sometimes want to swap trays around. I turn off the unit to do so. Dont know what the prodecure is with an Excalibur.

Dehydrating is just another food preservation process. Seasonal fruits and veg can be much cheaper in season...and those of us with gardens and fruit trees can take some of the abundance and choose a variety of ways to preserve for the winter months. I don't 'can' but ferment and freeze and dehydrate and juice. Harvesting bushels of fruit and greens Sept-october, my dehydrator will run 24/7 for a couple weeks. I freeze and juice about 70%. The rest I dehydrate for granola etc. A bin about the size of a shoe box will be full of bags of dried fruits I keep in the freezer. With the water content removed by dehydrating, the volume is reduced to a 10th of fresh frozen.

Some cannot reach a grocery but once a month being in remote locations or purchase bulk veg/fruits on sale. Or lack of freezer space. I like many dehydrated fruits/veg but not all.

I have an abundance of rhubarb for example and started dehydrating but anything new takes experimenting. The first batch last year came out like rock hard pebbles so they need to be checked and time/temp written down. Soft/tender dehydrated they are delightfully tart. (the rock hard pebbles I soaked overnight in a dressing to soften so not a total fail).

I just paid a dollar for one lemon but some have lemon/lime trees with rotting fruits on the ground under....I'll have hundreds of apples doing the same in October.

I don't care for banana chips usually but very thin and crisp I add to granola. Potato chip thin.

I'm almost ready to dehydrated an abundance of tomatoes. Roasting and freezing now but soon will dehydrate for tomato powder. And sweet/hot peppers.

Hehehee sleevendog.. I've had a couple of those extra crispy batches too over time. I still use them though- I grind them up into powders. Rhubarb nuggets ground up into a powder and you can add to your strawberries to give the flavor in your pies and such still.

Sometimes I super-dry to grind. I have squash flour, peach powder, tomato powder, and a couple seasoning mixes like veggie broth and such. I dry a lot of mushrooms, and a bunch of those get turned into mushroom powder too. Peppers tend to get ground into chunkier flakes.

I sliced some 75 cent ea peaches and dried them. I think they were too thin but no matter. This morning I put them in my oatmeal. Same w/ banana chips I had dried earlier. They tasted so good. I have some Asian pears about ready for harvest. Pls share dryer recipes.

If my Mom saw me doing this kinda stuff she really be shocked that her once city girl was so “of the earth” haha

All food dehydrators are different. It really is trial and error on your part. Check it and guess and dehydrate to what you want and need for whatever you use it for. How thin and even the cuts are...soft or leathery...hard for rehydrating later...

Recipes do not exist. If they do it will not translate to your specific model or trays.

Well, sure you can buy a few books or y-tube, but trial and error is best.

I'm curious about making yogurt in a dehydrator. I make a gallon of yogurt on the stovetop every several days, even though I have an Instant Pot that claims it's easier than the stovetop. Do I need a dehydrator to make yogurt? How easy is it?

Sheesh, I have an IP, but have used it often, it's too fiddly for me. Others love them.

I make yogurt by heating milk then cooling it and putting it in the dehydrator but I used to just put it in a cooler of hot water then wrap the cooler in a towel. It all works. I got the instructions from fias co. Farm website, they are the easiest directions to follow that I found.

Good luck!

Annie

Thanks, Annie. I think I'll stick with my stovetop method for now. I've been doing it for years, so I'll just be old and stuck in the mud without another appliance. I do love my IP for many things though, just not yogurt.

One question: How long does the entire process take using the dehydrator? From heating the milk through cooling, incubating, straining/draining and finished product it takes about 15-18 hours, depending on how I get around to it, almost all but 15-20 minutes just waiting time. Thanks.

FWIW, my dehydrator came w/ a recipe booklet and I found it useful for guidelines.

And I don't put anything on the bananas I dry, other than coating the racks w/ oil spray, since they stick if I don't. They do get sort of dark, but I don't care. I dry them to a soft, chewy consistency. 1 of these days I'm going to try dipping the slices in dark chocolate - when I don't eat them all first!

I don't put anything on papaya either, and the results are nothing at all like those candied things you find in the store - more like a dried apple.

And I do use lemon or lime juice on apples - they tend to get really, really dark. I just toss the slices in a bowl w/ the juice before placing on the trays.

am going to dry tomatoes this year ... I like the tomato 'dust' for recipes

sheesh, it takes me 6-8 hours. I heat the milk, that's maybe 10 minutes. Cool down to 115F, maybe another 20 minutes. Plop the last of my current yogurt batch into 4 quart jars, add warm milk, stir. Into dehydrator at 115F, and let it "cook". There is no reason to keep it going after 10 hours, it's as thick as it will get by then.

I do add dry milk to my milk before it's heated to make the yogurt thicker. Elery wants nonfat yogurt, so I use skim milk. I can buy milk for $1.99 a gallon, and that makes a gallon of yogurt, of course. Usually, though, I buy the organic milk from a local dairy and that'll cost me about $5 a gallon. A quart of yogurt at the store, though, is between $3 and $4, so it's still a lot less expensive to make my own.

Annie

After yogurt is made, scoop it to a very fine mesh stainless steel sieve in the refrigerator. Next day, Greek yogurt.

dcarch

FWIW, I strain yoghurt using a basket coffee filter and my Melitta drip coffee funnel. I have 2 sizes, so I can do a large or small amount.

Yes, I strain to get Greek yogurt too. It so darn delicious!

Any good uses.for all the whey that's left? I've used it to make bread, which we do not like. I've been thinking about making ricotta with the whey but haven't so far. I've used a little on my gardens, but have just been throwing most of it away.

My apologies to bossyvossy for taking over the thread. I should have started a new one.

I just drink the whey.

I don’t mind at all

I don't eat yogurt at all, it's too slimy, but I use it to cook with, and so I also strain it to get thicker "greek" type yogurt. I don't really get any whey when I make yogurt, and mine is pretty thick right out of the dehydrator:

I do get whey when I make mozzarella, though, and I use that to make ricotta, it's really easy.

Annie