Anyone Have A Dehydrator?

[KikiCC 83]

I've never had one, but wondering if is worth getting. I am thinking it mightbe useful for Tomato "chips". Should I just forget about it? Thoughts?

[sr910 55]

I have one, brand new, still in the box. I've had it for at least 3 years. Where do you live? I'm thinking I might use it someday, but you can borrow it and see if it's something you really want to purchase. I'm in San Diego...

[LouiseC 1,029]

I think at the moment I want all the hydration I can get! But if you grow your own vegetables and fruit I can certainly see the attraction in these. Far healthier than canning.

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[CdnExpat 49]

We used a dehydrator that my husband built, for years. (HWHN* is a handy kinda guy) He took an old lingerie cabinet, took out the drawers, used the drawer size as a guide and made frames with stiff mesh screening. (The screen door mesh is too flimsy, and the steel grid is too heavy... something in between). He put an in-car heater in the bottom of the cabinet, ran the cord through a hole he drilled, and voile. We dried everything. Some things weren't as successful as others, but we perfected cherries, grapes, plums, apricots, apples, bananas, peaches, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, homemade fruit leather, homemade Jerky, and many different kinds of herbs. At a time when our daughter could not eat anything with chemicals in it, we figured out how to eat well all year round.

The fruit and veggies don't look the same as the ones you buy in the store because we didn't spray them with a preservative to make them look "nice" but after the first taste, you don't care what the fruit looks like. It's awesome. My girls grew up thinking dried apple rings were the best snack in the whole world.

CE

*HWHN = He Who Hates to be Named, my very quiet and introvert husband.