home made dehydrator?

[Quail_Antwerp]

OH KAY!

Now ya'll got me wanting a dehydrator!

The mangoes did it!

 

[enjoy the ride]

You'll love it- when you buy dehdrated fruit in the store, it is so full of sugar and other stuff. Homemade is much better.

This afternoon I finished the last of the apples- delayed two days due to my cold. Makes a difference whether the fruit is really fresh or not- this last part of the crop had been picked 5 days ago and was getting a little pithy.

I have been taking the apple cores out to the horses and the peelings to the goats. My buckling has become pretty obnoxious and was poking me with his horns so I reached down and held his horn to keep him off (not too successfully)- when I went back into the house, I forgot to wash my hands before I took a poke at the apple slices soaking in lemon juice. Yucky bucky hands. Didn't smell anything because my nose is still in full cold mode. Couldn't think of any way to make it all better so I ended up thowing out about 10 apples worth. Darn darn darn.
But I have learned in my life- it is not worth saving a couple of dollars at the expense of your and your animals health.

 

[FarmerChick]

OH ETR I know what you mean .....I wash my hands about 50,000 times a day. I am on automatic pilot now. Leave the house for anything, I walk in and wash. Just a habit now.....farm life huh? And super bucks stink! WHEW! LOL

 

[unclejoe]

I tried making some apple 'chips' in the oven the other day...not doing that again.

sliced them thin, put them on a cookie sheet in a 150 oven....they stuck to the sheet and had to be soaked off!! ah well, I need to just get a real dehydrator, lol

The first time I tried to make leather with peaches I had the same problem. It stuck to the tray. The next time I sprayed the tray with vegetable oil and PRESTO it peeled right off. It might work with cookie sheets too.

 

[sufficientforme]

I wonder if nonstick foil would work in oven drying without having to add the spray or oil? I have never bought it, what chemicals are added to the foil to make it nonstick and is it transferring to the food?

 

[enjoy the ride]

This is not from my experience but I looked up oven drying in one of my books.
It says you can stretch cheese cloth or plastic netting clothes pinned onto the tray or you can make cheese cloth or plastic netting like a pillow case to cover the oven racks.
Maybe covering cookie racks with netting would work too?

 

[keljonma]

The Readers Digest book BACK TO BASICS has an entire section on making your own dehydrators in the food preservation chapter. There are a number of different dehydrators they discuss making. You can probably find this book at your local public library.



Also, you can make a tomato puree like for tomato paste and dehydrate that like a fruit leather. Except you use them in sauces where you would add tomato paste.

 

[unclejoe]

Also, you can make a tomato puree like for tomato paste and dehydrate that like a fruit leather. Except you use them in sauces where you would add tomato paste.

I'll tear a piece off occasionally and eat it just the way it is. I have some drying right now. I processed the last of my "table" ripened tomatoes yesterday.

 

[pioneergirl]

Thanx Unclejoe...I'll have to try that. Maybe just a very THIN coat of oil with my hands..just enough to make a film....hhhhmmmm

 

[keljonma]

Also, you can make a tomato puree like for tomato paste and dehydrate that like a fruit leather. Except you use them in sauces where you would add tomato paste.

I'll tear a piece off occasionally and eat it just the way it is. I have some drying right now. I processed the last of my "table" ripened tomatoes yesterday.

I am soooo envious! I still have a bushel and a half of green tomatoes. I have about 30 paste tomatoes ripening on the counter now.