What are you DEHYDRATING today?

[noobiechickenlady]

Noobie, how do you prep the tomatoes for this? Can you just blend them raw or do you need to cook them and peel the skins like you do for canning? I've got cherry tomatoes comin' out my ears but no way am I gonna peel those suckers for this project!

I just roughly chopped them, cooked them a bit & ran them through my Foley. Then I reduced the sauce. There are still a few small seeds that made it through the food mill. I don't see why you couldn't blend them, as long as you didn't cook it too long. The seeds get bitter if cooked too long.

 

[Farmfresh]

I've got cherry tomatoes comin' out my ears but no way am I gonna peel those suckers for this project!

Sissy! I think I peeled about 10 POUNDS of cherry tomatoes to can last year! You drop 'em in hot water, wait till they are cool and then pinch 'em like a zit!

 

[urban dreamer]

Looks like I will have to wait before I try to dry anything in my Honda. It's raining cats and dogs.
I will have to put the food up on the dash because my windows are tinted.

I wonder...If I could use a big card board box, cover one open end with plastic wrap, the other end in screen (keep out bugs) and use left over hard wire cloth to make a drying rack for the food? All it'd need to stay together would be some duck tape. My car tends to move alot.

 

[framing fowl]

then pinch 'em like a zit!

TMI!!! I guess it probably wouldn't take that long...

Thanks Noobie for the info!

 

[framing fowl]

Oh, by the way, what is a Foley?

 

[Farmfresh]

A Foley Food Mill. Foley

Great for removing seeds and skins and making apple sauce. It has a handle that spins a paddle and a sieve on the bottom. Often found at thrift stores!

 

[freemotion]

Looks like I will have to wait before I try to dry anything in my Honda. It's raining cats and dogs.
I will have to put the food up on the dash because my windows are tinted.

I wonder...If I could use a big card board box, cover one open end with plastic wrap, the other end in screen (keep out bugs) and use left over hard wire cloth to make a drying rack for the food? All it'd need to stay together would be some duck tape. My car tends to move alot.

Not sure if I am understanding this correctly, but....you don't need to make a box dehydrator if you are using the car. Just rig up something to use as trays and lay them out on the seats in a single layer. Let air circulation do the rest.

It is not the light that dries the stuff but the heat and air circulation. If you leave the windows open a crack, or even just one, cooler air should be drawn in through the vent in front and rise as it heats up, leaving through the slightly opened window, which in turn will draw more air in through the vent. Voila. Big, free dehydrator. Well, not free, but for our purposes as a dehydrator, it is free!

The wetter and thicker the food, the more heat and air will be needed to dry it in a reasonable amount of time. Herbs need less, tomatoes and fruit need more. So you want to use the car for the juicy stuff only on hot enough days that it will dry before it spoils or gets moldy.

I put a thermometer in my car last summer to get an idea of how hot it gets. Yowza. I put some birch trunks in it to kiln dry them to kill any bugs so I can make a headboard for my bed with them. It got hot enough.

 

[urban dreamer]

The only problem with using my car that I have found so far is that during the hot AR days, my car usually isn't home. :/ My SO is job hunting so the car is gone most of the day. That's why I think I may have to invest in or build a box dehydrator for my backyard.

 

[me&thegals]

LOTS of chocolate mint--2 gallons dried so far.

 

[Wifezilla]

Wow!

I moved my plant last fall so it is still trying to get going again.

I love chocolate mint tea with cream