Learning to use a Food Dehydrator

Aroma  sent us a food dehydrator to try and to share with you all what we thought about this product and dehydrating in general. I am BRAND NEW to dehydrating but since I do A LOT of canning it is only natural for me to do some dehydrating as well. I actually also got an old model out of storage that belonged to my grandmother just to have something to compare it to. In this post I am NOT going to go through recipes but WHY and HOW to use a food dehydrator.

First off remember I AM NEW TO THIS, in the world of dehydrators the Aroma model is very reasonably priced. There are a few models that are cheaper than this one and they go up to about $300. I do like that this one has 5 trays (while more would be nice) and it is very quiet and does not put off very much heat. The bottom couple of trays do get hotter and and finish before the upper trays which is a  downside to this product.

WHY would anyone want to dehydrate food?

•  to have on hand in case of an emergency
•  budgets get tight and this way you can still feed your family real food
•  dehydrated food is also great to take on camping or hiking since it is so light weight and takes up very little room. 

WHAT have I been using to dehydrate?

• We have a discount grocery store, Aldi, and each week they have very cheap specials so that is mainly what I have been using at this point so I am not out a lot of money. For example one week mushrooms were 49 cents, bags of onions for 50 cents,  I got 5 pound bags of potatoes for 69 cents, etc. So I have been buying the specials to use and an extra bag or two to dry.  
•  I have also been using some of my garden harvest, peppers, cherry tomatoes, free apples from friends.

Things to REMEMBER

• Make sure you have a place to store what you dehydrate, and dehydrated foods must be stored in glass so be prepared for that. 
• I have found that everything has taken LONGER to dry completely  than manuals, or recipes online state. I have found that starting items before bed is best  for me so I am not bother it and sneaking a peek. 
•  ONLY dry what your family will actually eat. I am still working on using my dried foods in real recipes to make sure we can use them. 
• Some vegetables must be blanched before putting then on the dehydrator so keep that in mind.  

we can't make these apple chips fast enough they are gone by the time they are done. 

cherry tomatoes

6 large onions fit in a pint jar. 

2 8 oz containers  of mushrooms now fit in a quart jar. 

6 large limes now fit in a pint jar

5 pounds of potatoes fit in a 1/2 gallon jar once dried.



I will be sharing "recipes" soon I have several already drafted just need to finish them up. Let us know if this is something that your interested in hearing more about. 

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