You don’t have to grow your own food to dehydrate fruits and vegetables. I had a dehydrator for years before I started using it regularly. Part of me couldn’t believe that such a small amount of heat could make food edible let alone more delicious than before.
It’s true! Drying foods concentrates the flavors.
This is beef jerky halfway through the drying process.
My first foray into dehydrating was making beef jerky. But I’ve since dried tomatoes, okra, beans, peas, strawberries, and squash.
There are few rules to dehydrating.
• Always slice your meat, vegetables, or fruits the same thickness. If some are thinner than others place those on the top trays so they don’t dry out too quickly.
• For best results, freeze your meat until it’s firm (but not frozen through). It will make it so much easier to slice.
• Wash fruits and vegetables, then pat dry.
• Never let your food touch each other. You want air to circulate freely on all sides.
• You can make fruit leathers if you blend fruit into a puree then pour (carefully) into liners on the dehydrator trays.
• Check for doneness. They should be flexible but not rock hard. You can dry them until hard if you plan to pulverize them. Many people do this for onions and garlic, but also for tomatoes and celery. Heck, I’ve seen people dehydrate tomato skins alone and turn them into tomato powder.
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For meat, you can add a dry rub from any number of prepared mixes from the store. I’m a purist. I prefer salt and pepper.
For veggies like green beans, I coat them in a little olive oil and toss with fresh ground salt. They are DELICIOUS! Greg and I polished off an entire batch in one sitting. (That ended up being our dinner.) They’re great snacks when you want something other than potato chips or popcorn.
I don’t season tomatoes at all. I dehydrate until semi soft and put them in the freezer. When I make soup, stew, pasta or pizza sauce, the dried tomatoes go in the pot and I let them reconstitute there. It will take your meal to an entirely new level of flavor. Every year I dehydrate tomatoes rather than can them now. They are that good!
Dehydrators come in all shapes and sizes. Some are very fancy, others are nothing more than a light bulb at the base of the machine.
The one on the right is the same brand but about $50 more. It also has a 10 year warranty compared to the one above with a 5 year warranty. You can click on the pictures to take you to the Amazon page.
The dehydrator I currently have is pretty old. It doesn’t have the nicer trays or higher wattage of these newer models. When it finally dies on me I’ll probably opt for the Excalibur since all my gardening friends speak so highly about it.
If you have teenagers, jerky and dried treats are way healthier for them. Better for junk-food eating husbands too. 😉
Oven drying: You can dry food in your oven but between you and me, it’s kind of a pain. Not only do you waste a lot more money on energy usage but it pretty much monopolizes your oven until the drying is done. I don’t recommend it unless you have no other choice.
Outdoor drying: There is one other option for you heartier, back-to-the-land folks, and that’s solar drying. If you live in a climate like mine where it’s hot and has relatively low humidity, you can dry your food outdoors. 
Oiled and salted. Ready for drying.
Same green beans, dried and ready for snacking.
Have you ever tried making jerky or dried fruits or vegetables? I always say I’m going to dehydrate snow peas, but somehow I never have enough left over. 🙂 The green beans were the real surprise though. 
They were absolutely delicious. Greg wanted more but I only planted a few token green bean plants. Next year, I’m doing a big bed of them.
I put off meal planning for a long, long time. Looking back, I could kick myself. Not only have I saved money by meal planning but our squabbles over what to eat disappeared almost overnight.
