Food Dehydrators

Most fruits many meats and vegetables can be dehydrated. If you are an avid outdoors person who likes to do a lot of camping and backpacking then a food dehydrator is the tool to have especially if you have a garden or lots of fruit trees. Food dehydrators are still a great way to save money. Dehydrating foods is also a great option for the natural gardener or the people who like to grow organic vegetables or fruit. If you like to harvest your own fruit and vegetables dehydrating is another great way to preserve and dry excess produce.
Most fruits dehydrate well and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, bell peppers, carrots and most other vegetables. Most herbs can also be dried with a dehydrator.

The nice thing with dehydrating food is that most of the nutrients are retained. It is not uncommon for people who have large gardens and lots of fruit trees and put up a lot of food to have more than one dehydrator they are very affordable and inexpensive for what they do.

There are many types of dehydrators out there. The passive units rely on just heat rising and allowing the moisture to be removed to the more expensive that has thermostat control that usually has a fan that allows uniform drying. When using a passive unit you usually have to rotate trays more often.

I like the fan units that have a thermostat control. They dry more uniformly and dry much quicker allowing you to process more food in the de-hydrator in a much shorter time. The other issue the quicker the drying of some meats the less issue you have with bacteria. The fan type unit will cost much more but if you are using the unit several times a month or have a garden where you have a lot of produce to dry it will be well worth the purchase price.

A passive unit is generally under 50 dollars a fan unit with thermostat control is over 100.
If you are one who will use one on occasion with not as much product to process say every month or so a cheaper unit may suffice.

A secret or tip I can share is if you are a hunter or like to make a lot of jerky then a fan unit with thermostat control is probably the unit to chose.

It is really easy to make beef jerky. I usually get about 2-4 lbs of cheap sirloin or pot roast and cut it into strips about 1/4" think by 2" wide and 4-6" long. Then I marinate in soy sauce for about 24 hours in the fridge. Take out and place in food dehydrator and in about 24 hours give or take 6 hours and depending on the brand it should be done.

Sometimes I'll add a little red pepper to the soy marinade to give the jerky a little kick.

It really is that simple to make beef jerky.

Food dehydrators are not just for dehydrating veggies or meat. Potpourris can be made by drying petals and herbs in a dehydrator. Drying herbs in a dehydrator is another method of drying herbs.

There are many methods for making potpourris and drying herbs but the food dehydrator can help you in there areas. Drying flower petals for making potpourris is not that difficult it does rely on some experimentation depending on the flower. Some dehydrators come with basic guides that help you get started in these areas and give you some guidelines but it is all about experimentation on drying each individual product.