A Makeshift Dehydrator

Makeshift Dehydrator

Sometimes I just don’t have enough racks to dehydrate everything before it goes bad. That happened just before Thanksgiving when I was given a small box of pickling cucumbers. My machines were full of onions and I was at a loss as to how to deal with them. 

A Dehydrator Alternative

Use a sweater drier!

• In a pinch, you can use all sorts of equipment to dehydrate.

Cheesecloth Dehydrating Frame - Circa: 1917

I copied the following diagram from a 1917 booklet called

 War Food:

Practical and Economical Methods of Keeping Vegetables, Fruits, and Meats.

Tomato Puree AKA Dehydrating to Beat the System!

My favorite thing!

Marked down veggies from the produce department can be a fantastic savings. Ranging from 29¢ to 49¢ per package (not pound) for fresh tomatoes is a fantastic bargain in anybody’s book.

Apple Peeler / Slicer

Here is my handy-dandy apple peeler/corer.  You can also use it on potatoes and any other round, evenly shaped veggie.

Hand Crank Tomato Puree Machine

Sometimes I look at kitchen equipment with a jaundiced eye. Too many times I have bought something that I thought would be useful, and it turned out to be a frivolous piece of junk.  This tomato puree machine is the exception.  Don’t really know what it’s called. Bought mine in a thrift store (of course) for just a few bucks. It was manufactured in Italy and it’s purpose is to puree tomatoes.  I did find modern machines on line in various outlets.

Apple Sauce The Easy Way

 I had been given a box of crab apples. They were kind of warped and twisted and not many had a proper shape.  Most of them were about the size of a large plum. I felt it wasn’t worth the effort to peel and core them. So I quartered them and simmered them until they were just tender. Then I ran them through the tomato puree machine.

Linda’s Manual Equipment

12/04/07

Linda’s "Granny" Station

One of the important things about prepping is to always keep in mind that you should not be dependent on electricity, if at all possible.  Where I lived in Alabama, we often had power failure that lasted anywhere from a few hours to several days. Sometimes we were without for a couple of weeks.

Mandolin Cross Cut Apples

Using your safety device on your mandolin slicer!

 Here is a neat way of slicing your apples for a little bit of a festive look. I leave the skins on for this project.

Home-Made Fruit Leather Trays

 Here is a way to get really economical fruit leather trays.

Zesting Citrus Fruit

Many people are curious about dehydrating citrus fruit.  Yes, you can dehydrate your citrus, any kind. Be it lemons, oranges, grapefruit, limes, whatever. 

This is a handy little tool called a zester.  It has a set of tiny holes with scraping edges. This is drawn across the skin of the fruit and peels up just a tiny layer of peeling, called the zest.

Grinding Dehydrated Herbs and Spices

 

Basically, herbs are the leaves and stems of certain plants that retain their flavor and add to the taste of food. Generally, fresh herbs are preferable to dried herbs, but we do not live in an ideal world and often need to resort to the dried version.

Tomato Skins - Don't Toss 'Em !

Whenever you dehydrate tomatoes, here is a way to get extra bang for your buck! There is a tremendous amount of nutrition in the skins of just about every fruit and veggie in the world. Don’t toss those peelings and skins.

If you’re not sure how to peel tomatoes, I have a good little video on it. Check it out.

Here are the skins from 30 pounds of plum tomatoes I recently dehydrated. Spread them out on your racks and dehydrate as usual.  I started out at about 95 degrees, but turned it up to 110 because they seemed so wet.

Grain Mill Comparison Charts

Although this is a dehydrating site, I think that it’s important to address other things that may affect what and how we dehydrate. Many of us are preppers, so we think about long-term storage. Although it’s a little off topic, there have been enough questions here to make me realize that we need good information on grain mills.  

(I took this pic from the internet.

Will replace it with one of my own as soon as I have time to photograph my machine.)

Slicing Apples with a Mandolin

Here is an easy way to prep your apples if they aren’t all that perfect.  I was given a box of apples. Many of them had bruises, so I didn’t want to slice them with the peelings. 

The first thing I did was peel the apples and cut off the bruises. Then I used the mandolin to quickly slice one side to the core.

This Isn't Rocket Science!

People have been dehydrating food since the stone age. It’s  the simplest form of food preservation. You do not really need any specialized equipment.  All you need is a place to put your food slices, some way to keep the bugs off, and some form of ventilation. 

Raw Apple Slices

Mylar Bags & Oxy Packs

I found a few interesting links you might want to check out. 

Why use Mylar bags? To help prevent or greatly reduce:

http://www.survivalunlimited.com/buckets.htm

·         Light from deteriorating the contents in bucket

·         Oxygen absorption causing rancidity. No oxygen for weevils either.

·         Moisture absorption causing mold and organism growth.

·         Smell from area stored in from entering the food/water

Excellent for storing anything that you don't want moisture or oxygen entering. Great product for freezing foods in, and storing clothing, pictures, even old documents.

 

Solar Dehydrators

Ok, most of us are using electric dehydrators.  Many of us are stocking up for an emergency. Some of us seriously believe that at some point in time the grid may break down for an extended period of time, or possibly even permanently.

Not so sure about that? It can’t possibly happen?   

Take a look at Japan right now.

They are dependent on nuclear power, but millions of people are without power and who knows how long it will be before they will get power. So far, I haven’t seen much about alternative power, or restoring power from their other power plants to the affected area.

Their nuclear generator in Fukushima is a gonner.  Don’t make the mistake of assuming that something of this nature couldn’t happen here. Your area might not be served with nuclear power, but other systems already in place are not invulnerable. It’s what we don’t think of that is the danger.

That being said, let’s talk about solar dehydrators.  Until the advent of electricity, solar power was the only way to get your food dehydrated. Since the dawn of time, that’s the method used.

People either laid their produce and meats out on a blanket or large flat rock, hung them from branches in a bush or from poles suspended near a fire.

There were, however, some problems. The main one being various forms of contamination.  And of course, lack of sunlight and possible inclement weather. Without plenty of sunlight, it just won’t work.