What foods are you drying/dehydrating and how to you plan to use them?

[Carolyn]

I know how to dry peppers, herbs, and make jerky but would love to know more about drying veggies and fruits and how to use them. I don't think I am the only one who would like to know more on the subject.

I dry sage and when it is dry I grind it with a coffee bean grinder. I can't have Thanksgiving dinner without it for the dressing. It is required for country pork sausage. It is great to add to cornbread or biscuits, pork or chicken dishes. It keeps well (except it seems to disappear).

I air dry most of my herbs. If I don't have a lot I put a paper towel in a collander and set it somewhere handy so I can mix the herb the first few days so it dries easily. If I have a large amount I dry on a cloth or paper towels layed flat on any available surface. I use the food dehydrator for large amounts also. I also dry mint, thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, chamomille, lemonbalm, etc. Sometimes I also dry yard weedslaintain, comfrey, jewel weed and chickweed to put in soap or oinments I make.

Now it's your turn.

 

[KDbeads]

I did zucchini last year, haven't had enough to do this year yet. Slice to 1/4" and blanch, dry until they will crumble once cooled, usually 24 hours, sometimes more.
They get used in soups and stews here all the time.

 

[breezy]

Whenever fruit is on sale I buy as much as I can and dehydrate it for snacking. The last 2 batches were pineapple but I also did a bunch of grapes,strawberries ,nectarines. Just waiting for really good peaches and then in the fall I will do apples. Cant beat dried apples yummy!

 

[Carolyn]

Breezy, do you have to do anything special to the fruit? I've done apples but would love to do some peaches and other things.

KD I plan to try the zuchini, thanks to both of you.

 

[breezy]

All I do is dip the stuff that turns brown naturally when exposed to air, into a lemon juice and water bath after its been cut up. Then straight to the dehydrator. We eat the dried fruit for snacks or we rough chop it and add it to things like oatmeal. The strawberries are really good that way and honestly homemade raisins taste so much better than store bought. For some reason they come out much sweeter. We both love banana chips out of the dehydrator too. Try drying tomatoes this way too. After they are dried you can pack them into a jar and cover with good olive oil. If you try tomatoes this way be sure to dry them till they are leathery not so dry you can break them.

 

[SallyF]

We did cherry tomatoes last year. Washed, cut in half, and dehydrated. We ate them like chips and used them in soups. Unfortunately, all our tomato plants dried up and died this year.

 

[Carolyn]

They actually had some fruit on sale so I now have a few cherries, blue berries and a test run of muscadines in dry along with the peaches I already had. Thanks for the pointers and ideas.

 

[MysticScorpio82]

I have been lazy this year. So far I have 2 quarts of dried blueberries "raisens", & a gallon bag of Zuchinni chips. either my MIL got to the tomatoes already or they just haven't ripened yet, because I have yet to see a ripe one...

 

[Kim_NC]

I'm dehydrating Mr Stripey and German Johnson heirloom tomatoes. I'll use some in soups and salads, but will sell most of them at farmers markets.

 

[chickabator]

i dried green beans and made shuck beans dh and dd#2 loves them