You might try asking this question at the Cooking forum, as there are some people there who dehydrate foods. I do not have one yet, but if I did, I would dehydrate figs, tomatoes, mangoes, pineapple, papaya, chilies, and herbs, especially basil, cilantro, and dill,

I no longer have a mango tree (or a fig tree), but I do have a lot of pineapple plants, and I know that pineapples dehydrate well, although mangoes are my favorite. I buy dried mangoes at a Thai market, and they are one of the few dried fruits that I look for. I still grow a lot of chilies, however, and I think they are easy to dehydrate - some of them hydrate on the plant, or else I cut down a branch and hang it out to dry.

I personally would not season anything that I was dehydrating, for fear of the seasoning becoming overpowering. Plus I do not like salt, and sweet fruits are already sweet enough not to need sugar.

Dried okra sounds really good!!

Lars

Actually dehydrating foods for preserving them is a verypopular question/discussion right here. We have at least two long running discussions on "What did you dry today?"

For us it is more like what don't we dehydrate? Peaches, apples, pears, grapes, celery, spinach leaves, chard both dried and in chips, cherry tomatoes, diced onions - tons of them, zucchini slices, mushrooms, pumpkin seeds, all kinds of herbs, garlic, peppers, green beans (just added them this year), etc. A good dehydrator is a real good tool to have.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Dehydrating Foods

I can't find the "What did you dry today?" threads, Dave. Can you please link to them?

Thanks!

Lars

Some drying, freezing, fermenting, and root cellaring are part of the linked thread.

Beans and various herbs are mentioned often as dried items.

I like to slit the skin and then cut small tomatoes in half for drying. They make a great snack, IMO, and it's an easy way to deal with lots of small tomatoes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning, AND freezing, drying, etc

Can't find the "What did you dry..." threads now so they must have fallen off the server. But there are many other 'dehydrating', 'drying', 'dried' past discussions here the search will pull up. See link below for just some of them.

And of course if looking for instructions for doing a specific food then the link to NCHFP provides all the directions.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: dehydrating discussions

Kale chips! NO burning them. :-)
Herbs.
Carrots, celery, green onions, white onions.
Leftover ham or other meats.

You can make soup seasoning packets from all of the above. Combine with some salt, pepper, and beans and you have a meal you can just dump into the crockpot and add water.

Deanna

Plums and apricots. Apricot season in N. America has passed, but now is plum season.

Zucchini did not reconstitute for me in a way I cared for. It remained tough. However, a long soak to re-hydrate before cooking might solve that.

I'm a beginner food preserver, but so far I have dried mainly herbs, peaches, tomatoes, and habanero peppers. Coming up I plan to also dry sweet peppers and apples. Maybe other things as well.

I got a food dehydrator for Christmas. Mine is also running constantly. I'm trying to stock up now while things are abundant and cheap (and growing on my own plants!)

Angie

I suggest NOT doing strawberries. They end up a wad of seeds and not very appealing.

One thing that surprised me was cantaloupe. Small chunks that start out the side of pineapple tidbits work well.

For fruit leathers and roll-ups, just spread plastic wrap on the screen and use it that way.

For easy release screens, visit the craft section at the local box store and purchase plastic canvas large enough to cover the whole dehydrator screen. Cut to shape and they will help release stickier things. I don't know about them being food safe, but they're a lot cheaper, and I've never noticed never noticed never noticed any problems. :-)

Mine is an American Harvest SnackMaster from the early 90's and still going strong with occasional usage. The screens are still available under the newer NESCO company name. I have found them as little as $5 for 2 screens on discount shelves at the end of the season. I must have 15 screens now, but you're only supposed to use 10, I believe. I usually have less than 10 anyway. At one time, they made screens with removable centers so you could have the ring around the outside as a spacer to allow larger items inside like flowers. I tried it on shrunken apple heads and it worked great!

This is my first year with a dehydrator and I wonder what took me so long? I have decided that drying is the healthiest and least expensive way of preserving food.
Less time, no sugar, less work.

I make granola for our breakfasts so I have especially focused on drying fruit this year. So far I have done pears, plums, figs, and blueberries. A friend has promised me access to his scuppernong vines later on.

I am still learning, of course. I did not get the plums or figs dry enough and they release moisture into the granola. I am thinking about pulling them out of the freezer and drying them some more.

The most successful thing I have tried was also the easiest. I ran the pears through my Victorio and then made fruit roll ups with them. They are doing great in the granola. I think dried pears are actually more flavorful than fresh ones.

Next year I will probably do all the fruits as fruit leathers. It's easier to get it dry enough for the granola.

I have also dried alot of Sungold tomatoes for salads this winter. I like them because they don't have the bitter taste you often get with regular dried tomatoes.

And, of course, I have dried Basil. That was a snap.

Just curious about the okra. Will you reconstitute it with water or will you eat it as is? I have seen dried okra in the snack sections at the grocery, but the package I tried was sweet like sugar. I have wondered if I could season it with garlic salt or something like that to get a savory snack. Anyone know?

Hi Donna - good to hear from someone else new to this. Did you find the fruit leathers easy to roll up?

How did you dry the plums? In other words, how much did you cut them up, and what were they like when done? I want to try peaches, plums, etc.

I still haven't tried sweet potatoes, but hope to do that soon.

In terms of the okra, I did little rounds sprinkled with dill weed and sea salt. They are FABULOUS just like that - it's how I plan to eat them - as a crunchy little snack.

Oh that's great to hear about the okra. I am going to try that. My plants are cranking it out in this heat.

I purchased the fruit rollup trays/pads for my Nesco dehydrator. I cooked the pears just till a bit soft and ran them through my Victorio. I added some lemon juice to the pulp and then poured it into my rollup trays. When they were dry and leathery, I just peeled them off the tray. It was very easy. Then I laid the fruit rollup on a piece of parchment paper and rolled it up paper and all. It was simple. I am storing them in ziploc bags in my freezer and just take them out a roll or two at a time for granola. I use kitchen scissors to cut them into bite sized pieces. Delicious and so simple.

The plums and figs and berries were my first attempts. I found on the internet that if you cut the plums in half and then twist them, the pit will pop out. It worked, but was still time consuming. (the plums were small this year). I then quartered them and put them on the trays to dry with peels on. As I said, I don't think I got them dry enough. Next year, I will pit them and then run them through my Victorio and make roll ups. It would be very labor intensive to peel them too. I was working with red plums. They were pretty tart, but I love their flavor in the granola.

I love dried peaches but was sick in June so missed out on those this year. I read recently that you can also make rollups out of applesauce. I have a few jars left from last year and I may just try that with them. We really go through the dried fruit around here.

I haven't tried sweet potatoes, but I definitely will. I love the sweet potato chips. I'm guessing that the trick is to get the slices really thin. I may try borrowing my daughter's mandolin for that.

You'll want to cook the sweet potatoes prior to dehydrating or they will just turn hard.Either steam or bake them then slice after they've cooled.

In fact, you'll want to blanch most veggies first. I sometimes buy bags of frozen veggies when they are on sale because they have already been blanched. Then I dry them and store in my pantry instead of paying to keep them frozen.

For anyone interested in learning more about dehydrating I would encourage you to go to You Tube and search for Dehydrate2store. Tammy Gangloff is an expert dehydrator and has uploaded many informative videos.

I've dehydrated carrots, corn, peas, cauliflower, mushrooms, bananas, apples, jalapenos, green beans, lemons, oranges, peaches, strawberries, cranberries, spinach, kale, pineapple, tomatoes, etc. I have also made fruit roll-ups and various powders with some of the things I have dehydrated. Powdered tomato, spinach, and kale make great additions to soups and stews for a little extra ooompf.

I dehydrated a bunch of beet greens this year and powdered them to add some extra vitamins to things. Love my dehyrdrator

Hi Jackieblue - do you cook the sweet potatoes or blanch them? I've not heard before that they need to be cooked before drying.

The roselle is coming off in bunches right now, and I've been removing the seed pods and drying the calyces to use in tea through the winter. Of course, I've been drying tea herbs all through the summer, anytime there is a full dehydrator worth - mints, bee balm, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon grass, anise hyssop, stinging nettles, calendula,stevia, pineapple sage, and assorted other things. I also recently dried the remaining herbs I include in my Italian seasoning mix (had already done oregano earlier in the summer).

Jennieboyer you should cook them, let them cool, then slice for dehydrating. I tried just dehydrating raw sweet potatoes once and ended up with rocks that couldn't be rehydrated well.

I'm getting ready to go throw some sweet potatoes in my crock pot to cook, then I will slice them long and dehydrate to make dog treats.

Thank you! Would I do it this same way if I am going to eat them as potato chips?

We dehydrate our strawberries all the time and they are great! Eat them as snacks, add to trail mix, top off ice cream or cereal, add to pancakes or waffles. They are great dehydrated.

Yes Jennie I would cook them even if you're going to use them for chips. Otherwise they would be too hard to chew and you probably would have a hard time slicing them thin.

One more question - do you blanch the sweet potatoes or completely cook them prior to dehydration? In other words, do you cook to tender whole and then slice or do you slice and then blanch? Thanks!

Cook to tender, whole. Then slice and dehydrate.

So sorry, but one more question. I cooked the sweet potato, but had trouble peeling and slicing. Not sure if I cooked too long, didn't let cool long enough, etc.

Some of the peel came right off. Some stuck to the potato and pulled off some stringy potato. The potato was hard to slice thinly because it was too soft.

Sorry for all the questions, but hoping to get this right eventually!

Re: fruit leather. I stumbled across a way to make individual "fruit roll-ups" without needing the special trays, or the hassle of covering my trays in plastic wrap. I cut squares of baking parchment so that 4 fit per tray, then spread the fruit puree onto each square. Dehydrate as usual. The dried fruit leather easily peels off of the parchment, but to store, just toss the individual squares into a zipper bag, paper and all. DS LOVES the applesauce "fruit rollups" I made this wayâ¦easy to throw into his school lunches.