I don't have OCD....but sometimes my family thinks I do. I tend to obsess a little sometimes. Especially when I have a fun new toy I want to play with. I bought a nesco food dehydrator. I dehydrated some peppers and made homemade chili powder. WAY COOL! I MADE HOMEMADE CHILI POWDER!!! And it tastes good! (I've now eaten WAY too much chili powder this week...not sure I can taste anything but chili powder at this point)....

So I dried some tomatoes. COOL! I made tomato powder! Never even heard of tomato powder before I saw it referenced on this forum last week. But I have a million ideas how I'm gonna use it!

I've been looking online. I can dry....A LOT OF STUFF! Later today I'm gonna slice up and dry one of them pumpkins I didn't know what to do with (I always plant them....they never actually produced before this year so I was a bit suprised I now have several pumpkins). Im thinking I can rehydrate dried pumpkin and use it for pies and bread easier than canning or freezing the pumpkins for next fall.

And I'm gonna dry a LOT of other stuff. I am just beginning......DRYING sounds more fun than canning! (maybe...we will see) Freezer space is a premium here as I send a beef, a pig and several chickens to freezer camp every year.

But I'm a bit stumped at storage. all this research I'm doing....what do I really need? I have lots of canning jars I can use, and I have a vacuum food sealer. Should I get some Oxygen absorbers? Do I need some silica gel packets? I could buy all this stuff I see it available right there on Amazon.....but at what point am I wasting money and time that I could be using dehydrating something?!?

Thanks for any help

I feel kinda like you. I don't want to waste any of these things.

I'm wondering if jars alone, jars with ox absorb, or vac seal or mylar, etc. etc.
what is best storage.

Hope you get plenty of input, I'll be watching too.

And me as well. I just got an awesome dehydrator this year and have used it for Kale and strawberries so far...

I have used canning jars and vacume sealed and never used the ox obsorber, they last for years with no problem.

One of our favorites is dried bananas, I wait for a sale and go to town

ALSO, I've discovered yogurt leather. Fruit yogurt on saran wrap and lay it on THICK. Dry till leathery.. SOOOOO GOOD.

hhhhmmmmmmmm.....wonder if I could do that with my goat milk yogurt? It's very much thinner than store bought yogurt.

Saran wrap? That don't melt in the dehydrator? you have a temp control on your dehydrator and thats why you can do that or are you using one like my little cheapy model that has one temp fits all just turn it on or off switch?

I know what you all mean. I thought I died and went to dehydrator heaven. Then I got my Excaliber and it got worse. But then I had to look at the practical side of things. If water is a problem I couldn't rehydrate. If you eat a lot of dehydrate fruit it plays havoc with your digestive system, really hurts. So I dehydrate and can (particularily soups, fruits, stews, beans etc. kinda like a meal in a jar) We freeze a lot as well to take advantage of sales. Then can or dehydrate. I try to keep each well rounded so I can utilize either method depending on the circumstance. Because I've had a couple of years to dehydrate and it's food saved, I can now more than dehydrate. I use a combination of food saver bags and jars to store. I tried using the oxygen obsorbers but was ruining too many after I opened the pack. They only last about 6 months anyways. Same with the mylar, was ruining too many with the oxygen obsorbers and getting a good seal. I get my food saver type bags off ebay. Watch the prices they can vary quite a bit. You can use used canning lids for food saving in jars as long as the lid hasn't any damage in the rim of the lid. The jars are better for crackers, noodles, flours etc. Hope this helps.

I dry a bunch of apples every year. I dry them until crunchy then put them in canning jars and let them set on the counter until they have been eaten. Last year when I was drying them I found half a jar that hadn't been eaten from the year before. They were just fine. The only thing I've had problems with was dried mushrooms which got fuzzy. Not real sure if they weren't dry enough or the lid wasn't tight or they set too long. I won't try mushrooms again.

Some things do need to be cooked before drying. I would cook the pumpkin. Raw dried pumpkin does not rehydrate well and tastes a bit off. Carrots and celery are other items I have cooked before drying. I also blanch kale before laying it in the dehydrator. Herbs, onions, peppers, garlic, fruit and tomatoes don't need to be cooked first.

I just did my first pineapple a few days ago. Other than slicing it too thin it was great! I'm not fond of dried peaches. IMO they taste burned. I had planned on mixing them with frozen peaches for cobbler but haven't done it yet.

I absolutely love dried green onions. Those are wonderful.

Dried apples and bananas barely make it off the dehydrator trays in this house...jerky takes a little longer to get eaten, but not much! I tried to make raisins one time, but they turned out sour so I decided not to do those again.

Thanks all!
I did the pumpkin yesterday. Small dehydrator so I've not got the whole pumpking through it yet but the last of if wil go in there in an hour or two. I did it before I read your warning about raw pumpkin, so not knowing what was going to work best I did half the pumpkin in the oven for 30 min and the other half pumpkin I pealed and cut up raw. I blanched half the raw pumpkin. Dehydrated those yesterday. I've not powdered them yet but I put a chunk of each blanched and raw in boiling water for 1/2 hour this morning....and I"m just not sure what I think of it......
Next I'm gonna powder the dried chunks and then try rehydrating both in water, then make a couple loaves of pumpkin bread if they rehydrate ok and see how they turn out.
I'll do the same thing with the baked pumkin half later and see how it turns out.

And now I'm all fascinated by the idea that I can dehydrate milk. I have a LOT of milk most of the year. Would be nice if I could dehydrate it when I have a lot of extra goat milk and use it to make to thicken yogurt (goat milk yogurt is very thin) and to make cajeta when I dont' have milk.

Can I dry Cajeta? That would be pretty yummy maybe....but then maybe its better just the way it is as cajeta?

Anyone got instructions for drying milk? Any suggestions for my pumpkin expieriments?
Thanks!

Can't help much with the pumpkin. I dried it so I would have it to feed to my rabbits.

hhhhmmmm....well I'll report back with whatever results I have on the first rehydration in a couple hours. Seems silly to dehydrate just to rehydrate the next day but I'm just not sure how best to go about doing this and I have several pumpkins I could process through if I was just sure how I wanted to do it!

Better to test it before drying a huge pile of it then finding out you don't like it dried. Otherwise it will end up like my half pint of peaches and some tomatoes I did (and overdid) a few years back.

I put everything I dry in jars don't like putting them in bags I also put o2 in the jars the silica gel packs are for moisture, haven't used them jst vacuum seal and store in cool dry dark place

I too have gotten the bug for dehydrating this year. There's so much informatiion out there that sometimes it does get confusing. Some sites sound so matter of fact about methods and results and storage and shelf life, then you review other information and its a bit different.

Today I read that dried peaches have a shelf life of 6 months to 1 year. On another site I read that dried fruit, if stored in an oxygen free container, at a temperature of 70 degrees, in a dark place, would have a shelf life of 5-7 years. I have no place that is 70 degrees in the summer time. 78 degrees is about it where my storage area is. So if this is correct, how much less time do I get with the extra 8 degrees in storage temperature. Or, is the first read I did correct, and I should only plan on 6 months to a year shelf life for my peaches?

I dried the slices for 12 hours...they are dry. I packed them in 2 cups per food saver bag with a 100 cc oxygen absorber and put them in the dark kitchen pantry. So I feel good for at least a year, but after that I guess I need to start eating some.

Somone above stated that oxygen absorbers aren't being used and they still get plenty of shelf life. Now I am confused...I really don't want to use them if not necessary and they only work for 6 months?

I've had apples on the counter in canning jars that have lasted over a year. I try to keep the dried stuff in the fridge or freezer just to keep it fresher longer but the apples set on the counter.

A couple days ago I ate a bunch of September apples. Still good.

Dried food keeps well. We are just finishing apple slices from 2010, put in jars, no o2 absorbers or vac sealing. Love dried food stored in glass. I find even ziploc bags tend to be "porous", over a relatively short time (1 month) the food stored is not crisp. I don't think bad, just not top quality. Long term storage, glass jars. I wouldn't worry much about an 8-10degree difference significantly reducing your storage time. If it is dry, it keeps. It may not taste as great, or be quite as nutritious after 7 or 8 years, BUT it is still going to be healthier than commercially available produce and much better than snowballs. (As my inlaws used to say!)

I posted here about the bananas I did, thinking I ruined 9 trays! But they came off with just a little work and practice.

What I went crazy doing was the frozen veggies; corn, peas, greenbeans, hash browns - the small cut, potato only type. We have an Aldi here and the 1 lb was on sale for .88. I detest canned peas, but we all love them fresh and frozen. So I got a ton and started dehydrating!
I use the canning jars and vacuum sealer.

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Great Thread, thanks for all the information.

Yes there is a lot of great info here thanks so much everyone!

So I powdered the dried pumpkin last night. Tried the food processor first but the pumpkin chunks just danced on top of the blades until the food processor got too hot and stalled out. So I did it in little fist fulls in the coffee grinder (seems like there ought to be a better way to do this but I don't know what it is).
Results:
The raw pumpkin powdered easier and finer than the Blanched pumpkin
The raw pumpkin powder was a lighter less apealing orange than the Blanched pumpkin
Both pumpkins mixed with about 5 times as much boiling water to pumpkin powder :1/2 cup powder to 2 1/2 cups water to make 2 1/2 cups pretty good looking pureed pumpkin (again the blanched was a more apealing orange color)
Both pumpkins mixed into the bread equally well (betty crocker recipe book)
Both baked up fine
Both tasted GREAT
The raw pumpkin was a little more crumbly than the blanched pumpkin bread but this may have been from a little more water in the reconstituting of the raw pumpkin

All in all I'm pleased with both the raw and the blanched pumpkin. Both solved the issues I had with canning or freezing the pumpkin
1. They are not stringy~ my pumpkins are not the small pie pumpkins but the big carving type~ drying then powdering them solves the stringy issue where freezing or canning would not
2. They are only as wet as I want them~ I was worried the canned would be too soggy to work with, as well as stringy. Added bonus to the dried...I'm gonna try reconstituting with apple juice on some and see if we like that!
3. They will not be taking up valuable freezer space

So I"m pleased with the say the pumpkin came out. I'm hoping we like the baked pumpkin just as much. The baked pumpkin was easier to peel and dice up.

So thats what I've learned so far this week!
Oh....and I learned dont dehydrate a lemon slice and then pop it in your mouth to see what it tastes like. It tastes like a lemon. Like a whole lemon slice.....even though it's tiny and looks all innocent.

Cherries.
I want to dehydrate cherries.

Do I just pit them, cut them in 1/2 and dry them?
How long and how hot?
I have an Excalibur 9 tray.....

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I am drying raspberries and strawberries right now. I haven't done those before.
Had never thought about pumpkin...

On your temp dial is suggested for each type of food. I would try it after pitting. If it takes way to long or they don't dry well then I would cut them in half. Dehydrate2Store.com | Welcome - Educating and Helping Those Who Want To Learn About Dehydration is an excellent site to refer to.

Powdered tomato makes homemade bbq sauce great.

Garlic:
8-10 cups of cloves, processed in a food processor
Cover the tray with plastic wrap, put the processed garlic on it.
Put the tray on the bottom most place in the dehydrator.
Dehydrate at 140 degrees F for 9 hours until very dry stirring occasionally.
Process the dried garlic in the food processor for 10 minutes, cooling the machine in between, 10 minutes and 10 minutes.
Makes 1 and 1/2 cups garlic powder.

Add salt for garlic salt. Make your own seasoning blends.

I've got a little tomato left over from making tomato sandwiches. It needs to go in the dehydrator today.

The plastic wrap doesn't effect the drying? I was worried about the air flow.

My dehydrator is a microwave/convection oven and the fan is in the upper portion. By placing it on the bottom or lowest rack, the air flow is free to dry the garlic. If your dehydrator has a fan, and most do, just make sure the air flow is above the garlic.
It is the same as if you were making fruit leather, using plastic beneath it.

The Saran wrap doesn't melt. I Do have a temp knob on mine (Excalibur 9 tray)
and I set it in the middle. You can also use tin foil with made up edges.

Thanks for posting the results of the pumpkin experiment. I've got a couple neck pumpkins that need to have something done with them.

Sure glad I found this thread. Just received notice from my Excalibur that it will be shipped soon. Can hardly wait to try out some of your recipies!

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