Food Dehydration
I really love to snack on dried fruit during the day but it is really expensive compared to fresh and always contains additives like sulfur dioxide, high fructose corn syrup, and other preservatives. I thought it would be wise to buy a food dehydrator and make my own dried fruits. Does anyone else have experience with this? Is there anything else you can do other than fruit and jerky?
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4 Comments:
Not a make-your-own solution, but this company: http://www.justtomatoes.com/ has many varieties that have no additives. Usually found in Whole Foods, and not significantly more expensive than other snack foods.
FKC at 6:41PM on 05/12/07
My mum and I used to dehydrate stuff ALL THE TIME. Sometimes it would make the house smell weird (blueberries, for instance), but in the end you're left with dried up version of...um, stuff. Tasty! Yeah. Besides dried fruit we also made flax seed crackers, which you make by soaking flaxseeds in water (with seasoning if you want) and then spreading it over the dehydrating sheet. TASTYYY! Kinda! Good for your intestines maybe?
Robyn Lee at 12:16AM on 05/13/07
I have dried it all. Pears, apples, peaches, plums, bananas, kiwi, grapes, pineapple, cherries, blueberries, strawberries. Also tomatoes of all kinds.
It is fun to do and you learn things about berries versus say pears.
Herbs are good to do.
For tomatoes I used salt/sugar mixture.
If you have time do it. If you don't have time don't do it, it takes LOADS of time.
JerzeeTomato at 3:10AM on 05/13/07
I wanted to second the Just Tomatoes company, they are awesome! I can snack on their Just Veggies (a mix of corn, peas, carrots, peppers, and tomatoes) forever! The price is pretty good, I get them from Whole Foods but that is 90 miles from me, so to get my fix I just ordered them online, shipping is very reasonable! They do all kinds of veggies and fruits, and I love they don't use additives.
I have also considered the deyhydrator though, mostly for dog snacks, specifically sweet potatoes, but have been successful using the oven, I agree with JerzeeTomato though, it does take a long time! Good Luck if you get one, or if you try JustTomatoes products!
bobcatsteph3 at 1:05PM on 05/13/07