Dehydrated Foods

[Lady TS]

I have been experimenting with dehydrating veggies/fruit this fall.

Here's what I have done so far this year:

~Apples (rings)--these are a success- I did them last year and dh requested them a week or so ago to bring to work and snack on. I've done about 8 pounds of apple rings...which breaks down to about a gallon and a half of dried apple rings.

~Onion - these did not dry as crisp as they did when we lived in CO. I had them in the Excalibur for 24 hours and I don't imagine leaving them in any longer will make them any crispier. Must have to do with the humidity in OH.

~Beets - I was hoping these would turn out crispy, sort of like the Terra chips...but they are more like fruit leather. I cooked them, then ran them through my food processor to slice about 1/8" thick...let them go 24 hours...still leathery. Not sure they are going to go over well with the kids...have yet to see how I like the rehydrated version.

Maybe if I didn't cook them, they would be crispier? But then I don't think my food processor could handle slicing hard beets.

~Summer Squash- the yellow ones I sliced in the food processor in rounds, and the zucchini I had to half lengthwise and run through the food processor. These are leathery as well.



I still have kale in the garden, a tiny bit of chard, more beets, and green beans. As well as some herbs (mainly basil, if it's not too late to harvest--the plants have already flowered) and possibly elderberries just for the heck of it. And maybe rose hips if it's not too late.

I really want to do dried mushrooms, but am waiting for a good sale before I do that again. The last time I did that, they added great flavor to soups and stews!

Also, I want to do some dried meat (jerky w/o MSG, and basic meats such as ground beef and chicken) to add to soups/stews.

I would love some recipes to assemble these dried foods into jarred/bagged mixes to quickly make in the wintertime.