Dehydrating those summer fruits and veggies

We've reached that point in the summer where the produce is abundant and cheap.  You just can't help but buy more than you could possibly eat before it goes bad.  I'm guilty of this, too.  We've got this neighborhood food warehouse that has an agreement with local restaurant suppliers to buy the overstock items.  Every Saturday they open up a special section of the warehouse that is full of produce.  I picked up a flat (8 one pound cartons) of strawberries for $3!  I love strawberries but I can't eat that many!  What's a savvy buyer to do?  Well, after giving away a couple of cartons I came home and prepped the rest for dehydrating.

Dehydrating fruits and vegetables is actually pretty easy.  You could use your oven but that's hot and I'm not comfortable leaving it on if I'm going to be away from the house.  

The other way to do it is to buy a food dehydrator.  I picked this one up a couple of years ago at Aldi for $20, but sporting good stores that specialize in camping and hunting items are also good places to shop.

It's not very fancy.  In fact, there's only one setting:  on/off.  That's all I need!

Start by washing and prepping your fruit or vegetable.  (I'll be referring to strawberries from this point forward, but think of the possibilities:  zucchini, potatoes, oranges...)

Wash and dry them.

Gorgeous!

After I remove the stems I use an egg slicer on the finest setting.  This cuts them into uniform pieces that aren't too thick to thoroughly dry.

Here's a peek at my process:  de-stem, cut, and spread out on the dehydrator tray.  You want to make sure that they aren't touching but you don't need to leave too much room between them.

Keep going until you've filled up all of the trays.

Put the lid on and plug it in.  I like to leave the vent on what I call "halfway" so it is somewhere between the two vent options.

I started the dehydrator at about 9:30 last night.  When I got up this morning I rotated the trays so the lower ones, which had been closer to the heating element all night, were shifted to the top.  This allows all of the slices to have a chance at getting fully dehydrated.

Here's what it should look like when they're "ready."  I unplugged the machine sometime this evening when I started to make dinner.

The only thing left to do once you've unplugged the machine is carefully peel them off the racks.  You'll probably come across some thicker ones that still feel a little mushy to the touch.  That's okay--eat those first!  Don't put them in your storage container and you won't have to worry about mold.

In the next day or two I plan to make homemade granola and mix in some dried strawberries.  It's delicious in a bowl of milk because the tartness of the strawberries is the perfect compliment to the sweet granola I like to make.

What will you dehydrate?

Adi