Dehydrators and Dehydrating

Welcome back to another Suzie Homemaker’s helpful ideas and tips. Today, I would like to talk to you about Dehydrators.

Dehydrators are a fun and easy way to make many different types of foods. Dehydrating is one of the healthiest ways to preserve food. There great for dehydrating fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. Instead of buying dehydrated foods in the store, which are very expensive, try dehydrating them yourself. In my short video, I will be showing you some of the things that I dehydrate. Watch the video on how I make my own homemade fruit roll-ups using apples and strawberries.

There are many different kinds of dehydrators starting from under $100 to over $200. I use a Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator. I’ve had this dehydrator for over 20 years. I had to replace a few trays and add a couple extra over the years. My dehydrator gets used at least once a week.

 Most dehydrators come with plastic stackable trays that can hold up to 12 trays. Make sure you check your owner’s manual. My dehydrator has different temperature settings for different fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices. Depending on the type of dehydrator you pick, the motor can either be on the top or bottom. The dehydrator I use has the motor on the top. Just remember that the food closest to the heat source will be done sooner. I recommend that you switch around the trays as you are dehydrating to evenly dehydrate your food.

I bought my dehydrator from Walmart. There are many places you can go to find dehydrators including online at http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/Dehydrators/. Go to www.greendehydrators.com to read reviews on different dehydrators. In future posts, I will show you how I dehydrate different fruits and how to make homemade beef jerky.

Have fun dehydrating from Suzie Homemaker!