Can you dehydrate in sunshine, Corsaire? Or is the humidity going to negate the heat of the sun?
I’m opting to dehydrate today. I think it’s SO much easier than canning. I have the equipment and have done waterbath and pressure canning too.
But in trying to catch up with the water filter challenge, I’ll reveal a “cheat” for dehydrating. Let’s say your goal is to have dehydrated food for being light weight and small to store. But you don’t have a garden and sometimes the Farmer’s Market is too far away or expensive. You can still have dehydrated foods.
So today…….we’ll just say that our fridge/freezer went out and repair/replacement is next week. To save all those bags of frozen veggies I bought on that fantastic sale….
I just emptied a bag of frozen mixed vegetables onto my […ahem, dusty…ancient…seen MANY years of use..] dehydrator. I chose to run them under the hot water to thaw them first….but you don’t have to. Gets a bit soggy in there but we’re an arid climate and it’s never been a problem.
Now usually I don’t have mixed veggies on a single tray. Normally I’d have all peas or all carrots or ….. Having them mixed together [cuz that’s what I had in the upstairs freezer] I will have to pick out the larger ones to dehydrate longer. I will take the smaller pieces like carrots/peas/corn first. I will have to leave the lima beans in longer. The smaller pieces could be unpleasantly “burned” if you leave them in as long as lima beans.
Let them cool and store in Ziplock or other tight seal bag. I put in a moisture absorber packet or two…..I save them from vitamin bottles and they are easily reusable in our arid climate. I also leave the bags out – keep an eye on them for a few days. Make sure all of them DID completely dehydrate. Shake them up to circulate any slight dampness.
So that’s my project for today…..now back to yesterday’s water filter project. Real BOB is now cleaned out…dried well…repacked…inventoried….[almost]. Still working on that one!
OldMtWoman ….uff ta!
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This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by
OldMt Woman.