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My husband just built me a solar food dehydrator. For some reason I'm feeling a little bit intimidated by it, and I can't figure out what types of stuff I should put in it. (I read meat was a no go for safety - thoughts?). And after I dehydrate said fruits and veggies, what should I do with them? I can't find a good answer on how to store them or how long they will be edible. Help please!

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uhhh beef jerky! – Payam Jun 20 2011 at 4:45
Great question! And solar powered, love it! – blsdmomnwife Jun 20 2011 at 13:07
the site my husband got the plans for the dehydrator on said no meat, because the temo didn't get quite warm enough. – Andrea S. Jun 20 2011 at 14:57
oops mean to say *temp – Andrea S. Jun 20 2011 at 14:58

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Solar?!! I am so jealous!

Check out the Excalibur website for great how to videos with about every food you can imagine. She's a little nutty in her methods and clearly a type A personality (and probably a Virgo to boot!) but she explains things very well. She will answer most of your questions.

My favorites are fruits. Bananas, strawberries and cantaloupe come out like candy. Well they sort of are candy at that point but natural candy, lol.

I store mine in glass jars (that I save up from other things) or zip lock baggies. One trick that is a life saver is after you take your produce out (you are pretty sure it's done) stick it all in a baggie and zip it closed. Wait an hour or so. If you see ANY moisture you know your stuff's not done and back into the dehydrator it must go. If you see no moisture you know you're good to go and can package it away for storage.

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Thanks! I assume that method would work when dehydrating in the oven as well? – blsdmomnwife Jun 20 2011 at 13:07
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 Sure. Once you know your oven and how it performs for dehydrating (how to get it to a very low temp) everything else is the same. Just want to make sure you really got all the moisture out then store it so no moisture gets back in. – Shari Bambino Jun 20 2011 at 14:08
I've been saving glass jars with no idea what to use them for so that will be perfect. and thanks for the tip on checking for moisture! How long would you say they are good for, stored in jars? – Andrea S. Jun 20 2011 at 14:56
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 It's hard to put a time on it because it depends on how well you store them. Technically it should last forever if done well. The crazy lady in the Excalibur videos puts little packets to absorb moisture in hers and in some cases she's double and triple bagging but that's for extremely long term storage (waiting for Armageddon) I've had stuff stored for over a year and it's fine. I recently dehydrated 50 lbs of strawberries which I planned to last the year but looks like it won't make it that long (cause they are soooo freaking good!) – Shari Bambino Jun 20 2011 at 15:14
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I love dehydrating all kinds of things. I have two American Harvest dehydrators, which I double stack with only one electrical unit, and I picked up a vintage Excalibur at Salvation Army for $6, after eyeballing them for a long time and planning on shelling out the cash for new. Anyway, I love tomatoes, peppers of any kind or color, celery, mushrooms, cauliflower, cabbage and all kinds of things dehydrated, especially if I buy or grow something I can't consume all by myself, so I can store it and not waste it.

Keep in mind if you do things like onions, they'll stink up the whole house.

I just asked a question on an unrelated forum about what I can possibly do with all of the leftover summer squash (zucchini) I will probably end up with from my veggie garden, and i was told that thinly sliced, any kind of squash in the dehydrator is very tasty and satisfying. I've had Terra Chips (a US brand of chips from beets, yams and all kinds of things) and love them, so I'm pretty turned onto the idea of making something similar, possibly seasoning with garlic and herbs, and vacuum sealing them for a later time to enjoy them.

I guess storage isn't very paleo, but we did develop our big brains for something, including storage options poor Grok didn't have.

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Love it1 I was just given a bunch of summer squash that I won't be able to finish before it all goes bad. Thanks for the idea! I don't own a dehydrator yet so in the oven they will go. :o) – blsdmomnwife Jun 20 2011 at 13:06
I definitely have plenty of squash so I'll have to try them! Yum. – Andrea S. Jun 20 2011 at 14:55
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I do zucchini - they make great 'chips' for yummy homemade dips.

I definitely recommend getting a mandolin slicer - very handy so that everything dries as uniformly as possible.

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My husband built a solar dehydrator a few years ago. It rocks!

It's been too rainy and cold to do any drying this year and last year the Plums (our favorite) were non-existant.

We usually dry fruit in ours. Prunes (aka Italian plums) are the freakin' BOMB! We dry ours harder than the "prunes" you can get at the store. They are so delicious. Cherries are even better.

Strawberries and blueberries dry fairly well.

Don't bother drying raspberries, they turn into little cardboard nuggets.

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