Test - I am dehydrating frozen green beans

[610Alpha]

Last night I put in a pound of green beans in my free dehydrator. This morning I still had some that were needing some more time but there were some beans that were crispy. I will try to get some video of this...

[bountyhunter69]

great idea,we used to do same thing when i i was growing up,string the beans,then break em up..then dry them in the sun..that would be solor right? lol

[610Alpha]

I wish I had solar, lol. I got some cheap green beans from Aldi's for the experiment, they are real skinny beans. I got some peas that I will put in and try also. I am going to put them in mason jars with O2 absorbers.

[Lowdown3]

Last couple of days the wife has been using an Excalibur dehydrator we bought based on the advice of the gal that left with her saying the product was the same as real dehydrated long term food storage.

Keeping apple slices in for a couple hours MORE than the already ungodly (to someone with an AE system) 7 hours has produced consistent results of apples that are NOWHERE near as dry as commercially dehydrated apple slices we used when we packed LTS in #10 cans and Superpails when we ran a midsize commercial cannery in 98 and 99.

I stand by my "it doesn't produce the same product" statement previously made. And FWIW, I dropped the cash on the Excalibur so no one come with a "well you bought a crappy drier, that's why."

7 plus hours at 5 AMPS to produce less than a gallon ziplock bag amount of apple slices that may keep for a year or so.

Versus an hour or so total time (including processing) for a glass canned product that I know will last at least 4 years (cause we've eaten applesauce 4 years old).

Really your trading one FUEL for storage life here.

The one PLUS I can see of the dehydrator is that the electricity is RENEWABLE. Whereas the LP to power the stove to process the apples for canning is not. However if you could manage this on a wood stove, that fuel source would be (wood be? LOL) renewable.

Pros and cons to everything.

We will dehydrate some, can some. We have over 100 fruit trees.

If I had to BUY fruit specifically to put up, and my time was worth anything at all to me, and I wasn't just looking for a skills building event (i.e, learning to can) or a "khatchkee" (cute gift, fun time to be had by a couple people sitting around working on something) to give friends, I would definitely just buy already packaged, real Long term storage fruits.

Certainly the items from our LTS we have used the LEAST of in the last 6-7 years since the gardens and orchards have been kicking for us, is our dehydrated fruits and veggies. Grains, legumes, we use every day from LTS storage.

Just some observations sorry for the sidetrack.

[miked2345]

Last couple of days the wife has been using an Excalibur dehydrator we bought based on the advice of the gal that left with her saying the product was the same as real dehydrated long term food storage.

Keeping apple slices in for a couple hours MORE than the already ungodly (to someone with an AE system) .....

What's an AE system?

[dilli]

alternative energy-
drying store bought frozen veg with a solar dehydrator is risky at best.. if conditions are not perfect you will end up with a pile of nasty gross disgusting if not germ n diseases laden mess..

[Lowdown3]

Sorry Miked- alternate energy. Solar power in our case.

A constant 5 amp per hour draw, plus the standard house stuff (usually 1-3 amps) is a pretty big draw on a battery bank.

I got all excited when I read the little booklet that came with it. I thought it said "7-10 MINUTES" instead of hours. I was thinking "Yes! We can blow through bushels of apples every day!" LOL

We will still keep using this off and on, but I was honestly looking for something that might be better FOR US than glass jar canning. I just hope a year from now the wife's hard work on these bags and bags of dried apples aren't moldy and a waste. I know if they were canned they wouldn't be.

[610Alpha]

Last couple of days the wife has been using an Excalibur dehydrator we bought based on the advice of the gal that left with her saying the product was the same as real dehydrated long term food storage.

I stand by my "it doesn't produce the same product" statement previously made. And FWIW, I dropped the cash on the Excalibur so no one come with a "well you bought a crappy drier, that's why."

The one PLUS I can see of the dehydrator is that the electricity is RENEWABLE. Whereas the LP to power the stove to process the apples for canning is not. However if you could manage this on a wood stove, that fuel source would be (wood be? LOL) renewable.

If I had to BUY fruit specifically to put up, and my time was worth anything at all to me, and I wasn't just looking for a skills building event (i.e, learning to can) or a "khatchkee" (cute gift, fun time to be had by a couple people sitting around working on something) to give friends, I would definitely just buy already packaged, real Long term storage fruits.

Just some observations sorry for the sidetrack.

@LD3 -- You used the wrong dehydrator...lol. Don't ye know that yer supposed to use on of those el cheapo models...rofl. Sorry couldn't resist. Did you soak your apples in Lemon juice or sodium bisulfate? Maybe that's what you need to do to get the same results she got....jk.

I will try and do a vid on the results. Mind you I dehydrated green beans and peas. I accidentally dropped a pea on the floor and stepped on it and it crunched. From the way that these feel they don't feel leathery (not trying to stir just stating my observations). I will pull some out and break a couple of green beans and peas for everyone to see. Note: I dehydrated in my basement where I have a dehumidifier running 24/7, dunno if that will have a major impact or not. I am having fun learning so its not a loss for me.

[Lowdown3]

LOL

Like I stated previously, it also might really be our climate here, but in the past we haven't had the best luck with home drying. Heck I'm committed now, to the tune of $200. so we are going to use it. LOL

If nothing else, when we are backed up on processing for the canning- lag time between batches, we can start a batch drying in the Excalibur so it does offer some value to what we are doing. I just fear that late winter or next year we are going to find bags and bags of moldy apple slices. The wife (and I when I'm around) works hard on putting up the harvest every year. I've learned to accept some waste cause your gonna have some waste, but usually it goes to the rabbits and chickens. The goats don't seem to want anything they didn't pull off themselves. We try to waste very little but their is some waste due to the sheer quantity. You can't be everywhere at one time catching every apple when it falls. LOL

But when you've (or more correctly she) has put a boatload of work into processing and preserving the food, you want to know that it's going to be there for you. And while we obviously rotate these items, sometimes sheer quantity of an item you put up makes a quick and easy rotation slow and hard.

Learning is never a loss and it's always fun ;)

[miked2345]

Note: I dehydrated in my basement where I have a dehumidifier running 24/7, dunno if that will have a major impact or not. I am having fun learning so its not a loss for me.

That MAY be a big factor... The dehydrator is blowing warm air over the food - It might make a big difference if it is DRY warm air versus MOIST warm air...

[610Alpha]

Be sure to check out my vid in the members forum for the results :)

[monkeybird]

Lowdown, you're saying that purchase the freeze dried cans of fruit and vegetables is cheaper than dehydrating your own? I ask because I dehydrated both fruit and vegetables and had excellent results using a a $49.00 dehydrator and another one purchased for $10.00 from a thrift store. Everything came out fine, but both dehydrators took 8 or 9 hours to dehydrate vegetables and longer for fruit.

So, I can buy a #10 can of say freeze dried strawberries with a 25 year shelf life for $25.00 or so (Thrive price), get 45 servings, and get it much cheaper than if I dehydrated them myself?

Why would I dehydrate?

[DIM TIM]

Just a quick interjection here... I have a family member that has one (Excalibur), and his wife and daughter do all sorts of drying in it....fresh and frozen. The reason for the frozen being that they sometimes catch a good deal on frozen veggies, and can store about 5-6 bags of them in a single, quart mason jar with O2 absorbers. Saves on freezer space, and the dehydrated stuff in jars like this will last 20 years and still be edible. :cool:

Going to try myself soon, but have to go with the el-cheapo dehydrators because of the money, but they still work, and that's what really counts. If need be I'll get two and double the volume, but even if they only last half as long as the high dollar ones, think of all that you can dehydrate before they go PHLOOY ! The main thing is to make do with what you have or can get, to get the results that you are looking for. ;)

And as an extra side note...solar can be as cheap as cheese cloth, a picnic table, and good ol' SOL. Many is the time that I remember going to my great-grandmother's house and seeing her, my grandmother, and a great-aunt that lived together, drying apple slices in the summer in the back yard, for pies in the fall and winter. And green beans......many was the time when I would take needle and thread, and string together a big mess of them to be hung up to dry in a warm dry spot somewhere, and they tasted fine with a piece of salt pork and a few potatos added. :D

[Bear4570]

I have one of the 9 drawer Excalibur Dehyrators with the 26 hours times and heat control and my uses it all the time.

One of the most frequent uses is when we see Frozen Vegetables on sale.
Couple of weeks ago they had the store name brand on sale for 2/$1 16 ounce bags. We bought $30 worth. 4-5 bags of frozen corn will fill up one quart canning jar after dehyration. Lay them out on the drawer, set the timer go to work and they are done when we come home. Throw in a O2 absorber and you shelf life is indefinite. We canned corn, peas, broccoli, green beans, mixed vegetable, and corn/pea mix. Now have a whole buch on the shelf for soups and stews as needed. She tells me one cup is about equal to one pound.

We also bought a case of oranges from the local school fundraiser. Peeled them to get all the white off, sliced and dehydrated. We thought it would not hurt to have a little citrus stored up. Going to do some lemons and limes also, help prevent scurvy . The side benifit is dehyrdating the peelings, putting them in the coffee grinder and now you have orange zest. My wife uses that stuff all the time for cooking and baking. A 2 ounce Jar runs about $5 in the grocery store, now she has enough to last a long time.

We have several cases of dehyrated veggies and fruits in mason jars with Oxygen absorbers in them...you know...just in case :)

[goatlady]

From my experience dehydrating apples and other fruits the thickness of the original slices makes a big difference in drying times and end results. I have some Pink Lady apple slices a friend dried in her Excaliber 4 years ago just in a plain Zip Lock bag in my nightstand table for quick snack and they are in excellent taste, color, and dryness all that time. She said it took about 6-7 hours but the results are AAA++ and as I said, storing just in a ZipLock in the drawer.