Ever since we purchased this sleek, black machine about 1 year ago, I have almost not stopped talking about it. Well, not really…
That's the way that I am about things that I'm excited about — that's a lot of the reason why my husband encouraged me to start this blog. He'd say, “Well, you are always wanting to share with others about great things that you have found, so this way you don't have to keep repeating yourself!”
I didn't know that I was getting that redundant.
At least he meant it as a compliment. And now you get to hear about one of my favorite things in my kitchen (well, actually, it is now in our pantry) — our dehydrator.
I'll be sharing specific techniques and recipes for the dehydrator in the future, but for now I just want to tell you why you should get one and what you can do with it so that you can benefit from the time and research that I put into our purchase.
First of all, why would you buy a dehydrator in the first place? Over the next few days, I'm going to show you how a dehydrator will help you:
- Save money
- Save time
- Increase the nutritional quality of your food
Today–the saving money part. Yes, the machine (especially a really good one like the Excalibur, will cost a good bit of money up front. However, like other good “investments”, it will quickly pay for itself. Here's how:
1. You'll be able to purchase food at a discount and then process it for use throughout the year. This past year we went to a local orchard and purchased as many half-bushels of apple seconds that we could fit in the not-so-big trunk of our ancient Nissan Sentra. I spent the next several days slicing and drying fruit and now we are still eating the dried apples from last year and they are delicious!
We've also been able to load up that same Nissan's trunk to capacity with discounted bananas from Aldi and then make dried bananas from them. And these are not the processed with oil and sugar variety that are called “banana chips.” No, these are wonderful chewy dried bananas that sell for about $10 per pound regularly. What a savings when you can score on some discount bananas for about $.19/lb and then dehydrate them! We sure looked like weirdos pushing our cart up to the register, but it isn't weird to live beneath your means!
2. You'll also save money by not making extra trips to the store. This is an often-overlooked part of savings that people forget about. If you have a well-stocked pantry, and know how to make substitutions when cooking, you will find yourself running out to the store less often for that “one thing you ran out of” because you now have backups galore. Boy, do those gas savings add up!
3. Finally, you'll save money by being able to make specialty foods for your family without the “gourmet food” price. We made our own sun-dried tomatoes using last summer's harvest and they are still making their way into omelettes, pasta, etc.
We also made our own fruit leather and —
here's a BIG money saver — flax crackers! No picture for this one (they all got eaten), but 4 ounces of these sell for between $5 and $5.99 on the internet right now. That's almost $24 per pound! Organic flax seed through my local buying club is just $1.40/lb. You'll love them and you'll love the price!
I recommend the same dehydrator that I purchased (The Excalibur). I know that it is not cheap. I'll go into its merits more later, but in a nutshell, it
works great
dries evenly
has a great warranty
If you'd like some thoughts on why spending money on a “big ticket” item like an Excalibur Dehydrator now might actually save you money, please read my post on Inflation – One Way to Beat It.
I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Join me again tomorrow when I'll share the time and space saving benefits of dehydrating.
What would you most like to dehydrate?
We found your site from wholenewmom.com while looking for carob chip recipes. We bought an Excalibur dehydrator about 3 years ago after finding a Yahoo group about dehydrating. A lot of the people on that site were praising the Excalibur dehydrator. We tried using it the first summer and fall we had it. We dried peaches, apples, blueberries, watermelon, Vidalia onions, grapes, tomatoes, and some herbs.
Unfortunately everything we dried ended up being moldy after a period of time. We went back to the Yahoo group and tried to find answers, no help. After seeing your site, we thought maybe you could help give us some ideas of what we did wrong. We thought we followed the recipe book directions, but???? We dried until the items would either snap when bent or would bend and more or less keep their shape for a while. The blueberries turned into little rough blue rocks that when we tried to use after soaking in hot water, had no taste.
Any ideas?
Thanks, Bob & Betty
Were they moldy after drying you mean? I have never dried blueberries, but cranberries didn’t work well and I am not sure why. My tomatoes and zucchini all came out fabulously. Maybe try calling their headquarters? I would think that you aren’t drying them enough if they are molding.
The blueberries were just like rocks, and no flavor. Everything else got moldy.
I really don’t know. I use my dehydrator a lot but mostly for nuts, seeds, flax crackers….and I did a ton of apples and pears awhile ago….and fruit leathers. I really wish I could help but I think perhaps you should call Excalibur. I’d love to hear what they say.
I’d love any more information on the dehydrator. I have a round one that I’ll be using again this summer, but I am also beginning to think really long term (camping, survival type stuff) and I’d like to know more about yours.
I’d be happy to correspond via email. I’ll send you one now.
Inviting you the Carnival of Home Preserving on my blog today and every Friday. Hope to see you there. Laura Williams’ Musings https://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com
What is the electrical use on running a dehydrator for long periods? Every time I’ve used one our bill went nuts, almost as much as running an electric heater, which it was plus the fan. Anyone have info on power use/costs?
Your actual cost for using the dehydrator will depend on your local utility company, and how much they charge per kW/hour. And what dehydrator you have, of course. The Excalibur dehydrators use 600, 440 and 220 watts for the 9,5, and 4 tray models. So check your utility costs and get back to me — I couldn’t find my Kw/hr rate so I am not sure what I am paying now, but I don’t think it’s that much.
We have the Excalibur and LOVE IT! Best dehydrator out there, worth every penny. I use mine mostly to make beef jerky, and I’ve also dehydrated sprouted grains in it. We don’t do too much fruit because we try to regulate our blood sugar, but kiwi is out of this world when dried. Definitely need to use it more, for veggies and the like. I think because we keep it in the garage it becomes “out of sight, out of mind” for me. Thanks for the reminder! : )
You’re welcome :-). We are the same w/ the fruit restrictions. But it does a great job. Take care!