• cut all your stuff the same thickness (relatively) so it dries at the same rate - 1/4" is usually good except for really dense things like carrots, so then go down to 1/8"
• A little too dry is better than not dry enough. When you aren't sure, take some out, let it cool (the heat from the dryer will make it feel still damp while it's actually dry, hence the reason for cooling) and then test it. Some stuff will be pliable, some stuff will be brittle. Jerky, for example, will be pliable, and onions will be brittle
• Some odors will cross contaminate, but not as much as you might think. For example, the GBeans and hamburger I have in the dryer right now will be fine. However, onions and strawberries together would be a bad idea.

• Spicy stuff will be more so when you rehydrate. Onions, will be far more potent rehydrated than they were in their original state. You're forwarned!
• When drying fruits and veggies that turn brown when exposed to oxygen (ie, apples, pears, bananas), give em a quick rinse with lemon juice or vinegar before drying - they will retain their colour and look much more appealing.
• Fruit leather!!!!! Yah! If you have a blender, you can mix and match any fruit you want and make a leather out of it (like a fruit roll up). Again, a touch of lemon juice will help preserve colour. This is a fun one to experiment with.

• Tomato leather - same as fruit leather, but be cautioned that if you overdry tomato leather as it gets a yucky burnt taste. Usually not a problem with fruit leather unless you really cook it.
• Be careful with the timer Bishop - overdry is better, underdry is almost alway meant for the garbage can, unless you catch it in time. I'd suggest, until you get a good idea of how powerful your dehydrator is, that you turn it on when you get home from work, and then get up around 4am to check it, so if it's dry you can turn it off. Average time for drying stuff is 10 hours, again many things vary in time. Onions will take no time at all, (6 hrs), but carrots will take 12.
• For rehydrating, it's a good idea to put your dinner in water at lunchtime, so it is rehydrated by dinner time. Heating water will quicken the rehydrating time, but that still means an hour of sitting around camp waiting for your stuff to rehydrate if you don't do it at lunch. Which sucks when you're really hungry

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Originally posted by Bishop


I am looking forward to my breakfast of organic oatmeal and dehydrated fruits - better than those little oatmeal envelopes - that is for sure!

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