Kitchen Garden Forum

I've just ordered a food dehydrator ,I've been thinking about buying one for a couple of years I keep changing my mind as I'm concerned they may just be a gimmick and Finnish up on the garage shelf with the slow cooker ,soupmaker and a lot of other good idea junk ,has anyone got one or uses one

Nope, but we do use our slow cooker a lot...…………..

My sister uses a drying cabinet. She uses it quite a lot for fruit gluts.

I've often thought about these - let us know how you get on, please, as I'd be interested to know how it all turns out.

The one I've orders is an electric q like most things these days everything is adjustable, it's not an expensive one I will buy a more costly one if this proves useful , I have a tobacco plant I was thinking of trying some leaves from it although I don't smoke I like experimenting I also am thinking of tomatoes ,Apple's , anything I can dry

I briefly considered buying one but I think they probably really only come into their own if you have a number of fruit trees which regularly produce so much fruit that you otherwise don't have space to store it and probably are a skilled enough cook to know exactly how to use the fruits and vegetables you preserve.

Robo, what are the excess fruit and veg which you grow and do you have some specific plans for how yiu!re going to use the dehydrated products? I was thinking that a product like this might be useful on a shared ownership basis to reduce the purchase cost but the problem with that idea is that most gluts come at the same time so demand for its use would peak in late summer and autumn and then neither joint owners would want to find room for it inntheir Garage's or sheds.

I,m wondering if an oven on very low rptempwrstures would actually act as a substitute dehydrator if one rigged up some suitable wire drying racks. At least then you would t have the storage problem when not in use

Hi primrose I had loads of pears this year as well as tomatoes I also had a nice box of Apple's ,most of my fruit trees are only 2 or 3 years old I'm hoping for bigger crops in the future , I lost pears as they went soft before I had chance to eat them that is what started me thinking about one but this is not the first time I've considered buying one

Yes pears are notoriously short on storage life and it,s depressing when you lose stuff for that reason when it could otherwise have been preserved. Have yiu done any research on how to store the products once they,ve been dried ? I ask because apples for example look as if they may still have some pliabilityinnthem rather than being crisp and crackly and I wonder whether in this state, if stored in an aitprtight plastic box or jar, there,s a slight risk of them going mouldy?

Do the manufacturers tell you exactly how to store rhe products once they've been dehydrated?

As far as I know it's airtight jars or one of those vacuum sealers we used to have one when we had the shop it was really good

robo wrote:The one I've orders is an electric q like most things these days everything is adjustable, it's not an expensive one I will buy a more costly one if this proves useful , I have a Marijuanna plant I was thinking of trying some leaves from it although I don't smoke I like experimenting I also am thinking of tomatoes ,Apple's , anything I can dry

Edited for you.

Robo, I had to smile, as we had just ordered a slow cooker 15 minutes before I read your post...

O H you will have to find room on your own garage shelf for it mines full mainly of must have useless junk

We even took our slow cooker on holiday with us, put the stuff in it and you have a dinner when you get back after a day out with little messing about, perfect.

My Daughter has just cooked up the Roma tomatoes into a Red Tomato Chutney,her first solo attempt.Tasted fine in it's "raw" state,now put away to mature.

Robo's comment about drying tobacco leaves reminded me of when my bedroom was in the attic. Dad grew tobacco plants and converted my wardrobe into a drying cabinet for the summer as it got so hot up there. I've always liked the smell, like aromatic autumn leaves. He and my grandad made their own pipe tobacco in a special press until they both got bad coughs and abandoned the project.