We use our dehydrator a lot. Just bought the excaliber last year and it is a sweet unit. It's pretty large with 9 trays so you can dry a lot at once. We do various fruits, apples, pineapple, etc. Also tomatos, onions, potatos, corn, peas. Plus we love jerky so we do that as well.
It really depends on your all's taste. We don't mind dried foods, it works well in soups, chili, stews. Plus we like the dried fruit as a snack.
Not trying to talk you into it, just sharing what we do.
We love jerkey so that would be good. Never tried veggies...do you just dry them and stick them in jars and they stay good for years?
LOL, we can't leave them alone so we really don't have any long term info. We've got a few things we are going to try and leave them alone for a while. We don't take the fruit down really dry, so I don't expect it would go more than several months. But the potato, tomato, peas, & corn we take completely dry, so if you jar them up I would think 2-3 years at least.
Could a solar oven be used just as a dehydrator?
Nope. You need air flow and a little heat to dehydrate indoors. We also have the Excalibur and love it, I've turned many pounds of meat into jerky with it and I must say... It's mighty tasty.
Well may have to check into it then. Still want to look at solar ovens...I like the idea of being able to put meals outside and letting the sun cook them without using up my gas, electric or whatever my power source may be at the time.
How long are you leaving your jerkey in your dehydrator? I keep seeing stuff like 24 hours and our power bill going through the roof when we use it a lot.
The Excalibur on average (depending on temps) uses around 2 amps (220 watts) which is about 4-5 cents per hr x 24hr = $1.24Originally Posted by ladyhk13
If you run it 4 times a month. It would be $4.96 This is the total if your paying 15 cents per 1 kWh (hight average).
For a comparison it would be the same as a refrigerator, 42" plasma TV left on for 24 hr or a toaster oven turned on for 10 mins.
We have a vacuum sealer, in fact, my wife is using it at this very moment.
I been thinking about a dehydrator.
Hadn't really thought about a solar oven, but sounds intriguing.
LadyHK, well get whatever you want. It's your Christmas, so it's about you, at least as far as DH goes.
Well I put the dehydrator on my list, a few things for the kitchen from Williams-Sonoma (all my accents are red and they also have a pestle and mortar which can be good for herbs), a body form so I can create my own clothes and then gave him the option to add or delete as he wants. I was really trying to find things that I could use if shtf and we had no power and had to rely on manual ways. I have a treadle sewing machine so I thought I could brush up on my sewing skills while I try to learn how to use the thing, should be fun if I get it! If any of you think of anything else, let me know!!! Never too late to add something!
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