Advantages of Food Dehydrating

Food Dehydrating or Drying, is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food while leaving nutrients.

Dehydrating is the best way to preserve the essential ENZYMES, VITAMINS, and MINERALS of fruits and vegetables. It’s also a great way to preserve the summer harvest and stock up your pantry with LIVE food.

When fresh foods are unavailable, impractical, or out of season, dehydrated foods can provide a good, healthy, food source. They are a great emergency food storage alternative, and are an excellent choice for emergency preparedness.

Dehydrated Food Facts

Bacteria and micro-organisms within the food and from the air, need the water in the food to grow. Drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food. It also creates a hard outer-layer, helping to stop micro-organisms from entering back into the food.

Like fresh foods, dried food can be rich in vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3, B6, pantothenic acid) and dietary minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, copper, manganese).

Methods of Food Dehydrating

There are several different methods of food dehydrating, each with their own advantages for particular applications. Some of these methods include:

• warm air drying (commercial food dehydrators)
• sun or solar drying
• oven drying

Food Dehydrating Advantages

• Significantly lengthens foods shelf life.

• Easy to use in many recipes all year long.

• Easy to pack: lunches, camping, traveling, etc.

• Clean: dried foods won't melt into a sticky mess.

• Preserve fruits and vegetables all through the season.

• Great flavor: dried foods have wonderful, intense flavor.

• Nutritious, your foods retain more nutrition than canning.

• Many different food types can be preserved by dehydration.

• Food dehydrating preserves without the need for refrigeration.

• Dried foods can be added to baking mixes and breakfast cereals.

• Compact uses less space than cans or bottles, making it an excellent choice for food storage.

Food Types For Dehydrating

Many different foods can be preserved by dehydration, some examples are:

• Fruits: plum's become prune's, grape's into raisin's, figs and dates are also dried fruits.

  

• Vegetables: tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, and many more.

• Legumes: beans, peas, clover, and alfalfa can all be dried.

• Meats: fish, chicken, wild game and beef jerky.

• Herbs: used for teas, soups, and seasonings.

  

• Bulbs: such as garlic and onion.

• Roots: potatoes, red beets, and carrots.

• Chili and jalapeno peppers.

• Edible mushrooms

There are many other popular fruits such as apples, apricots, bananas, cranberries, figs, kiwi, mangoes, peaches, pears, persimmons, pineapples, strawberries, and tomatoes that may also be dried. In addition to dried whole fruits, puree from fruit can be dried in sheets to make fruit leather.

Food Dehydrating Tips

• Fruits and vegetables are pricey out of season because they're perishable and must be sold when they're ready. Stock up and take advantage of the over-abundance while they are in-season.

• In addition to your grocery isles, check your local farmer's market, roadside produce stands, and be sure to check with your gardening neighbors. Some of your friends or neighbors may be searching for someone to share in their bountiful harvest. The last thing most gardeners want is for their excess produce to be wasted.

• The color of some fruits can be "fixed" by treating the freshly cut fruit, prior to drying, with a preparation rich in Vitamin C (50/50 mixture of water and lemon juice). This mixture has minimal impact on the flavor.

• Most dried foods can be consumed as is, mixed into breakfast cereal, use in recipe's, or can be re-hydrated by steeping in water.

• Always be sure and take advantage of the healthy, wholesome food from your own garden harvest, you should never run into the problem of; "too much food" or "no time to preserve it", if you own a good quality food dehydrator.