During the winter season their are 2 important appliances to me: the crockpot, which is generally obvious, and my dehydrator from Excalibur. Winter in northern California offers apples, pears, persimmon, and of course citrus. Most of which are great dried. At our local farmer's market we picked up 12 pounds of apples for just $5, so what does one do with that many apples? Apple cobbler or pie would be the first thing that might come to mind, but for my husband and I it's all about dried apples- they're an awesome snack.And have you ever had dried pear? Delicious! Then there's the persimmon. It's supposed to be eaten like an apple, but tastes like a...I'm not sure how to explain it. I don't like eating them raw, but I love, love, love them dried! I can fit about 6- 7 pieces of fruit at a time in my dehydrator, and it makes about a quart size ziplock of dried fruit for snacking. Right now my little machine is running 24/7. In the winter I could use a commercial grade, giant dehydrator, lol, but in the spring and summer I hardly use it.
When I'm not drying fruit, I'm drying herbs. A giant bunch of cilantro, parsley, and green onions cost us $2 at farmer's market; probably would have paid at least $5 for fresh in the grocery store, double that for dried. Instead I'm drying my own at home.
I'm curious, do you own a dehydrator?
2 comments:
This is one of my fantasy kitchen wish list. I am sorry I gave away a completely never been used ice cream maker too. What an idiot. I should try making my own yogurt again also.
Yup! I use mine to make my own backpacking meals, as most of them (where I'm from anyways) have wheat in them. Mine's round, but I'd like a square one to try and make RAW bread ... here's my post on my dehydrator: http://glutenaversion.blogspot.com/2010/07/expedition-eating-and-creamy-potatoe.html
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