Freeper Needs Advice on Buying A Food Dehydrator. Any Help Would Be Greatly Appreciated.

June 28, 2009 | appleseed

[garandgal]

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry.html

From the Nation Center for Home Food Preservation..lots of info about canning on there too.

[Sherman Logan]

A website for the Amish seems a tad oxymoronish, don’t you think?

[mouser]

A website for the Amish seems a tad oxymoronish, don’t you think?

Somewhat but they also have a catalog and i think that is what most of the old order Amish use.

If you ever worry about living without power they have a lot of stuff just be careful about letting the little woman see the oil lamps and such.

[Stegall Tx]

I haven't tried this, but you may want to check out Alton Brown's homemade food drier:

1 Box fan
4 paper HVAC filters
8 “dehydrator sheets” (?)
2 Bungee cords

See the “recipe” here

He builds and uses the thing on the episode “Withering Bites” and (IIRC) one on drying spices ... or maybe jerky.

[donna]

The LDS Church knows about this stuff:
http://www.providentliving.org/channel/1,11677,1706-1,00.html

[robyn11]

Here is one way to do a food dehydrator review, divide the price of the units you are looking at by the total drying area of the dehydrators to get a price per square foot of drying area. I believe horizontal air flow dehydrators are better than vertical ones. Good luck.

[Shadowstrike]

mark for later reading

[Squantos]

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2006-08-01/Build-a-Solar-Food-Dehydrator.aspx

Dang dude be careful with that chain saw........I have used one since ripe old age of 12 and have had kickbacks and such yet now I wear the kevlar when cutting wood. It’s there use it ! Too old and heal a lot slower in my case....;o)

Hope yer ok !

This dehydrator is a MEN design and works well. Friend has one ...... I sun dry tomatos and chili peppers and that is all.

STAY SAFE !!

[Daisyjane69]

Yikes! My knee hurts just thinking about it.

I, too, have an Excalibur. The 9 tray model.

Love it so much that when my ex tried to sneak it out of our house as part of his “personal effects” I made my lawyers file the papers to force him to return it to me.

And the judge agreed! :)

[bgill]

I have an ancient one from Ronco like from the 70s that has stood the test of time and looks just like a new one on their site except mine is black. Slice some beef thin with an electric knife, dip into some soy sauce (and a spoon of brown sugar if you want sweet) and sprinkle with pepper - the best jerky ever. Fruit does well, too. It comes with little plastic containers to make yogurt but I’ve never done that. I make my yogurt in a mayo jar on a heating pad and covered with a crockpot. If you want the instructions, ping me.

https://www.ronco.com/FoodDehydrator

If you like to build stuff, check out:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooking/cooking.htm

Using your oven works great, but you would want to do that in the winter and not heat up your house during the summer.

[agrace]

Wow, do I like the idea of only spending 40 bucks! :) Thanks to all for the responses, they are greatly appreciated.

[agrace]

Great link with great information, thanks. Could you post or freepmail me the model details of your generator? That price, compared to many, isn’t too bad.

[wolfcreek]

http://duropower.com/index.asp?FID=15&level=1

We got the 6500elp for the price of the 5500elp. We looked at many different ones and this was the least expensive propane model. Fired right up after delivery.