paranoia
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Email: para@ausprep.org
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Post by paranoia on Oct 5, 2017 22:45:40 GMT 10
So as to not dump my entire photo diary into the preppers diary thread, I figured I'd start this one...
I recently attempted to dehydrate both blueberries and blackberries. Both were from frozen: blueberries store bought then frozen for around 72 hours, blackberries were from a foraging trip 6 months ago and have been frozen since. No other preparation was done, they went straight into the dehydrator.
They were both dehydrated at 135 Fahrenheit (57 deg Celsius)
^^^ So that's what I started with. 11 punnets of blueberries, some of them were HUGE which did cause some problems. $2 coin for reference... I made no attempt to measure how many blackberries I was using as they were an afterthought.
I was checking every them every 12 hours to see if they were OK. Took nearly 72 hours to get to a level of dehydration I was happy with. I was chasing crunchy blueberries as I want these for long term storage and possibly some 'just add water' meals I'm working on, so they needed as much moisture removed as possible. Even after this time I had a handful of rejects, these still felt like hard raisins and had 'give'. All of the blackberries were successful after 72 hours. My rejects:
The yield on the blueberries from the 11 punnets was 500ml volumetrically:
Close up:
Yield on the blackberries:
Close up:
tomatoes mentioned in the preppers diary that they should be 'checked', after 48 hours of dehydration my wife looked up the Excalibur manual for me and it said the same thing.
I'll trial the checking next time but if it ends up with an inferior product I'll stick to this method, while it was a LONG dehydration time I'm very happy with the end result. |
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Oct 6, 2017 6:33:34 GMT 10
They look good. Thanks for posting the details. They took a long time! But fruit smells lovely dehydrating, so it wouldn’t matter if the smell was in the house for a while. (Love the smell when I dehydrate orange slices. Not so good with cauliflower or broccoli.)
Have you tried eating one? Or will you try rehydrating a couple?
BTW, I don’t have a huge amount of dried fruit, but I have taken to storing some in the frig or freezer (depending on how long I think we might keep it). I still vac seal it first. When I read up on storage times for dried fruit it says only 6 months (although it sounds as though yours are a lot dryer and should keep longer), but the frig about doubles that, and my books say about 2 yrs in the freezer. I figure that really I probably have possibly double that - or at least a bit longer. I have some space in a chest freezer, so might as well keep it there (in vac sealed bags), with a couple of jars for easy back up access in the frig. When we open a jar it lives out of the frig.
If we end up without power for an extended time the dried fruit that is frozen should still be good for its original expected life - 6-12 months. I won’t be trying to use it up quickly like other frozen food - it will just go on a shelf.
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Post by prepette on Oct 6, 2017 21:54:23 GMT 10
I dehydrate loads of stuff and use it in everyday life (mushrooms when I find them cheap, corn, capsicum, berries, applies, oranges and much more). I find they re hydrate super well. Use a lot of dried fruits in cakes and things as well as some yummy snacks.
I also dehydrate some low fat meats for my dogs too, fresh chicken makes great dehydrated dog treats. I have some dehydrated cooked chicken I am keen to try but also slightly concerned about giving myself botulism!
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paranoia
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Email: para@ausprep.org
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Post by paranoia on Oct 6, 2017 21:59:06 GMT 10
I dehydrate loads of stuff and use it in everyday life (mushrooms when I find them cheap, corn, capsicum, berries, applies, oranges and much more). I find they re hydrate super well. Use a lot of dried fruits in cakes and things as well as some yummy snacks. I also dehydrate some low fat meats for my dogs too, fresh chicken makes great dehydrated dog treats. I have some dehydrated cooked chicken I am keen to try but also slightly concerned about giving myself botulism! Yeah I don't do meat... If it ever came down to it I'd just go without. We keep enough vegetarian protein options that it's just easier to take that one off the list and not stock it up.
I'd be curious as to your process for mushrooms, I've always just bought dehydrated mushrooms at Chinatown but would love to do some myself. How do you process them?
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paranoia
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Posts: 1,098
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Email: para@ausprep.org
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Post by paranoia on Oct 6, 2017 22:10:51 GMT 10
They look good. Thanks for posting the details. They took a long time! But fruit smells lovely dehydrating, so it wouldn’t matter if the smell was in the house for a while. (Love the smell when I dehydrate orange slices. Not so good with cauliflower or broccoli.) Have you tried eating one? Or will you try rehydrating a couple? BTW, I don’t have a huge amount of dried fruit, but I have taken to storing some in the frig or freezer (depending on how long I think we might keep it). I still vac seal it first. When I read up on storage times for dried fruit it says only 6 months (although it sounds as though yours are a lot dryer and should keep longer), but the frig about doubles that, and my books say about 2 yrs in the freezer. I figure that really I probably have possibly double that - or at least a bit longer. I have some space in a chest freezer, so might as well keep it there (in vac sealed bags), with a couple of jars for easy back up access in the frig. When we open a jar it lives out of the frig. If we end up without power for an extended time the dried fruit that is frozen should still be good for its original expected life - 6-12 months. I won’t be trying to use it up quickly like other frozen food - it will just go on a shelf. Yeah the kitchen smelled amazing the whole time they were in there. Blueberries are my favourite so it was a pleasant few days. I would do them again just for the smell... Agreed broccoli was a little unpleasant.
I have eaten plenty, when I was 'checking them every 12 hours' I'd eat one or two of different sizes to get an idea of where I was at. They went from sultanas, to currants and eventually had the texture of what I imagine freeze dried food to have. No give in them, they shatter as you bite them and the flavour doesn't hit for a few seconds while it's rehydrating in your mouth. The flavour was SUPER intense though and almost a bit much.
I'm going to avoid the freezer at this stage purely to get a better understanding of what to expect. Based on how dry these were I'm hoping to get at least 5 years out of them. They're vac sealed at the moment but I will mylar them in smaller sized bags, date them and open a bag every six months to see where I'm at. If I can't get that 5 years out of them my plans will have to change to include freeze dried foods I guess...
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Post by prepette on Oct 7, 2017 12:25:09 GMT 10
I dehydrate loads of stuff and use it in everyday life (mushrooms when I find them cheap, corn, capsicum, berries, applies, oranges and much more). I find they re hydrate super well. Use a lot of dried fruits in cakes and things as well as some yummy snacks. I also dehydrate some low fat meats for my dogs too, fresh chicken makes great dehydrated dog treats. I have some dehydrated cooked chicken I am keen to try but also slightly concerned about giving myself botulism! Yeah I don't do meat... If it ever came down to it I'd just go without. We keep enough vegetarian protein options that it's just easier to take that one off the list and not stock it up.
I'd be curious as to your process for mushrooms, I've always just bought dehydrated mushrooms at Chinatown but would love to do some myself. How do you process them?
Mushrooms are super easy, no processing required at all, just slice and dehydrate. Mine are finished in about 10 hours. I have done some testing, and over a year later they are still wonderful in soups, sauces, stews and all sorts of yummy things. I buy them whenever I see them on special as I am a big mushroom fan. I always put an oxygen absorber in the jar with my dehydrated goodies. One other thing I do that I love is to make a thickening powder with dehydrated veggies. If I am making meatballs or meatloaf etc I use a TBS of my veggie powder, instead of breadcrumbs or if I need to thicken spag bol or a stew. I just put dehydrated veggies such as brocoli, cauli, beans, peas, carrots, corn, spinach etc in the blender and store, it's awesome for kids too if you have kiddies who are not great at eating veggies. |
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Oct 7, 2017 13:12:40 GMT 10
I dehydrate loads of stuff and use it in everyday life (mushrooms when I find them cheap, corn, capsicum, berries, applies, oranges and much more). I find they re hydrate super well. Use a lot of dried fruits in cakes and things as well as some yummy snacks. I also dehydrate some low fat meats for my dogs too, fresh chicken makes great dehydrated dog treats. I have some dehydrated cooked chicken I am keen to try but also slightly concerned about giving myself botulism! Yeah I don't do meat... If it ever came down to it I'd just go without. We keep enough vegetarian protein options that it's just easier to take that one off the list and not stock it up.
I'd be curious as to your process for mushrooms, I've always just bought dehydrated mushrooms at Chinatown but would love to do some myself. How do you process them?
Actually, I’ve done quite a lot of mushrooms. I just buy bags of sliced ones whenever they’re on special and spread them out raw on the trays. 50 deg C until they snap. Some I blend into a powder and use for an instant mushroom cup-a-soup or to add to casseroles etc, others I’ve been putting into jars in the slices. Mushrooms are super easy. I should probably buy a case from a market sometime and put them through the food processor to slice. |
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tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
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Post by tomatoes on Oct 7, 2017 13:16:04 GMT 10
One other thing I do that I love is to make a thickening powder with dehydrated veggies. If I am making meatballs or meatloaf etc I use a TBS of my veggie powder, instead of breadcrumbs or if I need to thicken spag bol or a stew. I just put dehydrated veggies such as brocoli, cauli, beans, peas, carrots, corn, spinach etc in the blender and store, it's awesome for kids too if you have kiddies who are not great at eating veggies. I like this idea |
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Post by doomsdayprepper4570 on Oct 13, 2017 19:34:39 GMT 10
You can also whiz the fruit/berries and dehydrate the product. My dehydrator has curved plastic tray liners for this purpose. Effectively making leathers and these last 10-20 years in sensible storage and wrapped well in gladwrap. If I had blueberry wraps I am sure they would only last 1-4 weeks max  |
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Post by perthprepper on Nov 4, 2017 0:37:54 GMT 10
Looks great! I've got access to a mulberry tree and dehydration might be the trick. Have made a few jars of jam, but other than that and the odd "off the tree snack" they do nothing but help the kids stain their clothes |
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Post by spinifex on Nov 4, 2017 13:38:03 GMT 10
Never really thought of drying berries. Very interesting! Got a lot of raspberries ripening at the mo - but they always get consumed either fresh or as juice. I use the young leaves for tea ... very nice.
Anyone else use their car for drying stuff? I've done sundried tomatoes, capsicums, chillies, leeks and meat for many years. All done on wire racks and each batch completes in a day or two during the summer/autumn months. Just leave windows cracked a smidge.
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