Food Dehydrators

[Two Rivers]

Does anyone ele in here use a dehydrator. Though there are many items you can by on the market already dehydrated, they are costly. I have been dehydrating food stuffs for years. They are great for mergency preparredness and for packing in to a remote camp, or just a day trip. One of my favorites are dehydrated apples. Great on a day trip or fishin trip. Especially while hunting. Many vegetables and fruits can be dehydrated. Thus a great vitamine and mineral boost in your emergency stores. If you find yourself in a situation where these stores must be used it will be a great help, in the case of fruits, to keep them little akle biters passified too. Lightwieght, minimal storage.

[Rick]

Two Rivers - We dehydrated a lot of food when my son hiked the AT. We'd ship it ahead to a post office so it would be there when he arrived. I think the coolest thing we dehydrated was spaghetti sauce. It turns into a rubbery material sort of like fruit roll ups. Just add water and presto! spaghetti sauce. We dehydrated the ground beef in the oven so we could do a little larger quantity. Throw in some spaghetti noodles and you had the whole meal.

[Two Rivers]

Never thought about sauce. I have used tomatoes. They get rubbery too. Thats a great idea. I suppose as long as it has pulp it would work. COOL.

[Pan]

never woulda thunk it. Thanks man (sarcasticly). Now I gotta go build a make-shift dehydrator and some freakin sauce. Not hard to give me the bug. Any recomendations on building a dehydrator?

[Rick]

You can dehydrate a lot just using your oven. It's low heat over time that removes the moisture. However, if your heart is set on building your own, here's some plans:

http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo...torstryder.htm

[Pan]

thanks man for the link. I'm OM IT! Ill let ya know how it goes.

[Rick]

Yea, it looked pretty straight forward. Google food dehydrators and you'll come up with a load of sites that offer info on what foods and how to. We used a three shelf commercial dehydrator and it worked really well.

Here's another one that's solar.

http://www.i4at.org/surv/soldehyd.htm

[Pan]

yea i used to own one but when we moved up from florida it got left behind. My wife packed the kitchen( Just throwin that out there, not blaming).

[Rick]

And that nicky nack thingy she picked up at the garage sale along with the three thousand other nicky nack thingies all got moved, I'll bet. (just throwin' that out there, not blaming).

[Pan]

yea ant the three thousand lbs. of clothing she will never fit in again lol.

[beerrunner13]

Great link Rick I think I will be putting one of these together tomorrow.

[Pan]

Im gonna build one to but I dont have a box and I do have some OSB. Soooo, I think I'll build one from that. But then that makes me wanna use some sheet metal for the interior so it will be more permanent. Ah well, Ill use the foil then if it works well I'll buy some extra sheet metal next time I need some for another project.

[Two Rivers]

Wrong time of year for me here now but sun drying is easy and offers more space. Just place things on a window screen, preferably plastic screen and let the sun do the work. Works great. Usually 90 - 110 deg. in an oven is plenty. Usually the pilot light on a gas stove is all it takes. Also a box with a light bulb inside is another easy set up. There are any number of ways to make them that can all be found on the internet.