Dehydrating is great for anything: fruits, veggies, meats, and mummies. They may take a little extra water and cooking time for rehydration, but the fresh taste is worth it. Except for mummies, which never rehydrate properly.
As I mentioned in a previous column, we were hit by severe storms one summer that knocked out the power for about two weeks. It was during a heatwave, and our three chest freezers of farm-fresh produce quickly became three chest freezers full of unidentifiable blobs of vegetable mush.
It was a lesson learned. Now one chest freezer is devoted entirely to saved seed, one has been passed on to a new home, and one is full of popsicles, fudgesicles, and ice-cream sandwiches (for the grandkids, I swear!). In the event of a power outage, the seeds will still be fine, and we’ll steadily work our way through all of those frozen treats. We may need to call in reinforcements for that one, though. Any volunteers?
For produce, we’ve moved on to canning and dehydrating. I like to can tomatoes when we have large batches, but smaller batches can easily be dehydrated. For beans, I prefer dehydrating to freezing or canning, as it leaves them with a fresh-picked flavor you can’t get from other methods.
In fact, it’s much less labor-intensive to dehydrate than to can because, after minimal prep time, I can pop veggies in the dehydrator and go about my day. Not so with canning, which requires waiting for water to boil, which never happens when you are looking, similar to watching the weeping angels from Dr. Who move (don’t blink!).
I have a Nesco dehydrator, which has a number of trays that can be added if I have a larger batch of veggies. The down side is that I have to rearrange the trays a few times so that things dehydrate evenly.
It’s important, when selecting a dehydrator, to purchase one that uses a fan. They are a little on the loud side, but will dry food much more quickly than the type without.
My dream is to eventually own one of those ridiculously large dehydrators, capable of drying a whole garden of tomatoes, or a buffalo, at one time. They run a little over $500, though, so I don’t see one in my immediate future.
Only certain dehydrators get hot enough to dry meat safely, so if that’s what you’d like to do, be sure to read the specs before purchase. No one loves a spoiled mummy.
Among the advantages of dehydrating are space and long-term storage.
Dehydrated items take less space. I can fit about five times the amount of tomatoes in a jar once they are dehydrated, compared to canning. And if I grind them into a tomato powder, that number could be much higher.
As for storage, if stored properly, dehydrated items can last many years, whereas the shelf life of canned goods is limited to around two years.
I keep my dehydrated goods in canning jars, tightly sealed. Keep them, like all canned goods, in a cool, dark place. A dark pantry works well, or really anywhere a mummy would be happy.
One of the best things about dehydrating, though, is the smell. When I do a batch of husk cherries (ground cherries), the whole house smells like cotton candy. When I do basil, it smells like an herb shop. When I throw in a batch of Italian herbs, our house smells better than Chef Boyardee’s.
Just don’t ask about the batch of mummies…