Dehydrated & Freeze-Dried Foods

Our class on dehydrating showed us that making our own dehydrated food is easy and it doesn't take as long as I thought. Kelli had some great dehydrating tips which can be found HERE. She has a NESCO American Harvest dehydrator and has been very happy with it. Another brand she recommended was an Excalibur dehydrator. Some of the new convection ovens even have a setting for dehydrating foods (check your owners manual for details). Kelli suggested you look for a dehydrator that:

• has an adjustable temperature
• has the fan on the top or on the side
• is expandable (can add extra trays)

A mandolin cutter can help you cut food pieces thinly and uniformly.

Here are a few websites that give specific instructions on how to dehydrate fruits, vegetables, herbs, and jerky:

Pick Your Own
FarmGal

You can even make crackers in your food dehydrator! Kelli made some yummy flax seed crackers. She didn't have an exact recipe, but here are some basic directions:

Flax Seed Crackers

1 cup flax seeds, ground (use a coffee grinder or blender)
1 3/4 cup water
seasonings (Parmesan cheese: 1/2 - 5 Tbsp and garlic salt or powder: 1/8 - 1 1/2 tsp; or any other seasonings - you can even add finely chopped or blended vegetables)

Mix the ground flax seeds and water and let sit for 3 or more hours until gelatinous. Mix in seasonings to taste (remember that the flavors will concentrate somewhat as the crackers dehydrate.) Spread mixture as thin as possible (1/4" thick) on dehydrator trays with Teflon sheets. Dehydrate until crisp.

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We also talked about the difference between freeze-dried and dehydrated foods. That handout can be found HERE. We then had the opportunity to taste and see the difference in multiple foods. We even tried a few of the Mountain House freeze-dried entrees and they were all quite good. My family uses them when we go camping and they would be wonderful to keep in a 72 Hour Emergency Kit. It would be nice to have a real meal instead of just a granola bar in an emergency.

Here are some photos and thoughts on the food we sampled (you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them):