Drying Fruits and Veggies at Home in Dehydrator

[Mom's Animal Preserve]

Hi!
I just purchased a food dehydrator because my new Lesser Sulphur Crested 'Too (she's 5 years old and I "rescued" her from a weird situation) LOVES dried banana chips, pineapple and other fruits and I just can't see paying the high prices for pre-made items when I can do this at home. All of my other birdie babies love these fruits too, but with the addition of such a big birdie, we're going through the tasty treats much faster now and I figured it was time that I learned how to do my own dehydrating. Plus, I can now make fruit roll ups for my kids in any flavor that they want AND the kids can share them with the birds because I will only be using fresh fruits to make them so I don't have to worry about preservatives or other additives.

I'm excited to try this out -- my machine just showed up yesterday. I'm headed out soon for some fruit and veggie shopping (I can dry veggies in there too if I want). I'm wondering if anyone else has one of these dehydrators and if they had any tips, tricks or ideas they wanted to share.

Any suggestions for tasty treats would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Heidi

[nvranemptynest]

I used to dehydrate fruit, flowers, and meat. The foods come out really tasty, but must be eaten quickly. The only thing I can suggest is buy everything in (over)abundance. What looks like a lot when fresh, will only make a small amount of dried.

[tielfan]

I have a dehydrator and love it. The thinner you slice the food, the faster it will dry. Some items come out with a nice texture and other items are very very hard - I never did get the hang of carrots! Some people recommend pre-treating some foods (like apples) but this is for cosmetic purposes only and doesn't affect the quality of the food. If you don't mind slightly brown-looking apples then there's no need to pre-treat.

Store the dried foods in an airtight container (like a jar with a tight lid) to keep out humidity, because the food will absorb moisture from the air. My dehydrator cookbook recommends using dried foods within a year. It's recommended that you refrigerate or freeze dried meat, because otherwise the fat in it can go rancid.

[Mom's Animal Preserve]

Thanks everyone! We made some fruit roll-ups with applesauce yesterday and they are awesome. Today I'm trying the bananas and pineapples. :)

[jylu97]

I found that dehydrating without treating the fruit or veggies results in really hard food. My bird won't eat anything that isn't chewy, so my dehydrator is just sitting there on our countertop. My next adventure will be soaking papaya in a sugar solution to keep them chewy. I'll then slowly start decreasing the amount of sugar over time. I noticed all the dehydrated papaya they have for birds has been soaked in sugar (I've tried them!).

Liz