My New Dehydrator

One of the things that has been on my wish list for quite a while is a dehydrator.  I usually dry things like herbs in my oven and while this isn’t particularly power intensive (and a whole lot quicker and cleaner than hanging) it can be quite inconvenient.

My credit card collects points that can be used as cash in some stores.  I had quite a bit saved up on my rewards and for Christmas I was given a voucher for one of the stores where I can use my rewards.  That was it, I was on a mission. 

I found only one type of dehydrator there and only one in stock!  It was meant to be mine.  With the Boxing Day Sale discounts, my Sunbeam Food Dehydrator was a steal at $105!

As soon as I got home I was determined to try it out.  Herbs went in first.  The booklet with the dehydrator said that on the lowest setting (approx 35 deg Celsius) they should take 2 - 4 hours.  I increased it to the second setting (approx 55 deg Celsius) and it still took more than the 2 - 4 hours.

Fruit Leather

I wanted to dry some apples.  Miss Seven likes apples, but often doesn’t get through them.  I had been drying them in the oven, but this was just as inconvenient (probably more so) than drying herbs as it takes longer.  I sliced up four apples which filled up 3 of the trays.

The dehydrator also has a fruit leather tray, so I thought I might as well give that a go at the same time.  There was some fruit salad left over from Christmas day so that went through the blender and just filled the tray nicely.

The apples took a little longer than the 10 - 14 hours in the book, but turned out just fine.  The fruit leather took even longer. It still tastes great.  A reread of the book has made me realise that I should have drained the fruit salad first.  We’re now trying nectarines that I had bottled with a little honey and cinnamon.  They’ve come out a little tart, but still quite nice.

I wanted to use up the bananas that we weren’t going to get through, but by the time the apples were ready, they’d already gone  bit far - the skins were mostly black, so they’re in the freezer waiting for me to start baking banana cakes and muffins.  I’ve since bought some more and sliced two up and dried them.

My Prolific Grapevine

The grapevine that was here already is absolutely covered in grapes.  It’s really quite amazing how much is growing there.  They’re green grapes and I don’t drink white wine, so I have no intention of making any (unless I make it for vinegar) but I can’t stand waste.  I’d been wondering what I could do with so many grapes.  While Miss Seven loves grapes, there was no way she’d get through the mass loads that are growing.

I’m hoping to use the dehydrator to turn these grapes into sultanas or raisins.  I don’t know if these grapes are seedless (the chooks ate what grew last year) so I’m sure that deseeding a lot of grapes will get old really fast, maybe it’s something that I can do in smaller batches on a daily basis.