dried veggies?

Does anyone grow, harvest, and dry their own crops in a food dehydrator? Is this the right forum in which to ask this question?

Sure there folks here who do. I limit myself to beets, basil, melons, pepper as far as veggies go. But there are lots of others that can be dried. Have not tried it with a dehydrator, but should be able do some great Leather Breeches ( dried snap beans )

Dried apples are great what a treat I do them two ways sliced very thin and dry till hard like a potatoe chip and thicker and softer for using later in sause or pies. Onions,peppers,tomatoes,herbs, all do well. I purchase bannanas and pineapples which are yummy snacks as well. Done correctly shelf life is a long long time. I am still learning and my suggestion to you is a book or maybe your county extension agent has some handouts. Not all fruits and or vegs are done the same way. Ernie

I do apples, cherry tomatoes, bok choy, potatoes, red pepper, basil, etc... I want to do more this year.

And I'm here to tell ya!...Ernie's dried apples are to die for! (I recently rec'd some of them from him in the mail...delish!! And so versatile!)

I've dried tomatoes and figs in my dehydrator...love 'em!

Recently DG member MaVie sent me an "air dryer" (my words) for drying anything from veggies and fruit to meat/fish. It's an enclosed basket-type thingy with shelves...lay the goods on the shelves, zip it closed to keep out the bugs/flies etc, and dry in the sun/shade or over a wood stove.

blm...there are many dehydrators available, just make sure you get one big enough for your needs. (Right, Ernie!?)

Shoe.

Shoe has part of it right when it comes to dryers bigger is better. The apples are delish but Maria helped me make them and sent them to him lol.

Jburish how did you do your spuds? Ernie

And yes, I stand corrected!

Maria and Ernie sent me quite a wonderful gift! I'm still excited about receiving them!!! And am guarding them with my life!

jburesh, you dried bok choy? Would love to hear more!

Shoe.

farmerdill,
Melons?

I don't use mine dehydrater near as much as I should. Hub's make deer jerky but all I did last fall was the last of the sweet pepper crop.

P

Yes Red, melons. Cantaloupes , Honeydews and Galia melons. Honey dews and Galia' are better from my perspective. Slice in thin strips and dehydrate. Concentrates the sugars for an excellent snack, If you have done fruit leathers, these are somewhat similar but with more texture.

http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/gardeners.htm

this is the food dryer I have used (a modern version of it). at first I tried to air dry peaches, but in Alabama peaches ripen just as the summer rains set in. Nothing worse than moldy peaches. Nothing better than perfectly dried peaches. You have to treat them first, or they turn brown. You can simply use lemon juice or there are commercial preparations. (pectin). This set up will do full bushels at a time. You can also do fruit sheets, left over from the juice. After drying, I stuffed the whole load in a baggie and stored in the freezer. Later when I had an apartment, I tried to dry peaches in a convection oven. You need something that will stay ON until the peaches are dry.
recipies/instructions come with the machine. You will get the hang of it. I especially like dried okra. Very crunchy.

Farmerdill,
still trying to wrap my brain around that dries melon. I may have to try some this year.

P

farmer... don't think you got a reply from jburesh re: your question on drying Bok Choy. Guess it's OK for me to step in & give you my 2 cents worth ---- my Cantonese mother-in-law makes Choy gon tong...ie, dried vegetable soup,,, using Bok Choy I raised & air dried. Simply clean the Bok Choy by washing then spread it over a clothes line or string and allow to air dry. I dried ours in the garage on a line. Similar to Leather Britches!! I've only seen it used for soups.
LarryD

Back in the early 70's, when we first moved to this area, leather britches and dried apples were a common sight in the homes of old timers, along with canning cellars, smoke houses and wood stoves in the kitchen. It's mostly all gone now, along with the sight of a mountain couple working their garden early in the morning, him with long sleeved shirt, overalls and a straw hat and her with a bonnet and apron. I never have eaten any leather britches, just seen them hanging up over the wood stoves.

Rose and Farmer,
Not sure I understand exactly what leather britches are, or what you start with, and what you end with. Please explain.

blmlb: I believe 'leather britches are dried green beans, originally strung on a thread and hung to dry. I was thinking those asparagus green beans (about a 12 long) would be great dehydrated. One or two cracked into a winter soup would be fine about now.

Farmerdill no doubt knows a lot more than I do about them, but my understanding is they are green beans threaded up on a string and dried to eat in winter. I don't think they have to be any particular variety but I'm not totally sure on that. When it was time to eat them, they were boiled down with some type of pork into a stew.

they look like "leather britches" hung on a clothes line.

Leather Britches (west of the Blue Ridge), Leather Breeches (east of the Blue Ridge) are as described dried snap beans. Most of the old folks used pole beans, Kentucky Wonder, Missouri Wonder, Lazy Wife, Cutshorts etc. They are strung ( the older types had strings which were removed) and sanpped just you prepared the for a normal pot. Then you took a needle and sewing thread, ran it the middle section of the snap until you had a accumated a string a couple of feet long. Most folks arrange so that each section was crosswise to the adjoining section. Then you hung in a dry place to air dry. In the winter, they were cooked with salt pork, just like we did with the fresh ones. No where near as good of course, but as my father use to say "beats snowballs in winter" Canning has not been around that long, and the concept of freezing is very new. There were ways to preserve food for winter before the factory made cans and the introduction of electricity.

Keep going, y'all. Sounds like whole fresh green beens are strung up to air dry for winter use. But if that's true, seems like re-hydrating/cooking would require that the beans be seperated from the pods, because the bean seeds would take far longer to cook than the dried pods. Maybe cook the seeds for awhile and then maybe throw in the dried pods later. Or save the dried pods for some other recipe later. Does that sound about right?

Farmer, I was writing while you were answering. Your explanation is very fascinating. And really good to know. I guess we all could learn from the creative minds of our grandparents. Thanks alot.