Dehydrating - Hoping for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

So Tuesday morning I decided to dehydrate a 5# bag of potatoes that I needed to use up. 
Well a couple of things that I have learned - it works better if your pieces are uniform and it is challenging to make your pieces uniform. Many people use a mandolin - I will not - I think they are dangerous - I would rather have uneven pieces than a chance for something to get hurt. 

Another thing I learned as I listened to several different youtube videos about dehydrating that people don't like dehydrating only several trays. If you are doing to have the dehydrator going for most of the day - you, too will probably want to have your dehydrator full. After 2 hours of my potatoes in the dehydrator I prepared the 2#'s of carrots that I had so I could dehydrate them as well. Again I had a problem making pieces even. I will use another method to process my carrots next time and see if if works better. 

So another things I learned was a few ideas of how to use the dehydrated foods - So my first thought was to slice the potatoes- and to be honest I wish I had have went with my first thought. But then I was thinking what will I do with them. Well if you slice the potatoes you can re hydrate them and use them to make scalloped potatos and you can even fry them! Yum! Well someone had said that they dice their potatoes and use them in soups and stews - so I diced mine.  Next time I find potatoes on a good sale - I will get some to slice and dehydrate. 

So carrots? You can dice/cube them and use them in stews and soups. And you can shred them and use them in baking. I have even read that you can use the dehydrated carrots in place of coconut. And I am sure there are other things you can do like use shred or cubes in chicken noodle soups and such. There are other ideas - I am just giving some quick ideas. 

So to rehydrate - you take 2 to 1 ratio of the item you are rehydrating - for example - you want to rehydrate 1 cup of potatoes - you will take 2 cups of hot water. Let it set for 15-30 minutes - bigger pieces will take longer of course. 

Dehydrating is a great way to store things. One of the great reasons is that dehydrating takes 5 pounds of potatoes and breaks it down into a much smaller space to store. 

And another excellent thing I learned is you can take frozen, already processed things and dehydrate them. This helps you free up space in your freezer! You can also take canned things - like peaches and dehydrate them! So when your canned things are nearing the expiration date you are able to dehydrate it and help it last longer.  

I am telling you - there are lots and lots of youtube videos to show you what all you can do with dehydration! Lots of awesome information. I am so thankful for people who are willing to take their time to educate others at things they have learned. What a blessing it is to the rest of us!! :O) 

Here is a great video showing how to dehydrate. I hope you all enjoy!! 

Be sure and come back next week when I will share what I dehydrate next! :O)