of your food prep equipment? I ask this because after watching a bunch of Raw Radiant Health vids, the woman who does these (Natasha), who has been raw for a couple of years, doesn't yet own a high speed blender! She uses a Kitchen Aid and says that she didn't even get a dehydrator for 8 months after going 100% raw and she lives in Canada (not a tropical place where you can live on fruit practically). Just curious what y'all feel about the importance of a dehydrator in a high-raw/all-raw lifestyle...

I have never used one at home but I've enjoyed the things made with them that I've eaten. I've got a little one now that I want to try out, it's for snacky things for the kids. They get so bored of everything and G-ma is into "treats" so I have to make something to have around for them.

@Coco: I saw some recipes that looked really cool. Like chips make from zukes and stuff. I think I would really utilize it; I guess I'm trying to justify getting one.

For me a dehydrator is absolutely necessary. I used it every day mostly for making pulp crackers, fruit leathers, drying soaked nuts to make trail mix and preserving food that might go bad. I love my Excalibur 9 tray. But if I had it to do over again, I might be inclined to go with this model. [www.good4uproducts.com]

It's $179 which is about $10 less than my Excalibur cost, has an extra tray, and a 40 hour electrical timer built in the unit. Looks like it could be pretty handy. On the down side, I don't like the doorless design which requires you to buy an accessory if you want to put anything bigger than one tray's worth in, e.g. a baking dish marinade.

Paul

Schweet, Paul! Thanks for the ringing endorsement. Sold! But why, oh why, did you have to introduce another option? All I hear about is the Excalibur being the only choice and now this...? *Sigh* Guess this means more Youtube vids and all that other fun stuff...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2010 03:03AM by banana who.

If you want to stay with Excalibur, you can't go wrong! I promise. Just promise me you won't buy one of those cheap round ones that uses a vertical air column. Stick with a square design with horizontal air flow for more even drying! That's the ticket!

Paul

I have read the 80/10/10 book, and I learned that dehydrator is not a good thing. We need the moisture from the fruit and veggies. The author said that not even the dried food comes close to fresh, but he suggested that dried food (sun dried, or naturally dried) is much better than dehydrated.
I really, really liked that book.

I do not have one and do not use one. Right now I am trying to get away without a blender. I have found a hand cranked one online, the Vortex. And I cut my fruits and veggies by hand. Trying to live without power.

For me it was not a wise investment as regards my raw food journey.
It makes a fantastic herb drier in the late summer months and fills the house with beautiful aromas whilst they dry.

I have an excalibur 9 tray. I bought it when i started out on my raw journey to make the gourmet foods.
Gourmet did not suit me.
I found those foods difficult to digest and dehydrating. Also very time consuming to prepare and too many expensive ingredients. I had to drink lots of extra water to manage them which was counter productive.
It is my experience that fresh is best.
The most useful piece of electrical equipment in my kitchen is the vitamix.

Agreed with Fruit Faery. My dehydrator hasn't been used in at least a year.

I have used my dehydrator in the last year--to "sun dry" a boatload of ripe tomatoes for a family friend. Does this make my Excalibur economical? No. Is it a handy thing to have for those occasions when you must low-temp dehydrate something? Yes, if one can spare the expense.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2010 01:59PM by Tamukha.

Interestingly enough, your still dehydrating with heat when you use those, I use a large box fan, and 4 cotton based furnace filters, so its only air doing the drying, no heat involved, and the flavors of what i dried stayed the same as if they where fresh,just a more concentrated flavor... works awesome with herbs!

It should be noted that to use this method, you need to get filters that are NOT the fiberglass ones, cotton or plant cellulose works, and make sure they are ones not treated with anti-bacterial chemicals, as many of them are... and you can find out with a call to the manufacturer usually. generally speaking, i tend to flip the filters over every 8- 12 hours depending on what im drying...so everything dries evenly, if you want to find out more information, just google "alton brown dehydrator" and that should bring up more stuff...

I've never had a dehydrator. Sometimes I dry stuff in the sun though; and sometimes, when it's raining, I think I'd like to have a dehydrator - though I'll probably never get one.

It all depends on what you want to do and what kind of foods you want to eat. You can do very well without a dehydrator by eating all your raw foods whole, juicy, and totally unprocessed (drying is a process). You can probably also do very well if you include occasional treats from the dehydrator.

If you decide to get a dehydrator, you might consider going somewhat easy on the use of it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2010 12:10AM by suncloud.

i dont find it necessary but i find it a fun tool to add variety

boredom is my enemy hehe

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

BW,

I think you are finding that the need for a dehydrator is really dependent on what you are likely to eat. If I were frutarian, I doubt I would invest in it because it would contribute so little to my daily intake.

Since I like to dehydrate my soaked nuts for trail mix, make pulp crackers from my juicer, and use it as a method of food preservation when I am not eating the full week's groceries, I rely on mine. I've also used it to make kale chips and zucchini chips for my son to get him to eat more vegetables.

If you have anyone near you who is a raw foodie, it might be worth sampling some dehydrated recipies and seeing what you think. "Sun dried" tomatoes? Trail mix? Kale chips? Pulp crackers? If you don't think you will ever be eating that stuff, then I agree, it may not make sense. I love all of it!

Paul

Sounds pretty good pborst!

@Paul: No, I actually am interested in making those things. Matter of fact, I was gonna ask about sundried tomatoes vs. dehydrated ones. I take it that they are the same thing, but what type of tomatoes do you use for dehydrating: roma? They are less juicy, more 'meaty." I also notice that when you buy sundried tomatoes sometimes, they are packed in oil for some reason. I also think it would be a great device to have in the summer because it wouldn't heat up the kitchen. And I'll bet you can make a mean gRAWnola. Whenever I've made granola, even at a very low oven temp I never have avoided scorching it a bit...

banana who,

I'll put in me two cents for dehydrated tomatoes: I use Roma, which are drier and thus require a shorter dehydration period. I halve or slice them longwise and lay them on clean dishtowels or paper towels to absorb some of the juice, to further decrease drying time. I usually toss these drained tomato slices with a bit of sea salt to promote further moisture evaporation and to help ward off mold. In the initial drying phase, I lay them out, about 1/2" apart on natural parchment over the mesh that the dehydrator racks come with and dry the tomatoes until just not wet anymore. In the second phase, I remove the parchment and replace the tomatoes, still 1/2" apart on the mesh sheets. I dry them until they are only slightly tacky, then I turn them over and continue drying until they are either just flexible but still bright red, or quite dry dark, depending on who for and for what use.

Commercial dried tomatoes are kep in oil to retard spoilage and to maintain some moisture. I don't do this with dehydrated tomatoes, because unless you dry them for days and days, they will retain more mositure than conventional ones, and water and oil don't mix; the space left between them could harbor an anaerobic pathogen(unless you really washed the tomatoes well before slicing), and the oil would act as an incubation medium. The risk of this is slight, but has been known to happen, so I just store them in the fridge and use them quickly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2010 11:38AM by Tamukha.

I found the same dehydrator under a different name brand, TSM Harvest and it sells for $50 less ($129.99) than the good 4 you dehydrator. They also have some very nice ss dehydrators that I've heard good things about but they're a bit pricy. www.homefoodprocessing.com

pborst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just promise me you won't buy one of those cheap round ones that uses a vertical air column. Stick with a square design with horizontal air flow for more even drying!

I'm moving away soon and it wouldn't make sense for me to invest in an Excalibur at this point, so I'm planning on picking up a cheap round one this weekend... mostly because I am just itching to make crackers and kale chips and pizza crusts, etc. Do you think it will work for all those goodies? (as a temporary solution until I move and pick up an Excalibur). This is the one I'm getting used:



Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

That kind will cook your food, if you don't mind that you can just use a low oven instead. Plus an oven has space for kale chips, the trays in that round kind are too close together. And there is a hole in the middle so no pizza crust.

agree with Coco. I'd just save your money and buy the Excalibur when you move. Use low temp oven in the short term.

The box fan method seems to be to be the most affordable and the kindest to you food though it wouldn't work with really wet things. You could do fruit and veggie slices with it though. Actually, does anyone know what does work in that kind? I'm curious about how versatile it is, or even how usable it is! No idea really, it just sounds neat-o.

Thanks for the responses! I wasn't aware that those actually cook it at a temperature above what is considered raw... figured it would have a temp. setting. Anyway, I guess I'll continue using the oven for now, although the lowest setting on mine is unfortunately 170deg...

The only benefit I can see to getting that round one right now is that you can plug it in outside, on the porch, in the basement etc and not heat up your house with the oven. Honestly, that's the kind I have too (my mom gave it to me) but I've never used it. I was thinking about trying some things out in it to see if my kids like them before I got a "real" dehydrator but it doesn't fit a lot of stuff. I'm not fussy about it being cooked a low temp, I'm not 100% raw and would only make snacks like that anyhow, not full meals. If it's a low price and it works for you, go for it. If you want really raw stuff maybe it's better to wait.

Dasha,

As an alternative, you could always pick a sunny spot in the house and air dry w/o heat. That's the way the Essenes used to make bread.

Paul

What I don't get is when the "experts" tell us that if we live in a dry climate that it's possible to just let stuff sun dry. I don't live in a place with that kind of weather, but what about animals coming and eating your food? It's hard to imagine that you could just lay stuff out on rocks or whatever and they would remain there untouched.

stuff baked in the sun gets way hotter than in a dehydrator plus it would be vulnerable to not only animals but BUGS! I'm not doing it.

Good idea, Coco. Yeah, I thought about insects but I've never been west of Iowa so I didn't know if they had flies in the desert, LOL

banana who , we have flies out west here so big sometimes they send out warnings over the radio to get yer babies inside

ok so i asked a native friend to ask her elder about some old style drying techniques way back when and she said that fish and meat were dried on racks , usually one person with a fly switch sitting there swishing away flies on particularly bad days but drying days were picked when it was a little cooer and more windy (less chance of flies)

brains and berries and seeds were dried in winnowing trays and women would sit and talk and tell stories and toss and shake for days on end till tings were dried (doesnt sound like sucha bad thing lol) i think it was used as a social time

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist