Dehydrating vegetables

I dehydrate all my veggies at 135*F, because that's what my dehydrator instructions say! I've dehydrated all the above, plus others, and store them in freezer bags in the freezer, along with my dehydrated bean soup, dehydrated fruit, and home made jerky. Some have been there over a year, but still come back just fine in the pot.

My mom used to make me dried vegies by putting them on a cookie sheet sliced very thin and sliding the tray into the 6" space above the fridge where warm air circulated out. I don't know how long. She packed them in zip locks and mailed them to me. I used them all summer. I stored them in my pickup camper shell. If I was home I put them in the freezer.

Thanks

Oh, will all the vitamin C and A be destroyed?

If I put 8 ounces of veges in, how much will it weigh when dried?

I used to take maybe 1 pound of raw veges, but lately I've been using dried. Saves weight, I can eat more veges.

I try to eat 5 servings of veges that each weigh maybe 8 ounces.

I eat maybe 3 ounces of raisins which would be maybe 8 ounces of grapes, dehydrated, so that's one serving.

If I get two servings of dried veges, 16 ounces before drying, maybe that would be 4 ounces dried? So that's two more servings of vegetables.

Maybe 3 servings total while backpacking is okay, even though it's not the 5 I try to eat when home.

Jerry, a good way to lengthen the shelf life is to vacuum-seal the goodies individually. Then they will have a very long storage life in the refrigerator (for me, at least). I like to portion out and vacuum-seal individual servings, for the convenience. And also to reduce any food odors that would occur if you opened a large bag of something and then stored the unused remainder in a Ziploc bag.

Meats will last longer if stored in the freezer. Having said that, an hour ago I snacked on a 1.2 oz. packet of Slim Jim beef sticks that were dated 3-1-12, and had been stored in the fridge since then. They were fine, no doubt due to all the nitrites. But generally, anything with a lot of fat should be stored in the freezer.

My habit is to buy Mountain House #10 tins of things, and then re-portion various ingredients into single servings. These packets will last a very long time just stored in my cool, dry basement–some are going on 4 years now, and they're still good. But of course, FD ingredients have zero moisture, as opposed to many dehydrated things that may have a bit of moisture remaining (especially the ones that we amateurs do). I usually do my drying and vacuum-sealing in the coldest, driest time of our Colorado winters, to minimize any partial re-hydration of the ingredients from humidity while I'm doing the work.

I've noticed that tomatoes tend to not last as long as other veggies. I think that they must partially oxidize in the presence of the tiniest amount of humidity. As for minced garlic and onions, I find that the store-bought versions work fine for me, and it saves me from having to run the dehydrator for things I don't use that much of.

Dehydrater + vacuum sealer = better eating in camp.

The amount of weight reduction depends upon how much water is in the item to begin with. For example, when I recently did a batch of Ortega canned diced green chilis, I think I got about 6:1 reduction in weight. The Bush's baked beans was maybe 3.5:1.

And yes, dehydrating pretty much messes with the water-soluable vitamins, like A and C. I think it is temperature related, and maybe places like Harmony House have exactly figured out how to do it without destroying all the vitamins.

The nutrition labels from packitgourmet.com say their peppers and tomatoes have vitamins A and C.

But who knows if that really means the finished, re-hydrated vegetables really have that.

If I was going to dry my own rather than just get them from packitgourmet, I'de take them from when they were in the season, like August or September. Like what I grew myself. Use the best quality vegetables to start with.

135* is a pretty standard temp setting for fruits, veggies, pasta, beans and rice. You only want higher temps when drying meat, as you want it dry fast.

As for storage? I dry mine bone dry, and dry in small pieces. Then I let cool and pack into mason jars, which I park in my pantry, sealed. If I really want to worry, I have the adapter for my food vac that seals mason jars. You will want to every month or so shake your jars, to redistribute any residual moisture (which is normal), which prevents areas of the food from balling up and or going bad. A year is fine.

Now then, if your dried food has animal products or is high in fat, once dry and cooled, store in a freezer bag, tightly rolled up cigar style, in your freeze, use up within 3 months.

As for time in drying? It all depends on where you live and the humidity. More humidity, longer drying time. And of course on how well said dehydrator works – one without a fan will fail in drying food correctly.

+1 on Mason jars, you can get them at garage sales very inexpensively. The lids can be reused, so you can portion out for a trip and then easily reseal.

Foodsaver has the adaptors on-line, small mouth or large mouth.

While vacuum sealing is not comparable to hot bath or pressure canning, it in combination with freezing temps will extend food wholesomeness a long time.

Costco has the FoodSaver machines on sale here in Denver. I think the bags are over priced, yet another reason to use jars when possible. I have also had problems with the bags getting pierced by hard, sharp foods like pastas and loosing their vacuum.

I have a "Daisy Seal-a-meal" like device, I don't know the brand, it has mason jar vacuum adapter. I'll have to search for the vacuum lids…

Jerry, see this:
http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-T03-0023-01-Wide-Mouth-Jar-Sealer/dp/B00005TN7H/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1397488373&sr=8-7&keywords=food+vac

It uses regular lids btw! It is pretty cool, I have both sizes. Btw, I'll add that Ball and Kerr jars (only brands I buy – both made by Jarden, and US made)are quite affordable new nowadays. Canning is huge again. We are moving to a new home and I packed up my mason jars and ummmmm….found I had maybe 300 or more jars. Oopsies!! I do normal canning, and dry storage with mine.

hmmm…

I use produce bags from the grocery store for each days meal – 0.05 ounces – I could just use plastic wrap:
beans or peas – 1.5 ounces
red/green bell pepper – 0.5 ounces
tomato – 0.5 ounces
onion – 0.25 ounces
salt
spices

I could take 5 packages and put them in the bags designed for the "seal-a-meal". We never use them so I have a lifetime supply. That would be enough for one trip.

Then, make maybe 12 packages of these in the summer when produce is ripe. Throw them in freezer. I'm good for a year. For each trip, take one package out of freezer – throw away the heavy "seal-a-meal" package.

Or make some extras for my "Y2K" stash : )

dry them bone dry, which will be about 4% moisture. If there is any moisture left, like it its leathery and flexible, its a real bacteria hazard. Veggies don't have the sugars and acids that fruit does, which allows fruit to be safe with a bit higher moisture.

store them away from oxygen if possible.

start at a higher temperature than the temp when finishing, because when they are wet the piece of veggie will cool itself by evaporative cooling.

You get longer stability for some vegetables (corn, carrots, potatoes for sure, don't remember about peppers) by blanching before drying. Blanching is dipping the veggie pieces in boiling water for a few seconds. this destroys an enzyme that causes browning (the peroxidase enzyme). If you drop a piece of raw carrot in a teaspoon of peroxide, it will bubble. That is the peroxidase enzyme at work. Blanch it for 20 seconds, and put a piece in peroxide, and it won't bubble. If it still bubbles, blanch for a bit longer time.

If you are going to use the veggie soon and don't need longer shelf life, don't worry about it. Fruits don't need blanching.