I just spent 30 minutes chopping a small watermelon into chunks so I could try dehydrating it. I have been pondering this for a couple of years, but just ever got to it. Come home from family get together with a left over watermelon and that was that.
I have been in love with our dehydrator ever since Ron talked me into buying it 4 years ago. It was a hard sell as his reading told him that the Excalibur dehydrator was the one we needed. Not cheap by any means, but he is not a man to buy second rate just to save a few bucks. At that time he was reading a lot about being prepared. We live in Upstate NY and one of these days we are going to get a nasty winter storm. He had read so much about the best way to store food long term and decided that we needed to give dehydrating a try.
Apples slices were our first project. One of his friends from work, Ruthie told him about her favorite local cider mill, Old McMarley’s Apple Farm in Clinton, NY. First he came home with some of the cider. It was fabulous. Then he came home with a box of apples and one of those contraptions that peels, cores and slices an apple. I borrowed another snazzy hand crank apple peeler from Josi and we got to work. With the three of us working together we filled all 9 trays and set it up for the night. 24 hours later we had yummy dried apples slices. We weren’t sure the best way to store them, so I food savered some and then stored others in mason jars. I also took some to work and shared with friends there. A smashing success, if I do say so myself. We ate some as a snack but mostly toss them into our steel cut oatmeal each morning. Take my word for it, a food saver is great for lots of things, but not for storing dehydrated apples. We have done apples again every year since then.
Since then I have dehydrated garlic, onion, beets, garlic scapes, carrots, leeks, corn, peas, lima beans, kale, cucumbers, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, pineapple and hot peppers. Ron’s favorite thing was the cherry tomatoes that he cut in half, slid onto a skewer and smoked for hours. Then we put them into the dehydrator. When they were done, we stashed them in the freezer. When Ron made his salads he would pull a few out and chop them into bits. They gave him a blast of flavor that he just loved. But that was a one shot deal. He grew the same tomatoes the next year but didn’t get enough tomatoes. The following year he could not longer get the seeds. Hasn’t been able to find another one that gives him the same size, taste and yield. We had hoped that this year we would be able to try again. Blasted deer has ruined that.
I especially like having the leeks stored in a jar for me to use in a favorite soup. So much easier to buy some nice leeks at the local farmer’s market, chop up a good bunch, wash them good and dehydrate them. Then just have to toss a couple handfuls and the rest of the veggies into your pot. We store everything in glass jars. Learned quickly that we need to put labels on right away. Everything we have gotten involved in has been a learning process, but I have to say the dehydrating has been my favorite thing. Cannot wait to see how the watermelon turns out.

And here is the end result. One watermelon reduced down to under one quart jar of bits. They aren’t crispy but chewy and sweet. Taking them to work today to get opinions from my taste testing crew.