I got a dehydrater!

[pinto]

Told a co-worker about my interest in drying fruits and veggies. She had one in the garage, an old number, but hadn't used it for a few years. So it has been passed down to me. No fan, but I have a plan for that, using one of those small office desk fans and some legs.

I'm giving it a run this weekend with apricots, nectarines, plums. Then tomatoes.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Oooh! The best brand -- Free.

My first was a Ronco (no fan) that my mother bought and never used. For that price it was quite good. ;-)

[Warpy]

2. There are a lot of those things in garages

because they're not something that's kept out all the time and once they're put into the garage, they tend to be forgotten.

One coworker has one and dries thinly sliced apples to the apple chip stage. They're wonderful, sweet, sour and crunchy all at the same time.

If the unit has a heat source, an external fan might defeat the purpose, blowing the warmth away instead of directing it up through the trays of food. That's about the only caveat I can think of.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. The Roncos do dry the stuff eventually.

We use it for our small red chiles harvest. I've never felt the urge to apply an external fan. What does help is rotating the stack of trays as outlined in the manual, general on the order of turning all the trays 180 degrees and moving the top tray to the bottom of the stack every 6 to 12 hours to help even out the drying.

[hippywife]

4. I got one, too,

and I was really excited to have it at first, but then ended up giving it away without ever using it once. It was way too big and I had no place to conveniently store it. Plus I decided I'd prefer to try the low tech, energy efficient sun drying method. I really couldn't validate the use of additional energy for as long as they take to do the job.

Hope yours works out for you. :hi:

[BensMom]

5. Yum

Grapes = Raisins

Like no other!!