There are a lot of reasons why people like to dehydrate food. One reason is for food storage. If you have a garden you probably end up with a large surplus of fruits and/or vegetables this at the end of the growing season. Dehydrating these food items will let you store them for long periods of time and use them throughout the year. Other people like to make their own homemade jerky and some people want to save money by drying their own herbs spices instead of paying top dollar for them at the grocery store.
Dehydrating food is a great way to preserve it. Dehydrated food will retain its nutritional value a lot better than canning and there is only so much space in your freezer to store extra food so drying it out and storing it in the pantry is a great option. Drying food is an effective way to preserve it because by removing the moisture from your food you inhibit the growth of bacteria, mold, yeast and other microorganisms. This will prevent your food from rotting and will also prevent you from becoming ill by ingesting a foodborne pathogen.
If you want to start dehydrating your own food you have a couple different options. You could use an electric food dehydrator and it will save you a lot of money over buying things like jerky, herbs and spices, fruit chips and other items at the grocery store. The problem is that an electric food dehydrator takes up counter space in your kitchen, they use electricity and they can be noisy because of the internal fans.
For a lot of people the solution is a solar food dehydrator. You can purchase a very simple and relatively small solar food dehydrator for about $60. If you are the do-it-yourself type you can build your own backyard solar food dehydrator. Another option is to buy a kit. There are kits available that will come with all of the materials you need and detailed instructions on how to put everything together.
Building your own solar dehydrator or buying a kit that you can assemble is a great option if you need a larger dehydrator with the capacity to dry a lot of food at the same time. If you have a garden you may end up with a lot of fruits and veggies and you may need a larger capacity dehydrator. If you are a hunter and need to dehydrate your meat you will also need a larger capacity so that you don’t have to do a huge number of smaller batches in order to preserve all of your food.
Whether you want to buy a solar food dehydrator that is already made, build your own from scratch, or purchase a kit that comes with detailed instructions, the Internet can help you find what you’re looking for. There are videos on YouTube that will show you how to build a solar food dehydrator and if you decide to purchase one or buy a kit you can study user reviews online to help you find a quality item at a good price.
