Dehydrate Produce for Year Round Thrifty Vegetables

I got a new dehydrator for my birthday, which was awesome because I wore the old one out! Around here, even the hundredth zucchini is warmly welcomed to the world because we can grate and dehydrate it to use in chocolate zucchini bread, soups and other delicious goodies all winter long. I don’t know how many of those things we’ll be enjoying this year unless we have a bumper crop, though. Thanks to Walnut Spinney, we’ve discovered dehydrated veggie chips. Yum!

Dehydrating is a great way for thrifty people to add healthy food to their diet year round. During the height of the gardening season, vegetables are literally free for the taking. Pause for a few seconds while stepping into or out of your car and gardening neighbors will rush toward you waving monster squash. Step into the break room at work and co-workers will pounce on you with a grocery bag crammed with produce. While some people refuse that delicious, free, organic bounty, frugal folks accept it eagerly and head to the kitchen to fire up their dehydrators.

Why dehydrators? Well, they’re easier than canning, especially on sweltering summer days. (Although I do plan to can a lot of produce this year, too.) You do have to blanch some vegetables, but, for most of them, you can use your microwave to do so. They also allow you to store a lot more food in a small space. Gallon glass jars can store a massive number of peppers, while frozen peppers used to take up half my freezer door space. You also don’t have to worry about losing all your preserved food to a power outage like you do if you freeze most of it.

Can you really dry zucchini? Yup. My dehydrator came with a nice little book that encouraged me to think about dehydrating a lot of things I wouldn’t have tried, like eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms. Online friends and books on preserving have encouraged me to dehydrate even more.

Have I convinced you yet? Are you ready to give dehydrating a try? I hope so!

(Photo via amazon.com)