Dehydrating is the oldest (and easiest) food preservation method.

Dehydrating food is becoming another favorite way of preserving our harvest. I don’t know that I’ll ever give up canning, but drying has some advantages.

The main advantage is space. Dried foods take up hardly any space at all compared to both freezing and canning. A quart size jar holds a lot of food!

It also is better for the nutritional value of your foods. I hate to admit it, but yes…. canned food does lose more nutrition than dried. (Of course, there are other advantages to home canned food.)

The other is energy. No energy is expended to store dried foods. You do use electricity to run an electric dehydrator, but it is still efficient. If you have a way to dry foods with solar energy, that is even better!

I’ve been canning a long time, and I’m sure I’ll continue. But I’ve been on a mission to learn more…especially since my husband built me a solar dehydrator. (Very big smile!)

Jars filled with various kinds of dehydrated fruits and vegetables.

Dehydrating Fruit

Fruit

Apples, apricots, strawberries, and more. Super healthy snacks. Pears are the best!! It’s nature’s candy!

Fruit Leather Recipe

This fruit leather recipe isn’t hard to make, but it’s delicious and allows you to avoid excess sugars and dyes from store-bought fruit rollups!

Dehydrating Vegetables

Vegetables

Most vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, green beans, and more. Have you ever cooked with dried tomatoes? Oh my, it is the bomb (as my son would say)!