Dehydrating Fruits and Veggies

This year's apple and pear crops are the largest ever. We already have enough jars of canned applesauce so we were looking for other ways to preserve bumper crops. We tried dehydrating slices of apple in a small round plastic dehydrator but the heater failed so we ordered a large, all stainless steel appliance that has 10 large rectangular shelves. 

Granny Smith Apple Slices: Fresh

Granny Smith Apple Slices: Dry Are much Smaller than the Plump Slices Above.

Tomato Puree, 0.13 Inches Thick Covering a Layer of Teflon-coated Fiberglass.

Fresh Tomato Puree Ready to Lose Water: One-eighth Inch Thick Layers Became Paper Thin Chips. The Tomato Puree Coats the Teflon Coated Fabric.

We've now tried three different ways to make kale chips, three forms of apple slices, apple leather, two ways to dry tomatoes and make hot pepper slices. Next we will try slicing pears, many varieties of veggie chips, and venison jerky. 

Interesting apple statistics: it takes 26 large Granny Smith apples, weighing ten pounds, to make nine trays of skinless slices weighing nine pounds to make 1.8 pounds of dehydrated slices requiring eight hours of drying at 130 degrees F. 

Tomato stats: use a colander to remove five gallons of clear yellow liquid from six gallons of pureed tomato/tomatillos/garlic. Spread the thick ten pounds of red paste one-eighth inch thick on nine square feet of teflon coated sheets. Drying for ten hours at 130 degrees F. results in ten ounces of tomato "paper" that easily fits in a quart zip-lock bag.