Food dehydrating takes but just six simple steps from

first digging up the goodies from deep within the soil if you’re

lucky enough to have a green thumb and a garden—or the easy

way—grabbing fruits and veggies out of the grocery store bins

and off their displays … and then happily taking them home so

you can safely dehydrate and store them in vacuum-sealed

bags, or jars.

For long-term storage, we use airtight food-grade buckets with

lids, or bins that store neatly in a spare closet. (Spare closet?

Who’s she kidding?) Hey, we do what we must!

Why DO ALL THIS?

With all the bad stuff going on around the world, it makes

sense to have some food put away for emergencies.

What about the Ebola scare not too

long ago? What if it came back and

we’re all under mandatory house-

quarantine?

Then there are earthquakes, floods,

and hurricanes to contend with on a

yearly basis it seems.

One of my worst fears is an EMP

(Electro-Magnetic Pulse) attack …

whether it’s a natural solar flare, or a

nuclear bomb detonated at “just the

right height” that would kill all our

electronics and way of life as we

know it.

There would be no computers, no

phones, no TV, no cars … it truly IS a

nightmare scenario.

But guess what? You still gotta eat. Read on!

Step 1: Buy It! The best time to dehydrate fruits and veggies is

when they are in season.

Read: cheapest and plentiful.

Check out your local farmers’ markets, the super road-side

stands that are often laden with tomatoes, and cucumbers the

size of baseball bats! Well, not quite, but you see how exciting

it gets?!

Don’t Overlook Frozen Food Keep an eye out in your

grocery store for their

“Buy One, Get One”

sales. Check out frozen

peas and corn—this is a

no-brainer really—you

don’t even have to shell

the peas or mess

around with corn ears …

just dehydrate them

straight from frozen!

Don’t forget about frozen fruit too!

I bet you’re wondering why on earth you’d use frozen foods?

I mean, aren’t they already considered “back up foods”?

Yes, they are.

Consider this: When the power goes out, the frozen food thaws

and you’ve got to eat it all up in one go. Remember, you’ve no

refrigeration at this point until the power is back on. And you

never know “for sure” when that’s gonna be.

I know this for a fact. I live in hurricane-prone central Florida, so

more than once we’ve had to either stuff ourselves to the point

of being sick, and/or throw the soggy stuff away when the

storm has passed.

If you’ve got dehydrated food socked away, it

takes no electricity to maintain it.

It lasts for months and years —if you’ve

vacuum-sealed and stored it correctly.

Step 2: Prepare It! Let’s go over the necessary prep steps prior to dehydrating your

fruits and veggies.

Obviously, make sure your fruit’n’veg are clean! Give ‘em a

good scrub in the sink—get the soil off the spuds and carrots.

Rinse any microscopic bugs off the berries …

Easy-Peasy Slicing Most veggies just need

slicing after washing, so

how easy is that? However,

some of the fruits and

vegetables need blanching.

Why? Blanching helps

vegetables, like carrots, to

retain their bright color –

and – blanching helps

shorten dehydrating time.

More on Blanching When we add small amounts of fruit or vegetables to a small

amount of boiling water, blanching breaks/cracks the outer skin

of unpeeled fruits (like berries! I mean, who’d want to peel

berries?) and therefore the cracks help speed up drying time.

Blanching also stops the enzymatic action inside the fruit —the

darkening effect you see when apples and bananas go brown,

also known as oxidation.

Steaming Steaming is yet another method of preparation for dehydrating;

it achieves the same outcome as blanching.

Ascorbic Acid The other necessary prep step for starchy fruits like bananas,

apples, and pears is ascorbic acid.

What?

Don’t worry … lemon juice can be used

in place of ascorbic acid. (Heck that’s

a bright yellow bottle, isn’t it!?)

ReaLemon™ brand is a great because it

comes in a spray bottle. I liberally

spray my sliced fruits with lemon juice

prior to dehydrating. Again, the lemon

juice deters oxidation.

Back to the frozen foods again …

If you decide to go the easy route and use frozen foods, then

guess what?

NO PREP is necessary, aside from breaking down frozen clumps.

Do that by putting the frozen mass on your dehydrator tray (or

in a sieve) in the sink, and quickly run cold water over the

clumps.

Works like magic!

The reason WHY you don’t need any more preparation for

frozen foods is because the manufacturers have already done

that for us in their preparations to create the frozen food to sell

in the stores. Neat!

SIDE NOTE: All of this information and more is covered in my

eBook and online video courses.

Let’s move on to dehydrators, specifically the Excalibur™ and

the Nesco™ brands. I picked these two because they are the

bestsellers on Amazon, and I use ‘em!

Step 3: Dehydrate It! Dehydrators: Featuring the Excalibur™ & Nesco™

When I first came across dehydrators, oh, about fifteen years

ago, I wondered who on earth

would want one of those flying

saucers in their kitchen? Turns

out, I did!

But it wasn't because I wanted a

new-fangled kitchen gadget

(though I do love gadgets!)

No, it was due to all the doom

'n' gloom on TV and the news ...

but you know what?

If I thought that everything was

hunky-dory, I would be viewing

life through rose-colored

glasses. OK, enough of the adages. I just don't like bad news.

The next best thing is to be prepared for it.

How?

By putting away food — just in case.

Side note: You're familiar with what happens when natural

disasters occur, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, but did

you know that the average household is only nine meals away

from going hungry? That's it ... three days! Any longer than

that, and the grocery store shelves are empty!

Here is my Nesco™ Dehydrator

The one I have is a

round one (though

Nesco™ do have

square dehydrators

too) and you can

stack as many trays

as you need within

reason. We're not

building a tower ...

but the minimum is

four trays (for

proper air

circulation). The Nesco™ is a very affordable dehydrator and it

can grow, tray-wise, as your needs grow.

They have great accessories too — well priced and well made.

Such as? Easy-to-clean solid sheets so you can make fruit roll-

ups (AKA fruit leathers) so the fruity juicy goodness doesn't spill

down onto the trays below!

They also have "Clean-a-Screens" which are just circular mesh

screens that help keep smaller

pieces of food on the trays so that

they don't end up in the bottom of

the dehydrator!

The screens also are great for

helping to keep the dehydrator

trays clean — as the name implies.

Not totally clean all the time, you

do still have to wash the trays!

Here is my Excalibur™ Dehydrator

The Excalibur™ dehydrator I have

is black. It is made of plastic that is

stamped with a leather-like

pattern) with a front panel that

removes by sliding it up and out,

and four trays that can be pulled

out, like an oven rack (or a chest

of drawers). I find Excalibur™

dehydrators to be a tad more

expensive than Nesco™

dehydrators.

Excalibur™ also have similar Nesco™ accessories such as

Paraflexx® non-stick sheets to keep smaller particles of food

from falling.

SIDE NOTE: The Nesco™ dehydrator has its warm-air circulating

fan in its lid; the Excalibur™ dehydrator has its fan in the rear.

Both have temperature controls that are easy to see/read and

use.

Another Great Use for Dehydrators!

Both dehydrators are great for warming hands — on a cold

winter's day. :-)

And you can use Excalibur™ dehydrators to proof bread!

(More about that in our eBook!)

Step 4: Condition It!

Conditioning. Yes, you read that right.

But to get it in condition for what?

Well, you need to have your foods sit overnight in Ziploc™ bags.

Why?

By letting the bags (or covered glass bowls) sit overnight, it

allows what moisture is left in the dehydrated food to more

evenly distribute so you won't have some extremely dry and

some not-so-extremely-dry food ready to be vacuum-sealed.

Plus, it's a great way to gauge if it really is dried enough to your

liking. Mushrooms come to mind here. They're one of the

harder veggies to dehydrate.

More on mushrooms in my eBook and online courses!

An Easy Food Dehydrating fan wrote in and asked if it was OK to

just put her dehydrated food in a glass bowl, covered tightly

with plastic wrap?

My answer: Yes!

But if you live in a

hot climate like I

do, please store

your food

overnight —

while it's

conditioning — in

the refrigerator.

And that's why I

like Ziploc™ bags!

You can pile 'em

on top of each

other. Glass bowls take up a lot of room and you can't stack

'em.

Coming up next is the fun part …

Get the kids involved with this step!

Step 5: Vacuum and Seal It! This is the FUN part!

I use a FoodSaver® food vacuum-sealing machine and I love it!

Most people buy them for their ability to seal up left-overs.

They're great for sealing up individual packs of fresh chicken

breasts, for instance — they really cut down on freezer burn.

But back to dehydrating and what I use the vacuum-sealer for!

Here are three rules to live by:

Rule #1. Get good bags.

Rule #2. Get good bags.

Rule #3 — yes, you guessed it. Get good bags!

I get mine from DC Sales Enterprises, Inc.

Their bags are 3-mil thick—thicker than the bags that come

with the FoodSaver™ machine. Why is that important?

Well, the thicker the bag, the less likely you will encounter

punctured bags.

You know how you hate flat tires? Same thing here with the

bags.

It's annoying to go rooting in one of your bins or buckets and

find a squishy punctured package!

I'm not saying that DC's bags eliminate the puncturing, but I do

have a few more tips on how to combat the punctures in my

three-hour course.

Are you wondering what those blue and white striped packets

are? Well, wonder no more!

They are called “Oxygen Absorbers” and as their name implies,

they absorb oxygen.

Oxygen Absorbers — A Necessity for SAFE Long-Term Food Storage

These are essential. I call them "life support" for jars, bags, bins,

and buckets!

They come in a variety of sizes: 50cc all the way to 2000cc!

Wow! The sizes I use most are

100cc and 300cc sizes.

Oxygen absorbers draw air to

them, keeping your dehydrated

food fresh for many months —

even years — and prevents the

need to add additives like

sorbates, BHA, BHT etc.

Our dehydrated food is just

simply dehydrated food —

without unpronounceable additives that massive

manufacturers are forced to use for product longevity — so the

food can sit for long periods of time on the grocery store

shelves!

Congratulations — you made it to Step Six on how to safely

dehydrate and store food for long-term storage!

In this day and age, it behooves us to have at least a couple of

months' worth of food stored away. We all know we can't

expect the government to be a blanket-solution to hunger if

and when the poop hits the fan. That's why I'm prepared.

Not only do I have dehydrated food stored away, I have some

canned goods too. I don't believe in stocking up my freezer ...

and as I said at the beginning of this eBook, if the power goes

out for longer than three days, I'm out of luck. The food spoils

— and/or you have to eat it all up at once and/or make yourself

sick in the process.

Been there, done that — don't want the T-shirt!

No, it's easier to dehydrate fresh fruit and veggies — check out

the roadside stands or get yourself over to a local Farmers'

Market.

Look out for "buy one - get one" sales — take advantage of any

and all opportunities to buy food at half price.

So, let’s move on to the last step which is

storing all your dehydrated food safely.

Step 6: Store It!

1): Your dehydrated food goes into vacuum-sealer bags (after

conditioning). Then we move on to my favorite step, getting to

use the FoodSaver™ food vacuum-sealer!

Prior to drawing out the air in the vacuum-

sealer bag that contains your newly-dehydrated

food, DO NOT forget to put in a 100cc oxygen

absorber into each of your bags at this stage!

2) Dehydrated food can be stored in Mason jars, rather than

vacuum-sealer bags — ideal for every-day and/or weekly use.

3) After the vacuum-sealing, you store about three or four of

these vacuum-sealed packages in one Mylar bag for long-term

storage.

Mylar is a shiny un-tearable

material that keeps out air,

light, and water.

We ONLY seal the bag. Don't

attempt to draw the air out

of a Mylar bag because you

really can't — more on that in

our eBook and courses.

4) The filled vacuum-sealed pacakges (that have

their oxygen absorber in them) are now stored

in Mylar bags (for long-term storage).

These packed Mylar bags can then be stored

easily in plastic lidded bins, or food-grade

buckets as previously mentioned.

These buckets and bins are great for, yes, you

guessed it, long-term food storage.

Get them at your local hardware store, or feed

supply store, or online at Amazon.

Rotate Your Stock! One thing you must remember to do —at least twice a year —is

to rotate your stock. When you feel the bags, they should still

feel as stiff as when they were first dehydrated and vacuumed.

If you detect any “squishiness,” then it’s highly likely that one

of your bags is punctured. Root out the soft bag and discard the

contents. It’s NOT worth risking eating it in my humble opinion.

I do have a trick regarding how to make the bags behave, and

that’s plastic wrap.

You’ll learn all about that and much more in my eBook and

online course that I’ve hinted at throughout this Six Simple

Steps eBook. I do hope you’ll consider getting the eBook and/or

taking the course.

The course is about 3-hours total, though I am offering a 1-hour

dehydrating course too on Udemy and on Study with Susan

soon. Use this 50% off coupon for the 1-hour Udemy course.

Final cost to you: just $10. Money-back guarantee if not

delighted!

Cheers, Susan

Easy Food Dehydrating and Safe Food Storage

Email: susan@easy-food-dehydrating.com

Web: www.easy-food-dehydrating.com