preserving produce - dehydrating

I had always wanted a food dehydrator, I have fond memories of the tasty tangy dried feijoas my grandparents used to make. So I was very glad to stumble across this one in my local opp shop some time ago. And it has been a $10 very well spent. Dehydrating is a great way of preserving excess produce. You'd be amazed at the things that you can dry, anything really, for example, how about dried greens like cabbage or spinach or kale, blended into a powder and then used when making soups! I dried some of my excess zucchini this summer and now I'm throwing the dried slices into stews, it reconstitutes when you add it to liquid and it's like you've thrown it in from fresh. And the dried fruit or vegetable retains more of its nutrients than other preserving methods because of the low temperatures it's dried at. And takes up way less space than bottling. And the kids love the dried fruit as snacks. So yeah, I'm a fan as you can see.

Apples from a friend's tree.
Bananas that arrived a little bruised in our vege box.


Tomatoes from the garden.
Celery salt.


I'm pretty excited about the celery salt.
Celery from the garden, dried, then powdered in the blender, then 1 part salt, mixed with 1 part celery. And now I'm thinking, how about a few dried herbs from the garden in there too, and perhaps even maybe some of those tomatoes powdered and mixed in too.


Olive oil added to some of the tomatoes.