Homesteading Handbook vol. 5

Food Drying: How to Dry Vegetables

Written by Michelle Grande

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© 2014 All rights reserved.

Book 5 of the Homesteading Handbooks series of books.

Disclaimer:

The information contained in this book is for general information purposes only.

While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the book or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the book for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

None of the information in this this book is meant to be construed as medical advice. Always consult with a medical profession prior to making any dietary changes in your life.

Contents

Introduction

The Benefits of Drying Vegetables

How to Dry a Vegetable in 8 Easy Steps

1. Select the Vegetables.

2. Wash Everything, Including the Vegetables.

3. Prepare the Vegetables.

4. Blanch the Vegetables.

5. Dry the Vegetables.

Solar Drying

Oven Drying

Using a Dehydrator

6. Conditioning.

7. Pasteurization.

8. Storage.

Dried Artichokes and Artichoke Hearts

Dried Asparagus

Beets (Dried Beets, Beet Chips & Candied Beets

Bell Peppers (Dried Strips, Crushed Peppers, Candied Bell Peppers)

Broccoli (Dried Florets, Chips and Broccoli Powder)

Brussels Sprouts (Dried Sprouts & Snacks)

Carrots (Dried Coins, Carrot Flakes & Carrot Fries)

Cauliflower (Dried Curds, Cauliflower "Popcorn" & Cauliflower Jerky)

Celery (Dried Celery, Celery Leaves & Celery Salt)

Corn (Dried Kernels, Dried Corn on the Cob & Popcorn)

Eggplant (Dried Strips, Eggplant "Jerky" & Eggplant Chips)

Green Beans (Dried Green Beans, Crunchy Dried Beans & Old-Fashioned Leather Britches)

Kale (Dried Leaves, Kale Powder & Kale Chips)

Mushrooms (Dried Slices and Mushroom Chips)

Onions (Cured Onions & Dried Onions)

Peas (Dried Peas & Wasabi Peas)

Potatoes (Cured Potatoes, Grated Potatoes & Dried Mashed Potatoes)

Tomatoes (Dried Tomatoes & Herbed Tomatoes)

Additional Reading

Introduction

If you've followed the Homesteading Handbooks series of books since the first volume, there's a good chance you're going to have an abundance of tasty produce on your hands at some point in the near future. For those just now jumping aboard the series, we've covered a number of topics related to gardening thus far, including growing vegetables both indoors and out and how to save seeds. We've decided to move away from gardening and the next logical step in the series is to discuss how to preserve a bountiful harvest.

Growing food is only half the battle. Once you've grown and harvested a crop, that crop will only last so long if you aren't able to preserve it.

You rarely get a steady amount of food from a garden unless you're lucky enough to live in an area with a moderate climate and are able to grow food year-round. For the rest of us, we end up with an abundance of food during the spring, summer and sometimes fall months, but there are long months during the winter and early spring where nothing will grow outdoors. Sure, we might be able to set up a greenhouse or maybe move a few of our crops indoors, but it's going to be tough to grow enough food in containers in the house to last through the winter.

Food preservation techniques allow you to take a bountiful harvest and store it away for a much longer period of time than you'd be able to store it if you simply wrapped it up and put it in the fridge or left it sitting on the counter. Food drying, also known as food dehydration, is the process of removing moisture from food by gently heating it until the much of the water evaporates from the item being dried. The lack of moisture in the dried food inhibits the growth of harmful microorganisms and drastically slows the enzymatic reactions that impact the quality of produce as it ages. It's an effective technique of preserving foods that can extend the life of items that are dried by weeks, months, and in some cases, even years.

While most books, this one included, don't recommend storing most dried foods for a year or less because the quality will be impacted and the chance of the food going bad increases, there are cases where dried foods have lasted much, much longer. I've experienced this myself, as I recently stepped into the pantry to find my oldest son chowing down on a batch of dried apricots. This struck me as odd because I hadn't made dried apricots since our apricot tree fell down in a windstorm at least a couple years prior. When he told me he'd found the apricots in a bag in the back of the pantry and complained about how chewy they were, I started to worry about food poisoning. I grabbed the bag and examined the apricots inside. There was no mold and no apparent signs of them aging other than they appeared to be really dry. I threw the apricots out and watched my son closely, ready to call the doctor at the first sign of illness.

He never got sick. While I would never recommend eating dried food that's been left in the back of the pantry for a couple years and would never intentionally eat it, this does stand as a testament to the durability of dried food that's been properly packaged and stored in a cool, dry location.

Food drying is a homesteading technique that predates electricity and has been in use for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. Our ancestors didn't have the ability to buy food any time they needed it and they lacked the modern conveniences we have that allow us to freeze or refrigerate our foods. They had to come up with methods of food preservation that didn't require electricity and allowed them to store food for long periods of time at room temperature. If the food they put up for winter ran out or went bad, starvation was a real possibility, so the methods used needed to be as foolproof as possible. Food dehydration was one of their go-to methods and it's withstood the test of time.

Learning to dry food is no longer a must in order to survive for those of us living in the Western world. Food is available when we need it and it's allowed us to get complacent. Most of us no longer grow and preserve our own food. Instead, we rely on large farms and corporate entities to provide us with food. Homesteaders realize these companies don't care about us and they most definitely don't care about our health. We grow and raise as much of our food as we can and the ability to dry it allows us to put it up and continue feeding it to our families throughout the year.

While food drying is no longer a necessity for survival, it is an integral part of learning to become self-sufficient. If the food supply ever dries up, you're going to need to know how to dry food in order to ensure there's food on the table year-round. This book provides you with the knowledge needed to dry vegetables. You'll learn the steps required to dry pretty much any vegetable you'd like and then we'll cover a number of ways to dry 18 of the most popular dried vegetables in existence. If you're planning on learning how to dry vegetables, you're going to want to keep this book handy. 

The Benefits of Drying Vegetables

Some of the benefits of drying vegetables are obvious, like being able to store food for leaner times, while others, like being able to take advantage of sale prices on in-season produce, aren't immediately apparent. If you aren't drying vegetables, you may be short-changing yourself in more ways than you'd expect.

Aside from the initial cost of supplies, dried foods will save you money over the long run. For one, you'll be able to grow much more food than you can consume in the short time after the harvest before fresh food goes bad and dry a bunch of it for later use. Vegetables you grow yourself are almost always cheaper than those bought from the store. This is even truer in the winter. Produce prices rise during the winter months, at which time you'll be able to pull a package of dried vegetables out of the pantry instead of paying the exorbitant prices being asked at the market. In some areas of the country, vegetables cost roughly double in the winter than they do during the summer months. Plus, good luck finding your favorite vegetables in the winter, especially if you're buying organic produce.

Even if you aren't into growing your own food, buying vegetables while prices are low and drying a bunch of them to use in the winter will still save you a significant amount of money. Watch for great sales that are too good to pass up and buy as much produce as you think you'll need for the winter. It'll take a bit of work to get it all cut and dried, but your bank account will thank you for it when prices shoot up later on in the year. Since dried foods will often last a year when properly packaged and stored, you have the luxury of waiting until produce prices bottom out every year to buy your produce.

Another way dried foods save you money is they allow you to put foods up before they spoil. If you accidentally buy or grow too much food and don't know how to preserve it, you'll either have to give it away or end up throwing a bunch of food out when it goes bad. This can get expensive in a hurry! Learn how to dry extra produce and you'll be able to save it before it goes bad.

Even more important than the money saved are the health benefits associated with being able to reap the rewards of your own garden year-round. When you grow your own food, you have ultimate control over what is used on the land and on the crops as they grow. Your produce can be grown organically and you can rest easy at night knowing you're feeding your family the best and healthiest foods around. They'll be free of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and other chemicals and will provide you with nourishment minus the contaminants found in commercial crops.

I constantly hear people complain about how expensive it is to buy organic. While organic food costs an arm and a leg at the grocery store, it's much cheaper to grow organic food. Organic food is even cheaper to grow than traditional food because you don't have to buy all the fertilizers and pesticides you'd normally use. Even if you aren't growing your own organic food, you can take advantage of local harvests of regionally-grown organic produce and still end up with a bounty of good food to dry and store away before prices shoot back into the stratosphere.

Here are some additional benefits associated with dehydrated foods:

They taste great. Dehydrating food takes all the flavor of the large piece of food and shrinks it into a smaller package. The result is a dried food that often tastes better than the original. Mushrooms are a great example. Fresh mushrooms are good, but dried mushrooms are absolutely divine and are packed with mushroom flavor.

No chemicals. As long as you grow or buy organic vegetables, the dried vegetables you create will be free of chemicals. Manufacturers often add preservatives and other chemicals to their dried foods when they package them, so you're able to avoid these chemicals as well.

Dried foods are easy to store. Drying shrinks the original food down into smaller pieces that are easy to store. Dried vegetables are often reduced in volume by half their original size or more. Another storage benefit is they can be stored at room temperature, which frees up space in the fridge and freezer.

Healthy snacks. Instead of snacking on candy and chips, dried foods can be brought with you anywhere you go and are a healthy snack that will give you a quick boost of energy when you need it. While most home cooks rehydrate dried vegetables and use them in cooked dishes, they can often be seasoned and eaten in their dried state.

Dried foods make great gifts. You can save money and keep family members and friends happy by giving dried produce out as gifts. Put the produce in a glass jar, add a label and some ribbon and you've got a great gift that only cost you a few bucks to make.

Emergency preparedness. MREs and freeze-dried foods will only get you so far. They're full of sodium and other unhealthy ingredients and aren't something you want to have to eat every day for months on end. Sure, you'll survive while eating them, but wouldn't you rather enjoy what you eat? Dried foods are a better option for emergency preparedness because they last a long time and are actually good for you, unlike the vast majority of MREs. They're also easy to rotate because you can pull older dried foods out of the pantry, use them and swap them out with new dried foods. Good luck doing that with those meatloaf and gravy MREs you've had stored for the last 10 years.

As you can see, there are a number of benefits associated with dried foods. In addition to all the benefits mentioned previously, there's one big benefit that's not tangible. Learning to dry food allows you to be one of the few people left in the nation who is preserving our heritage. It places you in a group of people that's dwindling smaller and smaller over the years. Should something ever happen that cuts off the food supply, you're going to be one of the few people left who's able to reteach homesteading skills to the general populace…Or you can head into the hills and let them fend for themselves while you live off the land. I'll leave that up to you.

How to Dry a Vegetable in 8 Easy Steps

From the outside looking in, the process of drying vegetables seems like a complicated one with many involved steps. The reality is most vegetables can be dried in a simple 8-step process that's pretty much the same for every single vegetable you'll ever want to dry. Sure, there are little tricks and techniques you can learn that will aid your drying efforts with certain vegetables, but once you've learned this method, it's pretty much the same thing every time.

When it comes to dehydrating vegetables there's no need to overcomplicate things.

There's one goal you're attempting to achieve by drying vegetables and that's to remove moisture from the vegetable in an efficient manner that does minimal damage to the vegetable as it dries. Vegetables are made up of anywhere from 75% to more than 90% water, which means you're going to need to remove a large portion of the volume of the vegetable in order to preserve it. It isn't uncommon for vegetables to shrink to half or even three-quarters of their original size once they've been dried. The goal of drying is to remove as much as 90% of the water from the vegetable.

Properly drying vegetables requires achieving a good balance between too little and too much moisture. Fail to remove enough moisture and shelf-life will be drastically shortened. The enzymes in the vegetable will react to air and any moisture left in the vegetable will promote spoilage, accelerating the speed at which the vegetable goes bad. Remove too much moisture and the vegetable will be reduced to a hard little nugget that's impossible to rehydrate. You can add all the water you'd like and you'll never get it to return to a semblance of its former self.

The act of drying vegetables is part science and part art form. The more you practice it, the better you'll get. You'll make mistakes at first, but you'll eventually get there. If you follow the best practices guidelines, you'll get there much faster than those who throw caution to the wind.

Let's take a look at the 8 easy steps required to dry almost any vegetable.

1. Select the Vegetables.

The key to quality dried vegetables is to start off with vegetables that are of good quality. If you begin with good fresh vegetables, there's a good chance you'll end up with good dried vegetables at the other end of the process. On the other hand, if you start with low-quality vegetables, they aren't going to magically improve while they're drying. They'll get worse and you'll end up with dried food that's of poor quality and doesn't last very long. If you put garbage in, that's exactly what you're going to get out. Quality fresh food will more often than not result in quality dried foods.

Poor quality food is the number one reason why dried foods don't turn out correctly.

People tend to wait until the last minute to preserve vegetables. They wait and wait and wait some more, until right before the vegetables start to go bad or even until some of the vegetables have actually gone bad to decide to prepare them for storage. I've heard stories from people who have cut away rotten spots and mold and went ahead and dried the tomatoes they cut the bad spots out of. If you wouldn't eat a vegetable fresh, it's only going to get worse once it's dried. Waiting until a vegetable is old is the worst possible time to attempt to dry it. For one, it's already started to degrade and it'll continue to degrade while it's drying. Fresh vegetables aren't likely to rot or mold during the drying process, but vegetables that have already started to turn will continue in the direction they were already headed. Vegetables that have already started to degrade are much more likely to go bad while they're drying. Even if they don't go bad, the quality of the final product will be subpar and you'll be left with food that's barely edible now and has a drastically-shortened shelf life.

For best results, it's imperative you select vegetables that are in prime eating condition. They should be ripe, but not overripe and firm to the touch. Vegetables with rotten spots, mold and large bruises are to be avoided. If you wouldn't eat a vegetable fresh, it shouldn't be dried. When selecting vegetables for drying, choose the freshest and best vegetables of the bunch and don't procrastinate. Dry them within a couple days of harvesting them. If you buy them from the store, they've already been sitting around for a while and should be dried immediately.

2. Wash Everything, Including the Vegetables.

Because food-borne diseases and bacteria can reside on the surface of vegetables, all vegetables should be washed thoroughly before they're dried. Vegetables can carry salmonella and E. coli and the drying process doesn't heat them up enough to kill bacteria and pathogens, so proper washing is extremely important.

Since bacteria can also be transferred to and from your hands and any utensils you use, it's just as important to wash your hands with hot, soapy water before and after working with vegetables. Kitchen surfaces and utensils need to be washed with hot, soapy water as well. Just to be safe, I wash my hands before I wash my vegetables and then again after I'm done washing them before moving on to the preparation step. I also wash my cutting boards and utensils both before and after using them. Bacteria can be transferred onto a cutting board from the outside of a vegetable and will make its way inside the vegetable when you cut it. If you're washing and preparing multiple varieties of food, wash the cutting board, the utensils and your hands every time you switch to a new type of vegetable.

The method used to wash vegetables depends on the type of vegetable being washed:

Vegetables with thick, smooth skin should be scrubbed with a vegetable brush to remove bacteria that may be stuck to the surface.

Vegetables that have bumps and nooks in which bacteria can hide should be soaked in cold water for a couple minutes. Move them around in the water and dump it out after 3 to 4 minutes. Refill the container with fresh water and let the vegetables soak again. Continue soaking and dumping the water until it comes out clean.

Sensitive vegetables that don't do well when they're soaked and/or scrubbed can be washed off under running water.

Regardless of the method used to wash the vegetables, pat them dry with a towel or a paper towel. This can help remove even more bacteria from the surface of the vegetable. If all this sounds like too much of a hassle, look for vegetables that are labeled as "washed." They've already been cleaned and you can skip straight to the fun part, the preparation stage. Of course, if you're growing your own vegetables, you don't have this option. Always wash vegetables you've harvested from your own garden before attempting to dry them. Bacteria, molds, fungi, insects and all sorts of bad stuff can attack your plants and can be passed into your system if you don't wash your vegetables. Illnesses that come about from eating dried foods are rare, but you can further stack the deck in your favor by washing your hands, your vegetables and your utensils.

All this talk of food-borne bacteria and illnesses may have you worried about getting sick from vegetables, but there's little to worry about. The vast majority of people who eat vegetables do so their entire lives without getting sick. These measures are nothing more than precautionary measures. They're important because they reduce your chances of getting sick if you are one of the unlucky few who ends up with contaminated vegetables.

I've heard people tell their friends they always wash their vegetables with soapy water. This is a bad idea because residue from the soap will remain on the vegetables and will make it into your system when you eat them. If you want to add a bit of extra oomph to your vegetable wash, an apple cider vinegar wash is a much better option.

Follow these directions to wash vegetables with ACV:

Place uncut vegetables into a large bowl.

Fill the bowl with clean water and let the vegetables sit for a few minutes.

Dump the water out and add enough fresh water to cover the vegetables.

Add a couple tablespoons of unfiltered apple cider vinegar to the water.

Let the vegetables sit in the solution for 7 to 10 minutes.

Scrub vegetables that have thick skins with a brush. Rinse them off. Vegetables that can't be scrubbed should be rinsed only.

Set the vegetables on a clean towel to dry them. They can be patted dry if you'd like.

Apple cider vinegar has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties and is a great way to add a bit of power to your vegetable cleaning efforts in a safe and natural manner. The best part is there's no difference in taste between vegetables that have been given an apple cider bath and those that haven't. Once they've been rinsed, they're indistinguishable from any other vegetable.

3. Prepare the Vegetables.

The preparation step gets the vegetables ready for drying. You can't pick a vegetable and set it out to dry without any preparation. Take tomatoes for example. If you set a tomato out in the sun, the inside of the tomato would go bad long before the tomato dried out. In fact, the insides of the tomato would ferment before any drying took place and you'd be left with a tomato that's sour on the inside and moldy on the surface and it would be inedible long before it reached anything even remotely resembling a dry state. Doesn't sound very appetizing, does it?

Now, if you take the same tomato and slice it into thin slices before setting it out to dry, you'll accelerate drying and significantly improve the chances of the tomato actually drying before it goes bad. Instead of taking months to dry, the cut slices will dry much faster and you'll end up with sun-dried tomatoes instead of something not fit for the compost bin.

There are multiple reasons why cut vegetables are a better choice for drying than whole vegetables:

They dry faster. There is more surface area of a cut vegetable exposed to open air. This allows for faster evaporation of moisture from the vegetable and is the main reason why cut vegetables dry faster than those that are left whole. Vegetables need to be dried as fast as possible to prevent them from going bad.

The skin is broken. Vegetables often have shiny skins or thick skins that are designed to keep the flesh and seeds of the vegetable on the inside where they belong. This is great for the vegetable while it's growing, but not so good for you when attempting to dry it because the skin locks moisture inside the vegetable along with the seeds. Breaking the skin by cutting the vegetable into pieces exposes the inside of the vegetable to open air.

They dry more uniformly. Large vegetables don't dry evenly. Larger chunks of cut vegetables are marginally better, but won't dry evenly either. Thinly-sliced or shredded vegetables dry uniformly, given that they're spread out in a thin layer and are all close to the same size and thickness.

Other tasks that might need to be performed as part of the preparation step include peeling vegetables and possibly removing the seeds. Some vegetables like cucumbers are dried with the seeds still in them, while others like squash have the seeds removed prior to drying.

4. Blanch the Vegetables.

When I first started drying vegetables, it was a long time ago and I didn't have access to the many resources available to those of you starting out in this day and age. I shredded 10 pounds of potatoes and set them out to dry, only to return a few hours later and find they'd all turned brown and looked very unappetizing. Eggplant, apple slices, bananas, you name it. Everything I dried turned brown before it finished drying. I'd all but given up until I asked a lady at the local farmer's market how she kept her dried produce from losing its color and she told me about citric acid baths and blanching.

As soon as you cut into a vegetable, enzymes in the flesh of the vegetable start reacting with the air they've been exposed to. This enzymatic reaction is the reason why vegetables like potatoes and eggplant start to turn brown shortly after they're exposed to oxygen. In order to properly preserve vegetables, this reaction has to be stopped prior to drying the vegetables or they'll turn into unappetizing, shriveled brown chunks during the drying process.

While there are a number of pretreatment routines that work wonders for pieces of cut fruit, your only good option for most vegetables is blanching them. The blanching process quickly heats and cools each piece of vegetable in an attempt to slow enzymatic activity.

In addition to preventing browning, there are a number of other reasons to blanch cut vegetables before drying them, including the following:

Vegetables that have been blanched will last longer in storage.

Blanching vegetables before drying them preserves both the color and the structure of the vegetables while they dry.

Dried vegetables that have been blanched will have better flavor when they're rehydrated.

Rehydration is easier when vegetables have been blanched.

More vitamins are preserved when vegetables have been blanched prior to drying.

There are three methods of blanching that are commonly used today:

Boiling water.

Steaming.

Microwaving.

Boiling and steaming are the only methods I'll use because they evenly heat the vegetables being blanched. Microwaving unevenly heats the cut pieces of vegetable and isn't an effective method because some areas of the vegetable will start to cook before other areas have been properly treated. Recent studies have revealed microwaving changes the structure of foods on a molecular level, so there's no telling what microwaved foods are doing to your body when you consume them regularly.

Boiling water blanching is quick and easy. All you have to do is bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and drop the vegetables into it. The amount of time a vegetable needs to be left in the boiling water differs from vegetable to vegetable and will be discussed in the chapters for individual vegetables. It ranges anywhere from 30 seconds for vegetables that cook quickly like leafy greens to 10 minutes or more for slow-cooked vegetables like potatoes. The goal for most vegetables is to quickly cook the portion of the vegetable flesh that's exposed without cooking too much of the flesh behind it. You don't want cooked vegetables…All you want to do is stop the enzymatic reaction that causes them to prematurely degrade.

Citric acid can be added to the water used for blanching in order to further prevent darkening and help kill off any microbes on the surface of the vegetables. Add ¼ teaspoon of citric acid to a quart of water and soak the vegetables in it for 3 to 5 minutes for best results.

Once vegetables have been boiled for the required amount of time, they'll need to be immediately removed from the boiling water and cooled down to prevent them from continuing to cook. If you're only making a single batch of vegetables, the hot water can be dumped out and ice cold water can be poured over the top of the vegetables to accelerate cooling. If you want to use the same pot of boiling water for multiple batches of vegetables, place the vegetables into a mesh bag or a bag made of cheesecloth before boiling them. This will make it easy to remove the vegetables from the pot when blanching is complete. Pull the bag out of the pot and move it into a pot of ice water. Once the vegetables have cooled, move them onto a paper or cloth towel and let them drain before dehydrating them.

The problem with boiling water blanching is it can be damaging to the vegetables being blanched. The flesh of the vegetable is in constant contact with the boiling water and some of the vitamins and minerals can leach out of the vegetables. To be clear, vegetables that have been blanched will have a reduced rate of nutrient loss while they're stored, but the process itself does cause some loss of nutrients. Fat-soluble vegetables like vitamins A, D, E and K will be protected, while some of the water-soluble vitamins like C and B-complex vitamins will be lost. Ascorbic and folic acids are especially-sensitive to heat and will quickly degrade. Minerals are also lost during blanching. A recent study determined that as much as 20% of the minerals in vegetables can be lost when vegetables are blanched in soft water. When hard water is used, calcium and potassium levels in blanched vegetables can actually increase because the vegetables will absorb these compounds out from the water.

If vitamin and mineral loss is of concern, steam blanching is the way to go. Vegetables that are blanched using steam suffer less damage and don't lose the same amount of vitamins and minerals that vegetables that are boiled do. Use a double broiler for steam blanching. Add water to the pot, bring it to a boil, fill the inner basket with vegetables and place the basket inside the pot. The vegetables should be sitting above the water. As the water boils, the steam from the water will heat the vegetables and blanch them. Since the water never touches the surface of the vegetables, leaching doesn't take place and most of the vitamins and minerals remain in the vegetables where they belong.

Once blanching is complete, remove the vegetables from the basket and place them into an ice water bath. This cools the vegetables and prevents them from continuing to cook due to residual heat. Failure to cool the vegetables can result in vegetables that are too soft and will crumble when dried.

5. Dry the Vegetables.

Step 5 is the actual drying of the vegetables. There are 4 methods of drying vegetables that are commonly used today:

Solar drying.

Oven drying.

Dehydrating.

Freeze drying.

Of the 4 methods, freeze drying is the most complicated because it uses rapid cooling to remove moisture from food and requires special knowledge and equipment. It isn't covered in this book. The other three methods use mild heat and proper air circulation for drying and will all be covered in detail in the following sections.

Solar Drying

Solar drying is the go-to method of drying for many homesteaders because it uses the power of the sun and doesn't require electricity. It's cheap and efficient, given you live somewhere that gets enough sun and dry weather to actually dry food outside. It can take anywhere from less than a day to a week or more to dry different foods, so solar drying may not be an option if you live in an area that doesn't get a lot of sun. It can also be difficult in areas with high humidity because humid air doesn't pull moisture out of food the same way dry air does.

There are a number of sources that state drying vegetables in the sun isn't safe because vegetables don't have as much acid in them as fruits and are more likely to spoil. There is some truth to this, so dry vegetables in the sun at your own risk. It's a good idea to at least know how to dry vegetables outdoors in case you ever need to, even if you plan on using safer methods most of the time. An emergency that shuts down the power grid could make solar drying your only real option for drying vegetables. If you've never dried foods in the sun, it would be easy to make the mistake of assuming it takes the same amount of time to dry food outdoors as it does in a dehydrator in the house. This would lead to you under-drying the food and it could spoil in storage, making you sick or leaving you without food in the middle of winter.

In order to dry vegetables outdoors, you're going to need drying trays and a place in the sun to set the trays while the food dries. Special drying trays can be purchased, but they're inexpensive and easy to make at home. Cheesecloth can be stretched across a wooden frame and stapled in place to create a basic tray. Criss-cross a few pieces of twine across the cheesecloth for support and you've got a quick and easy frame for pennies on the dollar compared to what buying one would have cost. I've seen some sources that recommend metal screening for drying, but this sort of screen can react negatively to the acids in the food being dried (more so with fruits than most vegetables) and have been known to contaminate foods they come in contact with. The nice thing about cheesecloth is it's inexpensive and easy to replace if it gets dirty or starts to break down.

Once you've got your trays built, it's time to select a spot for drying.

Good spots for drying are places that get plenty of warm sunlight and the ground is made of a material that reflects heat back up to the drying food like an asphalt driveway or a concrete patio. Don't set your food out to dry in a dirt area because a light breeze can cover your drying food in dirt particles. I've seen people set food up on their roof to dry, which will work as long as you live in an area that doesn't get windy. Support the drying tray up in a manner that supports the frame, but allows air to circulate through the cheesecloth. Elevate the trays to keep them off the ground and deter small animals that might show up in search of an easy meal.

Place cheesecloth or some sort of netting over the food to keep insects from landing on it and laying eggs. Flies can quickly ruin a batch of drying food and you don't want to open a container a couple months from now to find it's full of maggots. Covering the food will also prevent at least some particulate matter from landing on it.

Certain foods may need to be set out to dry for up to a week. Don't leave food out overnight because drying food is a tempting free meal to every raccoon, deer, bear and any other mammal that happens to pass by. Animals that would normally steer clear during the day will become much bolder at night and will arrive looking for an easy snack. When I lived in the Cascades, I set a bunch of apricots out to dry and forgot about them one night. I awoke to a bunch of crashing and peeked out the window to find a large bear munching down my apricots. My husband wanted to shoot it and make it into a rug, but I figured it was my fault for leaving such a tasty snack outside at night. Bring your food inside to keep it safe from animals and place it back outside in the morning.

Bringing food inside at night serves an additional purpose. Condensation can build up on the food at night and can get especially bad as the sun comes up in the morning. If you've ever gone camping and woke up to a tent and campsite that's covered in condensation, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This sort of condensation can wreak havoc on drying food because it dries out during the day and will be partially-rehydrated by condensation at night. This will lengthen the amount of time it takes for the food to dry and makes it much more likely the food will go bad. It's important to keep a close eye on the weather report. Bring drying foods indoors if rain or heavy fog is in the forecast.

Wind can also be a problem because it can kick up dirt and has been known to topple drying trays over, spilling the contents onto the ground below. This isn't as big of a problem when a solar dryer is used. In areas where sunlight isn't as intense as it needs to be to dry food or wind is a common problem, a solar dryer can be created. A simple solar dryer can be created by building a box into which the drying rack can be placed. A window or sheet of glass is placed in the top of the box to intensify the sunrays that hit the box. Make sure you drill plenty of vent holes into the box or else the food will cook instead of drying. Cover the vent holes with screening to keep insects and small animals out.

Solar drying is the easiest method of drying vegetables because all you have to do is prepare them, blanch them and set them out to dry on a sunny day. It's also the most difficult to control because you have little control over the weather and will have to keep a vigilant eye out for animals (and the neighbor's kids) when you have tasty snacks set out to dry.

Oven Drying

There are two methods of drying that use electricity (and possibly natural gas) to generate the heat required to dry vegetables: oven drying and using a dehydrator. Of the two, oven-drying is much more difficult to control because it requires setting an oven to its lowest setting in order to dry the food. While this doesn't sound difficult, the temperature has to be set so low (140° F or less) that many ovens aren't able to be set low enough. Ovens with a Warm setting may be good to go, but it's a good idea to use an oven thermometer to check the actual temperature inside the oven before placing your food in it. Check it in the back and the front because temperatures can vary in different locations in the oven.

All hope isn't lost if you can't set your oven low enough, but it's going to be more difficult to dry food in your oven. Here are your options for ovens that can't be set to a temperature below 140° F:

Use just the pilot light in older gas ovens. Older gas ovens that don't have electric ignition have a pilot light that's always on. The heat from the pilot light alone might be enough to dry food. Newer gas ovens don't have pilot lights, so this trick won't work.

Replace the light in the oven with a heat bulb. Oven lights can be difficult to gain access to, but you might be able to switch the bulb out for a heat bulb that'll raise the temperature in the oven when it's on.

Open the oven door while the oven's on and place a fan in front of it. Set the oven to its lowest setting, crack the door and place a fan in front of it. Play around with how much the door needs to be opened and the settings on the fan until you get it right. If you've got young children, this method isn't a good option.

Even if your oven is able to be set to the right temperature, it's a good idea to leave the door cracked and have a fan set up to circulate air. Water evaporating from food will quickly fill the air inside a closed oven with moisture. Once the air is full, it will no longer wick moisture away from the vegetables being dried. This can lead to condensation on the vegetables instead of drying and mold and bacteria can grow. Good air circulation moves damp air out of the oven and keeps dry air moving across the food.

Oven-drying trays need to be made of a non-reactive material and they have to be sized so they'll fit in the oven. If you remove the top rack and stack the trays one on top of another with a spacer between them, 3 to 4 trays will fit in a normal oven. If you're going to dry food in your oven, you'd better plan on not using your oven for a while. It'll be tied up for anywhere from 10 hours to a few days while you're waiting for your vegetables to dry. If you like baking as much as I do, this is a huge problem unless you're lucky enough to have a double oven.

Vegetables dried in an oven will dry unevenly unless you regularly rotate the trays. Move them from top to bottom and flip them around so the vegetables that were on the inside against the wall are on the outside by the door. Even then your vegetables might dry unevenly because pockets of heat can form in the oven.

If you're testing the waters to see if you like dried foods, a conventional oven will do the trick. For those who are planning on doing a lot of drying, a dedicated dehydrator is usually a much better option.

Using a Dehydrator

An electric dehydrator is a tool that will pay off in bunches if you plan on doing a lot of drying. To be fair, it uses electricity and isn't exactly a homesteading technique, but it sure makes life easier on you if you're constantly drying. The nice thing about a dehydrator is it'll allow you to dry food any time, rain or shine. In areas that don't get much sun, a dehydrator may be the only way you're going to be able to dry food for much of the year. They're a bit pricey, as a good one will run you at least a hundred bucks and can run you more than a thousand dollars. A good mid-range dehydrator will more than pay for itself in ease of use and time saved.

If you do decide to invest in a dehydrator, look for one that has temperature controls that allow you to set the temperature. I prefer the ones that let you choose the actual temperature instead of choosing from Low, Medium and High. A timer that can be set to turn off the heat once a certain time limit has been reached is nice, but isn't a necessity. It won't stop you from having to watch your food like a hawk because there are a lot of factors that can affect drying times. One option every dehydrator should come with is a high-limit shut off switch, which is a switch that monitors electric load and will shut off in the event of a short. This safety feature can prevent nasty fires and is a must if you plan on drying in the house.

Pretty much every dehydrator sold comes with some sort of fan system designed to move air across the food. Fans that sit on one side of the dehydrator and blow air across the food are preferable to fans that reside in the top or bottom of the dehydrator. Side-to-side fans are especially important for those who plan on drying different types of foods at the same time. Scents and flavors of various foods can intermingle and create strange smells and tastes in the foods above and below them when venting is done from top-to-bottom. This is less likely to occur when air is blown in and vented out of the sides. Of course, if you're drying onions or garlic, even a side-to-side fan isn't going to do much good.

To use a dehydrator, all you have to do is prepare the vegetables, place them on the drying tray(s) that came with the dehydrator, preheat the dehydrator and place the trays in the dehydrator to dry. Set the temperature and turn on the fan and you're off and running. Rotate your trays once a day and you're good to go.

6. Conditioning.

Properly-dried vegetables can be cooled and moved directly into storage. The problem is it's impossible to tell for sure whether vegetables are dry just by looking at them and there's a pretty good chance all of the vegetables you've dried haven't dried evenly. There will more than likely be some vegetables that have more moisture left in them than others. This is especially problematic when vegetables are oven-dried, but can be a problem with the other two methods as well.

Uneven drying can be fixed in one of two ways. The first way is to dry your vegetables until you're sure the moisture has been removed from all of them and there are no wet spots left in them. To do this, you'd have to over-dry a lot of your vegetables in order to be sure the slower drying pieces got all the heat they needed.

Since this isn't a good option, dried vegetables need to be conditioned after they've been dried. Conditioning takes the moisture that's left in the vegetables and spreads it out amongst all of the vegetables being stored. Conditioning works well given the vegetables are mostly dry and there's only a small amount of moisture that needs to be redistributed. You can't take a bunch of wet vegetables and condition them for storage. It's only effective when most of the vegetables are properly-dried and it's being used to even out a few stragglers that may not have gotten as dry as the rest.

Follow these steps to condition dried vegetables:

Wait until most of the vegetables appear to be dry.

Remove the vegetables from the heat and let them cool. Turn off the heat or move the dried vegetables out of the sun and give them a chance to cool to room temperature.

Place the vegetables into a glass jar.

Place a breathable lid like cheesecloth or a thin towel over the mouth of the jar and secure it in place. The lid should allow air to circulate into the jar, but should be thick enough to keep insects out.

Leave the container in a cool, dry place for up to week in order to let the moisture even out. Shake the container gently once a day.

Vegetables that have too much moisture will release some of it and any vegetables that are dry will take it up. To check to see if your vegetables have been conditioned and are ready for storage, place an airtight lid on the jar and leave it alone for a couple days. If you see moisture beading up on the inside of the jar, the vegetables weren't properly dried and will need further drying. If no moisture is present, it's time to pasteurize the vegetables.

7. Pasteurization.

This is a step a lot of people skip, but it's one of the most important steps when it comes to food safety. It's important all the time, but is critical when foods have been dried in the sun. Pasteurization treats dried vegetables in an attempt to kill off any organisms that are residing on the food. This is especially important for foods that have been dried outside because they're more likely to be harboring insects and insect eggs. The pasteurization process doesn't get rid of the insects or eggs, but it at least kills them and renders them harmless.

The following methods are used to pasteurize vegetables:

Heat the dried vegetables up to 175° F and keep them there for a half hour.

Place the dried vegetables into the freezer for a few days.

Either of these methods will work. I prefer freezing because it doesn't further dry out my foods and I don't have to worry about it cooking them.

8. Storage.

Alright, you're in the final stretch. You've selected, washed, prepped, blanched, dried, conditioned and pasteurized your vegetables, so let's not mess things up in the home stretch. It doesn't matter how well the previous steps were performed if your vegetables aren't stored in the proper manner.

The shelf life of your dried vegetables could be reduced from a year or longer to months or even weeks, so it's important to protect your vegetables from the four items that will cause them to degrade in quality and go bad.

Air.

Light.

Heat.

Moisture.

Exposing your dried vegetables to any of these 4 items will cause problems. Exposing them to more than one of the items will result in even faster degradation. There are a number of ways you can store dried vegetables, but the ultimate goal of all of them is to keep them as far away from air, light, heat and moisture as possible.

If you're only planning on storing vegetables for a short period of time before you eat them, a sealable freezer bag is all you'll probably need. Place the vegetables in the bag, remove as much air from the bag as possible and store the bag in a cool, dark place.

Long-term storage requires a little more care be taken to protect the vegetables. Machines are available that allow you to vacuum seal special bags, removing air from the bag and effectively locking out air and moisture. Vacuum-sealed canning jars are also available that function in a similar manner. Another method of protecting dried vegetables is to place them in a freezer bag and freeze them. They'll eventually succumb to freezer burn, but will last longer than if you'd stored them in the pantry.

Dried Artichokes and Artichoke Hearts

My friend Jessie and I had a contest this year to see who could get their artichoke plants to produce the most artichokes. The rules we laid out for the contest were simple. We both were to sow 10 plants early in the spring and whoever had harvested the most artichokes by the end of the season was the winner and had to take the other person out to dinner. The contest started off innocently enough. I drew first blood and harvested the first artichokes to appear quickly in order to encourage more artichokes to grow. They weren't much more than buds, but they still counted. New shoots developed and grew into artichokes. Then more shoots and more artichokes developed…and more…and more. Soon, we both had more artichokes than we knew what to do with. I lost count at 56 artichokes and she stopped counting at 48, but we harvested many more after that. We both admitted the contest wasn't well-thought out and agreed to go to dinner and pay for ourselves while we figured out what to do with all of our artichokes.

I ended up drying a bunch of the artichokes, both for decoration and for the dinner table. What I found is artichokes that are dried whole look great when two or three larger artichokes are dried, sprayed with shellac and set out as decoration. I also found out dried artichoke leaves are easy to dry, but don't rehydrate easily, while artichoke hearts are easy to dry and will rehydrate into a tasty treat. They can get a little rubbery, but that's a price I was willing to pay to preserve my artichokes without having to throw them out.

In order to dry artichokes for decorative purposes, I waited until they filled out on the plant and started to open a bit. I did this in hopes it would stop new artichokes from growing, but this particular plant didn't seem to care and just kept on trucking. I left the first artichokes I tried to dry whole and set them on a drying tray in the sun. I left them to dry for a week, but they ended up looking faded and discolored, so I tossed them out.

The next attempt at drying artichokes, I decided to dry them in a shaded area in an attempt to keep them from fading. This worked well, but the artichokes took much longer to dry. They were left sitting on the drying tray for 2 weeks before they looked and felt dry enough to bring inside. I flipped them once a day at first and once every couple days once they were almost dry. I'm not sure if flipping was necessary, but it didn't seem to hurt them any. A friend recently told me she hung her artichokes to dry in the shade by tying them to a fence post and letting them dangle until they were dry. I wish I would have thought of that! It would have saved me from having to turn them every day.

The artichokes got lighter and lighter as they dried and felt almost paper-thin when I decided to bring them inside. In a stroke of genius, I sprayed the artichokes with shellac, preserving them for eternity—or at least until one of my kids knocks them off the table and they break.

While that got rid of several artichokes, I still had a lot I needed to put up. There wasn't much room in the freezer, so I decided to trim the artichokes and dry just the hearts.

When choosing artichokes to dry, select artichokes that are in prime condition for eating. They should be nice and compact and firm to the touch. A little bruising or damage to the outside is fine, since you'll be cutting out the heart.

Here are the steps required to dry artichoke hearts:

Remove the outer leaves. All the tough outer leaves need to be removed. Once dried, they become leathery and all-but-impossible to rehydrate.

Cut the tops and bottoms off the artichokes. Make sure you trim all of the thorns off the top and most of the stem off the bottom.

Cut the remaining hearts into quarters or slice them up.

Blanch the hearts by boiling them for 5 to 6 minutes or steaming them for 6 to 8 minutes. Add basil and thyme to the water when boiling the artichoke hearts for added flavor. If you're steaming the hearts, add the basil and thyme directly to the hearts before placing them in the double broiler.

Cool the hearts by placing them into an ice water bath.

Dry the hearts. Solar-dried artichoke hearts don't turn out very well and have a leathery texture. Dry them in a dehydrator for 6 to 8 hours at 140° F for best results.

Condition the hearts by placing them in a glass container for up to a week.

Pasteurize them by heating them to 175° F for 30 minutes or freezing them.

If you don't have fresh artichokes on hand, canned artichokes can be used in their place as long as you get the water-packed hearts instead of the oil-packed ones. Buy several cans of artichoke hearts and drain and quarter them before setting them out to dry. Dried artichoke hearts can be used in most recipes you'd normally add artichoke hearts to. Rehydrate them in boiling water before adding them to your dishes. Add a bit of lemon juice to the water to help them retain their color while rehydrating.

Dried Asparagus

Asparagus probably isn't the first vegetable that comes to mind when you think of dried vegetables. Peas, peppers, corn, potatoes and carrots are all vegetables that might come to mind, but people rarely consider asparagus a vegetable that's great for drying. The whole idea seemed foreign to me when I stumbled across an article about dried asparagus in an old magazine from the 70's that I'd purchased at a flea market, which by the way, is a great way to find all sorts of amazing homesteading ideas. Old magazines—the older they are, the better—can often be purchased at garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores and are packed full of great ideas and homesteading techniques.

You have to be careful because some of the methods they used to use to cook, preserve food and clean are no longer considered safe, but there are still a lot of great ideas (and great recipes) that have been long since forgotten. Double check the current safety standards before trying anything you find in an old magazine or book. Food preservation methods like aspirin canning are no longer considered safe practices and need to be avoided.

The whole idea of drying asparagus seemed foreign to me, but I decided to give it a try. I wasn't sure if it would become thick and leathery or would turn rock hard when dried. I'm glad I tried it because it was easy to dry and came back to life rather well when soaked in boiling water. The spears do end up a little soft and maybe a little slimy, so you probably won't want to eat them on their own, but they taste great when added to soups, stews and other dishes that call for asparagus as an added flavor and not as the main course.

When selecting spears for drying, smaller spears that are 6" to 8" long and are the thickness of a number 2 pencil dry the best. The younger and tenderer they are when you dry them, the better off you'll be when you rehydrate them. When harvesting asparagus from the garden, collect the spears that are to be used for drying while they're on the smaller side. If you wait until the stalks are starting to turn woody, they'll dry easily, but will be difficult to rehydrate.

Asparagus starts to lose its nutritional value within a couple days of being harvested, so it's important to dry it as soon as you buy it or harvest it from the garden. Whenever possible, use fresh asparagus that's recently been picked instead of asparagus that's been sitting around in the grocery store for who knows how long.

Follow these directions to dry asparagus:

Select young, tender spears that are the width of a pencil.

Trim away the tough, fibrous lower portions of the stems. Younger stalks won't need as much trimming as larger stalks that have started to turn white at the bottom.

Wash the spears.

Cut the remaining portions of the spears into 1" to 4" pieces. Pieces that are cut smaller will dry faster. If you're drying larger stalks, cut them in half lengthwise as well.

Soak the spears for a couple minutes in a lemon juice solution made by adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a quart of water.

Blanch the asparagus pieces. Boil them for 2 minutes or steam them for 1 minute. Transfer them to an ice water bath immediately after removing them from the boiling water.

Arrange the asparagus in a single layer on the drying trays. Try to leave a little bit of space between the pieces, but you don't have to manually move them around to make sure they're separated. As long as you stir the asparagus pieces regularly and move them around on the tray, they should dry evenly.

Dry the asparagus. It takes up to 8 hours to dry asparagus in a dedicated dehydrator and 10 to 12 hours to dry it in the sun. 140° F is the ideal temperature for drying when you're using an oven or dehydrator.

Let the asparagus cool and condition the dried asparagus pieces by placing them in a glass container for up to a week.

Pasteurize them by heating them to 175° F for 30 minutes or freezing them.

Asparagus is done drying when the spears feel leathery to the touch. Break a piece open and make sure it's dried all the way through. It should feel brittle and snap when you bend it. If it bends instead of breaking, more drying is needed. Be careful not to dry asparagus at too hot of a temperature or for too long because it can get scorched and will have a burnt flavor that isn't appetizing. If the outside of the asparagus dries too fast, it can form a hard shell that prevents moisture from escaping and the asparagus will end up scorched long before it dries all the way through.

Dried asparagus spears should be stored in an airtight location in a cool, dark place. If you store them in an area that's around 60° F, they'll last up to 6 months. Store dried spears in single-use containers and they'll last longer than if you store them in one large container that's constantly being opened and closed. Watch for condensation on the inside of the container. This is a sign the spears weren't dried long enough and there's too much moisture left in them. If you catch it right away, it's probably OK to dry the spears until you're sure they're dry. If you don't catch it until later on down the road, pathogens will have had time to develop and the dried spears will need to be discarded.

To rehydrate dried asparagus, soak it in boiling water for up to 30 minutes prior to using it.

Beets (Dried Beets, Beet Chips & Candied Beets

While they aren't going to win a beauty contest anytime soon, beets have been a dietary staple for thousands of years. They've somewhat fallen out of favor in recent times, at least in the Western world, but like my mom used to tell me, it's what's on the inside that counts. Beets are nutritional powerhouses that are packed full of vitamins and minerals. While much of the vitamin C content of beets will be lost to the drying process, some of it will make it through and there are a wide variety of other vitamins, minerals and nutrients found in the red flesh of this tasty vegetable, including the following:

B-complex vitamins.

Betaines.

Folate.

Iron.

Iron.

Magnesium.

Phosphorous.

Protein.

Zinc.

Choose beets that are ready for eating. Smaller beets are easier to boil and dry than larger beets. I use beets that are less than 3" in diameter whenever possible. They should be firm to the touch. Avoid beets with obvious damage or visible bruising.

Follow these directions to dry strips of beets:

Wash the beets.

Cut off the tops and bottoms of the beets.

Boil, steam or bake the beets for 20 to 30 minutes. The goal is to cook them until they're soft all the way through.

Transfer the beets to cold water to accelerate cooling.

Remove the skin.

Cut the beets into thin strips.

Set the beet strips in a single layer on your drying trays.

Dry them. They'll take up to 2 days to dry in the sun. If you're drying them in the oven, it'll take 12 to 24 hours. If you're drying the beet strips in a dehydrator, set it to 130° F and dry them for 10 to 14 hours.

Condition the beets in a glass container for up to 3 days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by placing them in the freezer.

Let the beets completely cool before storing them.

The water you boil beets in will take on a red hue and can be used to dye animal-based fabrics like wool and silk. If you want a darker hue than the light pink you end up with after blanching beets, try chopping up a few beets and boiling them for an hour. You'll end up with dye that can be used to create deep reds and purples. To dye the fabric, strain out the beets, add the fabric and let the contents of the pot simmer for up to an hour. Rinse the fabric in cool water with a tablespoon or two of vinegar added to help set the dye.

Drying is complete once the beets feel leathery to the touch. Break a couple of the strips open to make sure they're dry all the way through. Store them in a cool, dark place for up to a year. Beets dried in this manner will need to be soaked in cool water for up to an hour to reconstitute them. They can be used in soups, casseroles and stews.

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Beet strips are the original method I learned for drying beets, but recently I've been using a new method that I prefer to drying strips. I still dry strips from time to time for recipes that call for beets, but I prefer making beet chips. Potato chips are one of my weaknesses and I can usually stave off the cravings with a handful of beet chips.

In order to make beet chips, you're going to need the following items:

A couple pounds of beets. For an interesting look, try using a combination of golden and red beets.

A food mandolin (or a really sharp knife).

1 tablespoon sea salt.

1 tablespoon olive oil.

4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.

Follow these directions to make beet chips:

Wash the beets.

Peel them.

Slice them into 1/8" thin slices using a food mandolin. This can be done with a really sharp knife, but it's dangerous, so do so at your own risk.

Combine the olive oil, apple cider vinegar and sea salt in a bowl.

Place the sliced beets into the bowl and coat them with the oil mixture.

Arrange the beets in a single layer on a drying  sheet.

Dehydrate the beets in a dehydrator or in the oven at 140° F for an hour. Turn the heat down to 115° and dehydrate them for an additional 12 to 24 hours or until the beets are crisp.

Watch the beets closely and pull them out of the dehydrator as they're done. They won't all finish at once, so you'll have to check once an hour or so when the beets are nearing completion.

Place the beet chips onto a wire rack to cool. They'll still be soft while warm, but should become firm and crispy as they cool.

Be careful not to overcook the beets. If you burn them, you'll know as soon as you take the first bite. Instead of tasty beet chips, your mouth will be filled with burnt nastiness. If this happens, scrap the whole batch and try again. Beets dried in this manner will last a month or so in storage, but good luck keeping them that long. They rarely last more than a couple days in my house. Don't try to store them for a longer period of time because the olive oil on the beets can go rancid.

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Candied beets are yet another option when it comes to drying beets.

To make candied beets, follow the directions for making beet chips, but cut the salt in half and sprinkle sugar over the tops of the beets before setting them out to dry. Instead of drying them until they're hard and crisp, candied beets should be dried until they're chewy and leathery, which usually only takes a few hours in the dehydrator. Since candied beets aren't completely dried, they'll only keep a couple weeks and you have to store them in an airtight container in the fridge.

Bell Peppers (Dried Strips, Crushed Peppers, Candied Bell Peppers)

I stagger my bell pepper plantings, so I'm able to harvest a variety of colors of bell peppers from the garden throughout the summer. Red, green and yellow bell peppers can all be dried, but the red ones that have been left on the vine the longest and have developed a sweeter flavor work the best.

Harvest your red peppers while they're still firm. They don't dry well once they've started to go soft. If they can easily be dented with your fingertips and the dents stay in the skin after you pull your finger away, the peppers are too ripe for drying. Avoid using peppers with obvious bruising or breaks in the skin.

Follow these directions to dehydrate bell peppers:

Wash the peppers.

Cut the tops and bottoms off the peppers.

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise.

Use a sharp paring knife to remove the pith and the seeds. The pith is the white stuff that connects the pepper and the seeds.

Slice the peppers into slices. Thicker slices will dry into leathery pieces of dried bell pepper. Thinner slices will end up crunchy and are good for grinding.

Blanch the peppers by boiling them for 3 to 4 minutes or steaming them for the same amount of time.

Transfer them to an ice water bath to stop them from continuing to cook.

Place the peppers on a paper towel and let them drain for a few minutes. You can pat them dry if you'd like.

Arrange the pepper slices in a single layer on a drying tray.

Dry them in a dehydrator set to 140° F for 8 to 12 hours or an oven set as low as possible for 12 to 16 hours. Bell peppers can be dried in the sun, which can take up to 3 days or they can be hung in a shaded area to dry, which can take up to a month.

Condition the peppers in a glass container for up to 5 days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by placing them in the freezer.

Store the peppers in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

Make sure you use a drying tray that has small holes. The peppers will shrink a lot while drying and you don't want to lose a bunch of them into the bottom of the dehydrator or oven. I still smell burnt peppers from time to time while baking because the first time I dried them I did so in the oven and half the peppers I was drying fell through the rack into the nether regions of my oven.

To rehydrate pepper strips, soak them in cool water for up to an hour. They'll usually double in size when soaked in water. Reconstituted peppers won't be crisp and aren't appetizing to most people as a standalone dish, but are hard to distinguish from fresh peppers once they've been cooked and can be added to all sorts of culinary dishes.

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I like to dry red peppers and crush them up to add a slight hint of sweetness to soups, stews and sometimes even egg dishes.

Dried red peppers can be crushed into flakes by crushing them with a rolling pin or a mallet. Another option is the grind them into a finer powder in a coffee grinder. Larger pieces of crushed peppers can be added to a salad to provide a tasty and satisfying crunch. For an interesting look, try drying and crushing red, yellow and green peppers and mixing them together.

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Candied bells peppers are a treat my kids enjoy and practically beg me to make every time they see me cutting peppers up for the dehydrator. To make them, you're going to need 4 bell peppers and a couple tablespoons of maple syrup or raw honey.

Follow these directions to make candied bell peppers:

Wash the peppers.

Cut the tops and bottoms off the peppers.

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise.

Use a sharp paring knife to remove the pith and the seeds.

Slice the peppers into slices.

Place them in a bowl with the honey or syrup and toss them until they're coated.

Refrigerate the peppers for 2 to 3 hours before drying them.

Arrange the pepper slices in a single layer on a drying tray.

Dry them in a dehydrator set to 140° F for 8 to 12 hours or an oven set as low as possible for 12 to 16 hours. Don't attempt to dry candied bell peppers in the sun.

These peppers don't store particularly well, but will last a week or two when stored in the fridge. There's no need to condition them because they aren't going to be stored for a long period of time.

Broccoli (Dried Florets, Chips and Broccoli Powder)

Broccoli has been a favorite of mine since I was a young child. While most children argue and fight with their mothers when it comes time to clean up the broccoli on their plate, I was one of those rare children who asked for seconds and sometimes even thirds. There was something about those little "trees" that I found irresistible. My love of broccoli hasn't faded as I've reached adulthood. I'm still constantly looking for new ways to use it and recipes it can be added to.

One thing I'd never considered until recently was drying broccoli. I've been drying vegetables for quite some time, but broccoli wasn't one of them until the last couple years. When I finally got around to trying it, I was surprised to find that broccoli florets dry quickly and don't lose much by way of flavor when rehydrated.

When selecting broccoli florets for drying, choose ripe, green broccoli florets with tightly-bunched heads; the greener, the better. Discard any pieces that have started to discolor or that have visible damage. If you're looking to take the easy way out or don't have any fresh broccoli on hand, frozen broccoli can be substituted for fresh broccoli. Buy a bag of florets and let them thaw out before attempting to chop them up and dry them.

Follow these steps to dry broccoli:

Soak the broccoli in water for 20 minutes. Insects like to hide out in the nooks and crannies and this will draw at least some of them out of the broccoli. This step is especially-important when using garden-fresh broccoli.

Cut the broccoli up into small florets. Smaller florets will dry faster and more evenly than large florets.

Blanch the broccoli in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes or steam it for 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer it to an ice water bath to stop it from continuing to cook.

Arrange the broccoli in a single layer on the drying trays. Be sure to leave room between each of the little florets.

Dry the broccoli at 125° F for 8 to 10 hours. Alternatively, it can be dried in the sun for 12 to 24 hours.

Rotate the drying trays every 4 to 6 hours for best results.

Condition the dried broccoli in a glass container for a couple days.

Pasteurize it using heat or by freezing it.

Broccoli should be dried until the pieces are brittle to the touch. Smaller florets should be able to be crumbled when they've been properly dried. Rehydrate dried broccoli by soaking it in hot water for 20 minutes.

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In addition to florets, broccoli stems can also be dried.

Peel the tough outer layer of the skin off the stems before attempting to dry them. Use a food mandolin to slice them into thin slices and dry them into chips the same way you would beets. Drizzle olive oil over them and sprinkle them with sea salt prior to drying them.

Alternatively, you can peel the stems and chop them into fine pieces before drying them. The small pieces can be ground into broccoli powder that can be used to add the flavor of broccoli to a wide variety of dishes. Broccoli powder can also be made from dried florets. When I make it from the florets, I like to add it to smoothies to make them into green smoothies. Be careful not to add too much. A teaspoon or two of this powder goes a long way!

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If you're looking for something different, dehydrated broccoli balls are an interesting treat that's unlike anything you've probably ever eaten. They're made with broccoli and nuts and anything else you decide to throw into the mix for flavoring.

Here's the basic ingredient list to get you started:

5 cups broccoli florets.

5 cups raw nuts (cashews, almonds, pistachios, etc.). Stick to one type of nut for best results.

3 cloves garlic.

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

1 teaspoon sea salt.

Here are the directions for making broccoli balls:

Toss all of the ingredients in a blender and pulse them until the nuts are chopped into fine pieces and the broccoli and garlic are almost, but not quite smooth.

Roll the contents of the blender into smallish balls.

Place the balls onto a drying tray.

Set your dehydrator to 140° F and dry the balls until they're crisp. This usually takes 3 to 6 hours, depending on the size of the balls. Don't attempt to sun-dry broccoli balls.

Broccoli balls don't store well and need to be eaten within a week of making them. Store them in the fridge until you're ready to eat them. I like to sprinkle them with a bit of chili powder and lime or dip them in homemade ranch dressing.

Brussels Sprouts (Dried Sprouts & Snacks)

When it comes to Brussels sprouts, people tend to either love them or hate them. There's really no in-between. I used to really dislike Brussels sprouts when I was young, but the only way my mother and grandmother used to serve them was steamed. They were big and piping hot and bitter as all get out. When I look back and think of how bad those Brussels sprouts were (sorry, Mom!), it's a surprise I ever considered trying them as an adult.

Don't get me wrong…My mom is an amazing cook. Brussels sprouts just weren't one of her strong points.

The only reason I decided to try them again was because I saw Brussels sprouts growing in a friend's garden and couldn't get over how amazing they looked. The sprouts grow on long stalks with a bunch of sprouts attached to each of them. I couldn't resist attempting to grow this awesome-looking plant. Even though the climate wasn't perfect, I managed to harvest a large number of sprouts from a couple plants. It wasn't until after I'd harvested them that I really started to give thought to how much I detested those bitter little balls and wondered whether I'd made a big mistake.

I called my friend for advice and she told me drying them eliminates much of the bitterness and gave me the following instructions:

Wash the Brussels sprouts.

Cut off the stems and the tops of the sprouts.

Peel away several of the thicker outer leaves.

Cut smaller sprouts in half and larger sprouts into quarters.

Blanch the sprouts by boiling or steaming them for 4 to 6 minutes.

Dip them into an ice water bath to cool them.

Arrange them on drying trays in a single layer. Spread the sprouts out so they aren't touching.

Dry them at 140° for 4 to 6 hours in a dehydrator or for 10 to 12 hours in the oven. If you're drying them in the sun, dry them for 10 to 12 hours.

Condition the dried Brussels sprouts in a glass container for 2 to 3 days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by freezing them.

Dried Brussels sprouts are done drying when they're crisp to the touch and are no longer pliable. You should be able to bend them until they snap. If you try to dry sprouts that are too large, they'll end up leathery instead of brittle. Leathery sprouts won't store as long as the dry, brittle ones, which can last up to a year when properly-stored.

Rehydrate dried Brussels sprouts by placing them in hot water for a half hour. A bit of lemon juice added to the water will help the Brussels sprouts rehydrate and will further eliminate bitterness. Add them to dishes you'd normally use cooked Brussels sprouts in.

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If you don't care for Brussels sprouts, you more than likely won't care for them once they've been rehydrated. They still taste pretty much the same minus some of the bitterness.

I did find one way to dry them and make Brussels sprouts more palatable. Follow steps 1 through 6 in the previous directions to prepare them for drying. Place them into a bowl and drizzle them with olive oil and sea salt. Mix them up until they're coated and arrange them on the drying tray in a single layer. Follow the rest of the directions for drying them and you'll end up with a tasty snack that's hard for even me to resist.

Carrots (Dried Coins, Carrot Flakes & Carrot Fries)

Carrots are one of the most popular vegetables in the world and can be found in most Western kitchens. They can also be found in most Western vegetable gardens, mine notwithstanding. When I'm not planning on saving seeds, I grow a multitude of varieties of carrots, squeezing them into the garden wherever I have room. Invariably, I forget to record where I planted them in my garden log and end up having to guess as to which carrots are planted in any given location. While most people think of bright orange roots when they think of carrots, there are varieties available that run the spectrum from white to deep purple. Some of the more exotic cultivars have a spicy kick to them. If you dry these carrots, it concentrates the spice, creating a flavor burst that may or may not be desirable, depending on how much you enjoyed the carrot fresh.

Select carrots for drying the same way you select carrots for the dinner table. Choose mature roots that are in prime eating condition. They should be firm to touch. Sponginess is a sign of aging, so avoid drying carrots that aren't firm to the touch.

Follow these directions to dehydrate carrots:

Remove the carrot greens.

Wash the carrots.

Cut off the ends of the carrot.

Peel the carrots. This step is optional, but unpeeled carrots have a leathery mouthfeel I don't care for.

Slice the carrots into ¼" coins. Alternatively, they can be cut into strips or shredded.

Blanch the carrots in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes or steam them for the same amount of time.

Transfer the carrots to an ice water bath to quickly cool them.

Arrange the carrots on a drying tray. Be sure to leave space between the pieces.

Dry the carrots in an oven or dehydrator set to 130° F. It will take 6 to 10 hours in the dehydrator and even longer in the oven. Alternatively, dry them for a couple days in the sun.

Rotate the drying trays regularly.

Condition the carrots in a glass container for 2 to 3 days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by freezing them.

Dried carrots are done when they're crisp and are able to be snapped when they're bent. They can be stored in a cool, dry place in an airtight container for 6 months to a year. When it comes time to rehydrate them, soak them in boiling water for 30 minutes until they soften up. Reconstituted carrots can be added to soups, casseroles and other dishes where they aren't a main ingredient to good effect.

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Carrot flakes can be made by grating carrots and drying them on cheesecloth trays or mesh sheets.

You can also dry them and grind them in a blender, food processor or coffee grinder to create carrot powder that can be used to thicken sauces, soups and stews while adding the flavor of carrot to it. If you juice carrots, the carrot pulp that's left over after juicing is full of nutrients. It can be spread out in a thin layer on a drying tray designed for fruit leathers and dried. Grind it into carrot powder that can be used in smoothies or recipes.

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A personal favorite recipe of mine is carrot fries. This is a great way to take mundane carrots and transform them into crispy, crunchy fries.

Here are the ingredients you'll need to gather to make carrot fries:

3 large carrots.

2 teaspoons olive oil.

½ teaspoon sea salt.

A pinch of black pepper.

Follow these directions to make carrot fries:

Wash and peel the carrots.

Cut off the tops and the bottoms.

Use the food mandolin to slice them lengthwise into ½" or ¼" sections.

Combine the olive oil, sea salt and pepper in a freezer bag.

Add the sliced carrots to the bag and shake it until they're coated with the oil.

Arrange the carrots on a drying tray. Be sure to leave plenty of room between each of the pieces.

Use your oven or dehydrator to dry them at 130° F for 8 to 12 hours or until they're crisp. Don't attempt to dry them in the sun.

Store the carrot fries in a container in the fridge until you're ready to eat them. They'll last up to a week in the fridge. If you have more of a sweet tooth, try sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar instead of using salt and pepper.

Cauliflower (Dried Curds, Cauliflower "Popcorn" & Cauliflower Jerky)

I can't decide whether or not I like cauliflower.

It's in the same family as broccoli, which I absolutely love, and it looks similar, which is nice, but when cooked on its own it has a bland taste that doesn't add much flavor to the dishes it's added to. What it does add to the dishes it's added to are a ton of vitamins, minerals and nutrients, including the following:

Antioxidants.

Folate.

Magnesium.

Niacin.

Phosphorous.

Potassium.

Protein.

Thiamine.

Vitamin E and K.

It also contains B-vitamins and vitamin C, but much of those two water-soluble vitamins will be lost during blanching and drying. Steam blanching will do less damage than blanching with boiling water.

When selecting cauliflower for drying, choose curds that are nice and tight. If they've started to spread out and open up, the cauliflower was left on the plant too long and the flowers are getting ready to bloom. The ideal color for cauliflower is a creamy white color. It'll take on a brownish hue as it starts to age. Garden-fresh cauliflower works best for drying, but if you don't have any available, frozen cauliflower can be thawed out, broken up and dried.

Here are the directions for drying cauliflower:

Soak the cauliflower in water for 20 minutes. Insects like to hide out in the nooks and crannies and this will draw at least some of them out. This step is especially-important when using garden-fresh cauliflower.

Cut the cauliflower up into small pieces.

Blanch the cauliflower in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes or steam it for 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer it to an ice water bath to stop it from continuing to cook.

Arrange the cauliflower in a single layer on the drying trays. Be sure to leave room between each of the pieces.

Dry the cauliflower at 125° F for 8 to 10 hours. Alternatively, it can be dried in the sun for 12 to 24 hours.

Rotate the drying trays every 2 to 3 hours for best results.

Condition the dried cauliflower in a glass container for a couple days.

Pasteurize it using heat or by freezing it.

Cauliflower will be brittle to the touch once drying is complete. Let a couple pieces cool and break them open to see if they're dry all the way through. Dried cauliflower can last up to a year in storage if it's properly stored. To rehydrate it, soak it in hot water for a half hour until it gets soft.

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Fresh cauliflower is rather bland on its own. Dried cauliflower is even blander.

I was looking for a way to spruce it up a bit and tossed it in a bowl with sea salt and olive oil. If you dry it long enough to make it crunchy, the added sea salt and the texture of the dried curds are reminiscent of popcorn. To make it even more like popcorn, get rid of the stems and dry just the curds.

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Another option is to create cauliflower jerky that dries into a tasty and chewy snack that tastes like anything but cauliflower.

Gather the following ingredients to make cauliflower jerky:

1 large head of cauliflower.

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast.

3 tablespoons soy sauce.

½ teaspoon smoked paprika.

3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar.

¼ cup chicken broth.

Sea salt, to taste.

Follow these directions to make cauliflower jerky:

Soak the cauliflower in water for 20 minutes.

Cut the cauliflower up into small pieces.

Combine the yeast, soy sauce, paprika, apple cider vinegar and chicken broth in a freezer bag and mix them together.

Add the cauliflower pieces to the bag, seal it and shake until all of the pieces are coated.

Arrange the cauliflower pieces in a single layer on the drying trays. Be sure to leave room between each of the pieces.

Sprinkle the sea salt onto the cauliflower.

Dry the cauliflower at 130° F for 6 to 8 hours or until they're nice and chewy. If drying it in the oven, it'll take at least a couple more hours to finish drying.

Rotate the drying trays every 2 to 3 hours for best results.

Cauliflower jerky doesn't store well and will need to be eaten within a couple days. It might last up to a week in the fridge, but I've never had it last more than a day or two when set out on the table as a snack.

Celery (Dried Celery, Celery Leaves & Celery Salt)

Celery is one of the most amazing vegetables in existence. You can eat as much of it as you'd like and you'll have burned calories by the time it's done digesting.

Celery is an essential ingredient in chicken and beef broth and has a light flavor that tastes great in soups, casseroles and stews. Dried celery can be used in many of the same ways you would use celery. The only recipes it shouldn't be used in are ones like salad that call for raw celery because of its crisp crunch.

When selecting celery to dehydrate, choose crisp celery that’s green in color. Avoid celery that's too white or that has started to turn yellow or brown. Look at the cut end of the celery and avoid using it if the end has started to turn brown or black. Good, crisp celery will snap when you bend it. If it's pliable and doesn't snap, it's probably too old to be dried.

Follow these directions to dry celery:

Wash the celery.

Trim off the leaves and the white portion at the bottom of the stem. .

Chop it into 2" to 3" pieces.

Blanch the celery by boiling for 2 to 3 minutes or steaming it for 3 to 4 minutes.

Dip it in an ice water bath to cool the hot celery down.

Place the celery on a drying tray and arrange it in a single layer. There should be space between each of the pieces of celery.

Dry the celery at 130° F for 4 to 6 hours. Add a couple hours if you're drying it in the oven. Alternatively, it can be dried in the sun for 12 to 24 hours.

Rotate the drying trays every 2 to 3 hours for best results.

Condition the dried celery in a glass container for a couple days.

Pasteurize it using heat or by freezing it.

Properly-dried celery will be leathery to the touch once drying is complete. Let a few pieces cool and cut them in half to check and see if they're dry all the way through. Dried celery will last up to a year when properly dried and stored. It can be rehydrated by soaking it in hot water for 30 minutes. If you're using it in soups or stews, you can usually get away with adding the dried celery to the stew before you cook it.

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A lot of people trim away the leaves that are attached to the stalks of celery and throw them out because they've heard they're toxic. I'd been saving and eating celery leaves for years before I'd heard this and I still haven't seen anything definitive on the topic.

I shred the leaves and dry them and use them in soup stock, smoothies and sprinkle them on salads.

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Once you've got dried celery leaves, you can use them to make celery salt.

You'll need dried celery leaves and sea salt to make celery salt. Once you've got the leaves dried, follow these directions to make it:

Crumble the leaves into as small of pieces as you can get them. Remove any large ribs from the leaves as you crumble them.

Check to see how much crumbled celery leaves you have and add them to a bowl.

Add an equal amount of sea salt to the bowl.

Mix the dried celery leaves and sea salt together in a bowl.

Store in an airtight container.

Celery salt can be used to flavor eggs, soups and salads or pretty much anything you'd use sea salt in. Commercial celery salt is made from celery seeds, but this salt is similar. If you have seeds on-hand, you can grind them and add them to the celery salt as well.

Corn (Dried Kernels, Dried Corn on the Cob & Popcorn)

Here's a homesteading technique the original settlers of America more than likely learned from the Indians shortly after settling the East Coast. Dried corn saved many lives when other crops didn't survive or weren't plentiful enough to last through long, harsh winters. While drying corn is no longer necessary for survival, it can still be used to preserve a bountiful harvest.

If you've ever grown corn, you know that a small patch will often yield more ears than you know what to do with. Even when you stay busy freezing it, creaming it and canning it, there always seems to be at least some cobs that end up getting left on the vine until they've passed the point where they're good for eating. Unlike other vegetables, corn that's been left sitting on the stalk can often be salvaged by drying it as long as it hasn't started to mold or otherwise go bad. If you live in a dry enough area, you might even be able to get away with leaving the corn in the field to dry. If the threat of rain is looming, harvest the corn before it gets rained on.

Frozen corn can be dried if you don't have corn on the cob available. Let the bag of corn thaw out before attempting to dry it.

Corn dries faster when it's been removed from the cob. Here are the directions for drying corn kernels;

Peel back the husks and remove the silk. This is the most tedious part of preparing corn because the silk likes to stick to the corn and can be a real pain to remove.

Wash the corn.

Blanch the corn cobs in boiling water for 4 to 6 minutes.

Transfer the corn to an ice water bath.

Once the corn has cooled, cut the kernels off the cob.

Set them on the drying tray and allow them to air-dry for 30 to 45 minutes.

Dry the corn at 140° F in an oven or dehydrator for 6 to 10 hours or until the corn is completely dry. It can also be placed in the sun for 12 to 24 hours.

Condition the corn in a glass jar for up to a week.

Pasteurize the corn using heat or by keeping it in the freezer for a couple days.

Corn kernels are done drying when they're brittle and hard to the touch. If they're soft and still have moisture inside, they need additional drying time. Dried corn kernels can last up to 6 months when properly stored. You'll have to plan ahead when you want to use dried corn in a meal. It can take up to an hour for it to rehydrate in warm water.

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If you're feeling lazy and don't feel like cutting the kernels off the cobs, corn can be dried while still attached to the cob. All you have to do is hang the cobs in an area that gets good air circulation.

The downside is you're now looking at 2 weeks to a month before the corn will be dry.

You'll be left with a cob full of dried kernels that can be used as a fall decoration or you can twist the cob and break the kernels free. If you've dried a lot of corn, manual corn shellers can be purchased for less than $50. All you have to do then is place a cob of dried corn into the sheller and crank it until the kernels have all been removed. Whatever you do, don't put a fresh cob of corn in the sheller to see what happens. My son did this one day and it took us hours to get the corn cleaned out of the sheller so it would stop jamming.

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Dried corn can be ground into corn meal.

To do this, you're going to need a tool known as a gain mill. They're fairly inexpensive and will do a wonderful job of grinding corn. I like to pass my corn through the mill a couple times. If you want finely ground meal, you'll have to set the mill to a finer setting and use a lot of elbow grease to get it to turn.

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Popcorn is a fun variety of corn to grow because you can dry it and pop it while it's still on the cob.

Dry the cobs as you normally would and wait until the kernels are hard and dry. Remove a couple kernels and test them to see if they're ready by running them through a popcorn popper. In order to pop the popcorn, place it into a paper bag, fold the top down and tape it in place. Microwave the bag on high until you no longer hear popcorn popping. Don't leave it in too long or you'll fill your house with the acrid smell of burnt popcorn. I swear that smell sticks to the walls, as it's all but impossible to get rid for a couple days after the fact.

If you don't want to use a microwave or you don't have one, the popcorn will have to be removed from the cob. It can be popped in a popcorn popper or you can coat the kernels with vegetable oil and pop them in a skillet. Make sure you put a lid on the pan or you could end up with hot pieces of popcorn flying everywhere.

Eggplant (Dried Strips, Eggplant "Jerky" & Eggplant Chips)

You couldn't tell by looking at it, but eggplant is a member of the nightshade family, which means it's related to both potatoes and tomatoes. While it's used like a vegetable in the kitchen, it's actually a fruit. Oddly enough, eggplants are nothing more than large berries. Mention eggplant and most people think of the deep purple variety, but there are cultivars available that are green and white as well as the purple ones you're used to.

Eggplant isn't for everyone.

One common complaint from people who don't like eggplant is the bitter aftertaste. If you blanch eggplant properly before drying it, much of the bitterness will be eliminated and the eggplant will have a milder flavor. Eggplant contains alkaloids and oxalates that can cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. Drying the eggplant concentrates these compounds, so if you can't handle raw eggplant, you're really going to be intolerant to dried eggplant.

When selecting eggplant to be dried, pick it up to see how it feels in your hand. Good eggplants will feel heavy for their size and will have a taught skin with little give when you press on them gently. If you're able to dent the eggplant with gentle pressure and the dent remains after you remove your finger, you're probably holding an eggplant that's past its prime. Avoid eggplants with visible bruising or breaks in the skin.

Here are the directions for drying eggplant:

Wash the eggplant.

Peel the eggplant. You can leave the skin on, but the finished product will be chewier. If you're using inorganic eggplant, always peel it because much of the pesticide residue will be on the surface of the skin.

Slice the eggplant into thin strips. Once the eggplant has been cut, you've got to move quickly. It starts to discolor shortly after the flesh has been exposed to air.

Soak the eggplant for 15 minutes in a citric acid bath made by adding a tablespoon of citric acid to a quart of water. This will help slow down the enzymatic reaction that causes eggplant to turn brown.

Blanch the eggplant by boiling or steaming it for 3 to 4 minutes.

Transfer the eggplant to an ice water bath.

Spread the eggplant strips out on a drying tray. Leave space between each of the strips.

Dry the eggplant at 140° F. It will need to be dried for 10 to 12 hours in a dehydrator or 18 to 24 hours in the oven. Sun-drying takes up to 2 days.

Condition the eggplant in a glass container for 2 to 3 days. Watch for signs of condensation and dry the eggplant for longer if there's a lot of condensation in the jar.

Pasteurize the eggplant using heat or by freezing it.

Dried eggplant is done drying when it feels hard to the touch. Let a couple pieces cool and break them open to make sure they're dry all the way through. Dried eggplant will last 6 months to a year in storage. To rehydrate it, soak it in hot water for a half hour.

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If you've got someone who detests eggplant, the following recipe may make a believer out of them. I've seen variations of this recipe called eggplant bacon and eggplant jerky, but it doesn't really have a taste or texture like any bacon or jerky I've ever eaten. It is good, though, and somehow manages to be both chewy and crisp at the same time with a smoky flavor that's tough to resist.

To make this recipe, you're going to need the following ingredients:

2 eggplants.

2 tablespoons coconut aminos.

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.

2 tablespoons maple syrup.

1 tablespoon smoked paprika.

1 teaspoon chili sauce.

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil.

Follow these directions to make this recipe:

Cut the eggplant into 5mm strips.

Combine all of the ingredients except for the eggplant in a bowl and stir them together.

Add the eggplant to the bowl, cover it and place it in the fridge for 45 minutes to marinate.

Arrange the eggplant strips on a drying tray.

Dry them at 140° F for 6 to 8 hours or until the strips are dry and crisp.

Enjoy! I'll bet you can't eat just one of these tasty treats.

This recipe doesn't store well and should be eaten within a few days of making it.

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Eggplant chips are yet another option for drying eggplant.

Use a food mandolin to slice the eggplant into thin slices and use a dehydrator set to 140° F to dry them. In order to check to see if they're done drying, remove a couple chips from the dehydrator and let them cool. Once cool, they should be nice and crisp. Season them with sea salt and pepper, to taste.

Don't attempt to store these chips for more than a couple days.

Green Beans (Dried Green Beans, Crunchy Dried Beans & Old-Fashioned Leather Britches)

Green beans, also known as French beans or string beans, are grown and consumed all over the world. There are two major types of green beans grown in gardens. Bush beans are short, squat plants that produce all of their beans in a short period of time, while pole beans grow on vines that like to climb and have an extended harvest that can last for months given the right conditions. If you're growing beans for drying and want to do all of the drying at once, bush beans are a better option than pole beans.

My first experience with dried green beans occurred when I was around the age of 10. I spent a month at my grandmother's house in the Midwest and had never heard of dried green beans. My grandmother drove me all over the state to show me off to her friends and it was on one of these long drives that I first learned about dried green beans, although anyone who grew up in the Midwest in the 70's knows that isn't what they were called back then. Shortly before we arrived at her friend's house, my grandmother told me she hoped Francis had made a batch of her delicious "seasoned leather britches" for us to snack on when we got there. I spent the next 15 minutes wondering what sort of seasoning made underwear palatable and tried to think up a good excuse as to why I couldn't eat them. I finally settled on telling the host I was allergic to cotton and couldn't eat the britches. Imagine my surprise when we arrived and I found out the "britches" were actually dried green beans…and boy were they good.

When selecting green beans to be dried, pick them when they're on the young side and are tender and crisp. You should be able to snap them in two by bending them. If you're able to bend the tip and touch the other tip, the green bean is too old for drying. If you don't have fresh green beans on hand, frozen green beans can be used. All you have to do is let the bag thaw out and dump it on the drying tray.

Follow these directions for drying green beans:

Wash the green beans.

Trim off both of the ends.

Break or cut the green beans in half.

Blanch them by steaming or boiling them for 4 to 6 minutes.

Transfer the hot green beans to an ice water bath to finish cooling.

Place the green beans on a drying try.

Dry the green beans at 140° F for 4 to 6 hours in a dehydrator or 6 to 8 hours in the oven. If you want to dry them in the sun, they'll need to be left out for 8 to 12 hours.

Condition the green beans in a glass jar for a couple days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by freezing them.

Dried green beans are done when they are dry all the way through and are leathery to the touch, hence the name leather britches. Store them in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to a year. Rehydrate them by placing them in cool water and letting them soak for 45 minutes.

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If you're looking for a tasty snack that can be eaten on its own, coat your green beans in olive oil and sea salt before drying them for 6 to 8 hours in the dehydrator. They'll be crispy and crunchy and tough to stop eating once you start.

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If you want to preserve green beans the old-fashioned way, gather the green beans you want to dry and snip off the end that was attached to the plant. Wash the green beans and use a darning needle to thread string or fishing line through them. Stick the needle right through the middle of each green bean and keep going until the string is full. Tie a button to the end of the string so the green beans won't fall off and hang them in a cool, dry place with good air circulation. It'll take a couple weeks to a month for the green beans to dry this way, but it's a good technique to know because they can be dried anytime you need to dry them.

Kale (Dried Leaves, Kale Powder & Kale Chips)

Kale looks like your average leafy green, but the reality is it's a nutritional powerhouse. A full cup of kale only contains 33 calories, but is packed full of vitamins A, C and K. Much of the vitamin C will be lost during preparation, but most of the vitamin A and K will remain intact. Kale is also rich with minerals, including copper, manganese, iron, potassium and phosphorus.

To select kale for drying, look for leaves that are firm to the touch and are a deep green color. The smaller leaves will be tenderer and will dry better. Older leaves will be tougher, harder to rehydrate once dry and will have a stronger flavor. I prefer the smaller leaves, but larger leaves can be dried and ground up to make kale powder that can be added to smoothies and other dishes.

Follow these instructions to dry kale:

Wash the kale.

Tear the kale into smaller pieces. The larger ribs will be too hard when they dry and need to be removed and discarded.

Steam the leaves for a minute or two until they start to wilt.

Transfer them to an ice water bath to cool.

Place them on a paper towel and pat them dry.

Place them on a drying tray. Leave space between the pieces for air circulation.

Dry the leaves at 130° F. Drying kale in the oven will take 6 to 8 hours and drying it in a dehydrator will take between 4 to 6 hours to get it nice and crisp. Sun-drying kale can take up to 24 hours.

Condition the kale in a glass jar for a couple days.

Pasteurize the kale using heat or by placing it in the freezer.

Dried kale is done when it's crisp to the touch and the leaves can be crumbled between your fingers. It can be stored for up to a year when properly stored. Rehydrate dried kale by soaking it in hot water for a half hour.

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I briefly mentioned kale powder earlier in this chapter, but it bears mention again because it's a versatile and healthy vegetable powder that adds a boost of vitamins and antioxidants to any dish it's added to.

It's really easy to make once you have dried kale. All you have to do is place the kale in a blender, spice grinder or food processor and pulse it until it's powder.

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Kale can be used to make tasty chips that are a great healthy snack. Gather the following ingredients to make kale chips:

6 cups of kale leaves.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

Sea salt, to taste.

Black pepper, to taste.

Follow these directions to make kale chips:

Wash the leaves.

Place them on a paper towel and pat them dry.

Tear the leaves into large chunks. Get rid of all the large ribs.

Combine the olive oil, sea salt and black pepper in a bowl and mix them together.

Add the kale to the bowl and toss it until it's thoroughly coated.

Place the kale on a drying tray.

Dry the leaves at 140° F until they're nice and crunchy.

Don't attempt to store these chips for more than a week. They'll need to be kept in the fridge if you plan on storing them for more than a couple days.

Mushrooms (Dried Slices and Mushroom Chips)

I've always wanted to learn how to collect mushrooms. It's a skill I know I should have as a homesteader, but it's one that makes me nervous because the stakes are so high. I don't think it would be overly difficult to learn to tell the difference between safe mushrooms and poisonous ones, but I still have a deep fear of making a dangerous mistake. I have experimented with growing them at home and have had a handful of successful harvests. If you do decide to hunt down your own mushrooms, be careful and make sure you know what you're harvesting. Drying does not make poisonous mushrooms safe and you can get very ill and possibly die from eating the wrong mushrooms.

No matter whether you bought them from the store, grew them yourself or went out and hunted them in the woods, dehydration is a great way to preserve mushrooms. They're easy to dry as long as you're careful not to damage them or waterlog them during preparation. Be sure to select mushrooms that are in prime eating condition. They should have taut skin that's free of wrinkles and minimal bruising or damage. If the mushrooms feel slimy, they're starting to go bad and need to be discarded.

Follow these directions to dry mushrooms:

Washing is usually the first step of the drying process, but you have to be really careful not to get mushrooms too wet. Use a dry brush to remove visible dirt. Really dirty mushrooms can be cleaned with a damp cloth, but don't get them too damp.

Slice the mushrooms. Smaller mushrooms may be able to be dried whole.

Arrange them on a drying tray. Leave space between each of the slices.

Dry them at 140° F for 6 to 8 hours in a dehydrator or 8 to 10 hours in the oven. Drying mushrooms in the sun can take up to 24 hours.

Condition the mushroom slices in a glass jar for a few days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by placing them in the freezer.

Dried mushrooms will be hard and brittle when they're done. Let a couple pieces cool and break them open to make sure they're dry all the way through. If you can bend dried mushrooms without breaking them, dry them for a longer period of time. Dried mushrooms will last 6 months to a year in storage. They can be rehydrated by soaking them in hot water for a half hour. Use them in dishes that call for mushrooms as an addition and not as a main attraction.

It isn't necessary, but I like to separate the stems from the caps when I'm drying them. The caps are less tough when they're reconstituted, so I use them in dishes where I want tender mushrooms. I use the stems when I make sausage or I use them as a topping for country pizza.

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Dried mushroom chips can be made by slicing large mushrooms into thin slices and coating the slices with olive oil. Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper on the mushrooms before drying them for 8 to 10 hours in the dehydrator or until they're nice and crisp. Add a bit of cayenne pepper for a spicy kick.

Onions (Cured Onions & Dried Onions)

There are two basic varieties of onions: globe onions and green onions. Green onions are made from the leaves and stems of the onion plant.

Globe onions, also known as bulb onions, grow beneath the surface of the soil. Each plant produces a single bulb that's harvested at the end of the first growing season. There are mild varieties that are large and feature a slightly sweet taste and there are pungent varieties that will make your eyes burn when you cut into them and have a strong, unmistakable onion flavor. As long as they're properly-cured, pungent onions can be stored for up to a year because the compounds that make them pungent also prevent rotting. Sweet onions can only be stored for a couple weeks without being dehydrated.

In order to cure pungent onions, spread them out in a single layer in an area that's around 80° F and has a breeze blowing through it to keep air circulating. It will take up to a month for onions to cure. Their necks will shrivel and the skin of the onion will pull up tightly against the bulb. Cure them with the roots and stems attached and trim them off once curing is complete. Any onions that still have moisture in the stems or roots should be used immediately. Onions cured in this manner can be stored in a mesh bag in a cool, dry place for up to a year.

If your garden is anything like mine, you might have a handful of onions that for one reason or another didn't fully develop. You dig them up only to find they're tiny and wouldn't make much more than a bite or two. Instead of attempting to eat these little onions, they can be cured and saved for next season. Plant them and you'll end up with a new onion. Hopefully this time it grows to full size!

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While cured pungent onions will last up to a year, you might have sweet onions you need to dehydrate or you might want to store your pungent onions in a compact and convenient manner instead of having a sack of onions hanging around.

Here are the steps required to dehydrate chopped bulb onions:

Wash and peel the onions.

Chop the onions into small pieces. They can be chopped in a blender or food processor, but you have to be careful not to over-process them.

Spread the onions out in a single layer on a drying tray. It's OK if they're touching, but you don't want big piles of them sitting on the tray. You're going to need a tray with small holes or the onion pieces will fall through and make a mess.

Dry the onions at 140° F. If you're using a dehydrator, they should be dried for 4 to 6 hours. If you're using your oven dry them for an hour or two longer.

Condition the onions in a glass jar for a few days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by placing them in the freezer.

Most dried onions will turn a pinkish-brown color as they dry. There's no need to blanch them unless you're drying the onions indoors and want to eliminate some of the smell of the onions as they dry.

If you're drying onion rings, which can be made by slicing onions with a sharp knife or food mandolin, blanch them for 3 to 5 minutes by steaming or boiling them before setting them out to dry. Properly-dried onions will often last more than a year in storage.

The biggest problem with using a dehydrator to dry onions is getting the smell out of the dehydrator. I don't know what it is about drying pungent onions, but the smell seems to stick to everything it comes in contact with. If you dry fruit right after you dry onions, they'll pick up the onion smell and flavor and will end up downright unappetizing. I used to resort to scrubbing every nook and cranny of my dehydrator and drying trays, but even then the smell seemed to linger around for weeks after an onion-drying session. One day I was feeling a little lazy and had a load of potatoes ready to go in the dehydrator right after I was done drying onions. I decided I didn't care if the potatoes smelled like onions, so I chopped them and moved them right into the dehydrator as soon as I pulled the onions out. Lo and behold, within an hour the smell of onions was completely gone. Once the potatoes were done drying, there was no trace of the onion smell I'd been expecting. Now, I always have a load of potatoes ready to go in after I dry onions.

Peas (Dried Peas & Wasabi Peas)

I have a love/hate relationship with dried peas. I love it that there's little difference between fresh peas and rehydrated dried peas, but I hate shelling them and working with them because they roll all over the place and I inevitably drop them on the floor. If you grow a bunch of peas, you could conceivably spend hours sitting at a table removing them from the pods. I have to admit there have been times when I skipped growing and shelling them and opted to buy a few bags of frozen peas instead.

When selecting peas for drying, choose pods that are fully-developed and are in prime eating condition. Pods with tips that are starting to brown have been sitting around for a while and aren't good candidates for drying.

Here are the instructions for drying peas:

Rinse off the pods. This will prevent dirt and grime from getting onto the peas when you remove them from the pods.

Shell the peas.

Boil or steam the peas for 3 to 5 minutes. This step is critical because it cracks the skin of the peas and allows moisture to escape while they dry.

Place the peas in an ice water bath to cool.

Arrange the peas on a drying tray that has small holes. If you don't have one available, stretch cheesecloth across one of your drying trays.

Dry the peas at 140° F for 6 to 8 hours in the dehydrator or 8 to 10 hours in the oven. Sun-drying takes up to 24 hours.

Condition the peas in a glass jar for a few days.

Pasteurize them using heat or by placing them in the freezer.

Dried peas will be hard to the touch and should shatter when hit with a hammer. Remove a couple peas from the heat and let them dry before testing them. If they smash flat, there's still too much moisture left and they need to be dried for a longer period of time. Dried peas can last up to a year in storage. Rehydrate them by boiling them for 20 minutes.

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Dried wasabi peas are a great snack (if you like the potent punch of wasabi). Gather these ingredients to make dried wasabi peas:

5 cups of peas.

3 tablespoons olive oil.

3 tablespoons tahini.

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard.

1 tablespoon wasabi powder.

Follow these directions to make them:

Coat the peas in olive oil and dry them using the directions above.

Combine the tahini, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and wasabi powder in a bowl.

Add the peas to the bowl and toss them until coated.

Bake the peas in the oven at 250° F until the wasabi seasoning is dry.

Let cool and enjoy.

If you've never tried wasabi, you're in for a bit of a surprise. It punches you right in the taste buds, sort of like horseradish. It's an acquired taste and most people don't particularly care for it the first time they try it. Give it a chance and you might find you have a new favorite snack.

Potatoes (Cured Potatoes, Grated Potatoes & Dried Mashed Potatoes)

Potatoes are one of the top food crops in the world. In the U.S. alone, more than 40 billion pounds of potatoes are grown annually. They're able to be grown in less-than-ideal soil and a handful of seeds are all that's needed to produce a bountiful harvest. Dried potatoes are almost indistinguishable from fresh potatoes once they've been fully rehydrated.

If you harvest potatoes from the garden and want to store them without fully drying them, they'll need to be cured, which hardens the skin and protects the inside of the potato from moisture in the air. To cure potatoes, lay them out in a single layer in a cool, dark place and leave them there for 2 to 3 weeks. Once they've been cured, some varieties of potatoes can be stored in a cool, dark, dry location for a couple months. It's important to prevent light from reaching the potatoes because it'll cause them to turn green and become inedible. Potatoes are also prone to sprouting and will start to grow sprouts from their eyes when left in storage for too long.

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When selecting potatoes for drying, choose firm potatoes. Discard any potatoes with wrinkled skin or visible signs of damage. If you don't have fresh potatoes on-hand, frozen hash browns can be dehydrated.

To dehydrate potatoes, follow these instructions:

Boil the potatoes until they're cooked all the way through. If you can push a toothpick through them, they're ready to be dried. Don't cook them until they're completely soft or they'll be difficult to dry.

Give the potatoes time to cool. They can be dipped in ice cold water for 30 minutes or you can let them sit overnight.

Peel the potatoes and grate them.

Spread the grated potatoes out in a thin layer across the drying tray.

Dry them at 140° F for 8 to 12 hours in a dehydrator or 10 to 14 hours in the oven. Solar-drying potatoes is difficult because they tend to turn black in the sun.

Condition the dried potatoes in a glass jar for a couple days.

Pasteurize the potatoes using heat or by freezing them.

Dried potatoes will be crisp when they've been dried all the way through. They should snap when you bend them. Properly-stored dried potatoes can last up to a year in storage. Rehydrate them by placing them in hot water for 20 minutes.

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Mashed potatoes can also be dried. Here are the steps required to dry mashed potatoes:

Wash the potatoes.

Peel them and chop them into cubes.

Boil them for 15 minutes or until they're soft enough to mash.

Drain the water away and mash them until smooth. Add a bit of sea salt to the potatoes if you'd like.

Line a drying tray with parchment paper and spread the potatoes out in a thin layer.

Dry the potatoes in a dehydrator set to 140° F for 6 to 8 hours or until the potatoes are dry.

Break the dried potatoes into chunks. They can be stored like this or you can make them into flakes by grinding them in a blender or food processor.

Potatoes dried this way can be stored for up to 6 months when properly stored. Reconstitute them by boiling 1 cup of water for every cup of dried mashed potatoes you have. Place the potatoes in the boiling water and stir them until they're reconstituted.

Tomatoes (Dried Tomatoes & Herbed Tomatoes)

I have a real problem with my garden tomatoes because it seems like I never have as many as I planned on having. I check them and they're starting to get nice and ripe, but they look like they could use a couple more days on the vine so I decide to let them ripen a little bit longer. A couple days later I go out to harvest them and all of the best tomatoes have disappeared.

It used to drive me crazy because I couldn't figure out where they were going until I snuck out to the backyard one day while my daughter was out there with her friend. I caught both of them red-handed, or I should say red-faced, as they were chowing down on my prized tomatoes and giggling the whole time. I snuck back into the house and let them have their fun. After all, I grow organically and who am I to get mad at my kids for having a healthy snack? Now, I always grow extras and tell the kids which plants are theirs. The biggest and ripest tomatoes still keep disappearing from my plants, but at least now I have enough for canning, dinner and drying.

When selecting tomatoes for drying, choose ripe tomatoes with firm skin that yields to gentle pressure. Don't use tomatoes with visible damage or that have started to dull in color.

Here are the instructions for drying tomatoes:

Wash the tomatoes.

If you want to dry them without skin, boil them for 5 minutes and transfer them to an ice water bath. The skin will be falling off the tomato and should be easy to remove.

Slice them into ¼" thick slices. If you're drying cherry tomatoes, don't worry about slicing them. All you need to do is cut them in half.

Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer on a drying tray. Leave plenty of space for air circulation between each slice.

Dry the tomatoes at 140° F for 6 to 8 hours in a dehydrator or 8 to 12 hours in the oven. Sun-drying takes 1 to 2 days.

Condition the tomatoes in a glass jar for a couple days.

Pasteurize the tomatoes using heat or by freezing them.

Dried tomatoes will feel crisp and leathery to the touch. Cool the tomatoes down and break them open to check and see if they're dry all the way through. Dried tomatoes will last 3 to 6 months when properly dried and stored. You can rehydrate them by letting them soak in hot water for a half hour. Alternatively, they can be used in dishes like pizzas and salads without having to be rehydrated.

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Dried tomatoes can be spruced up by adding herbs and spices to them. I like the following blend of oil and herbs:

4 parts olive oil.

1 part oregano.

1 part basil.

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste.

Combine the oil and herb mix in a bowl and toss the tomatoes in it before drying them. This recipe doesn't store well and will only last a week in the fridge, but it's good while it lasts.

Additional Reading

I hope you enjoyed this book and found the information in it useful. This is the 3rd Book in the Homesteading Handbooks series.

Here's the first book:

http://www.amazon.com/Homesteading-Handbook-vol-Beginners-Self-Sustainable-ebook/dp/B00KRTXBNW/

Here's the second:

http://www.amazon.com/Homesteading-Handbook-vol-Vegetable-Handbooks-ebook/dp/B00L9EGDRA/

The 3rd book in the series covers saving seeds:

http://www.amazon.com/Homesteading-Handbook-vol-Heirloom-Handbooks-ebook/dp/B00LP2SIVU

If you have limited space, you aren't going to want to miss the 4th book in the series:

http://www.amazon.com/Homesteading-Handbook-vol-Gardening-Handbooks-ebook/dp/B00LWI2UQQ

If you enjoyed this book, you might enjoy the following book about survival seeds and heirloom gardening:

http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Seeds-Heirloom-Saving-Handbook-ebook/dp/B00J2I0416/