Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating, Apple Fruit Leather... Results!

...And about 6 hours later....

Fruit leather made from apple sauce! I was right, I had to go thinner. The recipe worked out, and it is yummy! They really taste like fruit roll ups like you get in the store. Except it is much cheaper, very simple to make, and if you make your own apple sauce, MUCH healthier. I will definatly make more. This makes really nice treats for when you are on the go. Something that is a good food to carry that does not take up much space in a lunch box or backpack. I will look into more recipes on working with this.

PERSONAL NOTE: other than what I explained earlier, it is also best to spread it pretty evenly, otherwise some parts of the leather will get done faster than others. Again, another lesson learned.

If you have kids, they might like making this.

Thanks to The Survival Mom for the recipe.

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating, Apple Fruit Leather... oops..

Just a small update here... I made some leather... but I ate it, but for a good reason! I made a mistake. What I did wrong was I spread it out too thick. Took a bit too long to dry. When in doubt, go thinner and dry it longer. Otherwise, it has potential, just that the mistake was my own. That is what I am learning here, but I thought I would mention it on here. I started a new batch today, so I will post my results as soon as they get done. Also, next week I will have some new articles on survival books, skills and other items. Stay tuned!

Survival Food: Adventures in Dehydrating Part 1

Hey guys, back with another article. Last fall I happened to spend a little bit of cash and bought myself a dehydrator (It was on sale and I got a good bargain on it). I am looking to save food as much as I can while on a budget. Finally today I am starting to get some use out of it. Best way to save money is how to save, preserve and re-use food. Well here, I am going to learn how to dehydrate food and re-use it. Then post what I am learning. So far, I am just taking the baby steps as starting easy. So for my first try, I am doing...



Potatoes! They work well dried for soups and mashed potatoes. I found a 10 pound bag of Russets at my local grocery store for cheap. Right now I just did only two racks to start with and with a some advice from a friend, got myself started. The type that I bought is a NESCO Professional Food and Jerky Dehydrator, my family has had good luck with NESCO products, so I think this one would work well. Simple to work as this has a temperature control dial, and to turn it on, all you need to do is just plug it in.

When starting it helps to read the instruction manual for the care and use of the machine. READ EVERYTHING THAT COMES WITH IT! Just wanted to say that as a disclaimer... Then what I did was washed the potatoes and cut them pretty thin, The thinner they are the faster they dry. Usually the drying time is about a day to a day and a half, or so I am told. These should be done in about a day or less. I was told that to test them just take one and break it in half. If it snaps like a potato chip, they are done. If not, or if they seem soft, then they need to dry a bit longer. At the end of the drying time, I will show you the end results. I am just doing two racks as a test because there are several different ways to prepareing the the food. One way is just cleaning and cutting them up. Another is several different ways of blanching, which I will try out too. Maybe you can learn from what I am doing.

Coming up, part 2 of my first batch of dehydrated potatoes.

Survival: Making Life Easier By Starting Small.

The reason why I am doing the survival bit is to save me money and to live a bit more comfortably. When many think survival, they think that they need to have the most expensive items. Not so, really. It is all in the planning. Maybe the best way to start out is to start small. Try buying that extra can of soup or that extra pack of toilet paper when it is on sale. That is exactly what I did. (I try to buy canned food when it is cheap, my fresh fruits and veggies when it is on sale and in bulk when I need dry goods. I find that is the cheapest way to work around my food expenses.) Then set it aside from the rest of your food, using proper ways of storing it. Maybe keeping your eyes open for deals on the every day stuff that you use. Make a list of your most common used items and watch for sales on them. Work with cash instead of using that credit card. You dont need to make huge expensive purchases to make a difference. Just simple small things that can lead to big changes over time.