Excalibur food dehydrator

Submitted by louiseds on May 13, 2010 - 11:20pm
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Has anyone use one of these dehydrators, or another brand? I know not much at all about dehydrating food, but I am about to learn. All the hiking gurus tell us that dehydrated food is the way to go, and those who hike a lot tell us that you can dehydrate *anything* at home, except lettuce, and eat as varied and delicious a diet on the road as you eat at home, with a little planning.

We have a 1000km hike trail called the Bibbulmun Track starting pretty near us (well, an hour's drive away, which is pretty close, considering). It goes from Kalamunda to Albany and takes two months to walk it you do it in one hit. DH & I are thinking about doing it in small sections, which most people do. It is well set up for this with basic shelters and spots to put up small tents, toilets and maintained water tanks along the way.

The dehydrator sounds good for vege garden gluts and herbs too. the difference between home-frozen and industrially frozen foods is astounding. I imagine there is a simliar difference between home-dried and industrially dried herbs. I mainly use herbs fresh from the garden, particularly Flat-leafed Parsley. There are times of the year when it bolts, no matter what you do, particularly during the first real, vicious heat of mid-spring when the rains are a bit unpredictable, and we end up with a jungle of parsley flowers and seed around the edge of our patio in summer, and run out of green parsley. I am hoping this machine might be the answer for parsley too.

Louise

Grandma Joy

May 14, 2010 - 10:34am

Hi Louise,

I have the nine tray Excalibur and love it. Since we eat as much organic food as possible, I dehydrate all I can get my hands on. The food rehydrates beautifully and retains all the nutrition. There is a website called backpackingchef.com with fantastic recipes for backpacking. He has broken the recipes down for one person and tells you how to do it. A pumpkin pie dessert is made from "pumpkin bark" which is dehydrated pumpkin. His instructions are simple and well done. You will like it. He also shows a page where he dehydrated and packaged everything for his hike on a trail - a 30 day hike if I remember right.

At any rate, the Excalibur is the best for even temperatures and not having to watch it or rotate the trays as you would in one of the round ones. Also, the round ones are noisier, plus they do not have a temperature gauge. Another website with videos is dehydrate2store.com. She has wonderful instructions on how to dehydrate and store with food saver vacuum packages.

The food is really good. One hint - I much prefer the organic carrots either juiced or dehydrated. Store bought ones look and taste like cardboard.

Good luck,
Grandma Joy

louiseds

May 14, 2010 - 11:55am

Thanks so much, Grandma Joy

It is so good to hear things like this from somebody I 'know'. It looked like a good machine from all the positive customer reviews I found. I have gone ahead and ordered one for my daughter for her birthday. If she doesn't use it much I might reclaim it. Or just have it turn about, three months at a time. Trouble is that she lives six hours drive away from here. Boo-hoo!

Louise

Christine

May 14, 2010 - 12:29pm

It's so much better than any of the others - particularly the round ones that lose a lot of "real estate" to the hole in the middle which distributes the warm air. You can see mine in FAFP. Parsley is a breeze - just don't chop it too fine.

louiseds

May 15, 2010 - 6:39am

It is these personal comments that are so helpful! I never chop parsley too much anyway. I am guessing that whole is better if the food is thin. Less aroma and flavour lost during drying.