excalibur food dehydrator

[JulieO]

Andi, thanks for clarifying.  The green ones also get called shallots in other areas of Australia, so just wanted to make sure. 

[fundj&e]

it does get a bit confusing at times. in syd they are called shallots

[Meagan]

Great news Meagan, how long did it take to dry them? 

Well I'm not sure exactly. I think the temp was a bit low. Some are dry and others I have had to put in for longer... Waiting on my dehydrator bible for lots of instructions. I left the skin on too so not sure if that makes a difference.

[JulieO]

Yes, it's a learning game Meagan, sounds just like my experience. 

[Meagan]

Oh good I am glad. I was kind of winging it from instructions on the net 

[SoBlessed]

After more than a 3 month wait my dehydrator arrived today!!!!
It's all washed, ready to go & I'll prob dry some tomatoes tomorrow.
I had almost forgotten about it, but rang them late Dec & they said it would arrive the first week of Jan.
I thought yeah, right & then forgot about it again!
So, a nice surprise today.

[jeninwa]

This week I have dried mangos, apricots ,that I bought on the way back from Walpole and rock melon, loving my dehydrator. The apricots took 24 hrs to dry.

[thermie crew]

My excalibur dehydrator is on the way. A great xmas present, can't wait to start experimenting 

[nazar]

 jen in wa
     how did drying the rock melon go . l have never heard of dryed rock melon before
does it taste yum
l would like to try it . l have the same dryer as you  but have lost my book
did  you treat it first ? how long did you keep it in there for and at what temp
 thank you

[RosieB]

Congratulations, Megan.
Wait till you try freshly dehydrated banana "chips"  - there is no comparison between them and the commercial ones. 

When you say 'banana chips' do you mean you dry them to a crisp?
We love dried banana but I dry them as 'boats'..  Sliced lengthways into 3 and dried to a chewy texture.
They are so good and the flavour intesity is much stronger than fresh banana.
I bought about 5 kilos last week at $1.50/k and had a drying frenzy,   
I experimented a bit with the slicing and found that if I split the banana into 3 using the natural segments of the banana they retained even mor flavour but didn't get the golden colour slicing gives.  This way I didn't need to did in lemon to stop the browning either
I did have a Harvest Maid dehydrator for years until it died.  I replaced it with an "Ezidri Snackmaker 5000' at Christmas time.
I chose Ezidri as the trays I had from the Harvest Maid are exactly the same size and so I now have quite a tower.
I think Ezidri must have bought out the Harvest Maid company.

I have never tried rockmelon.  Sounds interesting.
Apples are great sliced very thinly (Use a mandolin) and layered into the dryer with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar then dried to crisps.
Tomatoes and capsicum are good to add to packed sandwiches as they dont make the bread soggy and draw moisture out of other things to rehydrate.

[jeninwa]

Just seeing your post now Nazar, from memory I just sliced the rock melon thinly and left in dryer over night, it was really nice, I just store it in an air tight  container, it's like the mango that I dry doesn't last long

[andiesenji]

What is a rock melon?

I dry a lot of mango and papaya - the large Mexican papaya is much sweeter than the common papaya and has a higher moisture content so takes longer to dry.

[JulieO]

What is a rock melony

It's a cantalope  (sp?) Andi.   

[trudy]

Nazar,  I have dried rockmelon which my granchildren really love as well as watermelon.  They both hold their colour really well and the taste is a little more intense than the fresh version. 

[astarra]

Can someone help - I have been offered a dehydrater and don't know whether to accept or not... sometimes I think I wish I had one, other times not so much. Would like one for doing my own stuff for the girls - but just don't know...