Dehydrator

[CrabbyLover77]

I’ve only had one experience with this so I’m not the pro but I cut fruit in small pieces and thin slices. Thin would dry faster. Then I used coffee grinder. Some things like broccoli became quite powdery. Not sure that’s good. I thinks slightly chunky would be better than powder. I also still feed fresh or at least fresh that I froze once in a while.

Edit to add: a food processor might work better.

Thanks so much! I'm trying it out again today. And I did put thin slices of cucumber and eggplant in. Maybe that will work better this time. It's almost time to check on them after 6 hours. I usually use a food processor to grind things up, but had to bring out my coffee grinder to grind up some seaweed sheets today. Believe it or not, the processor wasn't cutting up the sheets for some reason. Thanks again.

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[CrabbyLover77]

Looks like the drying of eggplant and cucumbers were successful, yay! It took 7 hours. I just washed all the parts to my coffee grinder and food processor, so I'll grind up the pieces tomorrow.

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[Motörcrab]

Update: Tried dehydrating bananas last night, but it didn't work out so well. I think it was user error lol. The bananas were on their way to going bad, so they were super mushy. I pureed them, and spread them over wax paper. I let them sit in the dehydrator for 6 hrs. After that, they were still a little mushy and stuck to the parchment paper. I have some tomatoes and watermelon I'd like to try today. But this time I think I'll just slice them really thin instead of pureeing them.

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When we do bananas we puree them and line the trays with coconut oiled parchment paper. Our dehydrator is about 16 inches in diameter. And will spread about 2 average bananas per tray. We let it in the dehydrator for 18-24 hours.

When it's done it will be similar to a thick fruit roll up. You can cut it up into little chunks. From there you can keep the chunks or powder them.

You can only grind a little at a time otherwise it gets stuck in the blades. If you don't use it in a month or so the powder will start to stick together. It can easily be regrinded.

[CrabbyLover77]

When we do bananas we puree them and line the trays with coconut oiled parchment paper. Our dehydrator is about 16 inches in diameter. And will spread about 2 average bananas per tray. We let it in the dehydrator for 18-24 hours.

When it's done it will be similar to a thick fruit roll up. You can cut it up into little chunks. From there you can keep the chunks or powder them.

You can only grind a little at a time otherwise it gets stuck in the blades. If you don't use it in a month or so the powder will start to stick together. It can easily be regrinded.

Thank you so much Motör!
No wonder the bananas were still gooey at 6 hours. I thought maybe it was because they were overripe that they weren't drying like they should. Now I'll know to keep them in for triple that time.

I grind up the freeze dried fruit from the store in my small food processor. Is it better to use the coffee grinder? I just saw on a crab youtube video that a little bit of calcium powder can help keep the fruit from sticking together. Not sure how true that is, but I'll have to try it.

When you say coconut oiled, do you mean the parchment paper comes like that, or you are actually using coconut oil spread on top of the paper?

Thanks!

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[Motörcrab]

6-8 hours doesn't seem like enough time to dehydrate most juicy or thick items like apples, pears and berries. Stuff like peppers, and corn and leaves may only take a few hours. You can Google dehydrating times and temperature for most things.

I add the coconut oil onto the parchment paper. The coconut oil is the type you use for cooking. I just dip a paper towel into the oil and smear it on the parchment paper. I didn't use coconut oil on parchment paper one time and everything stuck. It was a real pain to get it all off.

We used a food processor to puree the fruits last time we made powders. I like using a coffee grinder or a bullet when it comes to powdering. It's a lot easier to shake and get the powders a lot finer. scoop small quantities into bags.

We added some powdered calcium to the powdered fruits. It helps it from sticking together a bit. We didn't experiment with it too much.

We tend to do bigger batches of powders because we have around 40 hermits! We also use the powders in our shop for crabcorn samples that comes with our Curiosity Cubes.

Xeno and I did a presentation at this years Crab Con about dehydrating and purchasing crab safe foods. I consider it a beginners guide. We can't share it for a year due to the agreement with Crab Con. If you purchased a VIP package you can rewatch all the videos as much as you want.

Here's a topic we did about dehydrating from the beginning of the year!

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=121651

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[CrabbyLover77]

6-8 hours doesn't seem like enough time to dehydrate most juicy or thick items like apples, pears and berries. Stuff like peppers, and corn and leaves may only take a few hours. You can Google dehydrating times and temperature for most things.

I add the coconut oil onto the parchment paper. The coconut oil is the type you use for cooking. I just dip a paper towel into the oil and smear it on the parchment paper. I didn't use coconut oil on parchment paper one time and everything stuck. It was a real pain to get it all off.

We used a food processor to puree the fruits last time we made powders. I like using a coffee grinder or a bullet when it comes to powdering. It's a lot easier to shake and get the powders a lot finer. scoop small quantities into bags.

We added some powdered calcium to the powdered fruits. It helps it from sticking together a bit. We didn't experiment with it too much.

We tend to do bigger batches of powders because we have around 40 hermits! We also use the powders in our shop for crabcorn samples that comes with our Curiosity Cubes.

Xeno and I did a presentation at this years Crab Con about dehydrating and purchasing crab safe foods. I consider it a beginners guide. We can't share it for a year due to the agreement with Crab Con. If you purchased a VIP package you can rewatch all the videos as much as you want.

Here's a topic we did about dehydrating from the beginning of the year!

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=121651

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I went online and saw a page that said about 6 hours for fruit. I guess that was just a general suggestion, and not for the type of fruits you mentioned.

Thanks for the coconut oil tip. I have some, so I'll have to use that next time on the paper.

I dried out eggplant and cucumbers last night, and it worked well. I used the coffee grinder like you said, and it made both into a nice powder. I didn't have a working coffee bean grinder, so I bought one a couple of months ago. Specifically for powdering crabby foods of course. I don't even drink coffee. LOL.

Thanks for the link! I didn't purchase a CC ticket, so I won't be able to see that video.

I don't know how you and Xeno keep up with 40 crabs! I get exausted taking care of 7, all of which are never even up at the same time haha!

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[CrabbyLover77]

Over the last couple of weeks I tried dehydrating some more foods. I was able to dehydrate and grind down strawberries, honeydew melon, and zucchini. I added some calcium powder to the fruit powders, and that seems to really help keep the powders from sticking and clumping together.
I did cheat with the bananas though lol. I bought those freeze dried fruit packs of bananas and ground them up in the coffee grinder. I made some popcorn and coated it with the banana powder. The crabbies went nuts for it.
I also made my own fruit mix. I mixed Zilla fruit pieces with the strawberry, melon, and banana powder. The crabbies seem to love it.
Mine love mealworms, so I mixed the eggplant, zucchini, and cucumber with some chopped mealworms. Another hit. Who knew making your own crab food could be so much fun! I rarely cook for myself, but at least my crabs and tortoise get good meals lol!

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[GotButterflies]

Fruits are really difficult. Like Moto said, you really have to stick to small amounts. I have even found that if I don't use my fruits that ground up fine within a couple of weeks they become sticky.

[CrabbyLover77]

Fruits are really difficult. Like Moto said, you really have to stick to small amounts. I have even found that if I don't use my fruits that ground up fine within a couple of weeks they become sticky.

I agree. I forgot to put calcium powder in my melon powder the first day and it started sticking. So I quick threw some in and shook it up and it helped separate it. I'll probably have to make more of my Zilla fruit mix to use up the rest so it doesn't get all clumpy.

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[eldorf.dragonsbane]

Just got me a new dehydrator, a 750 watt one with digital temp and digital timer. Its the Cabela's Harvester Pro 5 tier Digital Dehydrator. Picked up two additional trays for it along with a set of 4 fruit roll trays and a set of 4 mesh drying screens.

Right now I have Red Raspberry puree, Blackberry puree, strawberry puree and some honey all on it to try my hand at dehydrating them so that I can powder them.

[CrabbyLover77]

Just got me a new dehydrator, a 750 watt one with digital temp and digital timer. Its the Cabela's Harvester Pro 5 tier Digital Dehydrator. Picked up two additional trays for it along with a set of 4 fruit roll trays and a set of 4 mesh drying screens.

Right now I have Red Raspberry puree, Blackberry puree, strawberry puree and some honey all on it to try my hand at dehydrating them so that I can powder them.

Sweet! My free one is probably about 10 yrs old, so no timer or temp settings, just on and off lol. Let me know how it works out!

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[eldorf.dragonsbane]

Sweet! My free one is probably about 10 yrs old, so no timer or temp settings, just on and off lol. Let me know how it works out!

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Have one like that too, though if I had to hazard a guess I would say its more like 20 years or so old. Tried dehydrating honey in it, but after 48 hours the honey was still real sticky. It works great for drying the Carolina reaper peppers that my brother grew and dehydrated.

Excited about this new dehydrator and everything I can do with it, both for the Hermit Crabs and for my own self (homemade jerky for one).

[CrabbyLover77]

Have one like that too, though if I had to hazard a guess I would say its more like 20 years or so old. Tried dehydrating honey in it, but after 48 hours the honey was still real sticky. It works great for drying the Carolina reaper peppers that my brother grew and dehydrated.

Excited about this new dehydrator and everything I can do with it, both for the Hermit Crabs and for my own self (homemade jerky for one).

Did you save the seeds from the peppers? I just asked a question about crabs being able to eat red bell pepper seeds (they can). I gave them some a couple of nights ago and they loved them, more than the pepper powder lol.

Sorry the honey didn't work out. You could always add some to the powder and make a paste. They might like that.

Have fun!

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[eldorf.dragonsbane]

Did you save the seeds from the peppers? I just asked a question about crabs being able to eat red bell pepper seeds (they can). I gave them some a couple of nights ago and they loved them, more than the pepper powder lol.

Sorry the honey didn't work out. You could always add some to the powder and make a paste. They might like that.

Have fun!

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Unfortunately I have none of the Carolina Reaper seeds,since they came from my brother plant he claimed them all for growing additional plants, he wants to grow as many as he can, he is a hot pepper freak, and loves to add it to almost everything he eats, plus he had a couple people asking him if he grows more if they can get some fresh peppers next year, so another reason he wants to grow additional plants.

[CrabbyLover77]

Unfortunately I have none of the Carolina Reaper seeds,since they came from my brother plant he claimed them all for growing additional plants, he wants to grow as many as he can, he is a hot pepper freak, and loves to add it to almost everything he eats, plus he had a couple people asking him if he grows more if they can get some fresh peppers next year, so another reason he wants to grow additional plants.

Maybe if you grab any peppers from the store you can save those seeds.

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