From your backyard or grocery store - and covering the steps in between - to your final dehydrated food pouches to store for either short- or long-term food storage! I'll Show You How in Six Simple Steps!

Featuring the Nesco™ and Excalibur™ brand dehydrators - I have one of each!

More information about the Nesco™ Dehydrator and the accessories I use. With the Nesco™ brand, you can stack as many trays as you need - within reason... We're not building a new Trump Tower! Also, they have great "solid sheets" for making your Fruit Leathers and the Tomato Leather. Why solid? Stops the drips to the trays below! Nesco™ also offer "Clean-a-Screen" sheets too which help in the clean-up department.

More information about the Excalibur™ Dehydrator and the accessories I use. The Excalibur™ dehydrators come in many sizes; from the 4-tray starter all the way to 9-tray models! They are pricier than Nesco™ dehydrators. Excalibur™ accessories include non-stick sheets. Some of the new Excalibur™ dehydrators have glass-front doors. Neat!

Basics of the FoodSaver® V2240 - and the two steps necessary prior to using a food vacuum sealer.

Learn how to properly place your food vacuum-sealer bags on your FoodSaver® machine - also tips to avoid bag puncturing included!

The supplied bags that come with your FoodSaver® aren't "the best" in my opinion; so I'll share with you my supplier of quality bags. I do not receive compensation for recommending their bags.

FoodSaver™ do have rolls available which are great for cutting to length. Long products, such as spaghetti, do well by this method. Yes, I vacuum-seal spaghetti - for the purpose of keeping it - and the box dry - I live in hurricane-prone Florida!

Oxygen Absorbers... What are they and why should I use them? Don't skimp on this very important step in storing your dehydrated foods for long-term (and even short-term) storage!

Take a close look at what is IN an oxygen absorber and see the FoodSaver® in action as I vacuum- and re-seal my oxygen absorbers! Don't adjust your volume for this video... I had my water distiller running in the background!

Small Mason jars need smaller oxygen absorbers and I'll tell you what sizes best fit small- to medium Mason jars. Also I'll go over the sizes needed for the food bag/pouches, and for long-term storage: what size you'll need that slip inside the Mylar bags before the final sealing of the Mylar bags that contain three or four of your sealed pouches.

What to look for when your oxygen absorbers arrive. I'll also show you how to keep your opened packages of oxygen absorbers "fresh"... this is very important!

Check out what I store in my quart- and half-pint Mason jars. There's also a .pdf in Resources with links as to where to buy them, and a link on how to sterilize them.

Going above and beyond to keep your pouches puncture-free!

Mylar bags - that "untearable, shiny, lightweight material"... ideal for storing your dehydrated food pouches for long-term food storage. NOTE: We do NOT vacuum the air out of the Mylar bag, though we do add an oxygen absorber in the Mylar bag prior to sealing it up.

Plastic lidded bins and buckets are for the serious long-term food storage folk. With all the turmoil world-wide, it behooves us to have enough food on-hand for at least a couple of months... and that's where the air-tight buckets come in. Most bins are NOT air-tight, but are OK to use nonetheless. Only use 2000cc oxygen absorbers in air-tight containers (buckets usually). As always - Remember To Rotate Your Stock!

If you don't have a spare closet (come on ladies... like that's ever gonna happen???) do what I did... create a "wall of dehydrated food." Took about three hours. Hardest part was locating the curtains I had hidden up in the attic...

Time to "Put the Water Back In!" Important tips on the best water to use - and how much. See our shredded carrot example.

I didn't want to have ONE lecture as a blanket-statement covering the dehydrating temperatures. I wanted to make it easy for you to see that carrots dehydrate at 125°F to 135°F - and meats at 160°F - posted right there in their specific video lectures!

When you need to come back to fruit leathers in the future, you'll see right there in their video that they dehydrate at a higher temperature. And green beans? Oh, it's right there... on their video. And mushrooms? Yep, they're the odd-ball veggie... but it's right there in the video!

If I'd have chosen to go with one video having a list of all the fruits and veggies' dehydrating temperatures, it would have meant you having to go back and forth between one video list to get pertinent dehydrating temperatures - and then having to go back to your fruit/veg of choice to continue with preparation information... and that didn't sit well with me.

So I made this short video to explain why there is a seemingly repetitious nature throughout the fruits and veggies sections of my Food Dehydrating Made Easy! course.

Thanks for watching - I know I'll sleep better tonight now!

Learn the Basics of Fruit Preparation. Find out which Fruits need to be Sprayed with Lemon Juice, and which don't!

Minimum Tray usage for fruit for Nesco™ Dehydrators and a reminder to "rotate your trays!"

'Bout Them Apples... Learn how easy it is to dehydrate apples for healthy snacks at home! Please see our Apple Sauce recipe at the end of this course!

I love Apricot Jam - spread across a freshly baked croissant...

Great for Back-Packing trips and Snacking at home. Please see our Banana Cinnamon Rolls recipe at the end of this course!

Learn how to dehydrate Blueberries and Cranberries.

Cherries are great for Cobblers, Pies, and of course, Cocktails!

Fruit Rolls - AKA "Fruit Leathers" - Fun to Make, Kids Love 'Em!

Raisins in Disguise...

Our Citrus Trio! Quick to Prep: Wash, Slice, and Away You Go!

Watermelon, Honeydew... and/or Cantaloupe too! Instructions on how to roast their seeds also.

Not Just for Lucky Georgians! Peach Melba... Peach Cobbler... Yum!

For a Compote or Pear Preserves.

Yes, those "Good for You" Prunes!

Rhubarb is great eaten raw as we all know... but dehydrated and then re-hydrated, it's good for Pies, Desserts, and Tarts.

Strawberries are Everyone's Favorite!