I have to tell you, owning a dehydrator is a worthy investment if you want to save on your grocery budget or just have healthful, nutritious snacks on hand that are shelf-safe.

You can dehydrate produce that might otherwise be wasted. Dehydrated vegetables can be tossed into soups and casseroles, or rehydrated to use in omelets and other recipes. Dehydrated fruits can be eaten as a snack, added to cold cereal or granola, or rehydrated to use in pies or made into sauces for ice cream or pancake toppings.

If you grow herbs, using the dehydrator gets them dried more quickly while retaining a fresh color and taste.

You can even make your own jerky in a home dehydrator using beef, turkey, or venison and some seasonings. You can also make your own fruit leathers (aka fruit roll-ups) in your home dehydrator. Some dehydrators have settings for making your own yogurt, which is truly a taste treat.

Deyhdrators are sold almost everywhere. I got mine at Walmart and later got another one there for my Mother. She uses it every gardening season for her home grown herbs.

Someone once commented to me, “Why do you keep that dehydrator around? You don’t use it all the time, do you?” Well, no, I don’t. But I also don’t want to go buy another one every time I do want to use it! It’s worth the storage space just to be able to use it during the growing season alone, but I also use it during the rest of the year for things like bananas that are on sale.

Before I started working outside my home, I went to a local grocer for “Banana Tuesday” every week, and bought at least 20 pounds of bananas at only .25 a pound. I dehydrated most of them and had good snacks for the kids and dried bananas to put in my home made granola. That price is half the regular price of .49 a pound, so it was a huge savings!

I bet that right now you can think of uses for a dehydrator in your kitchen. Wanna share?

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