A4C Prepper Dan Vlog7 Dehydrating
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Summary
In this episode, I discuss the benefits of dehydrating dried fruits and vegetables, and how you can make the most of them. Dehydrating is a simple and healthy way to eat and store fresh fruit and vegetables without the preservatives, chemicals, preservatives or preservatives. It's also a great way to save money and save time by avoiding the need for preservatives and chemicals.
Transcript
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when considering dehydrating there's a lot of things that you need to know let's talk
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about some of the healthy benefits for you first of all nutrition is always something to consider
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did you know that fruits like cranberries grapes and plums contain twice the amount of antioxidants
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dehydrated as they do in the fresh version something to note also the variety of things you
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can dehydrate is quite a long list you could do dried fruit snacks from chips from apples bananas
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oranges pears fruit prunes or lemon you can make veggie chips from zucchini kale carrots green beans
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sweet potatoes ah sweet potatoes there's one of my favorite ones there you can make jerky from beef
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salmon chicken or lamb you can make fruit leathers always a popular choice for children going to
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school you can make those from pureed dried fruits basically like the fruit version of beef jerky
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you can make sun-dried or dehydrated tomatoes you can make granola and crispy nuts and seeds
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you can do raw crackers or breads you can make full meals that can be rehydrated later
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you can do dried herbs and flowers you can do so much more you can go ahead and explore all these
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there's lots of recipes online that you can find the second benefit is no preservative or chemicals
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you can also save yourself a lot of money and that's a good third reason a fourth good reason is easy
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storage and preservation you can reuse canning jars and any tight-fitting lid with a bit of a rubber seal on it
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works as well a fifth good reason is to make an assortment of good homemade goods you can mix and
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match all kinds of nuts and fruits and dried fruit and wow there you go dried herbs herbal teas
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potpourri of dried flowers you can even make fire starters something we use a lot of is dog treats
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a sixth good reason is that dried fruits or dried anything that you dehydrate is very portable doesn't
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take up a lot of space a lot it doesn't take up a lot of space for storage either number seven for
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those of you that are focused on plant-based diets they're perfect for that number eight it reduces waste
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and number nine it prepares you for emergencies when the power goes out you'll have all kinds of
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things that you can just simply rehydrate or something that you can just um you know use
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wholeheartedly other benefits is that you'll finally be able to buy in bulk without worrying about
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spoilage dehydrate a lot of it another good reason is it'll save you time energy and money
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a lot of people carry a grocery list but still end up getting additional items such as chips and candy
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bars and drinks no more impulse buying another good reason is you'll have a chance to prepare special
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meals at a lower cost you'll also save time preserving food compared to canning you'll also
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get to free up some space and you'll finally have full control over the food that you eat you'll manage
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to eat less and still be energized and you'll have a great supply of those antioxidants and what are
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some of the ways that you can dehydrate well one of the most ancient methods is by sun drying
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now you've got to understand that sun drying takes a long time especially in some of our climates
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here in canada you're going to need a very sunny area with low humidity with a minimum temperature
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86 degrees fahrenheit or 30 degrees celsius you can use the air drying method also this method does
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take a lot of time as well it's a simple method it doesn't require any special equipment you can use
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this especially for things like hanging branches of mint solar drying is something that's also becoming
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more popular you can go online and find out how you can build very inexpensive solar dryers
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materials you may just have around the house and some tin foil but really the easiest way and the
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most convenient is to use an electric dehydrator these work fairly quickly and they do a really
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good job but the one i would recommend is the one that i have in this photo here i'll have a link for
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it in the description two things to highlight about the dehydrator and what we use it for
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varied reasons throughout the year but in the summer time and throughout the fall when we harvest
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a lot of our products one of the main things that we do is we grow a lot of peppers we make a lot of
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our pasta sauces and that but we always have extra peppers so here's an example we slice up some green
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pepper and we dehydrate peppers now i like hot stuff a lot of hot peppers so here's an assortment of
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banana peppers jalapeno peppers and another assortment of different peppers and these keep really well
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again they don't have to be mason jars we recycle some of these larger jars as long as there's a bit
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of a rubber seal inside here make sure that these jars are uh sterilized and you're good to go keep
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them in a cool dark place which we do closet upstairs so a variety of different peppers gotta admit they look
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kind of nice too the different colors in that sometimes we go to a farmer's market we get them
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on uh you know in a bulk bag as well and so we pick up quite a few as well too there's just another
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bunch of peppers too this may surprise you but sometimes we get uh large large bags of um potatoes
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we shred them and we dehydrate them this is a few hours worth and uh we put them in bags and uh stick
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them in the pantry and simply rehydrate these fry them with some eggs and some bacon and voila and again
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these potatoes will last a very long time they're hard and crunchy now but uh yeah so potatoes you know
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when potatoes go on sale they're crazy price now but there's another thing you can dehydrate
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leeks i love leeks and onions so again whenever these go on sale now we do grow some here but
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whenever they go on sale i pick up a whole bunch simply slice them up throw them in the dehydrator
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for a few hours and there you go leeks leeks more leeks leaking potato soup uh here's another type of uh red
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peppers and again when we you know open up a jar sometimes we'll put some in the bags and just
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again throw these in some soups or whatever uh right now as you saw i'm doing some uh some of these
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sweet potatoes and the ones for the dogs we don't spice them up with any kind of spices again i said i
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kind of like my things a little bit spicy and this is what they look like when they're done now the ones
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that i showed you that are really big ones they will shrink and you know they do shrink some but
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i can almost eat a whole jar of this myself you know i mean it's a healthy snack but honestly at
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lunchtime sometimes i don't want to have a full meal i'll eat like five or eight or even ten of these
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and that's it it kind of kills my appetite and it is a healthy snack you know no doubt about it it's uh
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it's a very yummy snack you know what i mean the other thing i like to do too is uh health wise is
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make some teas especially throughout the winter time to stay healthy so i like to go around to some large
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rose bushes when the flowers are done and in the fall when the rose hips come out now i found some
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different types of uh rose bushes around that have a really different type of rose hip and they have
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an odd shape to them kind of like uh i don't know what it's called like it's kind of like an odd shape
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but anyhow i managed to get big buckets of those uh last year and the year before so i dry my rose hips
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and i literally have jars and jars of these different color ones and what i do is i've got a little coffee
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grinder specifically just for this and i've got a i've got my coffee my tea thing here full of chaga
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all the time and i you know i drink one or two cups of chaga every day but i dry my chaga in here as
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well too whenever i go and harvest my chaga in the woods i always dry it for a few hours just to make
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sure it's dry before i put it away so it doesn't mold but my rose hips but also we grow a lot of mint here
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and mint is invasive so if you grow mint somewhere make sure that you put it in a place where you
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don't mind it spreading okay so different kinds of mint i own property up in a mountain and so what
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i do is i go and harvest this mint it just grows in the riverbed so i harvest that i've got spearmint
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peppermint and then just i've got some chocolate mint as well and a couple of other mints but i keep it
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in jars once it's dry dehydrated and what i do for my teas is uh once i put this through the little
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coffee grinder you have to grind these really to get the benefit of the the road steps is i've got
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these little balls that you put loose tea in and then just make a cup of tea or two in the winter
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time and it's really high in antioxidants and really good for you and i also dry queen anne's lace
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and mix that in as well sometimes i've got another one of these coffee pots and sometimes i'll make a
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full pot of this tea i'll make my own concoction but again it's nice to have your dehydrator where
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you can dry your own ingredients and you know what's going into it and it's fresh i mean it's
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dehydrated but it's fresh you picked it yourself you dried it yourself you store it yourself you make
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it yourself and on a cold winter's day maybe when it's storming out you know i can take it to my shop
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i've got a little wood stove in there i can put the pot on there warm it up work in my projects
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and away you go so those are some of the benefits that you have of having your own dehydrator
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you know we've done apples we've done pineapple we've done bananas any type of fruit fruit tends
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to be a little more leathery and that but you know you eat within a couple of months and with the price
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of stuff food and vegetables going up so much these days get it when you can even get it on sale
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throw it in the dehydrator and you've got some nice healthy snacks to indulge yourself