That is what I think it costs, in electricity at my supplier’s current rate, to dehydrate a batch of slices from four or five apples. Having got the dehydrator just over a week ago, Jane asked whether it was viable, so I bought an energy measuring plug (I’m sure I used to have one but couldn’t find it despite hunting around).

As a basic cost, that is lot cheaper than buying a packet of dehydrated fruit slices would be. It doubtless costs a lot more energy per individual slice to do the drying but avoids all the costs of other people’s labour, packaging and transport. So, on that level, it is definitely justified.

What we do now need to do is make sure we keep on using it. If you add in the cost of purchasing the dehydrator, divided by the five or six batches I’ve run so far, the economics swing far in the other direction. That will only come down if we keep using it to avoid our homegrown produce going to waste and storing it in a form that is relatively healthy (driving out the moisture at low temperature avoids denaturing at least some of the nutrients).