I’ve been using my dehydrator a fair amount in recent weeks. It is the one I picked up in the autumn of 2021 and I’d say that it earns the cupboard space it takes up for portions of the year. One of my experiments this year has been turning up the heat setting. I don’t know how well calibrated it is but my inclination had been to keep the process low and slow in order to avoid denaturing too much of the goodness of the foods. However, turning up to what it calls about 70°C seems to produce faster and better results with fruits like apples and tomatoes.

The other thing I’ve been doing with those types of items, is making more frequent use of baking parchment on the wire shelves. Without it the slices have a tendency to stick. The baking parchment works better and doesn’t seem to impede the drying process. Depending on what is being dried, the sheets can often be re-used several times.

Tomorrow, it will be another batch of beetroot going through, allowing me to top up my supplies of beetroot powder, an excellent way to impart colour to various foods, like bread (garishly pink dough but a more subtle hue once baked).