Dehydrated Strawberries.

I got a dehydrator last year to preserve some of the lovely herbs I was growing in the garden. It seemed frivolous at the time, but fun.

I like fun frivolity.

However, it has proven to be incredibly useful and unexpectedly practical. You need the right tool for the job, my mom always says, and this is the tool for drying stuff out.

Buckets of tomatoes went through last year. Basil. Mint.

Kale.

Kale dries like a dream but absolutely reeks. That whiff of funky kale-y smell you get when cooking it? Times a hundred. No, times a million.

Ick.

We woke up after leaving kale to dry overnight and wondered who had attacked our kitchen with chemical warfare.

No more dried kale.

This year, I'm busting out the dehydrator for strawberries.

Mountains of strawberries are reduced to intense strawberry essence.

The last batch started off with 1530 g and came out of the dehydrator weighing in at 370 g: a net weight reduction of  75 %.

These are not crispy crackly, but still soft and pliable.

Dry but squidgy. They will not make that halo of pink mush in your baked goods like fresh strawberries do.

I am thinking scones. Muffins. Cakes.

Granola.

Eating out of hand like popcorn.

Because they are not completely dried, they are not shelf-stable and do need to be kept in the refrigerator or freezer for long-term storage. Since they reduce in volume so dramatically, this is easy to accomplish. I pack a large mason jar full, but plastic bags or containers would work just as well.

Dehydrated Strawberries.
Make as many as you want.

You will need a food dehydrator or a low oven. (Full disclosure: I have not tried the oven version, but Paul Virant lists it as an alternative to the dehydrator in his book The Preservation Kitchen.)

Gently rinse the strawberries and allow to air dry. Remove the stem and hull from each berry. Quarter berries larger than 1 1/2 inches (ca. 4 cm), and halve berries larger than 3/4 inch (2 cm). For berries smaller than 1/2 inch (1.25 cm), leave whole.

Arrange the berries cut sides up on dehydrator racks or cookie sheets lined with nonstick baking liners. Set the dehydrator or oven to 135 degrees F, and dry the strawberries until they have shrunk to about half their original size but are still pliable - this will take about 8 hours in a dehydrator and 4 in an oven.

Store the berries in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for up to a year.

Comments

[Krista C]

Fabulous timing. I am currently in the market for a dehydrator and I want to test it on strawberries first. Would you mind commenting on what brand you use? Square or round? As someone who has used it on a few things, do you think it matters (square or round)? I have seen very good reviews on the excalibur... and very bad. The nesco reviews seem consistant. Thoughts?

[Ingrid @ Jammy Chicken]

Krista - thanks for the comment. I comparison-shopped for a while and wound up buying the Nesco American Harvest, which is square and plastic. I bought 2 extra trays right off the bat, so I have a total of 6. It feels like I can fit more stuff on a square tray, and it is easier for storage. If you have more material to dehydrate than 6 trays' worth, I would divide it into two different batches, because it goes faster with less. So, I wouldn't suggest getting any more trays than that. Let me know what you get and how it goes!

[Krista C]

Ordered it today and will have it by the end of the week, which coincides with my next strawberry picking excursion. The Nesco Harvest was one of two I was leaning toward so your experience with it was very helpful. Thank you for the heads up on the kale. I can imagine that smell...

[Ingrid @ Jammy Chicken]

Krista - have fun with it! There's lots of great stuff to try - fruit leather, beef jerky. Dried herbs from your garden are so much fresher and more flavorful than the jars of stuff you get in a store - that alone is a great reason to own a dehydrator.