 Welcome to Drying Foods at Home. This lesson will be presented by Janice Hall, Regional Extension Agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. You will learn how to use different methods to dry fruits, vegetables, herbs, and how to make fruit leathers. Let's get started. To begin the process of drying, it is important to understand how does drying preserve foods. Microorganism, such as yeast, mold, and bacteria need water to grow. So removing moisture prevents spoilage from microorganisms. In other words, when foods are dried, the moisture that the bacteria love and need to grow and survive is not there. This helps to extend the shelf life of those foods you can choose to dry. What are some reasons why we use drying as a method of preservation? Well, it's simple. It reduces the size and the weight of the food. The shelf life is expanded and it requires very little space. It always amazes me. When I start out with a large portion of food to dry, I always end up with such a reduced portion. There are many types of drying methods. I will only cover three in this lesson. Others can be found on our website under food preservation. You can dry foods using a room in your home, an oven, or a dehydrator. I will cover which foods will yield the best results using which type of drying method. Now let's take a look at how you can dry foods in a room. The room method is best suited for herbs, nuts, chili peppers, and partially dried fruit. I can remember growing up when we would harvest our peppers. Some would get eaten right then and others were tied with string and hung in the kitchen. It made for a yummy splash of color and decor in the kitchen. In the picture, you can see how these are tied in a bundle with string and hung spaced apart. You can also do this by placing them in a paper bag with holes in the side. Close it with the rubber band and then hang them in the same position. You know your herbs are ready when the leaves crumble or the stems break. Make sure that your room is warm, dry, and well ventilated. One more important tip to know is that sun drying can cause your herbs to lose flavor and color. So choose the drying method carefully. Now for your nuts. You can spread them on a single layer, on a tray, and put or put them in a bag into dry soil. Oven drying is another drying method that can be used. It is suitable for most foods, but you have to make sure that your oven can reach 150, 140 to 150 degrees. Use a thermometer to make sure that this temperature is accurate. To dry the oven, simply place your food on a lined cookie sheet. Make sure that your racks are at least two to three inches apart, and you want to open your oven door about two to six inches with a fan placed nearby to allow for air to circulate. Rotate your foods occasionally and watch for scorching. This drying method that can be used is dehydrating. You can use a dehydrator to dry most foods. However, it is not recommended that you dry foods such as milk products and eggs. This is a picture of an electric dehydrator. They come in all different sizes and shapes. This equipment can be used to simply wash your fruits and vegetables, slice them, place them on the trays, and rotate your trays periodically to make sure that they're drying evenly. I have probably used the method, this method the most. The reason for that is because it doesn't tie up the oven and it's quicker than the room method, but the disadvantage is that you will have to buy it. So it is another piece of equipment and it can be pretty expensive. All in all, all three methods can yield some delicious fruits and vegetables here around. Speaking of fruits and vegetables, now we're going to learn some ways of how to dry fruits and vegetables. Drying fruits can be pretty easy. You just simply wash, pour your fruit if it's needed, cut them in uniform pieces, or some fruits can even be dried whole. Place them in a single layer on your trays. Now one thing to remember is that peeled and thinly sliced fruits tend to dry fastest. Make sure that you're watching your food carefully and you're rotating it as needed. Now who doesn't love fruit leathers? If you don't know what these are, it's the fruit roll-ups that you buy in the store and you put in your children's lunchboxes or pack for a snack. The difference is that they're made from pure fruit and nothing added and it's taste amazing. So how do you make fruit leathers? You simply wash your fruit, peel it if needed, cut it into small pieces, and some fruits will require you to add lemon juice or scorbic acid to prevent it from turning brown. Follow your recipes to make sure that you're making your fruit leathers correctly. You're going to parade your fruit until it's smooth and some, sometimes you can add sugar or honey or corn syrup, but when I do mine, it is just a simple pure fruit. The one that I love the most is pineapple. It's my favorite. I just basically take a fresh pineapple, chop it up, put it into the blender and liquefy it. I then pour it onto the trays lined with parchment paper or wax paper and then spread it out to be at least about an eighth of an inch thick. You don't want it to be too thick because the thicker it is, the longer it takes to dry. You want to rotate your trays throughout the process and also you want to remember that your dehydrator needs to be set on about 140 degrees. Your dehydrators usually come with instructions to let you know which temperature is the best drying temperature for the food that you are drying. It takes about six to eight hours to make fruit leathers. Drying vegetables can also be done using similar techniques as fruit. Select freshly picked high quality vegetables. Make sure that you wash them. Peel and trim them if you need to. Cut them also in uniform pieces. Now some recipes will call for you to blanch your vegetables first before drying them. Make sure that you're following those recipes. Place them in a single layer on your drying tray and rotate those trays throughout the process. After you have dried those beautiful fruits and vegetables how do you use them? Well you can eat and enjoy as is. For fruits to plump or soften them you can cover them with liquid for five to ten minutes. You can also steam them for three to five minutes or just simply soak and let them simmer. For vegetables you can soak them for one to two hours and one to two cups of liquid per one cup of vegetables. You can also just add them straight to your soups without soaking. I hope you have enjoyed and learned a lot in drying. I hope that you are inspired to go out and dry some of your fruits and vegetables. If you have questions please feel free to call us. Please meet the Food Safety and Quality team. We are here to help you all across the state of Alabama. Please visit us on our website at www.asis.edu or follow us on Facebook at Asis Food Safety.