Stockli Dehydrator (With Timer)

This is my first season with one of these and I already don't know how I managed without one! I grow lots of vegetables and have some prolific apple trees in my garden and tend to get gluts of things. Previously I had to find room in the freezer for things and quickly ran out of space. I hate wasting things I have grown that I know are good for us! This summer I have been drying apples on a daily basis (using one of those cheap little peeling coring and slicing machines - absolutely effortless) and now I am onto the pears, courgettes and tonight even the beetroot. I have beans dried for soup and tomatoes and herbs in abundance. The smell of the dried vegetables is heavenly as you get all the concentrated essence of the vegetable. No need to have your freezer working all year to store them, and they take up a fraction of the room of the raw item. Can't be beaten. But if you are doing apples do investigate one of those little wind up peeling slicing coring machines they are cheap as chips and just magic and one of those plus a dryer is a marriage made in heaven. Here is a link: Aluminium 3in1 Apple Peeler Corer Slicer Suction Stand.

I have owned this make of food dryer for a couple of years and have been very pleased with it and have recommended it to others. Having a number of assorted fruit trees in the garden, plus growing our own vegetables and herbs means that there is no longer a waste of produce when there is a glut nor the hassle of offloading any surplus ( though friends and neighbours may be disappointed !). Also of course you can buy fruit or veg when in it is in season ( and thus cheap ) and dry and store for future use. Everything we have so far dried has kept its flavour very well and the drier is simple to use and clean and takes up very little space. More importantly perhaps it appears to use very little electricity as we have not seen any appreciable jump in the electricity bills since having it. My dryer came with a very comprehensive instruction book that gives times for drying all manner of produce plus a recipe book.

I bought this from Amazon around two years ago and I can honestly say that I have used it almost every day since owning it.

I use it mainly to make fruit and vegetable crisps so that I can have a healthy snack to munch on whilst watching TV in the evening. The only reason I have to make them daily is that they don't last very long in our household as everyone grabs a handful as soon as they are ready. I have also used it to dry herbs grown in the garden during the summer. It is also great for drying tomatoes, grapes and banana slices.

The dehydrator is very simple in its construction. It consists of the base where the heating element is housed along with the timer and temperature controls. The temperature can be set in values of 10 degrees C from 20C to 70C. The timer can be set up to 12 hours.

There are then three removable plastic trays with a fine plastic grid for the base. The trays stack well and are stable even when all three are in use. The trays are where you lay your items to be dried and the mesh allows the heat to move through each layer and out of the lid. For the most part you lay your food to dried directly onto the plastic mesh. However, some food items such as carrots and beetroot can leave a stain which is difficult to get out. You can buy silicone mats which sit inside the tray. These allow you to dry out sloppy mixtures such as crackers and health food bars.

There is also a plastic lid with a fairly large hole to allow the heat and moisture to escape during the drying process. This fits perfectly on top of whichever tray you put on last.

The unit uses 600 watts of power so it will cost you a couple of pence an hour to run.

There are two downsides to this dehydrator - one which is the noise whilst it is in use. It isn't deafening by any means but it does give out a fairly noisy, persistent humming noise throughout the drying period. The other is that it does generate a fair amount of warmth and will add to the ambient temperature in your kitchen or wherever else it is being used.

Overall, these are ideal for creating healthy snacks and food. They are also great for helping to deal with a glut of fruit, vegetables or herbs that you might have grown in the garden.

I wouldn't want to be without mine as I never seem to run out of things to dry in it.