Store It Foods

Believe it or not, you have quite a tool in your food dehydrator. 

If you’ve got one, you have probably used it for making a little bit of jerky, or perhaps for dehydrating fruit or fruit pastes for snacks.  You may have even put together the ingredients for soups or trail mixes.  If you do have a dehydrator and haven’t tried some of these things, perhaps you should.  After all, you’ve invested in the machine so why not see what you  can glean from that investment.

Your dehydrator likely came with a manual containing several recipes.  Why not try some of them?  You just might like them.  Sound out your friends who are also dehydrating at home.  They may have some great ideas for you.  Internet searches can also be worthwhile.

Here, for example, is a recipe that comes from an on-line blog named Food Under Foot.

Dandelion Flower Cookies

Ingredients -

• 1 1/2 cup soaked cashews
• 1/4 cup agave nectar or raw honey
• 1 cup dandelion petals — Pluck the yellow petals off the green collar and stem
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
• 1 Tbsp lemon rind
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• smallest pinch of sea salt

Blend everything except dandelion petals in food processor until smooth.

Mix in dandelion by hand, mix well.

Form into cookies on dehydrator tray.

Dehydrate at 105 for about 6 hours, flip and dehydrate another 2. Cookies will still be a bit moist.

There’s nothing too complex about that, and it may have introduced you to a couple of new concepts in food dehydrator use — you can use them to make cookies, and you can make use of some the wild foods that you have simply taken for granted, not even realizing that they could be used for foods.

Of course the idea of dandelion flower cookies may not appeal to you, but if you do a little looking around, the possibilities are good that you will find something else that you will find both interesting and appealing.  Just try it and see.  It could be worth you while.