Dehydrate Fruit and Vegetables in the Oven

It's difficult to get enough fruit and vegetables on the trail. They're very heavy to carry and bruise easily. However, if you dehydrate them ahead of time, they're awesome to have. You can snack on the fruit during the day. Veggies can be re-hydrated and cooked for dinner.

You can always buy dehydrated food in the store, but it will be expensive. There are also some great dehydrators that you can purchase. The cheapest method, however, is to dehydrate food in your oven.

Things you'll need:

• your fruit or veggies of choice (apples, bananas, papayas, onions, potatoes, peppers, etc.)
• lemon juice
• an oven
• baking sheet
• parchment or wax paper
• a large jar

Step 1: Preheat oven to anywhere from 130-180 degrees.  Rinse your fruit or veggies off in the sink.  Then peel the skin off, and cut off any bruises.  Slice into even sized pieces.





Step 2: Make a mixture of lemon juice and water.  It should be about 1 part lemon juice to every 5 parts water.  You're going to soak your fruit or veggies in this mixture for at least 5 minutes.  I find it easiest to toss my veggies in as I cut them.


Step 3: Dry fruit or veggies off with a clean towel.  Put a piece of parchment or wax paper on a baking sheet.  Put the fruit or veggies on the baking sheet, but don't overlap.  If you oven doesn't go as low as 180 degrees, you can stick a towel in the door so some of the heat circulates out.

 Step 4:  The waiting game.  This process can take anywhere from 10-14 hours.  Be sure you're flipping the fruit or veggies every few hours.  Some pieces might dehydrate faster than others.  Just remove those pieces from the oven and add them to the jar.

Step 5: When your fruit or veggies are dehydrated, you want to put them in your jar.  Leave them in the jar for at least a week, and be sure to shake them up everyday.  After that, you can put them in Ziploc bags to bring hiking.