Jay Bills - Dehydrating Food: A Beginners Guide

Timucua Indians smoking game in Florida circa 1562. Drawings by Jacques le Moyne.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are the richest sources of vitamins, minerals, sugars, proteins, and other nutritive substances essential to good health. How necessary it is then, that we do our utmost to conserve these nutrients. Even though harvested or gathered, fruits and vegetables remain living materials capable of carrying on their own lifes processes. After the product is removed from its life source, these processes, if left unchecked, destroy quality because they include the oxidation of valuable materials within the product.

The chemical changes that impair product quality, as well as attacks by organisms of decay, can be retarded by storing products in the refrigerator until processed, but this storage must be as short a time as possible; two days should be the maximum length of time.

Only products in prime condition should be dried, and that means they are at their best for drying when they have reached maturity and are garden or orchard fresh.

Dehydrated fruits and vegetables which have been reconstituted and cooked provide approximately the same amount of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, and bulk as the original fresh material similarly prepared. The proteins and minerals in dehydrated foods after reconstituting are no different from those of the original foods if dehydrated at the recommended proper temperature. Since steaming vegetables helps to retain more of the nutrients than scalding does, we recommend following the directions in the section on dehydrating vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables not only provide important dietary nutrients, but make other contributions to the normal functioning of the body. Fruits, with exception of cranberries, plums, and prunes; vegetables, with the exception of rhubarb, spinach, and chard, exert an alkaline effect when oxidized in the body. The free acids and acid salts of fruits and vegetables are oxidized to carbonic acid which is eliminated by breathing. Vegetables provide salts of the metals calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium, which are available for the purpose of neutralizing acid by products resulting from the metabolism of meat, egg, milk, and cereal proteins. This is but one of several reasons why a diet should include fruits and vegetables.

Fruits are an excellent source of Vitamins A and C but are not very rich in Vitamin B-1 (Thiamin). While sulfuring destroys Vitamin B-1 in fruits, it tends to retain the potency of Vitamins A and C. It is always better to preserve the greater amount of vitamins.