Keeping the dehydrator fired up

Runner beans and apple slices, Oct 2020

My first dehydrator met with a terrible accident involving a stand mixer and a water jug.  There were no witnesses and tragically the dehydrator perished in the event.  It was such a useful appliance that the husband went out and bought a new one within a few weeks, pictured above.  Like its predecessor, it has gone through some heavy bouts of drying (followed by prolonged periods of quiet).  This past week it's been churning through three sacks of apples given to us by a neighbor.  I'm finally working on the third sack now.

Saved the nicest for eating, Oct 2020

I peel and halve the apples and core with a melon baller;  then I run the halves over my small mandoline to make thin, uniform slices.  That's all:  they go straight onto the drying trays from there.  The son and husband occasionally help out with the preparation--the son is pretty good at peeling (he's ten).

My dehydrator holds slices from 10 apples at once, although when two trays have become partly dry I combine them and put two more apples on the freed up tray;  I also rotate the trays every hour or so and the slices will dry in around six or eight hours.  It works out I can generally dry 16 or more apples in a day this way.

Also dehydrated recently: runner beans.  These I chop and then blanch in boiling water for about four minutes;  after draining they go straight onto a tray.  About a pound of pods fits on one tray, and they take at least a day and a half to dry.  Similar treatment for cabbage leaves, though they dry much more quickly:  maybe six hours tops.