Dehydrating carrots

Gardening with Rabbits

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I have dehydrated a lot of things, but not carrots. I have not dehydrated anything for a few years. I bought 10 pounds of carrots and I was going to cut up and freeze, but thinking about dehydrating them. My book says to blanch and when they are finished dehydrating they will be rubbery, but on line I have seen they will be brittle or snap. If I cut in coin sizes should they be brittle or rubbery? Also, I usually put things in jars, but is there an advantage to using the Food Saver instead of jars? Which way will they keep better?
 

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I haven't dehydrated carrots but most vegetables that I have dehydrated (zucchini, winter squash, leeks, cabbage, ect) do become brittle. I store then in jars and they stay crispy for awhile. I finally noticed that my zucchini chips are becoming less crispy (dehydrated in August of last year).
 

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I haven't dehydrated carrots but most vegetables that I have dehydrated (zucchini, winter squash, leeks, cabbage, ect) do become brittle. I store then in jars and they stay crispy for awhile. I finally noticed that my zucchini chips are becoming less crispy (dehydrated in August of last year).
I have had good luck with dehydrating, but just wasted because I never used them. I ate all the raspberries on oatmeal and I used a lot of cherry tomatoes on salads, but I did not use the squash. We ate all the potatoes and I think I would use all the carrots if I did not go overboard and do too many. I used all my garlic powder and onions and I want to do more onions. I also used all my herbs and miss having them right now other than some oregano. I used kale in soups.
 

ducks4you

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That is True! You should dehydrate those foods that you KNOW you will use.
I am disappointed that year old dehydrated sweet peppers lose their punch. The frozen ones don't!
I will still dehydrate sweet peppers bc the frozen ones give their flavor in cooking but they dissolve bc the freezing has broken them down so much.
HOT peppers do NOT lose their punch. They are like zucchini. 1-2 bushes are Plenty for harvesting every year.
 

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for soups i think a small dice works well and should dehydrate ok too. carrots are one of those things that i've noticed will rarely spoil when i'm drying them in my food scraps trays (this eventually gets fed to the worm buckets).
 

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How did you know that was my plan too? I have two large bags just waiting for me to dehydrate. I was wonder if I should blanch? Shred? Coins?
I read for sure you want to blanch. Kind of wondering if flowerbug is right about the dice. I like both. Somebody said to treat with Fruit Fresh because they will turn black and I am not sure after how long that would happen. It took YEARS for some of my squash to get dark and I found a jar of shredded potatoes that got pushed behind something and I could not see it and it was dark, but it was not black and it was 6 years old.
 

flowerbug

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I read for sure you want to blanch. Kind of wondering if flowerbug is right about the dice. I like both. Somebody said to treat with Fruit Fresh because they will turn black and I am not sure after how long that would happen. It took YEARS for some of my squash to get dark and I found a jar of shredded potatoes that got pushed behind something and I could not see it and it was dark, but it was not black and it was 6 years old.

as long as the pieces won't fall through the mesh they will dry quicker. too small though and i think you lose too much nutrients. maybe a reasonable compromise is to quarter the larger carrot coins. ? i dunno. i've never really done this myself. :)
 

Dirtmechanic

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I have dehydrated a lot of things, but not carrots. I have not dehydrated anything for a few years. I bought 10 pounds of carrots and I was going to cut up and freeze, but thinking about dehydrating them. My book says to blanch and when they are finished dehydrating they will be rubbery, but on line I have seen they will be brittle or snap. If I cut in coin sizes should they be brittle or rubbery? Also, I usually put things in jars, but is there an advantage to using the Food Saver instead of jars? Which way will they keep better?
When you dehydrate I imagine they will freeze extremely well.
 

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