I'm about to turn 50 years old and I've never done food preservation before, but decided to give it a go this week. We are in a tiny apartment in the city, away from family, and I feel like I need to prepare for any possibility in the coming months. I pulled out an old dehydrator I had (it still works!) and have been pickling and drying vegetables all week. With exception of one batch of fresh corn that I did at too high of a temp when starting (it turned brown and I'm not sure it's worth saving), I've had great results and and have built us up a nice little pantry in a repurposed linen closet. I was very resistant to learning these skills from my mom as a teenager and she's not around now for me to get advice, so I wanted to thank you for your videos. :)

Man, I am so embarrassed and ashamed. 😔 I dragged my dehydrator down from an upper cabinet (you know, the cabinet where you put things you never use), and realized I also had a couple of dehydrating books, in addition to the original manual. Well, the receipt was also there...from 1993!!!😮 Holy cow!🐄 I know I used it a few times when I first bought it, but damn I've wasted a lot of years...and a LOT of food that I could have dried instead of throwing it away. 😖 I love the idea of preserving food for future use. I WILL do this!!👍🏻 Thanks for the motivation. 😁

7 year old video is not old. Food is still around as well as dehydrators. Thank you for sharing. I can’t wait to get started

I have 22 garlic planted in the garden. And 5 elephant garlic planted. I plan on making some garlic powder with all of those and save a few for planting again. Free garlic powder forever!!! LOL I love my garden and now I am trying to plant things that I use a lot of to cut down on the grocery bill and eat healthy :) If I had known it was so easy I would have been doing this sooner. Thanks

When I slice a lot of mushrooms, I use an egg slicer. It does an even, fast job.

I used to love driving through Gilroy, CA during the garlic season. Roll down the all windows and enjoy that fragrance.

It is so satisfying to watch her fill jars up with dried food.

It's funny you should mention not dehydrating the pungent things in the house. Someone I follow here on KZfaq (not a cooking based channel) once spoke about making the mistake of dehydrating jalapeños in her kitchen. She laughed through the whole story. So did I. Thanks for all of your dehydrating content!

Hint: you can cut mushrooms and strawberries with your hard boiled egg cutter. It does them perfect and it’s sooooo quick!!! 💕🌸💕

Can’t beat dehydrating things. Takes up little space, lasts for many years, nothing in the fridge goes to Waste. After Thanksgiving day,I usually left over celery, parsley, dill,etc. put all into dehydrator And store. Have Excalibur...only one I would own...does a great job. When you find veggies or herbs on Sale or have grown a lot of food such as peppers, tomatoes, etc...dehydrate and store for a rainy Day.

I felt so BAD after watching this video ... because I just threw out two large bags of Kale that went bad in the fridge.... I own a commercial dehydrator and I have not used it in over 2 years. Well, here is the update.... I brought it out today thanks for kicking me into gear. I will be adding a video and showing it to you.... :)

I am truly inspired! We go through a lot of garlic and mushrooms in the recipes that we love most but have to admit that we have wasted a great deal from not using it fast enough. I am new to canning and dehydrating and cannot wait to try this out. I’m so happy I found you here through Alaskan Prepper. Many blessings to you and everyone else. ❤️

Try turning your dehydrated mushrooms into a powder. Then use to make a light gravy with steak or anything YUM

That stem in the kale is where most of the calcium sits. You could dry and grind them separately.

You are a great inspiration, Linda! Currently I've got hollyhock flower heads and lavender in my dehydrator. I made some drying racks out of bamboo and an old piece of almond net because we get so much sun in Spain and we get a lot of free food from the farmers this time of year. I am inundated with cucumber, tomato, garlic, onion, aubergine and courgette. So my garlic is currently drying outside. The flower heads are for a friend who makes soap. But thanks for your enthusiasm and efforts, they help :) cheers me dears.

New subscriber here, watching from Europe,,, after watching your this video I think I'm going to dehydrate all my organic harvest from my garden this summer,,,, thanks Linda,, shout out from Europe please,,,, more videos, please..

I love the egg stand!

Linda, it's been a long while since I commented but thought you might like to know this "professional" tip the fancy chef's know. There are those folks out there that get heartburn from eating garlic. The reason is the little woody or harder part of the bottom of the garlic that most people chop up with the rest. Of you remove that part you get the garlic without the heartburn. It's labor intensive but it's these little tricks that make the difference.

I never powder my garlic. I ALWAYS mince it then dehydrate it. If I need powder, I actually fill a spice grinder with the minced garlic and then grind as needed into a powder. Also, I keep my machine out. This way it gets used. Right now it’s on my kitchen table and we don’t eat there. But I’m going to get a small cart for it to sit on. I have the Excalibur and I love it!

I have had a 9 tray Excalibur for about 25 years. I had to get new fan (after about 15 years use) one time. Customer service was wonderful and parts are very reasonably priced.

I grow my own and a lot went to waste, because I let it go to long. I never thought of dehydrating it. Thank you for the idea. I am going to subscribe and watch more.

Linda, I have that same food processor. It’s a workhorse!! I’ve had it 35 years and it just keeps going. Enjoyed your video!

I love my Nesco dehydrators. I have two, after having success with the small one, I decided there are so many things to dehydrate that I needed another so I got the biggest one. During apple season I need them both!♥️Love your videos.

I was all set to sell for the first time at the farmers market had me 12 trays of wheat grass so have also dehydrated that and using my coffee grinder to blitz them to powder for smoothies and soups. I just have a little dehydrater but it does me great. 😊

This is the reason I’ve started canning and dehydrating love these videos

Thank you for the garlic info I do dehydrate and can a lot so that will be a great addition. The other day our store was running frozen vegs. for 97 cents a bag. I bought 9 bags of mixed and dehydrated them and now when it is soup time I am ready. Thanks for your hard work

Great idea, I live some distance from the supermarket and in deep snow times it's hard to get out. I'll try some of your idea's.

YOU are one of my FAV people to watch. Very informative & knowledgeable.

Thanx for taking the time to share/educate others, just got one for Christmas, I'm very excited!!!

I love your videos. I just wanted to add that I use my food processor's slicing blade on garlic and the slices are perfect for soups and stews. I just load up the feeder tube and push them through. When I get done fixing Ramon Noodles with all my added dehydrated veggies, it becomes a healthy meal. By the way, I love my Nesco Garden Master because I can stack it about 20 high--important for the home gardener. I have warn out the thermostat on one unit after about 2.5 years of heavy use. Not bad. Thanks for such great videos!

Thanks for being here and sharing your skills! I am also a beginner, and cannot wait to get started.

I found an Excalibur on Craig's List a couple of weeks ago, it's great! My husband thinks I'm crazy, since I've been pulling all the frozen veggies out of the freezer and drying them :)

great video. Just bought a 10 tray Cabela's dehydrator today. Looking forward to making some good stuff.

Whoa! I would have never dehydrated other vegetables with garlic, but that is a GOOD point about how it doesn't matter if they do. Thanks!

What a great way to save money! A wonderful way not to waste food! Thank you.

WOW! what an inspiration you have been to me! My daughter just got diagnosed with a GLUTIN allergy. Helping her shop and find foods gluten free has been a nightmare. After several trips to the emergency room for hives to her throat closing shut, I decided to prepare her meals from scratch, because she's a working single mom who has very little time to cook. I was searching for recipes when I saw your video! Spices have Glutens if you buy them prepared, anything "fresh" doesn't. I am inspired to make bagged meals as well as fresh, dried spices after seeing your video! Thank you so very much :)

You are Awesome! Thanks so much for the tips. I am working on a food storage supply and I will be able to dry veggies for emergencies.

Great ideas, I’m forever throwing out unused mushrooms when I buy at big box store. FYI - I keep a spray bottle of 50/50 water/ white vinegar mix to sanitize my counters as white vinegar is anti-bacterial, also wash my vegetables with a mixture of it.

A few summers ago, I found a Nesco dehydrator at a yard sale for $2. Time to use it. Thank you for this video😁

No those actually are a special screen for the primary purpose of dehydrating things that will get small and may pass through the regular racks. They are indeed sold separate and usually come in a package of 4, hope this helps you out!!

Thank you for this video, and many others of your videos I have watched on dehydrating foods. I have been thinking about buying a dehydrator for some time and your video has helped me decide to buy one this week. Please keep doing your videos I love them. I will be looking at your videos for more ideas on what foods I can dehydrate.

I was so blessed to find an my Excalibur on Amazon used for about $150. It is perfect and I use it all the time.

surprised by some technical questions! Thank you so much! I am excited about the garlic!

I have an Excalibur (9 trays but they different ones with less trays) and it's awesome !! what I like about it is that the fan is located at the back of the machine so when it dehydrates and blows the air around it blows directly over the trays .. Most stackable style dehydrators have heat and fan at the bottom so trays on top get less air circulation...So in my experience (I have had both types) if you can afford it get an Excalibur if you plan to a lot of dehydrating.

Hi Linda, I never fr'eeze garlic in oil. I just throw it into a zip lock bag and freeze it. I have had some frozen this way for over a year and it's just great. No freezer burn or anything.

Great idea to chop the garlic and just run through the spice grinder as needed. Thanks for all of your great ideas. Linda H

What a wonderful post !!! I just bought some rolls of Plastic Drying Screen's for my dehydrator after watching this.

Such a nice video! I love dehydrating! As for the mushrooms, I have to dehydrate double the amount cause we like to snack on them!! Keep up the good work!

IN EUROPE we wash the mushrooms briefly under running water (very quickly) and we do not let them in water (they absorbed lost of liquid) the dirt is removed (even if is steril) I really do not like to eat dirt and you never know. BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your recipes advise tips etc… you are wonderful.

as always your videos are great thank you. I love to dehydrate. It is a real plus factor for food storage. Again thank you I can't wait to see more on this subject. Mercedes I always add an oxygen absorber to the garlic.tomato powder etc.

I did this last summer while at my parents..my father hates garlic.. I did it out on their patio.. he said he could smell it all the way down the street. LOL I also do ginger.. and Wow, so much better than anything store bought!

Omg. I'm so in love with your videos. I'm learning so much about food storage. Very interesting. I'm excited to get started. 🤗 Thank you for you videos 🤗

I just subscribed. I'm new at gardening & ready to play with dehydrating tomatoes. Nice video!!!

I love to watch your videos, I have been learning a lot, I got creative and cooked so rice in my rice cooker then dehydrated it. I rehydrated some and it came out great. Thank you for inspiring me

You had me with the corned beef brisket in the intro!!

Great idea, keep the dehydrated garlic diced and grind into a powder as you need it.

When I use garlic in a recipe I grate the clove with the little hand grater right into the pot unless I'm making marinara sauce. I just made Senate bean soup today with the help of my caregiver and I showed her how to grate the garlic in it's so much easier than chopping. I purchased a home for myself 10 months ago and I can't find any of my things I don't know where my dehydrator is which is still in the box and I never used yet! I had another caregiver who just shoved everything in the closets! I know I have repurchased items that I have somewhere in this house!

A while back I dehydrated some baby Bella mushrooms, but didn't much care for the rehydrated texture of them, so I ground them in my ninja blender and made mushroom powder. YUM! Just another idea.

This is a great idea for a video! I bought a dehydrator yesterday, so this is very timely for me!

My garlic looks like it going to do very good this year. With over 300 plants this looks like a good idea. And the excalabers work very well. Love the videos. Thanks for the great info.

Lady, you're awesome. Thanks for the video!

thanks Linda for all the great dehydrating tips. i keep a brown grocery sack which just fits my trays to empty all small dried food into...it saves on the mess and scattering..and is easy to fill from.

Yes, I do. They turn out just fine. I haven't tried this with anything like berries where they'd be sticky, but with vegetables there are no problems.

I have A Dehydrator on the way cant wait to make some of this along with some fruits etc...I thought that winter would be a good time to do stinky garlic and onions..

You are awesome ! I love this ! I will be trying this for sure . Thank you .

Awesome video Linda! I will be trying the kale, as I have never attempted it before. Thanks for sharing your, always, Awesome videos...Von

Hi Linda .. ... You do great videos .. I got a new dehydrator and having fun dehydrating fruits and vegetables...I 'm going to try your garlic power and chopped ...but I have one question .. How can I Store for long-term... I just been dehydrator since Christmas .. So I do little at a time ... But ready to put up more spices ... Thank so much for your help.. And keep your great videos coming I'm learning...and enjoying them too... Thanks ...

Brilliant. i loved your vid (and you). Lol. Looking forward to your new ones. Love from England x x

Please do more on dehydrated vegs. And meals in a pouch, I have two hunters in my family and I would love to make meals for them. Have tryed the meals in a pouch that you posted so far, and have loved them. Thank you

It is a lot easier to use an egg slicer to slice your mushrooms

13:30 sounds like you’re raking leaves. Thanks for another great video!

I love your video's. Very helpful and I love having things on hand ready to use. Thank you. G-Maw Sandee

Great detail information first time on channel wanted to dehydrate perfect place to watch. Thanks for sharing.

LOL, these videos of yours are SO addictive, SO much handy info you are sharing. Recent subscriber from Australia :-) Btw, we can't buy bulk pre peeled garlic or similar items in Australia. I have also recently tried using the chopping function on my food processor I have had for years and it is SO much quicker and easier.

Great idea of using up every tray. Will have to remember this.

Fantastic! I need to get moving and do some more dehydrated garlic and onions that for sure

Lovely videos! They are charming and very inspiring - thank you :D

I subscribe to you channel. I hate the beginning of this video it made me so hungry and I just had dinner. I will be growing a great deal of food each year and I'm going to get into dehydrating food. I saw a dehydrator at harbor freight a little look into it.

I love ALL your videos! You are amazing!

Definitely going to try the garlic! Thanks!❤️👍🏻👏🏻

Thank you Linda! Love it.

We have used lots of your methods of storing foods ..keep up the prepping...

Hi Linda Do you have a cook book just for pre packaging meals in Mylar bags for prepping and hunting and fishing I love the ones I have seen so far . Thanks love your Videos

Would you please do a dehydrating playlist? Thanks! I'm thinking I would leave the garlic in pieces like this because you can always grind it into powder when you need some, but you will also have the chunks!

I have that dehydrator in 8.trays ,love it

I dehydred some sliced green onions in a toaster oven in an air fryer in dehydrate mode. Perfect for couples and single person households

For newbies, time and temperature would be helpful. Thanks. Love your videos.

hi wonderful video i have just bought 2 dehydrators, i used to do all of this now i;m back into again and showing my son how to save money with his own dehydrator thks diane

I take kale spinach broccolini Swiss chard and dehydrate then blend them up and use in soups stews omelettes & rice etc ,, dark leafy greens sprinkled on everything!!

I love dehydrating stuff. I only wish I had more trays to use as I have the standard 4 that comes with the Nesco. I keep looking in thrift stores to buy someone's cast off so I can add trays.

I love the intro, wish you had a special playlist and recipes for the images shown. The shrimp one looks amazing! Hello from Alberta, Canada.

I like your methods, I will try the garlic although I will try it with a sheet of parchment paper with poked holes in it to keep the garlic from contouring onto the rack as it dries

I have an old dehydrator and dried a bag of garlic. Took 4 days. Took 2 weeks for my garage to stop wreaking.! Not too sure it's working right. I too am contemplating a purchase of the Excalibur.

It's American Harvester. I've never used the Excaliber so I can't compare the two. I do see a lot of videos where people have gone to the Excaliber though. I do a lot of dehydrating and for the $25 I paid for mine at a garage sale (including extra trays & screens) it's been a great value for roughly 8 years.

Thanks for sharing Linda, I love your videos, most instructive. My sister had given me an Excaliber, only 5 trays, but it does a great job. I am still on the learning curve and your vids help me a lot. I made the soap after seeing your vid on it, I think I should have used hot water also after melting the soap too, it came out sort of a clear straw colored liquid and a soft solids, what did I do wrong? Pls help!!

Great video Linda! Going to Costco this weekend and getting myself a bag of garlic and I'm going to dehydrate it then grind it and make my own garlic powder. Just need to get the mason jar attachments for my Foodsaver so I can store them long term. ;)

I will be starting my prep in the spring with my Nesco dehydrator and my FoodSaver but in regards to this video I wanted to know that since garlic and onions are pungent in smell would you recommend not drying any other veggies at the same time to avoid those veggies gathering the odors from onions or garlic? I also wanted to say thank you for all the videos you post about prepping. I have bookmarked so many of your videos until I write everything down so I don't lose any valuable information you share.

You're video's are awesome and teach so much!

If you turn the top part of your zip bags over they will stay open better. I took some dry kale and made Kale powder to use on meats, baked potatoes, salads, etc... With the shelf flat you can run your hand over the dried garlic quickly back and forth and it will all pop loose.

My mom just gave me about 20 large bulbs of elephant garlic from her garden. I wasn't sure they would keep all year but now I'm going to pull out my dehydrator (I have the same model as yours) and follow your lead!