can someone please help!!

JKMN

I’m new to the whole raw lifestyle and looking at many recipes, it calls for a dehydrator. What is that?? I’ve been a vegan now going on 2 years and I would like to further better my lifestyle!!

northernlights

Hey there JKMN, welcome to the raw food lifestyle! Here is a link to read more about dehydrators: http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/ This is the one most raw foodists use (including myself). Basically it is a machine that blows warm air around your food drying it. If you live in a place where there is a hot sun shining then you can sun-dry your food, too. You could also use your oven placing it on its lowest setting (so they say… I have never tried it). There are also many raw foodists who don’t have dehydrators or eat dehydrated food. I personally love mine. Good luck on your raw food journey!

humanimal

there are tons of recipes out there that require a dehydrator. But if you would still like to know a dehydrator is a tool used by many raw foodies that blows hot air and removes most of the foods water contents. For example raw burgers are made from a veggie and nut pate and then placed in the dehydrator to give them a more solid texture. Here are some sites with some pretty good recipes.

http://fromsadtoraw.com/RawRecipes.htm
http://www.avenaoriginals.com/library/recipes.a…

I hope this helps!

Lots of Love,
V

northernlights

I don’t see why not! Give it a try :)

Sedona

This will probably sound crazy to many of you, but I have a friend who said you can use the 60watt bulb from your oven. It will take approx twice as long to dehydrate.

Has anyone tried this??? My oven feels awfully cold even with the light on.

Here is a link that talks about this and other ‘cheap’ ways to dehydrate. http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf37465635.tip.html

I got a pretty good deal on ebay for my dehydrator.

KristensRaw

Yes, a convection oven can be used I’ve heard, so long as it truly stays at the low temperature you desire. If your oven doesn’t go that low, you can monitor it by turning it on, putting a thermometer in there, put your food in, turn the oven off if it gets too hot and/or keep the door cracked a bit to let some of the hot air escape…keep lowering and raising the temperature as needed to maintain a steady temp of 105-115. Extra work for sure, but if you don’t have a dehydrator, this will work.

Cheers!
Kristen Suzanne

JKMN

thank you all for the comments! I’ll definitely check out those websites! I was checking my oven but it only goes as low as 160 so thats not going to work but to NorthernLights I do live in florida so I could try drying them in the sun. Any tips? Thanks again guys!