Use an apple peeler to peel apples before hydrating, if you plan on dehydrating a lot of apples. They will allow you to slice them easily and cut the amount of time it will take you to dry your batch. Pit cherries and cut in half before dehydrating. They can take between 12 and 20 hours. Dry cranberries by freezing them, boiling them and then laying them out on the dehydrator.
Drying times vary between dehydrators. The more liquid content the fruit have, the longer they will take. Oranges, tomatoes, lemons and bananas usually take 10 hours or longer. These are great to dehydrate overnight. Dry fruits with equal time. They will not leech flavors from each other.
Many vegetables need to be pre-processed in order to avoid a change of color. Steam broccoli, eggplant and carrots for a short time. Blanche summer squash, cauliflower, potatoes, sweet potatoes or carrots until they are soft but still crisp. To blanche means to plunge something in boiling water for a few seconds or minutes, then put them on ice. This locks in enzymes and starches so it will contain the same enzymes and be nutritious when it is rehydrated. You do not need to pre-process zucchini. Spray lemon juice on carrots to keep the color.
To create roasted flavors in your peppers, cut them in half, broil them until they start to blister, cool and then dehydrate them skin side down.
Jerky will last between 1 and 2 months, but can be frozen to last longer.
