Dry It - You'll Like It! by Gen MacManiman

Great read, I'll put in the list of book I have to order, I want to build a solar dehydrator and was wondering about the dehydrating time for each veggie or fruit

Lorenzo Costa wrote:Great read, I'll put in the list of book I have to order, I want to build a solar dehydrator and was wondering about the dehydrating time for each veggie or fruit

Great! then we'll look for one of your wonderful reviews

I don't have a review for it but can say that the big thing that I took away from this book is that you don't want to dehydrate at temperatures above 115 degrees..........as it 'kills' the food. She stresses keeping the food 'alive' and generally drying slower at lower temperatures.

I give this book 9 out of 10 acorns

Well I have to say thanks to Judith Browning for sharing this title and setting me down the road of dehydrating madness!! No really, I've always been in love with the idea of starting a project that involved building myself a dehydrator and then starting to dehydrate. This book sets in front of the reader some important information, maximum temperature, or humidity necessities, etc.
Those of us that don't dehydrate here on permies.com really can start from this book. Its a quick read, full of all the necessary information, its a starting point.
Well structured and written, starting from the general information on how and why dehydrating food is a great idea, and then on too the practical examples.
The book passes on to fruit, eight types of fruit, with all their recipes, that got me craving and made my desire grow. If just reading these recipes set my senses on a run, I can just immagine what actually taking action will do to me. I'm so looking forward to fruit leather... Then we get to vegetables, seeds and grains, herbs, and meat and fish. Many possible recipes are in the book and when possible they come with specific timing a temperature specifics.
At the end we're missing out only the use of the dehydrator to dry clothes and it's all. Yes my idea has been from the beginning to build a dehydrator that is big enough to contain hangers where I can put wet clothes, its my idea of stacking functions, why not use it for food and clothes? Somewhere in a video I saw someone speak of it.
This brings me to the last section of the book, the building example of the dehydrator the author uses. Its a small project, there are bigger ones around. But probably for a start its best to take off small, and then scale up.
So I guess my food/clothes dehydrator will wait for sometime and for now in winter when I'll be a bit freer from outside work I'll get to building my small scale dehydrator. the book shares measurements, drwaings, and all one can need to follow the practical DIY path. Very precise indeed.
The book is really useful in this sense, its a practical manual that gives the beginner the basics to build a personal knowledge on the subject, from theory to practice.
The point in dehydrating is you never finish learning what and how you can achieve the best results, there is a chapter in the book where the author shares new information for the third edition, having made more experience on specific points, sharing even new recipes that have been tried out.
Can we actually say we know everything on a given subject? I guess no, our knowledge never ends and always evolves, so in the end I think this book is a quick and fun read even for the experts. One may have never tried a specific recipe that is in this book.
I live this book forum as a sort of wish list, that never stops growing, and when I get to actually read one of the books I saw here, it's obvious to share the experience. I hope one day, not to far away, to share even the results on some of the recipes of this book.

I'm tempted to give a high 8, but considering the charm of the book, I am going to say 9 out of 10 acorns.

The first thing most people notice about this book is the hand-written style of it. Personally, I have always had a fondness for the cookbooks done this way. Simple illustrations and hand-written notes make them feel so much more personal. It is like having a book handed down to you from a parent or grandparent.
The book starts with the basics and ends with a how-to on making your own dehydrator. The information about temperatures, times, etc is all sound and the recipes range from basic to intriguing. For the time it was written, it was probably one of the better choices for dehydration books and remains so even now. If you are enthusiastic about food preservation, this would be an excellent go-to book for all of your dehydration needs.

Do they say what makes good screen for trays? I'm sourcing stainless screen right now and it's very expensive. :\

I love this book I would give it 10 out of 10 acorns !  I made the dehydrator from the plans in the book and I love it I do not like fan noise and this one is very quiet and holds alot.  I bought the foodsafe screen material from them. They also sell plans for a solar add on, which I have, but I havent made it as it seems to work so well to just use the screens stacked outside on the deck in my location in the summer.

I have used the instructions and recipes in the book to dehydrate

I just searched for their web site, in Vain ! Not sure now if they are available to order from, which would be too bad, it is a nice heat source and screen material.  If anyone knows where it went,  the dehydrator was called the living foods dehydrator