Thanks so much! I'll give it a try, maybe adding a sprinkle of sugar to the lemon slices. I have some wonderful Meyer lemon, although I don't know if it's the real Meyer lemon or a wild cross.
How thick did you make your slices?
I was wondering if blood oranges are always so tart? They're so pretty so I bought some last winter. They're not very common around here, requiring coastal regions, I guess. I heard there used to be a few blood oranges but they couldnt take our temperature extremes. I thought maybe they weren't quite ripe or something.
I tried making lemon marmalade and got it too stiff! Like so stiff it won't spread! I need to throw it out and try again. It was so bitter it was almost inedible. I love the slow cooker idea for a marmalade. I may try that this winter.

I dehydrate regular lemons and oranges. I put them into chicken when I bake it and under whole fish when I bake them and I add the lemons to my tea. They aren't pretty in the tea, I wouldn't serve it to anyone, but I am not picky and they add lemon flavor to it : )

I'm getting ready to make dried lime, orange and lemon zest. I haven't tried doing the slices yet but I've seen them on wreaths...look really nice.

I cover them in chocolate :D

[QUOTE=Tracydr;314099]...
How thick did you make your slices?
I was wondering if blood oranges are always so tart?...[/QUOTE]

I sliced them with a knife, so they were not uniform -- I probably tried for 1/8 to 3/16 inch, but I'm sure some were thicker.

You're right, they were tart because they were unripe. I got them on freecycle. Someone picked their whole tree and was giving away 10-pound bags! Around here, if you have fruit trees, you have roof rats. So I assume they wanted to harvest all at once so they wouldn't have to be picking up hollowed-out oranges covered in fruit flies all winter, or sweeping up chewed-up bits of orange rind (which is what I do!).

I've tasted blood oranges at the farmers' market that are sweet and berrylike.

The slow-cooker marmalade recipe I found is in Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson.

I have tried a lot of dehydrators, and the Excaliber is in my opinion the best one on the market. I don't always use a dehydrator. I find that a microwave does really nice on a lot of herbs. I also use Alton Brown's poor man's dehydrator (box fan) [url]http://imageshack.us/a/img521/1066/fankr.jpg[/url] . It really makes the house smell nice, but the "poor man's dehydrator" assumes you have a box fan, bunjy cords, and furnace filters. My favorite method of preserving parsley and basil is ice-cubes in a vacuum bag [url]http://imageshack.us/a/img231/1032/vacseal.jpg[/url] . Whenever I make sauce or Scampi, I toss in an herb icecube, seal up the bag, and pop it back in the freezer.

[url]http://www.hotwiredgardens.com/pdf/Unique_Methods_of_Preserving_Herbs.pdf[/url]

Ha, ha, ha!!! I saw that episode! The dehydrator with the fan and furnace filters. (I used to joke with my friends that I'd marry Alton Brown, lol) That is an interesting project but not one I'd tackle. Most of the reviews I've read across various forums do rate the Excaliber as the one to buy. I've had my little round Harvest Maid for probably 25 yrs and it's still pluggin' along.

I love my Excalibur! I buy huge amounts of bulk heart and liver from a raw meat COOP and dehydrate it for cat and dog treats. They love them and so much cheaper ( buy about 20-30 X?) that it's hard to believe they're also healthier. Plus, I don't have to ever worry about crap from China and recalls.
You should see all the pets in the morning. My Doberman gets the paper off the driveway while the cats and papillon watch. Then everybody lines up for liver treats. The cats up on stools for theirs so that dogs don't steal them!
I also use the dehydrator for drying tomatoes. Next summer, I'm going to try drying okra and summer squash.
I've also got to try drying some citrus this winter. So many ideas!

Aawwww, you have a dobe! Mine died 30 yrs ago and I still miss her.

Yes, my dobe is 5 years old and I've decided I will never be without one. She makes me feel so safe! She is so sweet and smart, plus she does a wonderful job at being a natural protection dog. I've not done any protection training but she is really good at being on guard around strangers. We live on the edge of a bad neighborhood and I also have an ex-husband with a history of stalking so I take her everywhere.
I will probably train my next dobe with some sort of protection training, but only if they will let me use a clicker! Most of the guard training is so negative.
My papillon is very smart and incredibly laid back for a small dog, too. They make a good pair. Papillons ate supposed to be the smartest toy dog.

[QUOTE=Tracydr;314531]I love my Excalibur! I buy huge amounts of bulk heart and liver from a raw meat COOP and dehydrate it for cat and dog treats. They love them and so much cheaper ( buy about 20-30 X?) that it's hard to believe they're also healthier. Plus, I don't have to ever worry about crap from China and recalls.
You should see all the pets in the morning. My Doberman gets the paper off the driveway while the cats and papillon watch. Then everybody lines up for liver treats. The cats up on stools for theirs so that dogs don't steal them!
I also use the dehydrator for drying tomatoes. Next summer, I'm going to try drying okra and summer squash.
I've also got to try drying some citrus this winter. So many ideas![/QUOTE]

I really, really want to do this... but as a vegetarian, working with raw liver and heart is just too much for me. But the cost savings, geezus.

Right now I'm doing it with veggies, sweet potatoes/carrots/beets. My dog loves them, but needless to say - he'd much prefer the meat. He'll do somersaults for freeze-dried liver.

Could you stand handling chicken hearts?
Also, raw meat isn't nearly as bad to work with when it's cut while frozen. Pork hearts and livers are less nasty then beef, too. How about chicken breast?

You know, you're right... I really should stop being such a wuss about it. I've just never handled any meat before, so it's intimidating. Chicken breast seems doable.

This is still cost effective when you buy frozen meat? I thought it was only cheap when you got scraps from a butcher or something. Actually, I genuinely have no idea what I'm talking about O_o

Do you have to worry about parasites when you dehydrate?

Serendipity. Dehydrating Vegetables.
 

[url]http://www.durgan.org/URL/?XKMVQ[/url] 21 July 2012 Serendipity. Dehydrating Vegetables.
Experimenting dehydrating vegetables, and expecting a mundane leather, a serendipitous result was obtained. The vegetables completely dehydrated into small pieces. Dehydration was for six hours in the Excalibur set at 125F\52C. At first I was in a muddle, then an epiphany struck. Adding hot water, this would make a fine nourishing soup.The result was spectacular. Clearly, this is a superb method of utilizing most vegetables for long term storage at room temperature. The choice is only limited by one’s imagination. The thoroughly dried dehydrated vegetables were vacuum packed to be used in the future as desired. Absolutely no extraneous material was added not even water. The soup served, may be spiced to suit any palate. The process is dead simple. Annotated photographs depict the procedure.

Preserving Garden Vegetables by Dehydrating.
 

From this batch I obtained about 15 or so meals. This year 2013 much more will be processed in this manner and the variety increased.

[url]http://www.durgan.org/URL/?JBAOD[/url] 22 July 2012.Preserving Garden Vegetables by Dehydrating.
All produce currently available in the garden was chosen.
Carrots,basil,purslane,green beans,green peppers,parsnips,turnip,tomato,cabbage,egg plant,beets,cucumber,Walla Walla onion,Black Russian potatoes,and okra.Processing was almost identical for all produce, which is, cut into small pieces and blend in a tall cyclinder to a fine mash,then place in the mixing pot. A five gallon pail about twenty litre capacity,was used for the mixing pot. The quantity of material processed was about nine litres. The sample of the chopping, depicts the process for the cucumber. Preliminary preparation done outside on the picnic table, since processing can be messy. No water was added,all the produce was reduced in its own juices. This is possible with the hand blender, but impossible in a container blender.About a litre of material was placed on teflon pans, smoothed evenly, and placed in the Excalibur dehydrator set at 135F\57C initially for ten hours. Time was increased as necessary to get the material dry enough to move to the open mesh for complete dying. Always move to open mesh as soon as the materiel can be handled conveniently. The dried mixture is vacuum packed for storage and is reconsitiuted by adding boiling water.This particular batch has a most pleasant flavour.Apparently this method of preserving is the most nutrition retentive of all the current conventional methods. The process is relatively simple and straightforward.