Are these AJI peppers past their prime?
 

I finally lugged a food dehydrator home today, the NESCO snackmaster FD-61. Found it in the clearance aisle at Kohls and with the extra F&F 20% came out to $28 before taxes...

So I picked these AJI peppers over two weeks ago... I neglected to make sure they were stored in a single layers, and were left in the big picking bowl/basket. The bottoms ones look like the very right ones, all black. The top ones still look normal (left.) Are the bottom/black ones goners?

Also do you slice up your hot peppers before dehydrating?

I hope the pic attachment works...

If it were me, I would only dry the ones that look like the first on the left, and maybe salvage what I could from the ones like the second from the left by cutting off all the brown/black parts. The other two I would consider goners. I had this happen to a bowl full of unripe leutschauer paprika peppers I picked at the end of the season and for some reason never got around to doing anything with them.

If I'm drying small m, thin walled peppers, I leave them whole. If I'm doing larger ones I grow for paprika, I stem, de-seed and butterfly them for drying.

The quality you put into the dehydrator is what you will get out. I would not use anything that has signs of spoilage as those ones do.

Luigiwu, I wouldn't use them myself.

If the peppers are over an inch long I would either slice them in two or at least slit them. If you cut them you can see if the seeds and insides are rotting or have fungus. Only the one on the left in your picture looks worth trying and even it might have black seeds inside which would need to be scraped out.

Salsa what temperature does your dehydrator get?
Worth

Thank you guys! I thought I was doing a good thing trying to harvest them all before leaving for vacation but alas, they got lost in the last minute shuffle...
The manual is not very comprehensive and I suppose I should just group peppers with veggies? That would put them at the 130-140 temp? can anyone confirm this?

I got the Excalibur you recommended last year from Walmart. It was a huge deal. It ranges from 0° to 175°F.

What temperature about do you dry the peppers and how long, I assume you like it.

Trying to hack my new oven to dehydrate on the proofing setting by adjusting the off set on the temperature.
It has a fan that kicks on and off periodically.
Worth

I run peppers and tomatoes at 135° for about 8 hrs, and then I turn it down to about 100° overnight - or about another 8 hrs. That makes them very dry. I am making powder out of my dehydrated peppers. If you want leathery texture instead of crunchy you can stop at 8 hrs.

Thanks I can do that I have some about half way there now.
Worth

I was googling homemade food dehydrator and ran across this pictuer.
I just had to share it.:lol:
Worth
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The doggies are begging for banana slices?

I can believe it. My dog Pitou loved grapes.

Here is the link to the site about them they are doggy treats.:lol:
[url]http://puppilicious.com/dehydrated-banana-chips-recipe/[/url]

Worth

Just picked these.
I cut slits in them and off to the make shift dehydrator.
I ate two of the little yellow one's whole. :lol:
The others are doing great.

Worth
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