The Bottom Line
This is the gold standard in food dehydration. If you're serious about homesteading or grow any significant amount of vegetables and/or fruit for your family's use, you'll want to seriously consider investing in one to preserve the harvest easily and deliciously.
Pros
- Simple to use
- Cleans up easy
- Extremely useful
- Saves time over canning
Cons
- Bulky
- Expensive
- You can hear the fan
Description
- Dehydrates food without adding sugar, preservatives or anything
- Available in 4, 5 and 9 drawer units - get the biggest one you can
- Adjustable thermostat for different items
- Some models come with a 26-hour programmable timer
- Dries herbs, greens (kale chips are yum!), fruit, vegetables, and even meat
Guide Review - Excalibur Food Dehydrator
I resisted getting a food dehydrator for years. I have been canning since I started gardening, and I figured I didn't need a dehydrator, too. When we moved into our cabin, I found an older Ronco dehydrator and began using it to dehydrate food. It was addictive, but I found that it was very uneven in how it dried things - one side would be still wet while the other side of the tray would be too dry. And the food, especially tomatoes, stuck badly to the hard plastic trays.
Enter the Excalibur. Last year I had the opportunity to try the 9-tray 3000 series dehydrator, and with my first batch of sundried tomatoes, I was hooked. The Excalibur did an excellent job drying just about everything I put in it, from delicate herbs to sliced tomatoes to venison jerky!
I've been very pleased with the features and function of this homesteading tool. One thing: it's massive. We keep ours in the pantry in the off-season. But it's useful enough that it occupies some precious counter space during the gardening (and hunting) seasons.
Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
