Putting my new dehydrator to good use

I decided a few months ago to start canning and dehydrating the food I grew in my garden. My mom had canned food for years but I have never known anyone to dehydrate food. I watched several videos on YouTube and have read many books on how and what to dehydrate. Finally I decided Friday night that I would start dehydrating food. A few days ago I bought some mushrooms that were on sale, I didn't know what I would make with them at the time I just bought them because of the sale price. I still didn't know what I was going to make with them so I brought out my dehydrator and decided that would be my first project!

So late Friday night I took the mushrooms out of the refrigerator and placed them on the drying trays. I only had an 8oz container of them so it cover almost 2 of the trays. I turned it on and let it dry overnight. I looked at the guide it came with and it said to dry them at least 12 hours.

The next morning around 9 or so in the morning I shut the dehydrator off. Now I learned that they should just break apart in my hands, and that they did. I did it! Now I wasn't thinking ahead really, I had no idea what I would put them in. I had planned to have glass jars for food but I haven't bought them yet. So I grabbed a freezer bag and put them in that. The good thing about the freezer bags is that you can write on them the date you dehydrated them. Now this isn't where I plan to keep them but it will do until I buy glass jars.

When I went to the grocery store yesterday onions were on sale so I bought 2 5lb bags of them. I sliced up 4 large onions, maybe it was 5, I'm not sure and I placed them on all 4 drying trays. I have them drying as I am typing this. Talk about being a cry baby, boy were those onions strong!!!! I can still smell them on my hands and worst of all I cut my thumb. Its not to bad but it hurts!

So overall I can see how having this dehydrator will be a great addition to my kitchen. I have over 300 onion bulbs that I will be planting soon. There is no way that I could eat all of them when they are fresh so dehydrating them will be the way to go for me! I spent $6 for the bulbs compared to who knows how much at the store. Oh yeah the onions alone will save me tons of money come fall. That is a major plus for me!