Dehydrating Berries & Fruits-..Why?

[Aurelie48]

I understand dehydrating fruits for perhaps long time storage, but other than that why would we want to dehydrate fruits and berries? Aren't we drying out all the nutritional goodness? Isn't that where all the vitamins and minerals are? I have a dehydrator, but use it for breads, nuts, seeds, etc., but have never dried fruits. I think I need to better understand this as so many people do dry fruits. Thank you.

[carolg]

I made fruit rolls up this year to nibble on, sent Morn some too. Fruits were soft from trees so great way to use them up. I don't normally dry fruits however as they never last long enough or even in dehydrator I seem to find a way to eat a few sheets undone too.

carolg

[Revvell]

Some dry them for winter storage; others for travel; others well, just cuz they have a dehydrator and can't eat all the fruit/food they have.

It's nowhere near as good as fresh because, it's not a whole food anymore yet, it's way better than what one will purchase... and less costly too.

[rawstrength]

Kind people like carolg dehydrate fruits so that they can send them to me :) .
Fresh is best, but dehydrated has its advantages, too, like being easy to store and ship. Also, you can take advantage of seasonal abundance, ie having too many peaches to eat during peach season.

[Ilse W.]

The only thing that dehydrates is the water. As long as the temperature isn't too high, most vitamins are retained. You can rehydrate the fruit before you eat it. The only reason I'd dehydrate fruit is for storage. Actually, I read somewhere that it's better for vitamin retention to dehydrate watery fruit rather than freeze it, because water expands when frozen and the cells in the fruit burst and destroy the vitamins. Well, I read it, but don't necessarily belief that. I know they've tested frozen fruit and compared the vitamin content to canned fruit and it came out a lot better and almost as high as fresh.

[juliebove]

Dehydrating doesn't remove the vitamins. Just the water. I don't eat a lot of dehydrated fruit, but I will buy Just Apples or Just Strawberries from time to time. They are actually freeze dried. They make a good snack.

Many years ago, I made trail mix using nuts, seeds, coconut and bits of dried fruit. It's a good portable snack or meal replacement.

[jacsam]

My dehydrator has a temp. gauge on it so all the vit/min and enzymes are still in the fruit. My mainn purpose in dehydrating is because at different seasons I have an over abundance of a particular fruit and want to preserve it....either that or let it rot. I usually freeze berries for my fruit and green drinks.