dehydrating flax items

[Katharina]

Hello this is Katharina,

recently i donated myself a VM and a dehydrator. :D I love to prepare my foods with them.

Hope you can help me with one question:

I noticed one thing concerning the use of flax in the dehydrator. Once i prepared pizza crackers with flax tomatoes lemon and basil. After dehydrating those crackers had a very foul smell:(, so I had to throw them away.

This wednesday night y prepared some raw falafel. And it came out really really beautyfull. But again: This time a slight foul smell. So I think the flax goes bad faster than the dehydrater dries the items.

I dehydrated them for 2 days around 105 F.

It is such a pity to throw away things. I am very unsure about how dry dehydrated items should be and how long you can store them. (The falafel came out perfect: crispy on the outside and fresh on the inside - besides from the ugly smell.)

Is it ok to use a higher temperature in the beginning?

Hope you are enjoying my germanenglish.;)

Katharina

[DebB]

Hi Katharina ~ Yes, according to Dr. Gabriel Cousens we can use a higher temperature of 145 for the first 1 (to 2?) hours of dehydration.

My first question would be how thick are your trays of flax cracker batter? It sounds like they may be too thick. I've never had flax crackers take 2 days to be dry and crispy.

As soon as they're dehydrated enough, I then flip the crackers and remove the non-stick Teflex/Paraflew sheet and let them finish drying.

(We had an exchange student back in the 90s from Dahme) *Ü*

[sport]

Did you soak them for too long before sprouting them. My flax crackers do not smell.

[Katharina]

hello,

thank you for answering :).

Yes, I think for the pizza crackers I soaked the flax to long. But when I made the falafel I prepared everything at once and put them in the dehydrator the same moment.

Other crackers which i prepared came out fine and crunchy. But the crunchyness vanishes when I put them in a box (no vacuum). Sometimes I put Hempseeds in to have some crunchy bits, which works fine.

I will really start with a higher temperature. I think with the 145 °F in the beginnig (= 63 °C) the foods won´t spoil.

By the way, I don´t write many posts here. But read a lot of the texts. Always gives me good ideas and motivation. Good energy.
My friends here accept what i am doing (and some of them are curious about raw foods) but they dont really understand why I am doing it and what a difference it is.)

(Where is dahme, maybe i did not understand it right)

Best regards
Katharina

[sport]

I know that lots of people start with a higher temp and are happy enough with that.
I do a lot of flax things and I never touch the temp. I have never had a problem with them getting smelly but I always have them dry in well under 24 hours so maybe they are too thick.
Regarding your friends being interested. When they notice the changes in you they will be even more interested.

[DebB]

I'm with sport ~ I've never used the higher temp with flax crackers. They've always done fine at the 105 (or so). I do spread them thinly.

Dahme is North East of Lubeck, right on the coast. *Ü*

[Katharina]

Hello again,

prepared some more crackers and cockies and put the temperature only a little bit higher. It has been only a slight difference in temperature but the items dried way faster, so I think it is ok now and the risk of spoiling will not occur again.

Checked the temperature with a digital thermometer and it was around 47 °C.

ByeBye
Katharina

[DebB]

Hi Katharina ~ I'm happy you found a temperature that works well for you! I hope you enjoy your crackers and cookies, Mmmm! *Ü*