Is the Excalibur Dehydrator Just Another Brand Name?

Or Worth It?

Picture and a review can be found at Common Sense Homesteading

First Things First: The Value of Dehydrating

Financial Savings: If you have not tried food dehydration, you are missing out on so much delicious and simple food that will save money and make life easier on busier days. Whether you are dehydrating an overabundance of a crop lest you lose it, have the opportunity to buy fresh fruits or vegetables in bulk, or you catch something in the fridge–like that limp celery–before it was a complete waste, you can use your dehydrator to maximize your food dollar. That is something we all need to work towards these days; and for those who are trying to eat healthy, it matters even more since the price only seems to move one direction on the cashier’s register screen.

Quick Meals: A crock pot soup can be made in two full minutes. You dump in some dehydrated peas, carrots, corn, celery, onion…a few herbs…maybe some rice, and whatever leftover meat is in the fridge. Done. Scalloped potatoes will take only a half hour with dehydrated ones, a skillet meal like “Bubbles & Squeak” (potatoes and sausage) can be on the table in 15 minutes.

Specialty Foods: I love granola, trail mix, chewy mango slices, and apple rings. I must shake my head in disbelief for how much the overcharge for these items, and they are rarely pure. They constantly add preservatives and even food coloring to foods that you might assume are “natural”. I can save oodles of money and control the ingredients when I make these “gourmet” items in my own home.

Laura, you’ll appreciate both the Excalibur & the free book, “Preserve It Naturally” so that every use of your Excalibur is a successful one, and you are right–you’ll save money!

Healthy Snacks: Make all of the specialty foods named above, plus the ability to make fruit leathers, craisins and raisins, peach slices, and even things like this gluten-free dehydrator cookie. You will not be tempted by the vending machine anymore.

Simplicity: Dehydrating is by far one of the easiest kitchen skills ever. If you can slice an apple, dip it into lemon-water, and then arrange the slices on a tray, you can use a dehydrator.

Soaking and Drying Pear Slices

Creativity: It’s a whole lot of fun to experiment and create your own favorite recipes, like my three spiced pear recipes, or my “squashllesauce” (the way I sneak squash into my kids’ diets through fruit leathers).

Why the Excalibur?

Oh, I can go on a long time about this, but I will give you just a few reasons in a nutshell:

American Made and Long-Lasting: Those, for me, go hand-in-hand. I want to know that I am supporting American industry and that I am getting a product that will prove itself over time. The Excalibur is made in California and has a warranty. When you buy from Pantry Paratus, you are getting it through an authorized dealer and we will help you out if you ever need customer service down the road….but you probably won’t. We forever met people at expos and events that would brag about the length of service: “I’ve had mine for 30 years and still use it all of the time!”

Front-to-Back Fan Means Even Temperatures: Most of the dehydrators on the market heat from the bottom up. This creates several problems. The food does not dehydrate evenly this way, some trays getting too much heat and others not receiving enough. That means that you must constantly rotate the trays, and you risk something called “Case Hardening.” Case Hardening is when a food dehydrates too quickly on the exterior, trapping moisture inside the fruit. You avoid this with lower heat for a longer time in the machine–but this is a common problem to the bottom trays of food on dehydrators that have bottom-up heat. Secondly, that bottom-up heat means you are pretty much stuck dehydrating a single item at a time, unless you want everything to taste the same.

In contrast to the bottom-up heating unit, the Excalibur’s fan is situated in the back of the unit. This means that all of the trays heat evenly. You can “mix and match” by having various foods in there at any given moment (I do this most of the time with my 9 tray), and your almonds won’t taste like celery. You do not have to rotate trays, and when 1 tray is ready, they all will be–given that you’ve sliced the fruits to a consistent width.

The Big Box Design Means Versatility: This is usually the first people will tell you–all of the uses they have for their dehydrator beyond granola! Personally, we have used it to dry out a child’s stuffed animal, a book that fell into a mud puddle, and binoculars that went through the wash. People use them for arts and crafts and dried floral arrangements all of the time. Homemade yogurt, rising the bread dough, the list goes on. Round designs do not give you this all-in-one benefit to owning a dehydrator.

13 Ways to Use Your Dehydrator

Photo is from Cooke’s Frontier, who gives us 13 Unusual Ways to Use Your Dehydrator

Multiple Options Means the Right Unit for You: A five-tray or a nine-tray, with a timer, or without, white or black. You can get the unit that best meets your needs and space concerns. At Pantry Paratus, we will give you a free copy of the “Preserve It Naturally” book no matter which unit, color, or size you purchase.

Excalibur Dehydrator Review

I’ll shut up now. But I really love my Excalibur Dehydrator, can you tell? And I am not the only one! Listen to what some of your favorite food and homesteading bloggers have to say about the Excalibur:

<Click on the comments to visit these great blogs>