by Texas Homesteader
*Contains an affiliate link
I love my solar oven and I use it often. I love that it takes no purchased energy to run. And most of all I love that it leaves all the cooking heat outside where it belongs.
Recently I began dehydrating overage veggies from my garden. I freeze them as well from time to time but dehydrating them looks pretty cool in my pantry. It also reduces the volume to store by quite a bit and it works well for use in wintertime Endless Soups – my favorite application.
I decided to try to use my electric dehydrator trays to dehydrate in my solar oven – BIG MISTAKE! Although I left the solar oven’s lid unlatched so it wouldn’t get too hot inside the oven, it apparently doesn’t take very much heat at all to do this:
(Note: Some links in this post are for further information from earlier posts I’ve written. But links preceded with * are affiliate links. If you click them and buy something (almost anything, not just the item noted) I could receive a small purchase. But the price you pay will NOT change. It’s an easy way to support this blog without anything coming out of your pocket. So click often! Thank you!)
Epic FAIL! So the next batch I placed on the three stack-able racks I got with my the dehydration kit I purchased with my solar oven, covered with a layer of parchment paper. Much better!
I left the lid unlatched to both allow the moisture to escape as well as to not allow the oven to heat too high. I also kept an eye on the oven temperature & tried to adjust the oven toward or away from the sun to hold the temps to about 150 – 200 degrees.
I found that the top rack dried much more quickly than the racks below. So I would remove one rack at a time when the contents were dehydrated and allow the remaining trays just a little more time to finish. In a few short hours I had beautiful dehydrated tomatoes.
I’ll grind these using an electric coffee grinder into a powder that I’ll use to thicken up my homemade salsa or winter soups. It takes up no room at all in a glass jar in my pantry. Success!
For those of you asking which solar oven I have, I purchased this *Sun Oven
and I highly recommend it. And even better: The Sun Oven folks have agreed to offer my readers a valuable coupon, so go, go, GO get yours now!
~TxH~
Other Dehydrating Posts
- Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrating Fresh Carrots
- Dehydrating Fresh Pumpkin For Easy Storage
- Dehydrating Spinach To Enjoy All Year Long
- Using A Dehydrator To Preserve Fresh Onions
- Dehydrating & Storing Cabbage
- Bell Pepper Dehydration
- Using A Solar Oven To Dehydrate Garden Produce
- How To Make Dehydrated Blueberry Powder
- Dehydrating Plums
See All Our Dehydrating Posts
Looking For More Solar-Cooking Recipes?
- Emergency Preparedness On The Homestead
- Meatloaf In A Solar Oven
- Cheesy Chile-Chicken Casserole
- Boneless Breaded Pork Chops
- SW Chicken w/Seasoned Brown Rice
- BBQ Pork Sandwiches
- Homemade Marinara Sauce
- Pumpkin Bread
- Baking Bread In A Solar Oven
- Cooking Hard-Boiled Eggs In A Solar Oven
- Baking Potatoes In A Solar Oven
- Brewing Tea With The Sun
You can see our other SOLAR oven articles here
Other Dehydrating Posts
- Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrating Fresh Carrots
- Dehydrating Tomato Sauce Into Leather For Pizza
- Cubed Tomatoes Dehydrated For Winter Cooking
- Dehydrating Fresh Pumpkin For Easy Storage
- Dehydrating Spinach To Enjoy All Year Long
- Using A Dehydrator To Preserve Fresh Onions
- Dehydrating & Storing Cabbage
- A Solar Oven Dehydrates Jalapenos
- Bell Pepper Dehydration
- Using A Solar Oven To Dehydrate Garden Produce
- Using It ALL – Dehydrating & Powdering Tomato Skins
- How To Make Dehydrated Blueberry Powder
- Dehydrating Plums
See All Our Dehydrating Posts
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*Sun Oven Solar Oven Affiliate
* A word about our Affiliate Link – We are currently enrolled as an Amazon Affiliate. Occasionally I will insert an affiliate link into one of my posts if I think it may be of interest to you, in this case a solar oven. I purchased the oven myself and receive nothing from the manufacturer, but I love it & thought you might too. If you click on any of my affiliate links and buy something (almost anything, not just what was linked) I get a small referral percentage from Amazon. But here’s the really important part – the price you pay for your items is UNCHANGED.
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14 Responses
Are your dehydrator trays toast? Pardon the pun…
LOL Judith. Yes, TOAST. I’m looking for replacement trays and the top cover & it’s proven to be quite a challenge. Not all trays fit all dehydrators and this dehydrator hasn’t been made in quite some time (It’s a Mr. Coffee brand) Still scouring ebay & the thrift stores – although I’m easily finding the whole unit I only want the trays. I hate to throw away a perfectly working base because I can’t find trays to fit. (it’s an environmental thing for me…)
I just fried my microwave on a project I was working on. So I understand the epic fail. Sorry about yours. I am fascinated by solar cooking but I have never done it. Thanks for the info. It makes me a little less nervous to give it a try. Maybe when I have a little more distance between me and the deceased microwave.
LOL Cindy. I myself have fried a microwave in the past so I feel your pain!
Wow! That solar oven is awesome! I’m putting that on my wish list.
That’s a shame about the trays. I had a Mr. Coffee one which died years ago. Oh, well.
Thanks for linking up to Fabulously Frugal Thursday.
Wow who knew that could happen! I have dehydrated tomatoes and didn’t like all the energy I wasted. Using the solar dehydrator is a better idea. Thanks for sharing the how to!
I’ve really been on a dehydrating kick this year – my solar oven has been fired up every day for about 2 weeks either cooking or dehydrating something!
Oh how exciting – Thanks Leona!
I love doing fun “projects like this!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Michelle
I’m a big fan of my solar oven, Michelle.
I love the idea of using a solar oven. I’ll have to look into that. I’m sorry it ruined your dehydrator trays though. 🙁 Thanks for posting on the #WasteLessWednesday blog hop! Can’t wait to see what you post next week!
Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner link up and don’t forget to leave a comment at the party – Next week’s features that also leave a comment get pinned and tweeted!
Wow! I can’t believe it warped the trays like that! I will definitely be looking into one of these! I love getting new ideas! Thanks for sharing on Sustainable Sunday’s blog hop!
I was pretty surprised too Delci. But I love my solar oven – I’m making pumpkin puree with it right now – the temp/humidity index today in NE Texas is supposed to be 105! I sure don’t want to add any oven heat to the house with weather like that!