We got a dehydrator this summer, and I found that pears work really well. We have a pear tree that produces barrels of Bartlett pears. I kept them inside for a few days to soften up a bit, but they really were still pretty firm. Used an apple corer to get the center out, then sliced about 3/8 inch thick and soaked them in water with "Fruit-Fresh" for 5 minutes to keep them from browning. Then dried them. They came out really sweet.

I did a bunch of apples the same way, but didn't like them as well as the pears.

Last Christmas I dried round slices of oranges and glued a little cinnamon stick and some tiny pinecones on the top for tree decorations. They were very cute. My friend dries apples with cinnamon and sugar for snacks.

I dried tomatoes and green peppers this year. Ran out of canning jars and money, didn't want to waste. Next year I will be planting a whole lot more tomatoes. I have 3 people who can't get enough of the dried tomatoes. They taste like candy and I like them even though I'm not a tomato eater. The peppers are nice to add to dishes or on top of pizza. I love dried tomatoes on pizza, but can't keep them for myself, lol.
Brenda in MI

love banana chips. dip in lemon juice first. sweet

I was told that if you rinse onions with boiling water it lessons the heat and the smell...havent tried it tho..

We make raisins every year from the Manukka grapes we grow. Washed, then dried the grapes. They take a long time... sometimes 18 hours but they are worth it. We use raisins all year long in our hot cereal. Trial and error will help with timing. You want to make sure you don't let them dry out too hard.

Also, we sliced cantaloupe this past fall and dried it. It was yummy. Just make sure you don't over dry it. We will doing this again next fall.

Thank you for the link. Have saved it to read later.

I bought a dehydrator that was practically brand new at a yard sale, but it did not have manual with it, so I just Google things that I am interested in dehydrating. I have done a lot of apples and bananas. Last summer we had a lot of tomatoes, so I dried them--they are wonderful. Just slice small pieces and you can use your own judgement on most things as to how much time it takes. I would like to try cranberries next.

Thanks for the link to Dehydrate2Store. I spent over 2 hours on the site and learned so much about dehydrating, not to mention using my pressure cooker to cook whole pumpkins or butternut squash. I loved the tip about dehydrating apple peelings and grinding into powder for tea. I'm not fond of canning and and after checking out the site, I'm going to focus on using that garage-sale-find dehydrator.

Cranraisins are great in oatmeal. I planned to get a dehydrator. All the suggestions are great for future use.