man, what a mistake..

I rinsed a good amount of delicious fresh blueberries and put them in my Nesco dehydrator along with other veggies and fruits..

After 9 hrs, everything else (peppers, asparagus, strawberries..) are paper-like while the blueberries are still fat and disgusting!

My theory is that the skin is keeping the moisture in.. maybe I should have boiled them first. I could try to do it now halfway.. seems like it'll take 20 hrs to dehydrate otherwise.

Any previous experience?

I am waiting for my bushes to be ripe (late this year!) but I found a tip that if you roll them in honey or agave nectar first before drying they will come out better.
Blueberries are pretty notorious for not drying well.

I'm drying them for the morning milkshake recipe i think i saw on your website (whey protein + milk powder + yoghurt powder + freeze-dried fruit).. i was planning to dehydrate the blueberries, freeze them and grind them up to a powder.

but with them stuck as they are, i took them out and mashed them up into a paste in a blender and am dehydrating them into a leather.. hope to freeze it and crush it as much as possible.

ps: i'm also thinking of skipping the yoghurt powder in that recipe.. $20 online and so little goes into each serving.. think it should still be edible..

preparing food for a month!!

I used to have issues drying blueberries until I began blanching them first. Just a minute or so dunk in a pot of boiling water pops the skin open a little, which facilitates the dehdration process. Mine come out perfect, YMMV...

Don't dehydrate them; make them into jam instead!!!
Absolutely delicious!

Cheers

You can leave the yogurt powder out - you might though consider adding the same amount of something like Instant Breakfast for the creaminess :-)

And yes, oh yes, blueberry rocks. I make a batch every year with wild huckleberries that I pick in the mts in late August/September.

Freeze them first. This cracks the skin and allows them to dry afterwards.

dehydrated the leather and then froze it.. now it crumbles so easily and becomes fine flakes which is just what i wanted.

might do it with a ton of blueberries soon to make those breakfast smoothies.

I agree with Tim about light blanching. My dehydrator book gives instructions for mostly just dunking in boiling water to remove the whitish surface stuff (pruniosity?) and they will dry pretty well. I have not, however, tried it; the berries never make it past my mouth!

Should red raspberries be treated the same way?

I have some piling up here, and I need to preserve them in some way before the next trip.

Blanch, then dehydrate.

--B.G.--

Bob- I have not had to blanch raspberries or blackberries due to the thinner skin on our mid-central US berries. They dry fine without blanching.

Edited by baldknobber on 07/08/2010 14:47:01 MDT.

I grew up picking Missouri blackberries. The trick is trying to pick them at their ripeness to minimize the seeds. But these red raspberries I have now are kind of delicate. I might have to eat them and start all over.

--B.G.--

The only thing with blanching is to make sure to keep the time short enough - my wife and I made the mistake of leaving them in the boiling water too long (1.5 to 2 min.) and then they were too mushy to possibly dry - but they turned in to great fruit leather when mixed with applesauce :)

I bought a bunch on sale and tried dehydrating them. I followed the directions and tips from my book, but they didn't come out well. I blanched them first. I didn't time it, I just waited for the skins to pop (they float after they pop). I then dumped the berries on a cookie sheet, spread them around by shaking (they are too delicate to handle by hand), then put the trays in the freezer. Then I put them on the dehydrator trays once frozen. I thought I did a good job, but they wouldn't dry completely, even though I left them in for hours past the recommended drying time. I think blueberries are just a tough item to dehydrate. I might try the jam idea.

I have 2 pounds of blueberries in my dehydrator right now. It is the first thing I have ever dehydrated.

I blanched them for about 30 seconds and then put them in cool/cold water. I also poked them with a tooth pick which is supposed to help them dry a lot faster. I will find out in a couple hours.