About Dehydrated Raw Food Beginning with a Dehydrator Review...

Dehydrated raw food is important transition food and also a much better way to store food then the freezer. For instance, if you have greens and herbs going bad, just dehydrate them and use them as dried herbs or seasoning or as a snack later. I used to store soaked nuts in the freezer, but then I learned that the fats and proteins go rancid in the freezer, so just dehydrate them instead to have a constant supply of soaked nuts on hand for recipes!

I don't know what I would have done without my daily flaxcracker for the past 9 years! I've never really eaten a lot of dehydrated food, but my famous flax crackers are definitely one of the major reasons I was able to stay on living and raw foods for so long. Also, let's not forget those awesome living apple and pumpkin pies I've made in it throughout the years, or all those cool raw 'cookie' creations. Creating raw food dehydrated 'pastries' is definitely a specialty and a talent, but if you are already good with flavors or a talented chef, then food dehydration will be easy for you to figure out with a little practice. Today I enjoy using my excaliber to dehydrate large quantities of soaked and sprouted seeds and nuts for proper storage. Then I can inexpensively and easily get those few pumpkin seeds in my smoothie every day without having to be soaking all the time.

Excalibur vs. L equip

From the first day I went raw, I have had the same 9 tray excaliber dehyrator and it is still going strong after 9 years. There are many brands out there now, but really only a few I recommend. The 9 tray Excaliber is one of the ones that will allow you to dehydrate the most the fastest. They are very high quality.
Many people enjoy the L equip dehydrator because it is smaller, more compact, and looks a little nicer because of that. I don't think I would have enjoyed the L equip because I don't think it would have allowed me the space and versatility that I get with the excaliber. For example, I can stick a whole pie pan in my excaliber to dehydrate a crust, and I don't think this is possible with the l equip. The 6 tray excaliber is nice if you know you are only going to make small amounts at a time and only for yourself and one other.

The new "Good 4 U"

There is a new dehydrator similar to the excaliber, and it has improved features. Chef Brian Au of Raw In Ten Minutes swears buy it. It is called the Good 4 U, and is pictured to the right. It seems very similar to the excaliber but better designed. If I were purchasing new today I would go with the Good 4 U , as you can take multiple trays out for more room like the excaliber, and the door isn't as annoying as the excalibur. Another great claim of the Good 4 U, is that it is quieter! They also make a smaller size just like excaliber.

A serious raw foodist or chef will want to either go with the excaliber or good 4 u for personal use, or even better, contact Living Food Dehydrators, and get one that is all wood on the outside and more energy efficient because it does not require a fan. A restaurant or high professional can just get a commercial dehydrator, but I am giving advice here for personal use, not professional.

Living Food Dehydrators for the serious chef!

Build your own or use your oven!

The most energy efficient way to dehydrate your food is by building our own solar dehydrator outside, which may also be a lot of work for some people. If you're up for a project, then search for 'solar food dehydrator' online for instructions on how to build one.

Our ancestors...

Before there were ovens, this is how our ancestors made their bread, through dehydration in the sun, and were healthier for it! Ovens mutate and destroy the nutrition nature has provided us because they overheat the food. Also, after a while on the food we were designed to eat, you won't want much dehydrated food; it is, after all, dehydrating! In the wild we wouldn't have eaten much dehydrated food at all. Not until much later after agriculture and grain production would we have done so, with dried fruit being the on exception. Although maybe nature just did it for us as fruit fell from trees and dried up in the sun. Dried fruit was probably in the human diet well before grains, as a source of definite, concentrated sugar and nutrition that was easy to make and have on hand for peoples that were at any time stationary enough to rely upon fruit trees and drying the fruit they produced on rocks in the sun.

Get a new dehydrator and non-stick sheets in our store.

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