Dehydrated Fruits/Veggies

What are you thoughts about making your own dehydrated fruits & veggies?  I love strawberry and banana chips, I was thinking of getting a dehydrater to make my own so I know exactly what they are made with.  I thought it might be nice to have them when I am wanting something crunchy, maybe a way better healthier choice then having regular chips??  Do any of you make your own fruit/veggie chips?

i have made them in the past, a very long time ago..use to make my own fruit roll ups too...they are time consuming...you need to get the right size cut of the fruit..and try to keep them uniform in size...if too thin, they stick to the tray, if too thick, they take LONG time to dry and then they are not that good...you may want to rotate the trays as they are drying as they ones cloest to the fan on the bottom dry faster than the ones on the top of the stack...dont try to dry too many trays at once..and too much all on one tray...
i use to make my own beef jerky too...would make 40 lbs at a time...now beef is so much higher...
i have had alot of fruit stick the trays and had to soak them to get them off...then when i made them thicker in cut, they would not really dry on the very middle, only the very outside edges...and i would still stick them in fridge as they have no preseritives to keep them for a long time out on our counters...i put my jerky in the fridge all the time...
sorry, this was not much help, but its not that easy, and it will take alot of trial and error to get it just right...
have a great day
debby

Drying fruits is a lot of work.  You can buy them from health food stores, or even order them online.  If you are concerned about what is in them, you can pay extra for organic.

It is difficult to get home dried fruits 'crunchy', but you can buy apples unsweetened and dried-delish.

I recently made jerky and discovered that by the time you buy lean meat, cut it, marinate it, and dry it, you don't really save any money.  I don't have too many issues about what's in it, because I don't eat a lot of it.  It is easier to buy it now and the.

The cost of my time and the cost of running the dryer for hours on end didn't make sense.  The outcome was never a great, appetizing product.  But you might have better luck!

I'm surprised that so many people have had a mediocre experience with dehydrating. I have been doing it for a few months and have been very satisfied. I started because, like you, I wanted to have some dried fruit. The commercial variety has a LOT of sugar and sometimes added oil for the crunch. It's also expensive. I began with apple, strawberry, banana, and pear slices. It took a few times to get the size right, but I was very satisfied. I tried mango and canned pineapple as well (after drying off the water) and they were really good.

I tried chicken jerky twice and it was okay, but I have to do some more experimenting. I am going to get a book on dehydrating at the library to see what other ideas are out there. If you go to Eggface's (Michelle) website (the world according to eggface), she has a dehydrator and loves it. Good luck if you give it a go!