I've been drying all of my basil. Call me weird, but the taste of basil leaves that are not dried almost seems like a mint leaf in a way and leaves a minty feel in the mouth. I have a Nesco FD-80 dehydrator and just ordered four more trays - to make it max out at 8 trays total. It seems to take about 48 to 72 hours to dry basil out in the dehydrator using the recommended setting of 95 degrees. One person mentioned to put the basil in an oven at 250 degrees. While I can't be fully sure of the source, the book that came with the Nesco dehydrator says that all herbs shouldn't be heated higher than 100 degrees. So that is why it takes so long to dehydrate the basil. Anyways - back on track. The dried basil I then crush up and put in herb/spice containers. It isn't nearly as fine as what you buy in the store - but with the larger chunks, you can tell a huge difference between store bought and personally dried basil. I have 15 plants and have only filled up on herb container so far. I have five ounces of basil waiting to be dehydrated now (seeing if I lay them on a counter for a few days if it reduces the dehydrating time). The kitchen smells very good with the basil lying on the tables. Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

I know this is a little late for this year because in most places apricots are long gone but I had a little advice to help you dry your apricots. We sold U-pick fruit for many years and I was complaining to one of our u-pickers about the same problem. She said just turn them inside out. She meant to put your thumbs in the skin side of the apricot half and push up. This breaks apart the tissue connections on the inside of the apricot and makes it dry twice as fast. You still dry them face up.

I bought the Nesco FD-61 at Amazon. It's a lot larger than it looked in the pictures! It arrived in time for me to take it on a test drive last weekend. Saturday I tried a recipe in the book that came with it for cat treats made from canned tiny shrimp and catnip flowers. Only took two hours to dry and seemed to come out pretty good, but the cats didn't care much for the shrimp. I gave each one a shrimp piece once they'd cooled, and most of them pretty much turned up their noses at them. Sunday I tried pouring the stuff onto a small plate to serve to them. This worked better as they were all very interested in the catnip part and ended up eating the shrimp trying to get all the catnip. LOL I'm thinking of trying to modify the recipe to maybe marinate the shrimp in catnip somehow so more of the catnip flavor gets imparted to the shrimp. Sunday I made beef jerky using the seasoning mix that came with the unit and a rump roast. This turned out very good. Even the cats liked it! I made the mistake of putting the jerky into a freezer bag and leaving it on the kitchen counter. Some kitty got hold of the bag overnight and tore it open to get out some jerky. Guess I'll have to keep it in the fridge from now on. Going to make more this coming weekend. Got another roast at Homeland and this time had the butcher slice it up for me. I had some trouble slicing it and getting all the slices a consistent thickness. I've ordered the screens for it which should arrive, hopefully, next week. Then I'm going to try some drying some basil. So far, I really, really like my new toy! Thanks to everyone in this thread for the idea of getting one and all the advice. I'm so glad I read this forum! Debra

I have the FD-35 Snackmaster® Entr'ee Food Dehydrator: http://www.nesco.com/products/?category=300&subcat=100&id=42 I bought it at Menards for $35. Has worked just fine for me. I don't use it a lot, but I've not had any problems with it at all. It comes with 8-9 curing packets and the same amount of two different spice packets. Both spices taste good. If you like hot Jerky, then definitely add some Cayenne or spicier stuff! I've used it for drying Peppers: http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u298/kj_57301/HotPeppers2008/09_04_2008002.jpg I have also made jerky with great success. No problem. Don't see any point in buying an expensive unit if you are only going to use it occasionally or for "small" batches at a time (can extend it from the 5 plates to 7). There's no selectable heat, so you don't want to use it for Peppers where you plan on saving the seeds. However, take the seeds out first and problem solved. I have not needed temperature controls and I don't really see that I ever will. There's only a couple of things to watch out for. Don't crowd the peppers on the bottom, because they will take longer to dry. Also, you really need to split the Peppers to ensure as little drying time as possible. If you make spices out of the Peppers, they really need to be very dry. I use a cheap Proctor Silecs Coffee grinder ($10, Wal-mart) to grind the peppers to dust (everything, including seeds). I put the spice into some Mainstays pepper Jars ($7 for 6 classy jars at Wal-mart). It takes me 5 hours to make Jerky (to the consistency I prefer) and anywhere from 7-12 hours to completely dry peppers. When I make Jerky, I typically use low fat ground beef (preferably 93/7). You have to pat the Jerky often to try to eliminate fat from 80/20 and even then, it's very hard to get the "fatty" taste out if it. Spicing the Jerky with some habs or Fatali you've dried and ground is definitely recommended :) Fun hobby!