Dehydrating Blueberries
We are blessed to have a u-pick blueberry farm within five minutes of our home. That means that we can just jump in the car with our boys and head over for an hour or two of picking on a Sunday afternoon or weeknight. They opened less than two weeks ago and we have picked forty pounds so far. We are hoping to at least double that number by the end of the season.
Blueberries are such an easy fruit to work with. Unlike strawberries you do not have to hull them and unlike stone fruits, apples or pears there is no pitting or coring involved. Thus far my preservation methods have been dehydrating or freezing.
In the comments Jessie asked me if I blanched the blueberries before dehydrating and I replied no, I simply threw them in after a water-vinegar wash. Jessie if you’re reading this I have changed my tune. After your question I did a bit more research and thought I would give blanching them a try. It does seem to help with more even drying. I blanched and shocked the batch that is currently in the dehydrator and am finding that they come out more like raisins and less like crunchy blueberry chips, though both are equally delicious. If you have lots of blueberries and want to dehydrate them here is the method that has worked for me…
How to Blanch and Dehydrate Blueberries
- Wash blueberries.
- Plunge into boiling water for 25-30 seconds. You are waiting for the skins to just start to crack. This is the difference between crunchy, papery blueberries and more evenly dried blueberries.
- Remove them using a slotted spoon or small stainless steel sieve.
- Plunge them into icy cold water.
- Remove them, drain off as much water as possible and place them in an even layer in your dehydrator.
The frozen ones I plan to defrost and make into jam next week so that they do not take up precious freezer space.
With all of these blueberries, the pickles that I have been making, the csa vegetables that I have been freezing, the garden that keeps calling my name and the company we will be welcoming this weekend I won’t be doing much blogging until the beginning of next week. But tomorrow I hope to see you all here for food roots.
What are you picking/growing/preserving these days?
Mmmm those look delicious. Is there any way to dehydrate without an actual dehydrator?
Thanks for the post!
I ended up blanching mine & then poking a hole in each one. This was per a web video I checked out. It took a super-long time to dry them though (poking the hole was supposed to reduce the time). But it was also very humid!
I think next time I may try cutting them in half & not blanching at all.
I think we may be at an end of blueberries where I live – at least the farm I went to closed for the season Sunday. So I may wait until next year for more experimenting.
This is really good to know. I’ll start picking in august to mostly freeze but we’ll probably dehydrate some for camping. I linked to this post from my front page, look under sweet stuff.
Perfect timing! The blueberry farmers mentioned blanching was a good way to go and so I came home to Google it and here was your post!
Thank you! I’ve got 20 lbs. of berries dehydrating now.
Where do you store them after you dehydrate them and what do you store them in?
Store them in canning jars with lids wound
tight. I store raisins, rice, beans, and other
things, including four, sugar, etc in canning
jars. The canning jars keep products dry, safe
from bugs, humidity, etc. In fact, you can safely put all dehydrated products in jars and
then put them in a dark place, like a basement, storm shelter, or if short on space, under the bed. Has not failed me yet.
Leeann
What dehydrator do you recommend? I’ve never used one before.
@Nadine Bryant, I’ve owned a few different types, and I like Excaliber the best.
I went to a large “outfitter” shop and bought a Nesco brand with 700 watts. (they make larger models). But my main reason was to make Jerk from hamburger as well as Chicken. It is a $79.+ dollar model that you can get on the net but (they had a store card that makes it so much less. I went back to get more trays and liners for holding small pieces. Then went on their site and bought a gun with seasoning packets and all on sale. I can make it very high with trays and was so glad to get more in 2@ a much less price from the store. I’ve only had it approximately 2 weeks and made 3 kinds of jerk. Love it!
This week I went to a well know store (Aldie) and bought 18 pints of blueberries at $.99@. I dehydrated 10 pints and I dipped them in boiling water then dried on a towel and put on the sheets of the 5 trays that came with the machine and 3 of the 4 new trays with sheets on them. After putting them on at 10: PM I looked at them in the morning, still just getting puckered a tad. At the recommended 135 degrees on the top, where it has the dial. Put them back on and left them go to 5:PM. I sorted the tiny dried one out but all the rest were still soft and puckered. Then at 10:pm as well (a full 24 hrs) I again sorted out the dried ones and put them to go again. I stopped them at 3:AM and sorted. There was such a difference in size of the berries all the way up to the size of a nickle. I finally sorted all those out this morning because the rest were finally finished. Now I am making 2 envelopes of (stamp type envelopes) filled with silica gel that I bought at the craft store with a half price coupon in a “flower drying kit”. I will tape the little bags tightly closed and put them in my 2 Freezer size bags that were the fruits of my labor that are full. These will get used in muffins, pancakes, cereals. I went back this evening and purchased 5 more pints since I wasn’t sure when they may no longer be $.99 and the clerk asked me if I noticed that strawberries were $.75 a pint…I had already made those dried and ate them so here I go again to put them in a jar for my very plain cereals that I buy. I had made jelly last week with some of them..but they were NOT at 75 cents then!.. Hope this helps you maybe you can go on their site and look over the kinds they have and their prices as well as the shipping prices.
Margaret.
I am working on a homemade small animal pet mix and would like to incorporate dehydrated blueberries in it for they have one of highest antioxidant capacities among all fruits, veggies, spices and seasonings. However, rather than chewy raisin like, I would be more interested in a crispy texture as I believe it would be easier for small animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats and mice to eat. How would you recommend dehydrating for this texture? Would this be achievable in the water-vinegar wash you referred to? Can you please provide additional information as to how much water to vinegar if that is the case? Thanks in advance!
Hi,
How do tell if the blueberries are dehydrated enough?
thanks
@Dean Woolman,
For larger quantities of blueberries, you can refer to weight as a reference for judging dryness. After rinsing and culling out any fruit that is already overripe or otherwise damaged, weigh the blueberries. Starting with 10 lbs for example, you multiply the weight by the water content percentage of blueberries which is 83% (10 x .83 = 8.3 pounds of water). In order to reach an acceptable level of dehydration, most fruits need 80% of water removed. In the case of blueberries, multiply the weight of the water by the percent of water to be removed (8.3 x .80 = 6.64 pounds of water to be removed). What all this means is that if you start with 10 lbs of blueberries and subtract the weight of the water that should be removed when you’re done, your dried berries should weigh 3.36 lbs.
For smaller quantities of blueberries, you can simply cut a piece in half and check for moisture – none should be visible. The blueberry should be chewy and flexible.
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-dehydrate-blueberries-2883409.html
Yes, build a solar dehydrator, dehydrate in the oven on lowest temp with the door cracked and a fan running to circulate the heat, or lay outside on a screen door picked up off the ground by cinder blocks. Cover the top with another screen door or a something similar( cheesecloth) to keep the bugs off.
Thank you, Shannon. God Bless.
I have a Sedona 9 tray dehydrator – I did the blanching, cooling trick….I’m on day 3 of dehydrating at 115F and I think they are about 1/2 way. I have done Cranberries, and these take about 60 hrs when cut in half. I started with 15 lbs of blueberries. So far so good.
What temperature did you set your dehydrator on, and for how long? Mine always turn out crispy. I want them chewy like yours.
Sheryl