The Excalibur Food Dehydrator might not at first seem like a review item for an outdoor website, but you can use it to make food that is healthy and doesn’t squash in the bottom of your rucksack leaving a smelly mess. It’s also really useful if you want to make dinner much lighter as you carry it up the mountain. You can use the dehydrator on fruit, vegetables, nuts, pasta, meat (you can even recreate that jerky that you so loved when you went to the States) while still keeping in the nutrients. You can get creative and make your own crunchy cereal bars, or cottage cheese.

The way I am using it, when I have a load of fruit or veg that was cheap at the supermarket or recently picked, I just chop it up, put it on the trays then in the dehydrator for the amount of time the accompanying book recommends. I’ve made some really nice snacks, all much nicer than I have bought and it has all been eaten much quicker than I expected. The fruit sweetens a lot and makes for a handy, healthy snack when you are out and about. Bananas and apples are lovely. Also, if you grow your own fruit and veg this is a really useful way of drying beans and, well, whatever you want really.

We have been experimenting with all types of food, and have discovered that you can dehydrate all the vegetables you might need for a meal when camping, and then boil them with seasoning to get a vegetable sauce. But, dehydrating the sauce once it has been made doesn’t work so well. I would recommend getting a smaller model unless you are really serious about the amount you want to dehydrate, and have a huge kitchen. Definitely the dehydrator has added to our diet when running, walking and climbing and it’s been quite a lot of fun experimenting.

Reviewed by Matt Heason on behalf of planetFear