By drying berries in a dehydrator, you get all their vitamins and extend shelf life!

After the summer, when the forests and bushes were full of berries, it’s excellent to recap how we can get the most out of them and what we must do to preserve them during winter.

After the summer, when the forests and bushes were full of berries, it’s excellent to recap how we can get the most out of them and what we must do to preserve them during winter.

All berries can be dried, but blueberry is particularly suitable for drying more delicacies. Drying with a high-quality dehydrator preserves the berries' colour and composition better than drying them in an oven, for example, whereby the liquid often drains out of the berry during drying. By drying the berries, their lifespan is extended. All the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fibres that are part of a healthy and varied diet are preserved. The daily recommendation to eat berries is only two teaspoons of berry powder!
 
The drying temperature in a dehydrator is generally at 50 degrees Celsius or slightly below. Normally, when drying, 5 deciliters of fresh berries will give you 1 deciliter of dried berries. Dried berries can also be ground into powder, making them take up even less space. The Basic Orakas dehydrator dries many litres of berries at a time. This model is well suited for households and smaller kitchens. The larger version of the Orakas dehydrator is called Big Orakas and it can dry up to 20-30 litres of berries at a time and works well in larger commercial kitchens and restaurants. There are also double-size versions of the models for homes and restaurants.
 
Dried berries can be used in various ways, such as muesli, granola, porridge, smoothies, on top of yoghurt, or even in decorating cakes and pastries and in the dough. Did you know that thawing berries after freezing loses about a third of the vitamin C in berries? one more good reason to dry the berries is that all their vitamins remain in the berries!