How to Clean Dehydrating Trays--The EASY Way!

I don't know about you guys, but I (used to) hate to wash my dehydrating trays.  They were big and awkward and didn't fit in my sink very well, making them very hard to clean.  

Well, here is the answer: the bathtub!  I heard about this and had to try it.  

I put all of my dehydrating trays and leather sheets into the tub with some hot water and a couple drops of dish soap.  I let them soak for about a half hour and then drained the water and rinsed them off.  They were so clean and I hardly had to do anything!  Love it!   I hope this helps all of you dehydrators out there. :)  

Cherries!

For the past couple weeks I have been busy with cherries. . . and kids, chemo treatments, an MRI, swim lessons, 4th of July activites, etc. :)  Our nearby orchard was selling them for $.75/lb and I was so excited to get some!  Aren't they beautiful?  

I pitted them with my cherry stoner, cut them in half and then had some help from my 2 youngest spreading them out on my dehydrating trays.

I dehydrated them for about 24 hours.  I think they got a little too dry, but it's hard to tell sometimes until it's too late.  

I also made a ton of fruit leather (I borrowed a second dehydrator from a friend because cherries won't wait!).  I think this is cherries with some pear sauce that I canned last year.  I like to add it to fruit leather to make it more pliable.  

 I also got some apricots and mixed those with cherries for fruit leather.  It is soooo yummy!  I love the tartness that the apricots add

So far I have gone crazy with fruit leather.  I have 3 gallon bags full of rolled up fruit leather.  And it's only the beginning of the harvest!  Fruit leather is what goes the quickest in my family. :)