Dehydrating Pumpkin Pics

It's been a while. Finally getting a chance to put up some pictures of dehydrating the pumpkin. We cooked these pumpkins on top of the stove with just enough water in the bottom to keep them from sticking. Cook down until they're falling apart, then let them cool a bit. Put some plastic wrap on the dehydrator trays, then put the pumpkin on to it.

 Don't make the layer too thick or it'll take forever to dry.
After it's dried to the point of brittle, break it up a bit by hand and dump it into the blender. Small batches works better than one big one.

That's after it's blenderized. If it's still feeling a bit damp, stick it back in the dehydrator a while. The drier it is the less chance you have of spoilage. Then just dump it in a jar!

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Here's some persimmons that I dried and powdered the same way. Sorry for the blurry picture. We rehydrated it with 2 cups water to 1/2 cup powder. Don't just dump all the water in at once, though. Add it bit by bit to make sure that you don't overwater it.

We used this to make a great bread with, and tossed in some pecans and dehydrated figs too. Dehydrating is a great way to use up figs, especially if you have a ton of them. Cut them up with kitchen scissors when it's time to cook with them and use like raisins - they have a much fuller flavor than you'd expect. Even someone who won't eat raw figs or fig preserves (me) loves them cooked in breads and the like.