Hi Paul,

In answer to your question about the dehydrator.

‘One question though, why do you recommend the 9 draw dehydrator over the five, I mean, obviously you can fit more, but do you find yourself running out of space? I have no idea what each tray equates to in yields of food? 

Also is the nine draws larger in height only or is the whole appliance larger?’

I too don’t have much space and for my first dehydrator I got one with the motor on the bottom and it had a hole in the middle of each tray that let the warm air up through it.

This type of dehydrator has a few problems; the first being that each try had this hole so you couldn’t do large amounts of anything on a tray as the hole takes up a lot of room. Secondly you are limited to how deep you have the dish, the trays are a set depth and you can’t adjust them.

I now have an Excalibur Dehydrator it’s about a foot and a half square and within that size is the motor and fan. The front of the dehydrator has a pull off door and the trays pull out from the front. You can remove trays from the machine so if you have tall foods you can remove a tray and fit in the food no problem.

As for yield on one tray you can make about 12 crackers, of if you’re a raw cookie junkie like myself you do get about 14 per tray. One of the best things is you can make pizza bases big enough to feed two or one hungry bear…

Now to you question about five draw or nine draw? Both take up the same space on the bottom, the bonuses of having a nine draw is your not going to have to upgrade when your dehydrating takes off and you are using it more than your oven. As most things that you have to dehydrate take a few hours you will tend to make more so you have extra made for times when you are in a rush. And last but not least nine drew Excalibur’s come with a timer, so you can just set it and get on with your life. Saving energy and letting you keep more control of what you are dehydrating.

I hope this answers some of your questions if you have more just e-mail me at veganbear@mac.com

Bear. X

P.S thank you for the art work. X