#vegetable drying

ok so you have too many vegetables and not enough time before they go soft. drying them is the fix, and it's less fussy than it sounds.

the whole thing comes down to: cut them even (3-6mm, don't eyeball it too loosely), blanch the ones that need it (carrots, beans, peas, cauliflower — skip it for onions/peppers, they're fine), spread them out with room to breathe, and dry until they SNAP. not "feels dry." snaps.

sun drying: tempting, kind of risky. vegetables don't have the sugar/acid fruit does, so they can spoil before they finish. you need real heat (32°C+) and low humidity, and even then you should pasteurize afterward — 65°C for 30 min or 71°C for 10 min in the oven — to kill off anything picked up outside.

oven method is more forgiving: 60-65°C, door propped open 5-7cm, fan nearby if you have one, rotate the trays because home ovens lie about being even. check hourly once things start shrinking, it moves fast near the end.

if you're doing this weekly (1-2kg+), just get a dehydrator. steady heat, even airflow, frees up your oven, done.

now the part people don't expect: turning this into an actual business is a different animal. commercial dryers hold consistent temp/humidity across hundreds of kg at once. FSSAI caps moisture at 20% for dehydrated veg products, powders can't be clumpy, and you need a full license (not just registration) plus batch testing before anything hits a shelf. equipment + pre-treatment + packaging can run several lakh rupees before your first batch even ships.

silver lining: the segment is growing 8-10% a year in India, and PMFME offers a 35% capital subsidy (capped at ₹10L per unit) for small food processing setups, which softens the equipment cost a lot.

common ways to ruin a batch, for the record: crowded trays, skipping blanching, drying too hot (crispy outside, soggy inside — worst outcome), packing things away before they're fully cool, and ignoring humidity in storage even after a perfect dry.