Check on youtube.... there's quite a few videos by die hard dehydrators.... BexarPrepper is a great prepper with dehydrating videos

I've tried to dehydrate potatoes in a bunch of different ways, and they all work and dry really well. The problem is that they do not come back worth a darn. I've sliced, ground, diced ect and didn't work well. I tried cooking them to different degrees and sliced, diced, and ground them. Still didn't work well. They come back as mush. The store bought ones have some method of freeze drying that i have not used. Still trying....

I've tried to dehydrate potatoes in a bunch of different ways, and they all work and dry really well. The problem is that they do not come back worth a darn. I've sliced, ground, diced ect and didn't work well. I tried cooking them to different degrees and sliced, diced, and ground them. Still didn't work well. They come back as mush. The store bought ones have some method of freeze drying that i have not used. Still trying....

Did you blanch and dip them in lemon juice first? I have no problems when I dry them sliced and use them for scalloped potatoes. You can also dry mashed potatoes with the point of them being "real" mash potatoes when re-hydrated.

Has anyone tried to run shredded or diced potatoes in the food dehydrator with other vegetables?

I would suggest a separate tray for each item that you want to dry due to the difference in drying times.

I've tried to dehydrate potatoes in a bunch of different ways, and they all work and dry really well. The problem is that they do not come back worth a darn. I've sliced, ground, diced ect and didn't work well. I tried cooking them to different degrees and sliced, diced, and ground them. Still didn't work well. They come back as mush. The store bought ones have some method of freeze drying that i have not used. Still trying....

Did you blanch and dip them in lemon juice first? I have no problems when I dry them sliced and use them for scalloped potatoes. You can also dry mashed potatoes with the point of them being "real" mash potatoes when re-hydrated.

I've tried this, and the lemon juice definitely keeps them from darkening. The blanching seems to be heading the right direction, but the recovery is still not that great, even the chickens don't care too much for it.

I'm going to wait until next fall to try it again when I have a fresh batch out of the garden. What little i have left will hopefully last me a few more months. Some of them are staring to sprout already and want to be planted.

I've actually picked up a 30 pound container of instant dried potatoes in case i need to travel, they were quite inexpensive. At home i prefer to keep garden potatoes fresh in the root cellar.

I am preparing to do garbage can potatoes and have read in a few places that this can be done year round in a milder climate. Found a local blog post on this and will post a link if I can hunt it back down.
I was going to mash potatoes and slice some for scalloped and then dehydrate ... next weeks endeavor, I have been doing corn, peas and onions off and on for a few weeks now...

Is the darkening just a cosmetic issue? There is nothing uglier then dried mushrooms but they bounced back reasonably well and tasted great once re-hydrated.

I am preparing to do garbage can potatoes and have read in a few places that this can be done year round in a milder climate. Found a local blog post on this and will post a link if I can hunt it back down.
I was going to mash potatoes and slice some for scalloped and then dehydrate ... next weeks endeavor, I have been doing corn, peas and onions off and on for a few weeks now...

Is the darkening just a cosmetic issue? There is nothing uglier then dried mushrooms but they bounced back reasonably well and tasted great once re-hydrated.

I like the garbage can potato idea. I have done tomatoes and peppers that way but never thought of potatoes. Thanks for the idea

OK, share light on the "garbage can" thing? I'm not sure if its something new to me or just another term for something i already know?

Planting "normal" garden stuff in plastic garbage cans. When I lived in an apartment I had a several tomato plants in garbage cans. That way when it got windy I could just drag them inside. I did the peppers in marg tubs, a single plant in each and put all the tubs in a box lid to make it easier to bring in. I even managed to get an apple tree to grow to about three feet from a seed in a garbage can.

Had never considered doing root crops though

We have done parsnips & carrots in old recycle boxes. They had cracks in the side, drainage holes already in the bottom. I just wrapped duct tape around them so they wouldn't crack more and filled them up! Turned out pretty good 🙂

OK, share light on the "garbage can" thing? I'm not sure if its something new to me or just another term for something i already know?

I cannot find the original video that got me going on this (nor the blog post but I am looking for them right now) but this clip gives you an idea ... Good drainage and you plant them low at first and build the dirt up over time. I had read from Canadian bloggers a year or so back of people pulling as many as 40-50 lbs of potatoes this way out of a single can... doing it this way is ideal for my balcony. The rest of my garden is being done in totes of varying depths.

People use everything from garbage cans to compost bags, 5 gallon buckets to totes and terra cotta pots. Drainage is important and it appears the better yields came from those using some form of compost or compost tea. The bigger garbage cans will give you a better yield due to their size.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeH9uqqG-oU&feature=related

Post edit: While surfing for the original video that gave the best demo I have stumbled across a number of others. The first thing I noticed is a lack of drainage/aeration going up the sides of the buckets has led to much smaller yields. Makes sense as potatoes are traditionally grown as 'hills' .Anyone that composted or used a compost tea seems to have had much better results as well.

Thanks paintergirl, now i know what you're talking about. I've seen a similar version of potato growing using old tires ( same idea as garbage can), just put another tire on top and some more dirt. I tried the tire version one year in the garden to see if it would work, and it did, but didn't really yield anymore potatoes than any other hills in the garden. Last year was a record year for our garden. potatoes were as big as footballs. Must be the chicken poop we compost for fertilizer. Interesting in the video that she says only to use "seed potatoes", I've never used them , always just put the sprouts from last year back to the garden and havent ever had a problem growing.

I was reading this the other day.

http://www.backpackingchef.com/food-dehydrator-recipes.html

This guy had problems with potatoes not rehydrating properly and then the amount of water they needed to reconstitute. So he started making "bark" - which he explains much better than I can. 😛

That looks simple enough and worth a try. Short of purchasing bulk instant potatoes, there has to be a better way to stack up the supply of starches other than wheat products and pasta