Dehydrating attempt

Thursday afternoon event:

I had two cantaloupe slowly rotting in my kitchen and it got to the point where they started getting soft and mushy. Due to the holidays I completely forgot about them...I can't quite remember when I bought them! I figured I better get them in the dehydrator before it was too late. To fill up the rest of the trays, I added three sliced sweet potatoes.

For the sweet potatoes, I tried to cut them up as even as possible. The recipe I was using said to peel the potatoes, slice them up at an 1/8 inch, soak them in warm water for ten minutes, drizzle oil on them and add salt. Have you ever tried slicing a rock hard, raw potato before; it's difficult! I hard such a hard time cutting the potatoes; I even slipped but luckily the knife blade cut into my fingernail (thankfully not my flesh!). After dehydrating them at 350 for 12 hours, they turned out okay. I could taste to rawness of the potato...maybe next time I will cook them to reduce the starchy taste. My ma loved them so these will not be added to my bird food :)


Beside having issues with cutting my potatoes, I had melon issues as well. After quartering my cantaloupes, I decided that one was way too soft and juicy to slice up, so, I turned it into a puree. My intent was to make a fruit leather...instead I made a dry bitter orange mess. It was gross! The sliced cantaloupe turned out crispy and sweet, making the dehydrating attempt not a total loss.

Overall, I would call this dehydrating attempt a rank just below a success...not quite a failure but not quite a success...is there a word for that?