Dehydrating fruit is great. I have more snacks on hand to keep myself from getting peckish, and as a result, my blood sugar doesn't crash as frequently as it used to.
Its lovely having fruit around all the time. My mom would assert with her Filipino superstition that large round fruit brought good luck. Mysticism or no, having copious amounts of perishable food impresses both wealth and health.
I think I enjoy the dehydrated version of fruit better than the real deal. It is portable, impossible to bruise, and chewy. It also isn't as loud as a big crunchy apple in an office silence.
I've been doing this thing lately where I buy fresh fruit and immediately dehydrating it without any intention of eating it in its fresh whole form. I am starting to think that I'm not saving any money. Let me rephrase that. I don't think I am saving money by buying fresh fruit and dehydrating it myself. I mean, its completely different if you own an apple tree and you don't know what to do with all of your hundreds of apples in the next two weeks while they are still fresh. I am buying them from costco and dehydrating them for fun.
So naturally I did a (quick!) price per lb study.
Here are my calculations
The margins are small. Papaya is way cheaper in the dried form than in fresh form. I couldn't find someone selling Jicama or watermelon dried but I think thats for good reason. Jicama is terrible dried and watermelon pales in comparison to honeydew. Watermelon without the water is just melon, but I digress.
The only reason the pineapple was so much cheaper than the dried whole form is because I bought my pineapple on sale. I got it on a 2 for 3$ sale at vons. Had I bought it for the regular $3 per pineapple, the cost would have been more expensive than buying dried pineapple at the store.
I have a few conclusions here. Its not like we were ever going to buy dried pineapple at the store. Don't be ridiculous. The only reason its so fun to eat is because we make it ourselves. But really, we are only ever going to buy fruit if its on sale from now on. And when it is on sale, our dehydator asset will enable us to buy tons of it.
But as a business? I don't think our margins are ever going to be wide enough to be able to pay for ourselves AND associated business costs.
On the other hand, the dehydrator allows us to try new things like dried watermelon. I couldn't find that anywhere. Dehydrating food is worth it if I want to experiment, thats for sure.
But I don't think I can say I am honestly saving money with it.
 |
| Apple with Brown Sugar |
Its lovely having fruit around all the time. My mom would assert with her Filipino superstition that large round fruit brought good luck. Mysticism or no, having copious amounts of perishable food impresses both wealth and health.
I think I enjoy the dehydrated version of fruit better than the real deal. It is portable, impossible to bruise, and chewy. It also isn't as loud as a big crunchy apple in an office silence.
I've been doing this thing lately where I buy fresh fruit and immediately dehydrating it without any intention of eating it in its fresh whole form. I am starting to think that I'm not saving any money. Let me rephrase that. I don't think I am saving money by buying fresh fruit and dehydrating it myself. I mean, its completely different if you own an apple tree and you don't know what to do with all of your hundreds of apples in the next two weeks while they are still fresh. I am buying them from costco and dehydrating them for fun.
So naturally I did a (quick!) price per lb study.
Here are my calculations
|
Fruit
|
solid weight
|
price ($)
|
price/lb
|
after dehydration (lb)
|
after price/lb
|
literature price/lb
|
|
apple
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
1
|
0.165343915
|
3.024
|
4
|
|
papaya
|
1.5
|
2
|
1.333333333
|
0.220458554
|
9.072
|
2.5
|
|
jicama
|
1.5
|
2
|
1.333333333
|
0.165343915
|
12.096
|
x
|
|
pineapple
|
3.3
|
1.5
|
0.454545455
|
0.220458554
|
6.804
|
11
|
|
watermelon
|
4.75
|
4
|
0.842105263
|
0.330687831
|
12.096
|
x
|
The margins are small. Papaya is way cheaper in the dried form than in fresh form. I couldn't find someone selling Jicama or watermelon dried but I think thats for good reason. Jicama is terrible dried and watermelon pales in comparison to honeydew. Watermelon without the water is just melon, but I digress.
The only reason the pineapple was so much cheaper than the dried whole form is because I bought my pineapple on sale. I got it on a 2 for 3$ sale at vons. Had I bought it for the regular $3 per pineapple, the cost would have been more expensive than buying dried pineapple at the store.
I have a few conclusions here. Its not like we were ever going to buy dried pineapple at the store. Don't be ridiculous. The only reason its so fun to eat is because we make it ourselves. But really, we are only ever going to buy fruit if its on sale from now on. And when it is on sale, our dehydator asset will enable us to buy tons of it.
But as a business? I don't think our margins are ever going to be wide enough to be able to pay for ourselves AND associated business costs.
On the other hand, the dehydrator allows us to try new things like dried watermelon. I couldn't find that anywhere. Dehydrating food is worth it if I want to experiment, thats for sure.
But I don't think I can say I am honestly saving money with it.