This week has seen us focusing in more on our menu. With less than 3 months to go, we need to start acquiring foodstuffs and dehydrating our meals and snacks.
One of my more recent favourite dehydrated snacks is kiwis. This discovery was brought to me by a good friend who borrowed my dehydrator in the winter to try his hand at dehydrating fruits. He tried many different things that I had never thought about doing. Kiwis were one of the best snacks he discovered. 
Kiwis pack an impressive nutritional punch. Most notably for backpackers, kiwis are high in Vitamin C, Fiber, Potassium, and Magnesium (Source: http://www.kiwifruit.org).
Want to dehydrate your own kiwis? Here’s how to do it!
Thankfully spring time is a great time to source fresh kiwis. I went over to our local Costco and was lucky enough to find Organic kiwis from Italy. I bought 2 of these 3 lb tubs, each costing $7.
Next step was to peel and slice the kiwis. I found the best way was to slice off the ends and then use a soup spoon to peel around the skin. It’s a messy, juicy way to do it but it preserves the better part of the fruit. I then sliced the kiwis into approx 1/4″ pieces. Most kiwis gave me 6-7 slices.
Onto the dehydrator they go! I just replaced my old one with the Hamilton Beach Dehydrator. It offers two different temperatures as well as a timer. The design is also such that tray rotation is not necessary (though can still be helpful).
The kiwis took about 12 hours. I made sure to check on them around the 10-hour point to pull off the ones that were already done. Dan particularly likes when they’re still a bit soft and chewy.
Some dehydrator blogs recommend soaking the kiwis in ascorbic acid which is used to prevent oxidation and decoloration. Not using it won’t make the kiwis any worse in flavour, just a little less green.
Out of curiosity I decided to weigh the completed kiwis. From 6 lbs of fresh fruit I ended up with a little under 1 lb of dehydrated slices.
As much as I’d love to munch on these right now, I need to save them until our JMT hike. I popped them into a FoodSaver ziplock, sucked all the air out and threw them in the fridge until we’re ready to divy them up for our food drops.
Of all the snacks we’ll be bringing on the trail with us, I think these ones are what I’ll look forward to the most. They pack such a huge punch of flavour and I expect I’ll be craving some freshness after so many days of dried foods.
Have you tried dehydrating kiwis or another fruit that most of us might not consider? What’s your favourite snack for longer trips? Please share in the comments!