Dehydrating potatoes

So yesterday we decided we needed to do something with the 100 pounds of potatoes we bought from my Aunt Paula that she picked up in Farmington. So I text Jeanne, our most wonderful neighbor and say "You are cordially invited to a potato party at 5 pm" So immediately my phone rings.... a what? So the sucker that she is she shows up!!!

We started the kids on sorting, washing, and cutting a hundred pounds of potatoes! So I am on the internet researching exactly what we are going to try to accomplish. So out on the porch and I totally forgot to take pictures, so mad, but are the kids with pans and bowls all over filled with water, bad potatoes, good potatoes, chicken food potatoes, french fry for dinner potatoes ,and then dehydrating potatoes. I try to stay away from them because I am still radioactive for a few days. So we start the process and Troy is in charge of the knife and me the boiling water and what not. So this was our process.... wash them, cut out bad parts (which meant 3/4 of potato) and then slice into like 1/4 inch pieces but for Taya that turned out to be like 3/4 inch potatoes on some and then you blanch them by putting them into boiling water for 5 minutes or 20 if you lose track of time, and then take them out and into ice water and lemon juice immediately and then let them sit for 15 to 45 minutes whichever you get around to and then you blot them dry and stick in the dehydrator, which by the way holds about 6-8 cups of potatoes and not 100 pounds worth! Then have husband stay up all night checking on potatoes to harden. I woke up this morning to an unplugged dehydrator and one still going. He got tired of getting up so unplugged the powerful one and left the other one going.

That was the process.... and yes Jeanne and her kids showed up for the party. It was a lot of fun and once we got the system down it went smoothly. I dealt with the water and the dishes to avoid touching the potatoes. Jeanne and Troy in charge of the transferring of potatoes from cold pans to boiling pans to ice water pans and then on to blot, dry and put in dehydrator. We are waiting for husband to get home from California to be in charge of the food saver operations! It was a lot of fun even the kids enjoyed it. We had potatoes cooking in the oven for fries for everybody and pizza from Marie and applie pie from Marie and we just had a good time. Now we know we made way too many to fit in the dehydrator but are soaking them in fridge in lemon juice and water to hopefully start a new batch today. We didn't even get to the "good" potatoes. We only sifted through the bad ones to get them used up. I'll take pictures next weekend of htis weekend all over again!

So anyone try this before because it takes some time and I am hoping it actually works. You are supposed to be able to store them and then just boil them for 25 minutes and serve! At least we didn't have to peel them.

Next week we will be having potato soup, potato appetizer, and potato pie while doing the rest! Then we will all hate potatoes and not eat these for our year supply!