Chili Peppers and Dehydrator

[Marzoli]

Can anyone tell me if a food dehydrator is good for drying chili peppers. I am planting several varieties this year, and I would like to be able to preserve the excess peppers for the winter. I can't leave my oven on for long periods(it is a 1964 Frigidare stove and I wouldn't like to put too much pressure on it!), so that method of drying is out, and I don't have any space that would work to hank peppers. I tried freezing habeneros last year and that was okay, but I really don't have all that much freezer space!
I hope somebody out there can enlighten me on this subject.
Thanks!

[mudbug]

Marzoli,

You can certainly use a food dehydrator if you feel you need to. You can also dry them in baskets outside in the shade, just mix them up once a diay.

I prefer to do it without the dehydrator because it's more natural and I'm not applying unnecessary heat to the process, thus retaining the integrity of the natural oils as best as possible.

[Marzoli]

Thanks for the info, Mudbug! I haven't been online in a long time because it is summer vacation time for me and I don't get around to the internet as often as I'd like. I tried out my dehydrator last week and put in one pepper just to see what it would do. I can see what you mean about doing it the natural way--my problem there is that I don't have any place to do that--I have a lot of visiting dogs through the yard (they'd love a basket!) and no shade at all! I have one pepper drying the natural way in the house right now so I can compare it with the one from the dehydrator.
Thanks for replying!