Can You Dehydrate Watermelon?

The book that came with my Excalibur food dryer says watermelon is “poor for dehydrating.” I say otherwise. It dries nicely, keeps well, and tastes great. Here’s how to dehydrate watermelon:

Pick the Right Watermelon

Start with a large, fully ripe, sweet watermelon. In our garden we grow our own watermelons from seeds originally furnished by a neighbor. The seeds were handed down from his grandfather and are supposed to be Charleston Gray.

However, I’ve purchased seeds that are also supposed to be Charleston Gray. But those melons are nothing like the ones we grow now. The rind was pale and uniform in color, not striped as shown in the photo (below). The flesh was not nearly as sweet. And the melon was overloaded with seeds.

I suppose you could use seedless watermelons. We’re not tempted to buy hybrid seeds that grow seedless watermelons, because we save our own garden seeds from year to year. And we’re happy with our neighbor’s grandfather’s heirloom melon.

At any rate, you want a nice big melon that’s sweet and crisp. Not overripe and mealy.

Slice It

Begin by slicing the watermelon into rounds about the thickness of your finger. Then cut off the rind on four sides to create squares.

We feed the cut-off rinds to our chickens and goats. So the bit of melon still attached doesn’t go to waste.

Now cut the squares into finger shape pieces, or any shape you like. We once dried bigger slabs, but they didn’t dry as well. And they ended up sticking together during storage.

We try to cut along the seed line to simplify removing any black seeds. Small white seeds are fine, as they just shrivel up in the dryer and you won’t even notice them.

Arrange the melon fingers on your dehydrator trays so they don’t touch. Place each tray over a sheet cake pan or towel so the pieces can drip while you’re loading the tray.

Dry It

Set your dehydrator to 135°F. In 8 hours or more — depending on ambient humidity and how full the dehydrator is — the melon fingers will be dry. When done they should be pliable but not tacky. They will be flat and thin, like sticks of gum. Or watermelon jerky.

Some people dehydrate watermelon by turning the pieces over every 4 hours or so to reduce their tendency to stick to the dryer trays. But we don’t bother.

On the other hand, removing the dried pieces from the tray can be a challenge. We scrape them off the trays using a hard, flat plastic spatula. Pushing the flexible tray insert screens up from the back helps pop the pieces loose.

We stand the dried fingers in 8- or 12-ounce canning jars and vacuum seal the lids. By far the most reliable vacuum sealer we’ve found for sealing canning jars is a NutriChef with a jar sealer kit.

When we were drying larger slabs of watermelon, they tended to stick together during storage. To solve that problem we separated the pieces with wax paper. The finger shape pieces dry better and crisper, with no need for paper separation.

Enjoy It

So what does dehydrated watermelon taste like? If you chose the right melon, it’s extremely sweet and chewy. Basically drying preserves all the sweetness of the melon, without the water part. And as long as no air or humidity gets into the jars, your “watermelon candy” will keep until next year’s watermelons are ripe and ready to slice and dry.