Skip to Content

How to Dehydrate Strawberries in Your Oven or Dehydrator for Long-Term Storage

Basket full of ripe strawberries

If you’ve followed our secrets for your best strawberry harvest, you’ve probably got a ton of bright red berries on your hands this year.

Finding yourself with a large basket or two of strawberries requires action as they spoil quickly once picked. This year, while canning strawberry jam and freezing bags of strawberries, consider dehydrating a quart or two.

You’ll understand the appeal after just one taste of an extra sweet strawberry slice straight from your dehydrator. While you may be tempted to snack on them immediately, I encourage you to save some for the darkest and coldest days of winter. As dehydrated strawberries are tasty, bite-sized snacks that can transport you back to the dog days of summer with one bite.

Overhead view of dehydrated strawberries

Benefits of Dehydrating Strawberries

When you think of the ways you can store strawberries to use later in the year, many folks immediately think of jam. And why wouldn’t you? Strawberry jam is the best! Usually, the second option is freezing the berries whole to be used later when needed.

Few people think of dehydrating their strawberries to save for later. But there are some pretty compelling reasons to choose dehydration over these other methods.

Save Space

If you’ve got limited space, freezing strawberries for long-term storage immediately presents problems. If the only freezer you have is the one built into your fridge, at most, you’ll only be able to store a couple of quarts. Even having a small chest freezer means being frugal with the space in it.

Dehydrating strawberries reduces their size, making storing them less of a big deal. What would normally require several bags can easily be stored in your pantry in one bag, taking up less space than even a batch of jam.  

Less Work

I love homemade jam, but I don’t love the day spent in a steamy kitchen over a hot stove and the fuss of canning the finished jam. And once you’re finished, there’s always a sticky mess to clean up. Sure, it’s only one or two days out of the year, but if you find yourself with a busy summer, canning jam is a real hassle.

Beyond the washing and slicing, dehydrating strawberries takes very little hands-on time, leaving you free to do other things while your berries dry. And clean-up is minimal once you’re finished.

Lasts Longer

Hands down, dehydrated food lasts longer than freezing or canning. And once it’s dried, they don’t require any further energy to keep them from spoiling, unlike in the freezer.  

Working With Strawberries

Close up of freshly picked strawberries

If you’ve ever had freshly-picked strawberries, you know how quickly they spoil. My advice when handling these tasty berries is to clear your calendar for the day. Plan to pick and process your berries all on the same day. And I mean for everything – canning, freezing, and dehydrating.

The moment they are snapped from the vine, strawberries begin to decline.

Even waiting a day before you do anything with them can lead to many bruised berries or mold growing among them. They don’t keep well in the fridge, and once you wash them, you must use them right away.

So, it’s best to have a ‘strawberry day’ and plan accordingly, especially if you plan to dehydrate some.

Save the best berries in your basket for dehydrating. When freezing or making jam, it’s okay to have berries with a blemish or soft spot here or there. But when it comes to dehydrating berries, only the firmest, blemish-free berries will do. Even the berries that are blemish-free, but starting to darken with age, should be used for jam or be frozen, as they are already starting to degrade and will have a higher water content.

Firm, blemish-free berries will yield the best results and the fastest drying time.

Prepping Strawberries for Drying

Rinse your berries well with cold water. I let my tap run for a minute or two to ensure the water is extra cold. Use your sink sprayer to blast away dirt from the berries.

Strawberries in sink being sprayed with water

Immediately dry the berries off using paper towels or old towels. (No matter how careful you are, you will have small strawberry stains.) Gently pat the berries dry, laying them out to finish air-drying while you work.

Only after you’ve rinsed and dried them should you remove the husk. If you remove the husk before washing them, then larger strawberries with a cavity inside them will retain water. This can make it harder to dry the berries in your oven or dehydrator.

Spoon used for hulling strawberries

You don’t need any fancy equipment to hull strawberries. Use a spoon to scoop and scrape off the hull from each berry gently.

Depending on the size of your berries, slice them in half or thirds so that they are all relatively the same thickness.

Drying Strawberries in the Oven

The key to successfully drying berries in the oven is proper airflow. You need air to circulate both above and beneath the berries. Lay out your berries on a cooling rack, then place the cooling rack on a baking sheet.

Halved strawberries on cooling rack on top of baking sheet

Ideally, you want to set your oven at 135 degrees. Most ovens don’t go this low, so the best work-around is to set your oven on its lowest setting, then prop the door open with a wine cork or a wooden spoon.

Place the berries in the oven on the center rack.

Set a timer for four hours. Begin checking the berries around the three-hour mark. Depending on the thickness and water content of the berries, it can take up to six hours for them to dry. But don’t worry, your house will smell incredible the entire time.

Once your berries easily snap in half, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on the tray. You may find you have a few berries that are still a little squishy in the middle; remove the finished berries and pop the squishy ones back in the oven for a little while longer.

Oven-dried strawberries

Drying berries in the oven may not yield the prettiest results, but the flavor is amazing.

Drying Strawberries with a Food Dehydrator

Layer your sliced berries on the racks of your dehydrator. Set the food dehydrator to 135 degrees and dry them until they easily snap in half. This can take anywhere from 4-8 hours, depending on your dehydrator, how thick your berries are and their water content.

Dehydrated strawberries next to fresh strawberries on a drying rack.

Again, remove the trays from the dehydrator when finished and allow them to cool completely before storing them.

Storing Your Dehydrated Berries

I always add a desiccant packet to the jar for storing dehydrated foods. This ensures any remaining moisture is absorbed.

Dehydrated strawberries in a jar in a pantry
My dehydrated strawberries proudly sitting next to my delicious homemade tomato powder.

Store your berries in an airtight container in a cool dark place. Mason jars are great for storing dehydrated strawberries.

Your berries will be good for at least a year, longer if you vacuum seal them with a desiccant.

The Key to Getting the Best Results

No matter which method you choose, the oven or a food dehydrator, the way to great results every time is low and slow. I’ve seen plenty of tutorials that suggest drying strawberries in the oven at 200 degrees. This temperature is much too high and will yield browned berries.

The ideal temperature for strawberries is 135 degrees. Most ovens don’t go down that low. If you get serious about dehydrating food, I highly suggest you make the leap and purchase a food dehydrator. You’ll have better, more consistent results in the long run.

It’s better to dry your fruit for a longer time at a lower temperature. This will give you the best color and finished product.

Why Don’t My Berries Look Like the Ones I Bought at the Store?

Something to consider when dehydrating any food at home is how the process differs from a commercial setup. Most dehydrated foods you purchase in a store have been treated with preservatives to maintain a pleasing color.

Bowl of dehydrated strawberries

When drying your own food at home, you may notice that your berries are darker or slightly brown. That’s to be expected from the caramelization of the naturally occurring sugars in the fruit. Your berries will be just as sweet (if not sweeter) than anything from the store.

Dehydrating foods is a great way to preserve your harvest in a manner that lasts and saves you space. Once you’ve finished your strawberries, consider making your own dehydrated mirepoix, onion powder or powdered ginger.


Get the famous Rural Sprout newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Including Sunday musings from our editor, Tracey, as well as “What’s Up Wednesday” our roundup of what’s in season and new article updates and alerts.

We respect your email privacy


Tracey Besemer

Hey there, my name is Tracey. I’m the editor-in-chief here at Rural Sprout.

Many of our readers already know me from our popular Sunday newsletters. (You are signed up for our newsletters, right?) Each Sunday, I send a friendly missive from my neck of the woods in Pennsylvania. It’s a bit like sitting on the front porch with a friend, discussing our gardens over a cup of tea.

Originally from upstate NY, I’m now an honorary Pennsylvanian, having lived here for the past 18 years.

I grew up spending weekends on my dad’s off-the-grid homestead, where I spent much of my childhood roaming the woods and getting my hands dirty.

I learned how to do things most little kids haven’t done in over a century.

Whether it was pressing apples in the fall for homemade cider, trudging through the early spring snows of upstate NY to tap trees for maple syrup, or canning everything that grew in the garden in the summer - there were always new adventures with each season.

As an adult, I continue to draw on the skills I learned as a kid. I love my Wi-Fi and knowing pizza is only a phone call away. And I’m okay with never revisiting the adventure that is using an outhouse in the middle of January.

These days, I tend to be almost a homesteader.

I take an eclectic approach to homesteading, utilizing modern convenience where I want and choosing the rustic ways of my childhood as they suit me.

I’m a firm believer in self-sufficiency, no matter where you live, and the power and pride that comes from doing something for yourself.

I’ve always had a garden, even when the only space available was the roof of my apartment building. I’ve been knitting since age seven, and I spin and dye my own wool as well. If you can ferment it, it’s probably in my pantry or on my kitchen counter. And I can’t go more than a few days without a trip into the woods looking for mushrooms, edible plants, or the sound of the wind in the trees.

You can follow my personal (crazy) homesteading adventures on Almost a Homesteader and Instagram as @aahomesteader.

Peace, love, and dirt under your nails,

Tracey
[simple-author-box]