It isn't necessary to use anything on citrus. It sounds like they are overcooking. Have you checked the temp. of your oven with an oven thermometer? The only other thing I can think of is that the fruit is not fresh. Another option-use the peel instead. I've seen garlands & potpourri decorated with peel shapes, stars, etc. cut out and stuck together with cloves. I love the look of dried fruit, but feel guilty about decorating with food when there are so many hungry people in the world.

Hello,

I have a dehydrator with about 4 trays I bought at WalMart that has an adjustable setting. I put the setting on fruits. I just dehydrated lemons, limes, oranges, tomatoes, pomegranites, apples and strawberries and they all came out looking great - definitely not brown. I did not use any type of preservative. I slice through the fruit as thin as I can but still having a complete slice to speed up the dehydration. The strawberries shriveled up to almost nothing - but they are cute. I notice the dehydrator has a fan that circulates the air - this may be the difference between an oven and a dehydrator. I am using the dried slices whole to place on dried wreaths and topiaries as an accent.

Where I live there is lots of fruit that falls to the ground or is fed to cattle (probably what the growers consider seconds - maybe a blemish on the outside, etc.) so I can get it inexpensive enough to make it worth while to dehydrate. Today I am going to try kiwi and more apples and pomegranites. I wish I could find some persimmons but I think they are out of season now.

A few years back I dried tomatoes on screens in the sun in the summer. I thought they would be loaded with flies but they weren't. It's not warm enough this time of year to dry outside though. Dehydrated tomatoes cost a fortune in the grocery store and they are really good in salads - the roma tomatoes dry very well because they don't have as much liquid content.

Hope this helps.

Linda