Do you dry your food stuffs outside??

[patandchickens]

The absolute most amazing dried apricots I've ever had were made by someone in Salt Lake City who dried them on the family house's rooftop (the tree was in the front yard). Oh my goodness those were incredible.

I have only ever lived in much more humid-summer climates though, where if you DID manage to get something dried outdoors you would want to freeze or oven-bake it a while before storing to do something about the flies having laid eggs on it while it was drying

Pat

 

[FarmerDenise]

I often dry stuff in my car. I live in sunny California. I usually bring it inside at night though. We usually get fog at night, so by bringing the stuff in the house, it keeps it from soaking moisture back up.

Before I had critters roaming all over the place I used to dry stuff between two window screens set on a couple of chairs, sometimes I would cover it with a sheet to keep bugs out.

Now we also dry a lot of stuff in our dog pen. It has a roof and we hang stuff from the rafters. I usually cover the thing we hang in there with a sheet or pillow case to keep bugs and birds off.

With all of these, I carefully inspect everything prior to packing it away, to make sure that it is not moldy and is clean and free from bugs. I also freeze everything I can fit in the deep freeze for 14 days, to kill off any bug eggs and mold that I might have missed.

I used to use my refridgerator freezer for this, but it is definitely not as effective, as I have frequently found bugs in my bean jar in about a year.

For this reason I also prefer to put stuff in several smaller jars, rather than everything in one big jar. If one bean has bugs, it will affect the whole jar. By keeping them in several jar, I might get lucky and still have some jars free of insects. I am still working this process out.
I also found that beans that have been infested with beetles, will still sprout and grow. Last year I threw out a jar of beans in the field and we ended up with a lovely crop of "volunteer" beans in that spot.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I dried a few cherry tomatoes & herbs on my trampoline covered with a super thin sheet. Just used bricks to hold it down around the foods.
With my humidity tho, the tomatoes took several days.

 

[Neko-chan]

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[farmerlor]

I know a guy who uses an old car as a dehydrator. He pulled the seats and put in trays and then just lets the sun do the work. It works especially well with meats and veggies that he plans to powder.