home made dehydrator?

[paul wheaton]

I just uploaded this. I think this is a rather simple, elegant and cheap (!!) design for a solar food dryer.

http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/0/5U1JgAkW-xY

 

[Ohioann]

A woman is our CSA taught me an easy way to dry herbs..in the refrigerator! Place small bunches of herbs still on the stems in brown paper bags (I used those brown luch bags), fold over and staple, place in your fridge and let them sit. It may take several weeks depending on how thick/thin the leaves and stems are. I then take the leaves off the stems and place them in jars for storage. I also use an electric dehydrator for fruits and veggies.

 

[kcsunshine]

As dry as my house is this winter with central heat & air (I want a woodstove!) you could just hang up the herbs anywhere and they would dry.

 

[Dyce51]

Here is a plan for building a large dehydrater that I found somewhere on the web...(I forget where)

The trays don't need to be polycarbonate, I thought of making a frame and attaching stainless screen over it.


I looked on the internet again and found where I got this plan... Backwoodshome.com

also they had a a post about the heating element and here is where you get the element needed

The address and phone number of the ceramic heat coil provider is: Akinsun Heat Company, Inc., 1531 Burgandy Parkway, Streamwood, IL 60107, Att: Mr. Syed Musavi, Telephone: 630-289-9393. They have two models available: #CS1003-01 500W, #CS1003-02 660W. Cost is $25 each.

 

[homesteader]

We have been dehydrating fruits and vegetables for a long time now and if the jars are kept in a cool dark place the dehydrated foods will out last canned by a lot. Dehydrated foods don`t lose nutritive value nearly as quickly as canned foods do and I think are just as good when rehydrated.
Cabbage, carrots, corn, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers,tomatoes, squash, greens and many other veggies dehydrate easily.
We also mix dried vegetables for soup and stew mixes. Also dehydrate cooked and mashed dry pinto beans and others for instant refries as well as the whole cooked beans for soups.
The main idea with all of these dehydrated foods besides for our winter use is for emergegency storage. Cooking time is minutes for most of these. In fact I have simply placed dehydrated vegetables in hotwater, allowed them to rehydrate and eaten them as they are although they are better cooked for a bit they can be eaten this way.
The other thing I like about dehydrated foods is that it is much easier than canning, freezing doesn`t bother the jars as there is no liquid in them so can be stored anyplace, inside or out and as I said they will keep much longer than canned foods.
Another plus is that you can get a lot more dehydrated foods in a jar than canned, like a whole large head of cabbage in one quart jar. I have gotten as many as a dozen ears of corn in a quart.
When you use these dried foods you simply take out what you want and and reclose the jar.
We still do can foods such as our salsa, jams and jellies but most of our larder is dehydrated.

 

[okiegirl1]

I read/saw/heard ... one of those.... where in the summer, you just put your... whatever your dehydrating in your car with the windows rolled up.

anyone ever tried this?

 

[DawnSuiter]

I often have forced air egg incubators sitting empty... I wonder if these can be used to dehydrate some items...

 

[kcsunshine]

My grandmother dried her apples on the tin roof of the wood shed. Papaw made her a frame with screen (to keep bugs out) and she laid out the cut apples on a cheesecloth on that screen. Then another frame with screen set down over that. The sun did all the work. All you had to do was be prepared to grab it all fast if it started to rain. After they were dry, she tied them up in a cloth sack and put them in her freezer. If she had apples that needed to be done right away and it was cloudy or rainy, the screens were set up upstairs until the sun came back out.

Her stack cakes were legendary.

Oh and I bet the car idea would work. My husband used to dry lumber out in the back of his old work van. He would sticker stack it, then run a small fan out to keep the air moving. He made many beautiful pieces of furniture out of wood dried that way.

 

[sylvie]

We also mix dried vegetables for soup and stew mixes. Also dehydrate cooked and mashed dry pinto beans and others for instant refries as well as the whole cooked beans for soups.

Could you go into more detail on dehydrating mashed pintos? Are those stored in jars where you remove amount needed? Are they dried globs or more powdered or spread on a sheet so they are flat layers? I never heard of this and would love to try the mashed beans.

 

[The Vail Benton's]

I'm interested in drying mashed pintos also!

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