Solar dehydrators?

[valmom]

I don't want to hijack the solar oven thread, so I thought I'd pick brains about dehydrating.

So, what about solar dehydrators? I want to dehydrate or sun dry tomatoes this year instead of canning them- we're eating less spaghetti sauce than I thought we would:/, but sun dried can go in soups or stews or chili easily enough.

It doesn't get really hot up here, but we do get lots of sun all summer- what do I need to think about for drying veggies?

 

[dacjohns]

Humidity can slow down the drying process and encourage growth of nasty things like mold and fungus.

Some things, meats for instance, might need some sort of pretreatment to inhibit growth of the nasties.

Some fruits and vegetables will turn brown. Sulfuring can prevent that.

 

[Wifezilla]

For tomatoes, use romas, slice in half, sprinkle with salt, place on a screen, cover with cheese cloth (but make sure it doesn't touch the tomatoes) and place in the sun.

Now, this works GREAT in Colorado where we have lots of sun and low humidity.

If you have high humidity, some type of solr dryer would be a better idea.