How to Build a Food Dryer
(Page 7 of 8)
February/March 1993
By John Vivian
Drying times depend on the nature and thickness of the food, as well as warmth, humidity, and air-flow. In dry winter air, you may find that the fan alone — running at top speed with vent open wide — will dry thin apple slices in 24 hours. In humid weather, you may need the heat lights, with the fan moving a small but constant volume of air, to dry a batch in two days or more. Experiment — remembering that the dryer the food, the better it will keep.
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To keep wet food from sticking to the drying racks, either let it air-dry awhile, lay a donut of wax paper or square of cheesecloth over the wire screens for the first phase of drying, or (with fish, meat, or cooking vegetables, but not fruit products) spray Pam or another non-stick cooking aid on screens.
Lay pieces close together but with space for air to circulate between. Shake the trays or hand-turn larger pieces two or three times a day. To maintain continuous production, compact pieces on fewer screens as they shrink and move screens from top to bottom as food dries. Unload the lowest rack when its load is dry and introduce new foods to the upper level.
To use a dark-stained dryer with free and natural energy, take the box off the base, and set it on bricks or 2"-high wood blocks over a dark, heat-absorbing platform in the sun. Turn the box from time to time to keep the internal temperature even, and crack the top or regulate the top vent to maintain internal temperature.
If the woodstove is really pumping out the heat, place the dryer-box on blocks on a table that's a safe distance from the stove's radiant-heat-projecting surfaces (typically, any combustible must be kept 18" from the back or sides and 36" from the front, but check your stove's installation instructions). Open the top vent for gravity-drying or place the fan on top so it pulls air up. Adjust blade speed with a rheostat or regulate the vent cover to maintain a gentle air flow (fan-forced air will dry effectively even if cooler than 110 degrees Fahrenheit).
If the wood stove is warm but not hot, you can take the box off its base and place it on stacked bricks over the stove top. You can do the same over a gas or electric stove top if you're careful and plan to stay in the kitchen all day. But wood can ignite if overheated — even if not touching flame. The inside/outside thermometer provides a safety factor; don't let the outside temperature exceed 150 degrees Fahrenheit. And never set a wood food-dryer over a potential fire-maker if there is a remote possibility that you might be called out of the house.
In winter, if you have forced hot-air central heating, place the dryer over a register. In subfreezing weather, put the dryer on the porch and turn on the fan; dry-cold air will "freeze-dry" foods slowly but effectively as frozen water "sublimates;' turning directly from a solid to a vapor state without going through a liquid state in between. But easiest, fastest, and most worry free — even if your electrical bill will be a tad higher — is to use the Christmas-light heater with the fan. Place the box on the heater base, open the top vent, and maintain a gentle warmth and constant air flow by adjusting size of the the top vent under the fan and by screwing-in and unscrewing bulbs. If a single strand of lights doesn't provide enough heat, string on another. Wrap wires with flexible black electrician's tape on both sides of light sockets if lamps threaten to touch the insulation.
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