How to Build a Food Dryer

(Page 8 of 8)

February/March 1993
By John Vivian 
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For storage, unfold the box and lay flat or support firmly against a wall to prevent plywood from warping. Fold door down against the base base and pile together with the top and stacked drying racks on top of the box panels.

RELATED CONTENT

Letter to the Readers

In some of my recent woodwork­ing articles, I have mentioned the pleasure I experience when using the silky, rosewood-handled try square that I inherited from my grandfather. I suggested that read­ers buy a similar tool, new or used, at an auction or yard sale. Well, I've just learned that rosewood is one of several tropical rain forest trees be­ing over-harvested in the wild, to the point that they have become se­riously endangered. Others over­-harvested woods include: ebony, roko, padauk, and true mahogany. Coincidentally, all these woods — ­used for ornamental inlay work and musical-instrument finger boards, as well as fine tool handles — con­tain toxic phenols and are best not worked by amateurs.

Teak, a tropical (though not strictly a rain forest) species widely used for outdoor furniture, is also endangered in the wild. However, most raw boards and teak products on the U.S. market are from planta­tions (and have been in existence since the days when teak was used to deck sailing ships) and are now being certified by several interna­tional conservation organizations. Hopefully, rosewood and other en­dangered trees will also come under cultivation or controlled harvest­ — providing cash incomes to people who are now burning the rain forests for subsistence agriculture. Till then, to do my small bit in re­ducing the total demand for these endangered woods, I will not buy rosewood, ebony, etc., as raw stock or in a finished product, new or used; I both regret and retract my earlier recommendation. Try squares come with American wal­nut and other type handles, and readers wanting to work with dense, easy-working but common domestic woods having all the char­acter of an exotic, might look into the Texas Mesquite.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by the Mother Earth News editors:

The Solar Food Dryer book, by Eben Fodor. If you are thinking of building a solar food dryer, or you just want to learn the basics of how to preserve food by dehydrating, this is the best book available. Includes full details on how to build a very effective solar-powered dehydrator. Order now.

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