BETTER DEHYDRATING & DEXTERS

August/September 2000
Questions from our readers 
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Classic food
preservation method reborn.

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Dear MOTHER

Do you or any of your readers have plans for a dehydrator? I live in very windy Wellington, so dehydrating out of doors can sometimes be hazardous.

Cheers,

Katherine
Wellington, New Zealand

I am trying to build my own, food dehydrator Can you give me a few pointers? I'm looking for something that is inexpensive to run and build. We have a lot of moisture here on the Oregon coast.

Thank you,

Barry
 Newport, OR

We prefer outdoor sun-drying, but that just isn't practical in Oregon for much of the year or in New Zealand when the wind blows. You can dry foods in the oven, and self-sufficiency catalogs sell a plastic-mesh, multiple-tray hanging hot air dryer (you supply the hot air from your wood-burning stove). Too hot for summer, though.

For an indoor, all-season, electric-resistance-powered unit, we can do no better than to send you to Gen MacManiman, who wrote the first reliable book on home food drying a generation ago. It is now out in a reprint edition and is as valuable as ever (at a fraction of the price of other books on the topic).

Dry it-You'll like It by Gen MacManiman, paperback reprint edition (June 1997), MacManiman, Inc.; ISBN: 0961199806. The cost is around $7.00 from Amazon.com , a bookstore or direct from Gen: Living Foods Dehydrators, 3023 362nd Ave. SE, Fall City, WA 98024. Or call (800) 544-8972, e-mail info@dryit.com or visit http://www.dryit.com .

The book contains full-scale plans for you to make a "Living Foods Dehydrator" from plywood and other common materials. You can buy the completed (waist-high, seven-shelf) unit, a kit, or just the hard-to-make parts: screen shelves and the low-amp electric heating unit. The Living Foods Dehydrator is a piece of furniture as nicely finished as you want to make it; by contrast, all the other dryers on the market are puny little countertop gadgets (plastic, over-promoted and overpriced). We have used a MacManiman dryer since the early `70s, and it still works good as new.

Dear MOTHER:

I am looking for a formula for fertilizer that consists of household products. 1 have seen articles in the past where you can make your own and it is very effective. These fertilizers have consisted of soda, soap, chewing tobacco and other items. I will be using this on my lawn to promote growth and kill weeds. Any help would be appreciated.

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