Homestead mailing list

[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

> What sort of dryer system have you? Homemade or ?  
I used a pretty rudimentary system for a long time: exactly what I grew 
up with:  the south roof (corrugated steel) of the chicken house!  
Biggest problems with that were that food needed to be covered (wind, 
flies) and that it was outside so had to watch for coons, etc, and cover 
at night (dew).  So was happy to make one with shelves and a glass 
front, also to use outside.  That one I liked, was lots less hassle 
although of course not as spacious as the roof.  The first autumn of its 
life it went up in smoke along with everything else around here.  Now 
since I rebuilt I actually broke down and bought an Excaliber, which I 
like a lot.  I keep thinking it's tiny, but actually it has 9 shelves 
14" square.  Just seems small because the others were big, I think....

Works fine and is trouble-free.  Does take power but not much compared 
to canning, and no power required for ongoing storage (not a good idea 
here where it's easy to lose power for weeks at a clip).  Very often I 
will load trays, put them outdoors in sun all day, and bring in to drier 
to finish them off.  That cuts down quite a bit on the power issue.

I also dry quite a bit just in my oven.  Gas stove with pilot, I use the 
oven for drying things (my oven stays about 90* so can't do high-temp 
things in it), raising bread dough, clabbering milk/cheese, ginger beer, 
whatever else needs to stay warm in a cool house.  So herbs and other 
things that can't tolerate a draft and CAN tolerate/will dry at a lower 
temp go in there as long as I'm not baking in it.

I did talk the other day to someone who said she dries her beans in a 
drier and has a big one for that.  I tie them, still on the plants, to 
hooks in the attic and forget 'em until the weather outside drives me 
inside; some snowy day I go up there with a couple of trash bags and get 
'em all down by the stove, shell 'em out.  Can't think I'd pay $$ to do 
what the attic does for zero.

So I use whatever's handy/prudent, I guess.  I do dry just about all 
that will do well that way, which is much of what I eat out of season.  
I keep some things until it looks like I need to do something with them: 
pumpkins, winter squash, potatoes, etc, then dry what's remaining. 

Some things I dry and powder, add the powder to whatever.  For instance, 
lemons were just 10/$1.00 here at one store.  I hardly ever buy as they 
are of course 'imported' here, but did get $2 worth, sliced them and 
dried the slices, then powdered them.  Can be used just like lemon zest 
and I really don't tell a difference, and I have a full pint of it 
vac'ed and ready to go, so that makes for handy.  I dry the 'leavings' 
(skins, seeds, etc) from straining tomatoes for juice and powder that, 
fine in soup or whatever.  So can salvage a lot that would otherwise be 
compost (not that compost is a waste!).  Some things have 'new' uses 
when dried:  zuch sliced about a quarter inch thick, sprinkled with 
onion/garlic powder, and dried are just about as good as potato chips 
and practically free....When the nice sweet onions are ripe, carmelize a 
big batch of them, dry that, powder it:  good in sauces, mixed with sour 
cream as spread/dip, etc.  Can make better garlic powder (by many 
times!) than can buy.  I usually mix some garlic/onion and often just 
sprinkle my greens with that; better than a wet dressing, to my mind 
(unless you're putting bacon in the wet dressing....). Dollops of yogurt 
mixed with fruit (and sometimes cinnamon or nutmeg) dry to chewy bits 
better than candy.

So there are many ways to use a dehydrator and dried food.  I'm used to 
it this way and would hate to go without.  There are lots of plans 
around for building them and if I had enough years left in my life would 
likely have built another big one for the porch, but don't have time 
left to do all over again.   I'm getting along fine with this one, so 
will just leave well enough alone.  My friend in CT found a good 
commercial drier of some kind in a yard sale, said it's about the size 
of a fridge; she has it in the garage.  Haven't heard yet how much power 
it uses or how it's working, but there are lots of driers around, keep 
your eyes open, maybe you could snag one cheap and give it a go.

Susan Jane, on a glorious day in Maine

> I have two very full
> freezers now, no room for the expected leftovers from this summer's canning.
> I've long thought dehydrating was the better way to go (in addition to
> canning), no electric issues to deal with once it's dry and stored.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Lisa
>