Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Harold and Sue Karber" <karber@pldi.net>]

The following is easy to make and if you find a fan to run off a solar panel for humid areas add it as the updraft is not enough and you want to dry not cook the food.     Screens can be made of screening found at hardware store but not aluminum material or metal.....   The top and bottom should be screened to prevent bugs and kept clean....don't stick it in the garage all winter then drag it out and use it....keep it clean.  Ours lasted about 30 years until our aunt talked us out of it and she still uses it.   We rescreened several times usually due to bumping it and causing tears.  Cleats hold shelves.  It is a box with shelves with rotating the shelves according to drying.   Sometimes the top dries faster, sometimes the bottom or even middle so check and rotate and soon you will see and be able to tell what to do.   For cleanability Harold did seal our wood with a food grade finish.   It was stored clean and dry  with a cover like a bbq grill or lawnmower in the garage then recleaned before use.

If you are handy with tools and have $50 to invest, consider building a solar-powered food dryer. The design concept is a plywood box with a clear top over a solar collector (heating plate). The purpose of the collector is to create even heating and to shield the food from the direct sun rays.

The plywood box should have screened openings at the bottom and top. The solar heat creates the natural air flow through the dryer. An old storm window works well for the clear top. Use any sheet metal, flashing, etc. painted black beneath it. Tilt it up toward the sun on adjustable legs.

You can vary the temperature inside the dryer by adjusting the legs to change the tilt and by installing small additional adjustable side vents.

Sue Karber  Oklahoma
If you put someone down then put them down on your prayer list.
No to NAIS
The scariest thing isn't the daily news; it's our  food's lack of Country of Origin Labels (COOL) and
 the horrid NAIS to make it worse with eliminating real food safety and family farms for only factory farms.
1% of imports inspected and how many have melamine in the meats/foods and what other unknowns are we feeding our children? 
http://www.nonais.org/  technical documents and state groups located on right side bar
http://www.r-calfusa.com
http://www.naissucks.com/  This my good friend Darol Dickerson's site not to be missed. Read about Gun Toting number enforcers.
www.tabletophomestead.org/NAIS.html   Oklahoma Cooperative Agreements
http://arkansasanimalproducers.8k.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oklahomans_against_NAIS
www.derrybrownfield.com  some of the best commentary and facts on NAIS in the world
http://www.oklahomaanimalproducers.com
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----- Original Message -----

From: E. E. Mitchamore Jr

To: Living on the Land ; Ken Hargesheimer

Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 1:07 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Food Dehydrator?

Yeah, that's the point (hundreds).  I don't have time or inclination to consider all of them, or even several.  I was hoping to get some personal opinions about what works.  I have had some useful responses, but I'm a bit surprised that nobody is manufacturing one.  Maybe a product for a home business entrepreneur?

 

The owners of Boggy Creek Farm, in Austin, had a damaged Tomato crop a few years ago, so they developed a way to "smoke" dry/cure tomatoes.  They're a huge hit, so now they have a profitable outlet for any less-than-perfect Tomatoes.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: Ken Hargesheimer

To: E. E. Mitchamore Jr ; Healthy soil and sustainable growing

Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 12:50 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Food Dehydrator?

"solar food dryers" on the internet or "solar dehydrators"  There are hundreds.

"E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net> wrote:

Please help me save some research.  I'll have a lot of Tomatoes coming on in the next week or two, and my wife just agreed to try to dry them.  I'd rather not have a 1,000W electric dryer, but if I want a solar dryer, apparently I have to build it, and I don't have much time to find the right design and execute.  Where do I go for a proven solar food dryer?

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

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