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Solar Dried Foods | (Read 145 times) |
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Charley Hoke
Posts: 66
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June 29, 2008, 05:14:12 PM |
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We love dried foods but don't particularly like noisy dehydrators so I have been experimenting with solar drying. I constructed several frames using 3/4" x 1 1/2" cedar boards. To the bottoms I stapled window screen. I place this frame on a piece of metal roofing and cover with a piece of clear plexiglass. The ribs on the metal roofing allow air to circulate through the screen.
This worked well and 1/4" slices of cucumber and squash were done in 2 days, about 16 hours however, they were bleached white, I suppose from the direct sunlight. I then tried blackening the clear plexi and now it has been 4 days and the veggies are still not ready.
My question is the direct sunlight doing anything other than bleaching the veggies? Would this reduce the nutrients in any way? I can't really notice any difference in the flavor.
In the picture is potato, cucumber, and squash chips that I did last week. I sliced them very thin and they were done in about 10 hours. These are delicious and go very fast.
If I can get this figured out we are hoping to use this as an alternative to canning.
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1339
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July 03, 2008, 03:32:09 PM |
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Nobody has answered. With zero knowledge, I'm gonna take a stab.
I think that that the sun will help to sterilize the food. It might not just bleach the color - but I wonder if it does anything to the flavor. How do they taste?
Other than that, I would think that direct sun on them would be fine.
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Charley Hoke
Posts: 66
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July 03, 2008, 05:38:26 PM |
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I have noticed a slight loss in flavor, the biggest obstacle so far is time. As long as my slices are less than 1/8" thick they are ready in two days. Recently I tried some 1/2" slices that weren't ready in four days, and they picked up some sort of mold. We had a series of cloudy rainy afternoons.
I am going back to the drawing board but for now I have gone back to the electric machine. 
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david c
Posts: 27
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July 03, 2008, 10:59:41 PM |
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You might want to take a different approach. Instead of putting the food directly in the sun where it will bleach out, you could put them in a box, and let solar heat dry it all out kinda like those electric ones.
This project is for a solar garage heater, but if you put the output hose in the bottom of a box, with racks of food chips in it you might get a good result. Not sure how long it would take though.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/04/26/almost-free-garage-heat-just-drink-a-lot-of-soda/
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permaculture.dave
Posts: 113
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August 23, 2008, 05:47:17 PM |
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Hmm...I'm not sure about drying things directly in the sun. I suspect that the bleaching of the fruit may also decrease the nutrition (that's just a guess, though). Everything I've seen regarding drying herbs recommends drying them out of direct sunlight. Perhaps sunlight can breakdown some of the valuable chemical constituents that you want in your medicines/food (enzymes too?). I'd recommend experimenting with a passive solar dehydrator that uses a thermo-ciphon to circulate warm air through the screens in a dark space.
Conversely, I know that drying mushrooms partially in the sun can actually increase their vitamin D content remarkably. See Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets for more info on this.
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kelda
Posts: 263
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August 24, 2008, 04:57:42 PM |
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So, what about sun-dried tomatoes? Obviously, the sun is part of the process. Has anyone had any luck making them in the Pacific Northwest?
I just cruised around for some info, and it looks the drying process is supposed to take anywhere from 4 days to two weeks. Good luck!
But maybe with the right rig it could work here.
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Solar Dryer.jpg
