Conscious Choice: Fruit/Veggie Dryers

November 1999 | Sensible Home

Fruit/Veggie Dryers

by James Dulley

Dear Jim: I can get great buys on fruits and veggies now. I want to preserve them by natural drying for healthy snacks. Are there low-cost electric models available or any simple designs that I can make? — Al M.

Dear Al: For many people, purchased electric food dryers are most convenient to use. Starting at about forty dollars, they are not expensive, though they do have heating elements and a circulation fan that use some electricity.

Electric models with thermostats provide the most precise temperature control. It takes a while to dry some foods properly, so use your dryer in a garage or outdoors during hot weather. This keeps excess heat out of your kitchen. In cool weather, use it indoors and enjoy the aromas from the drying fruits. There are two basic food dryer designs — vertical air flow and horizontal air flow. Although horizontal designs often are more expensive, they dry the foods in each of the stackable trays (up to thirty trays high) more evenly. Horizontal air flow also reduces the mixing of flavors among the various foods. With many trays and up to thirty square feet in total drying area, they can dry many different types of food at one time.

As you might guess, my preference is a simple, low-cost, do-it-yourself solar food dryer. It uses no electricity, creates no pollution, and does not heat up your kitchen in the summer. Your kids will love it! The basic design is a plywood box tilted up toward the sun. It has an air inlet at the bottom and an outlet at the top. The glass top, (an old storm window works great) that faces the sun has a black metal sheet behind it. It is not good for the sun’s rays to shine directly on the drying foods.

For the solar food dryer to work properly, the temperature inside the dryer should be a minimum of 110 degrees. If it is too cool and takes too long to dry the foods, they may spoil, so test your dryer with a thermometer. Put several bricks in the dryer to hold the solar heat longer into the evening. Fruits are best for a solar dryer. Since fruit has higher natural acidity than vegetables, less moisture must be removed to be preserved.

Solar food drying is a good fit with new dehydrofreezing, by which food is partially dried and then stored in the freezer. It retains good color and flavor, uses less freezer space than flash frozen food, and reconstitutes faster than fully dried food.

Write for (or instantly download) Update Bulletin No. 628, buyer’s guide of electric food dryers, fruit/veggie drying guide and do-it-yourself instructions for a solar food dryer. Please include $3.00 and a business-size SASE. James Dulley, Conscious Choice, 6906 Royalgreen Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45244

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