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Post by lindym on Aug 14, 2022 22:54:26 GMT
I am off grid and just purchased a mesh, hanging, 8 shelf X 24" dehydrator. It is outside in partial shade, 90 degrees at the moment. I have some zucchini and white mushrooms that i would like to experiment with. For the next 10 days the temperature will be in the 98 to 105 degree range, humidity very low.
Does anyone have any tips for me? Bring it in at night, move to complete sun during the day etc.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Post by mogal on Aug 14, 2022 23:05:33 GMT
I don't have any experience with the kind of dryer you mention but while I know there are "sun-dried" food products, I personally would try to keep the food from as much light as possible since it destroys some nutrients. I would try to keep it in a spot that gets a good breeze before putting it in the sun. I'd also bring it in at night so dew couldn't form on it and to keep varmints from being attracted to it.
Just some random thoughts.
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Post by lindym on Aug 15, 2022 3:53:36 GMT
mogal, thanks! Where I planned to hang the dryer is mostly shady, some sun. Our breezes are usually about 5-7 mph. I did bring it inside before dark although our humidity is very low I feel better with it in overnight. The mushrooms were already drying, the zucchini might be a bit thick... I'm hoping this will work, Tuesday I will be getting some frozen free, diced veggies that I want ti try and dry. I don't have much in the way of freezer room which is why I'm trying the drying thing.
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Post by mogal on Aug 15, 2022 11:25:55 GMT
Out of curiosity, I looked up your county. I always think of the PNW as the coastal areas with lots of rain/clouds but since you are in the shadow of the mountains, I bet you do have little humidity.
When our gardens haven't been the best, I've used frozen veggies to dehydrate--we bought an Excalibur way back in the 80's and it's still running strong. Dehydrating food certainly does save freezer space and free is even better. Good luck with your efforts. The only thing that I won't dehydrate again are green peas. They are nearly impossible to reconstitute even when I've pressure cooked them in a veggie soup. I even tried soaking them in a jar that I've vacuum-sealed. They were still hard little nuggets. I did grind some, made pea soup that I pressured then pureed. "Whomped the tar" outa those things but finally made them edible!
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Post by lindym on Aug 29, 2022 19:34:43 GMT
mogal, today I'm at 89F and 20% humidity. My hanging dryer does pretty good. I really should re-hydrate a bit of what I have dried and see what it turns into before I do much more, lol. Right now I have mullein leaves in drying. I will have them available for tea when needed and I guess you can roll them up and "smoke" them to get the benefit into your lungs faster.... I've never smoked anything so I'm not sure if I I'll ever try that. You mentioned vacuum sealing. I have a hand held sealing unit with both sizes of lid sealers. As you have probably discovered, the regular sized one doesn't do too good. I read a trick on a Facebook page that really works! She had called FoodSaver, I believe, and they told her that they were aware of the issue and instead of re-configuring their lid cover, they recommend using 2 of the flats/lids, (the upper one will just fall away after you get the seal) it works great and I just keep a bad flat handy that I marked for that purpose.  I wasn't able to get any of the free frozen mixed veggies that I had mentioned, but my friend had some and tried them in her electric dehydrator. The jar is so pretty, like a jar of little jewels! I my take a small mixed handful and try cooking them up to see what they do. I did dry a couple of nectarines! Put the slices on parchment ('cause I didn't want a sticky mess in my new mesh dryer) and when they were partially dried, I peeled them off of the paper and flipped them over onto the mesh to finish drying. Hubby says they are good.
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Post by mogal on Aug 29, 2022 20:01:31 GMT
I'm glad your hanging dryer is working so well for you. We're currently at 88o but the humidity is 64% unlike your dry air. No wonder it works so well for you!
I've run into a similar problem with some of my regular mouth jars not wanting to vac-seal with only one lid in place. I don't know who shared that tip with me but it does work very well. Clever of you to keep a second lid with your attachment.
Sorry to hear you missed out on the free frozen veggies. Mine have reminded me of jewels too. Let me know how your sample cooks up.
Very smart of you to use the parchment paper to protect your mesh. I flip foods, particularly when I make fruit leathers, when the top side is dry to the touch. You'd need parchment then too.
Sounds like you are having a lot of fun and preserving a lot of food and herbs with the hanging dryer. Keep up the good work and keep me posted on other efforts. When do you expect your weather to be too cool to use it? Do you have a wood stove with a space near but not too near it where you could hang the dryer to dry things this winter?
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Post by dustawaits on Sept 12, 2022 11:46:07 GMT
Mullein can also be dried by taking the leaves and running a thread through the stem and hanging them them to dry. Our elders would have put them in the attic of their house. Most of us are not blessed with tall attics but they dried corn, fruit and all sorts of vegetables
and herbs up there.
I have dried lots of mullein on a string. It is good for livestock with pneumonia as well as people.
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Post by lindym on Oct 24, 2022 17:41:08 GMT
Out of curiosity, I looked up your county. I always think of the PNW as the coastal areas with lots of rain/clouds but since you are in the shadow of the mountains, I bet you do have little humidity. When our gardens haven't been the best, I've used frozen veggies to dehydrate--we bought an Excalibur way back in the 80's and it's still running strong. Dehydrating food certainly does save freezer space and free is even better. Good luck with your efforts. The only thing that I won't dehydrate again are green peas. They are nearly impossible to reconstitute even when I've pressure cooked them in a veggie soup. I even tried soaking them in a jar that I've vacuum-sealed. They were still hard little nuggets. I did grind some, made pea soup that I pressured then pureed. "Whomped the tar" outa those things but finally made them edible! Friday I put some of my friends dehydrated mixed vegetables on the wood stove to re-hydrate. I planned to add them to lentil soup but wanted to check out what would happen with the peas before I put them in as I didn't want to end up with pea colored gravel in the finished soup. They did plump up but stayed a bit chewy. Being a small part of the whole dish I think they are fine.
I've now lost my sunny, warm weather so the drying rack is put away till Summer. The mushrooms, zucchini, mullein leaves and even a few nectarines turned out good and are sealed up and packed away until needed.
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Post by mogal on Oct 25, 2022 12:54:30 GMT
Lindy, if you come across a good buy at the store, could you hang your dryer near the woodstove to dehydrate the food or do you have enough control over the air flow and heat? Maybe experiment a little by putting a thermometer on one of the shelves to check the temperatures? You'd still want the range below 140o, right?
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