My husband and daughter have been building a solar food dryer for the past few days and I tried it out yesterday!
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Hot summers are the perfect time to try dehydrating foods outside.
A solar food dehydrator makes it possible to air dry produce. I put a few slices of banana which I dipped in lemon juice to keep from browning in it to test it out and by Sunday early evening they were pretty dry already!
How to build a solar dehydrator
This is a very simple design using scrap lumber and upcylced objects. It’s basically a cedar box on a stand with insect mesh stapled on the bottom. There are 3 holes drilled into the sides for ventilation that have insect mesh stapled over them. We re-purposed an old window that we had left over from when we changed all the windows in the house to put on top trap the heat. It’s very light weight so it’s easy to move in and out of the sun.
You can add a thermometer to the inside if you’d like to make sure that you have the recommended temps for dehydration which are between 95-145 F.
According to what I’ve read you need to bring the dryer inside at night (it’s very light weight) and it may take two to three days to totally dry your produce. Buy hey, sunshine is abundant in Georgia and free so why not use it! In more northern climates you might want to add some insulation to the design.
I do have an electric dehydrator that I can use to finish off anything that’s not dry should the weather turn humid or wet.
DIY chemical free sun dried tomatoes anyone?
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OK, so the conversation in my den just went something like this:
Me: Oh. My. Goodness!! I could totally do this!
Daughter: Do what, mom?
Me: I have an old window… and I could use one of those old drawers in the attic…
Daughter: Do what, mom?
Me: Make my very own food dehydrator! I could totally do this!
Daughter: Is this a Manuela thing?
LOLOL
But I COULD totally do this.
LOL! But yes, you could totally do it!
Manuela
What a good idea! My dad said that was the way they dried food when he was a kid. We have an electric drier, but I haven’t used it for awhile. Maybe I should get it out again.
Wow, I think bananas are the way to test a dehydrator so that must work great. What a good idea. We would have just one or two places where it would get enough sun… basically in the middle of our back yard. Otherwise there are too many trees.
I did have an electric dehydrator but gave it to my daughter when she was first married. I think she ended up giving it to a friend who really needed one. I used it a lot at one time but stopped when I didn’t have a garden.
I am drying a lot of herbs now but just by hanging them upside down in the tiny bathroom. It is dark most of the time and dry since we don’t use that shower. Since I’m letting the apple mint take over half the herb garden, I’m hoping to harvest enough dried mint to use from fall through winter.
I always get good ideas from you. 🙂
Let’s talk about that gorgeous rickrack trimmed piece beneath the plate holding the tomatoes – it is gorgeous! Did you make it? Is it a place mat or something larger? Whatever it is … I want one!
That my favorite tea towel! No I didn’t make it. I got it at TJMax I think a year maybe two years ago. I wish I had gotten a whole bunch cause I think they would make cute kitchen curtains.
What a great idea! I love dried fruit and especially tomatoes. This looks easy enough, so we shall see. =)
Have a wonderful week,
Jen
I love sun dried tomatoes, but just buy them. I’d like to try an electric dehydrator; although, I have dried things using the microwave. This unit looks as if you could dry a lot at one time. May the sun keep right on shining and the humidity stay under control.
That’s certainly a lot more aesthetic than the tray and cheesecloth on top of or in the back of the car in the scorching driveway method! (actually, I’ve never done that — I have an electric dehydrator — I’ve always worried that the high humidity here would cause molding before things got dry — so I’ll be watching to see how your batch turns out since our climates are so similar).
Diana, humidity is an issue. But so far it’s just been hot. They’re drying nicely two days and they were pretty firm but not crispy. I think one more day should do it. We had two weeks where the temps were close to 100 and it was dry as a bone – that would have been a great week to use the solar dehydrator!
Manuela
Hi Manuela I have been reading your post\blogs for a while thank you for sharing. I love to garden as well and would love to dehydrate some of my bounty but I don’t have a dehydrator. My question do you leave the bananas in the home made dehydrator overnight or take them out. Thank you for your garden post!!!
I take the whole thing inside at night.
Very cool. I have wanted to build one of these. Maybe my husband can build one for me this year. Thanks for sharing.
How interesting Manuela! Thanks for sharing this!
How clever! I don’t have a dehydrator and was thinking I’d have to try the keep warm drawer on our oven. The sunshine probably adds flavor anyway 🙂 I’ll bookmark this for future use!
Wow this is a great idea! Going to have to show this to my husband, I think he’d be all over making something like this!! We’ve randomly dried beans on the trampoline once (LOL) but it never really occurred to me to try more things outside!
Thanks for stopping by my blog!!
How clever! I was given an ancient electric dehydrator, but it takes DAYS to dry my produce. I think your solar model would be quicker and definitely more efficient. Thanks for the great idea!
Sun-dried tomatoes sounds great! I did a bunch of cherry tomatoes in the oven last summer. So good!
Jody
That is a great idea! I’ve wanted to dry apples in the past but when the directions say to leave the oven on low for hours at a time, that is just not conceivable in this climate, plus we have a gas stove. Lord know we have enough sun around here … but we also have a lot of dust too. :/ Have a great day. Tammy
Manuela, just after you started this blog, things in my life have led to my starting to look at things in a whole new way. In a “homesteading, back to basics, frugal” sort of way. I will always think of you for helping to instigate that new pattern in me. This is just another of your posts on how we can do things in a simpler and less expensive fashion. I kind of feel guilty that I’m not out there “consuming” for the economy’s sake. But for my own sake, I feel much better about life. It’s much less complicated when we’re not centered on acquiring “things.”
Brenda
Yes, life shouldn’t be about acquisitions or things. I think more people would find contentment if they let go of the idea of being a “consumer”.
That is very cool! I’ve always wanted to try solar cooking and this seems like an easy way to start.
This is soo cool. Of course I guess you have to have sun and heat to use it. We would have moldy bananas xoxo Clarice