Berries, pieces of fruit and mushrooms, medicinal herbs - all this can be prepared in the most natural way, that is, dried. And after all, it is not difficult to do such a necessary and useful thing as a drying chamber, and you will rejoice at the results of your work until the new harvest ripens.
Necessary
- - boards;
- - hacksaw;
- - grid;
- - plywood sheets;
- - nails.
Instructions
Step 1
Think about the volume of dried homemade products. If you are not harvesting a large crop, you can dry thin slices of mushrooms and fruits on large, clean sheets of paper, spreading them out in the shade in the summer. But often it is necessary to process a large amount of food, in which case it is necessary to speed up the natural process.
Step 2
The construction of a home drying chamber is very simple. The sliced products are laid out on grates through which air is pumped. After all, it has long been noticed that in a draft or wind, everything dries much faster. Your food will need to be placed in the path of the air flow. The whole structure will be similar to an oven.
Step 3
You will need some shallow mesh bottom drawers and four runners. The compartments are quite simple to make - you need to put together four even sanded planks 50-70 mm wide and attach a mesh to them with small studs or a furniture stapler. The mesh of this mesh has a size of 8-12 mm. If you take more, the pieces will fall through, if you take less, they will dry worse.
Step 4
It would be nice to use a grid with different cells for different types of products. Make more boxes, but keep the same size. Make the lower compartment slightly larger than the rest. Add five millimeters in length and width.
Step 5
Attach it firmly to the rails. These are four boards. Their length will depend on the number of boxes made, but you should not do more than 10-12. The width of the boards does not matter. Fasten the lowest compartment at a height of 30-40 centimeters.
Step 6
The slightly larger size of this box will not allow others to wedge between the guides. Make a thin plywood roof. It should be larger than the compartments to keep food in the shade. Leave a gap of 5-10 centimeters between the roof and the top drawer.
Step 7
Make the air intake also from plywood. Nail the sheet from the bottom drawer at an angle to the edge of the guide. Cover the sides of the dryer with plywood. Now your closet with pieces of the harvest laid out in boxes is enough to set it facing the wind. The air flow entering the drying chamber passes through all boxes and exits under the roof.
Step 8
In calm, windless weather, use a household fan. The air intake can be painted black from the inside, which retains heat better. It is very effective to use a fan heater for drying products. The whole process will take several hours in this case.
Step 9
Observe the storage conditions for dry fruits, berries and mushrooms. They should be kept in a cool dry place.
