Let there be Light, Air… and Dried Nettles?
Posted on April 13, 2007, by kiliii.
Filed Under Technology |
There’s a quiet little hum in the other room right now, a satisfying hum. The hum of twenty pounds of stinging nettles lying in a box, rapidly drying.
But wait. Nettles don’t hum, nor do boxes. What kind of etymological mischief is this?
Well, my friends, I am introducing to you the new food dehydrator, made in the usual DIY fashion from recycled materials. It has an enormous capacity– imagine a room about 9′x6′ filled with drying foods. I’ll also let you on to the secret for rapid drying here in the wet wild Pacific Northwest. Moving air and heat.
Moving around air inside a large box and generating heat aren’t particularly difficult things to do, but a few considerations first:
1. The dehydrator should be quiet. We’ll need a quiet fan.
2. The fan(s) should be low volume, so they don’t blow us away.
3. The heat must not exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. The heat should be at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. We must use recycled components.
As you can see, we did pretty well. A trip to FreeGeek in SE Portland resulted in 8 computer fans that we rigged up to a computer power supply. With a donation of a lightbulb assembly, we had all the hardware we needed.
This was preceded by a trip to the ReBuilding Center, where we found the wood we needed to make the box, and the old window screens that provided the food trays. The total cost of all materials minus screws? $45. With screws? $65. I don’t know why screws are that expensive.
The only real trouble we ran into in the construction of this dehydrator was establishing a correct airflow. When we first mounted the fans, we found we were simply circulating the air in circles around the fans. So we took them off, cut holes in the wooden panels at the front and back of the box to create an airflow around the box itself rather than inside it. It worked like a charm, and gave me some inspiration for the final touch on the dryer door. Now I’m really excited about a summer and fall of wild foods.
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