Preserving vegetables progress

Being in northern Florida, I know we are a lot farther along in the gardening season than most of you, but thought our experiments and experiences might be helpful to some.

We have had our new solar dehydrating unit operating for over a week now, and I am very pleased with the results. I have a 5 gallon pail of spinach already dried, and 2 batches of cabbage--each 2x3 ft tray (there are 7 trays) holds one medium-size chopped cabbage, and a couple of trays of swiss chard. We have more spinach and cabbage drying, a half tray of green peas, and a half of sliced yellow squash, and my husband has been chopping large sweet onions, and, separately, the green tops today.

We had a couple days of higher than ordinary humidity, so the spinach stems didn't dry as quickly as the leaves, so I brought it in and finished drying it overnight on pizza pans in my gas oven with pilot light. I did blanch and freeze a couple of quarts of green peas for regular use...I add them to potato salad with eggs, onion, celery seed, and chopped ham or Spam for our Sunday dinner sometimes. And we have had a couple generous servings of peas with our meals.

Our peas have grown beyond all expectations. My husband put in 3 seventy ft rows, 2 of them low plants, and the other the telephone peas. He measured the tall ones yesterday, and they are 84 inches high! And every plant is loaded with pods. The 2 rows of green beans are in bloom now, and I expect to be working some pretty long days to keep up with it all from now on. He told me the corn is tasseling today. (!) And the juice grapes are forming on the fence, and the wild blackberries, of which we have many, are already in the green stage.

Some of our ward members are coming out to see what we're doing, and how we're doing it. My cousins are diligently tending their gardens, too, on this 40 acre haven we call home, and they have finally realized that it might be well to prepare for what's ahead. Now, if we can just convince them that the gospel and preparing spiritually is just as important! God is so good, and I give thanks every day for having the gospel in my life, the priesthood in my home, and a living prophet to guide us. phylm

Please tell what your solar dehydrating unit is.

The 4 corner pieces are 2"x2" soft wood, about 5" high. These pieces were also split to form the 1x1 inch slide ridges for the trays at both sides and ends. The 2'x3' tray forms were made of half inch oak wood flooring, one half inches wide. Two rectangles one over the other with the screen between, and tightly screwed together make up the trays. 5 inches between each shelf.

The whole unit is covered with black fiberglass window screen, including top and bottom, and the trays.

We covered the top screen with opaque plastic sheeting, but found that it let in so much sun and heat that it scalded and bleached the food. We placed a piece of plywood on top of the plastic, and that has worked well.

The unit gets a good air flow from all sides.

I'd like to post a picture, but haven't been able to download the software for my digital camera on this blinkety-bleep Vista computer!

It takes some time to put this unit together--lots of sawing, measuring, and screwing--but you should be able to make one without too much difficulty. Good luck! phylm

84"!?! Wow, that's impressive! :thumbup1:

Did you have plans that you followed for the dehydrator? How much did it cost to make?

We got the 2x2s at a building materials liquidator store for 60 cents apiece, and the oak flooring was scrap on hand. The screen was from Lowe's. Altogether, less than $40.00.

I showed my husband a picture of a hanging solar dehydrator in the Lehman's catalog to explain what I wanted. It is a 5 shelf, 1 foot square affair, and costs more than $40.00. He got out his tools and took it from there. He's an ingenious treasure. I'm really glad he got carried away!

Incidentally, we found a place where we can get "mushroom dirt." That is the compost left when mushroom growers have raised a crop in it. We have gone after two 3 yard loads of it this year, (30 dollars a yard) and my husband rototilled in a heavy coat of it on the garden before planting this year. He later mulched heavily with horse manure, which is mostly sawdust. He says that the plants are reaching high just to get above the smell, and to get a breath of fresh air! (The mushroom dirt doesn't smell, now that it is incorporated into the soil, but it is very oppressive while it is being loaded onto our truck! It certainly has made a difference in the way our crops are growing in this Florida sand, compared to our first garden in it last year. phylm