Hamishmade me do it!

[BrassMagnet]

It is all Hamish's fault. He made me do it!

I found this link in my favorites. This one:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...rvival-Manuals

I started browsing it and I found this file under dehydrators:

http://www.pssurvival.com/PS/Dehydra...arles_2001.pdf

In no time at all I was ordering parts to build two!

The fan is discontinued by Grainger, but I found out it is a 200 CFM fan, so I will soon have some suitable substitutes on order.

Maybe I should really blame my apricot and plum trees instead of Hamish. My little dehydrators from the hardware store just don't cut it. I also need to figure out how to process a whole bunch of fruit fast. I am considering a plum pitter from Lehman's and a Ninja food processor to prepare the plums for making fruit leather.

Any ideas from those who have done this?

[Blacksmith]

Apricot brandy
http://www.whiskeystill.net/pages/ho...apricot-brandy

No drying required!

And we need pictures and a report on your finished project.

[Bored1]

My woman is gonna hate it when I start a converstation with "BrassMagnet started it."

[freebullet]

Apricot brandy
http://www.whiskeystill.net/pages/ho...apricot-brandy

No drying required!

And we need pictures and a report on your finished project.

That's not gunna cut it if he follows your advise. I'm gunna need a sample of that!

[Janoosh]

Seconds on the samples.
Plum brandy (slivovitz ?) Is big in the Czech Republic and those regions.

[BrassMagnet]

My woman is gonna hate it when I start a converstation with "BrassMagnet started it."

How will that be different? It sure seems normal around here!

[BrassMagnet]

Apricots are under attack by the birds!
I have started picking them, but most of them are only good for compost.
Plums tend to do more and be available more years.

I have all of the parts to build except hinges. I forgot to get them. I might just have to use some of the old hinges I have laying around the place.

Project starts today!

[CastingFool]

We have an Excalibur dehydrator, pricey, but it does the job. It has a thermostat so you can control the temp. Takes me 1-1/2 hrs to cut enough apples to fill all the trays, and I use a slicer that peels, cores and slices the apples. 25-30 hrs later, I have nice dehydrated apples slices that the grandchildren can make disappear in about 30 minutes. Needless to say, we ration them very carefully.

[rancher1913]

apricots are ripe now? will have to call my mom and see if she has any left of her tree. the wife has 3 of those excalibers as well as several of the round ones and keeps them all busy in the fall.

[GhostHawk]

I have done a lot of dried apples, and apple fruit leathers. Plum and Apricot I have mostly tend to get cooked into jam or fermented.

Some of the best champagne I ever had in my life was wild plum. It was technically a sparkling wine, but fizzed, tasted and looked like the pink bubbly stuff only it had a bit of that wild plum tang to it.

With the apples I mostly quarter, fill a pot near full of quartered apples, add maybe a quart of water and put on the lid. When they are all getting soft I run them through a mill to remove skins, seeds, cores.

From there it is just add some brown sugar, some Cinnamon, allspice, or nutmeg till it tastes good to you.
Normally at that point I pour it into quart freezer bags and freeze most of it. Start one set of fruit leathers going.

We buy the soft carmel sold next to the apples, smear a nice layer over chunk of dried apple leather and roll it, wrap it in waxed paper, slip them into a bag and store in the fridge. Make more all year long as needed.

We did Pumpkin one year, baked it in the oven, mashed seasoned and dried, then spread a layer of sweetened cream cheese and rolled. Lots of work but lots of wow's made it worth while.

Apricot, I'll have to think about that.

[leeggen]

Brassmag. you could always take the hinges of a cabinet door and when the wife opens it and the door falls blame her for breaking the hinges. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
CD

[bhn22]

An old gym locker would make a great high capacity food dehydrator. Suitably cleaned, of course.

[BrassMagnet]

I bought some hinges, lexan, and magnets today.

I have had to re-design more than once already.

Slow going!

[BrassMagnet]

I used the hardware store cheap plastic dehydrators today to dry some apricots. It should take about 24 hours at 130 degrees.
I got so few salvageable apricots that I only managed 1 1/2 trays. I can eat all of those in two days.
I think I have learned they need to be a little green around the edges or they will have soft spots.
I should finish the first dehydrator next weekend.
I still need to buy a plum pitter!

[BrassMagnet]

My plum/cherry pitter arrived a couple of days ago.
I have started picking plums. Wow are there a lot of plums!
I have started assembling my first home made dehydrator.

[BrassMagnet]

Latest status update:

I never finished the dehydrator. I used the little round ones from the hardware store.
Apricots have blossomed again and have fruit on them.
Time to get back to work!

[rancher1913]

just hope for no late frosts. our apricot tree up in new castle seems to get hit by frost almost every year.