Stewart Corman
6th September 2008, 14:07
No, Not a misprint for "solar heating" !
Harvest season is upon us and the tomatoes are getting ripe.
Last year we tried to oven roast sliced roma tomatoes and they were really good, but messey (stick to cookie sheet) and time consuming and frankly used too much electric juice.
535
This past spring at our local garage sales, I found a food dehydrator in primo condition listed at $10 early in the morning. Asked the fellow how much he'd take, figuring I'd settle at $8 ...he said $5 ..nothing more to say
These items have a small calrod element at the bottom ( 105 watts) and just use convection air flow ...takes days to run ...not my idea of green living
Here is the engineering change:
536
Removed the calrod, cut circular hole in plastic bottom, added standoffs to get higher off table, installed box fan.
I salvaged a 24v box fan rated at 0.3 amps = 8 watts, but connected to a 12v DC supply , so now only 2 watts running ( Kill-A-Watt measured):
537
The unit is placed in my sun room ie "solar eating" where during the daytime it reaches 120 degrees when sun is out and bonus: free of bugs ...took 2 days to get 85% dehydrated. Since skin side was on rack ...nothing sticks.
Today I filled all seven trays with 10+ pounds of cherry tomatoes and will weigh when completed to see how much drying really happened.
BTW, these will get frozen and I always plan to cook these after thawing ( never was so sure of myself for canning , etc)
The softer tomatoes in counter pic were cooked for freezing w/o spices ...makes terrific soup as is, sauce with diced scallions, basil, sugar and spices.
Trick to eliminating seeds is to puree in blender only 1/2 full, then add a spoonful of corn starch to enable thickening ...bring large stock pot to boil , then fill 1 qt containers ...last season we had about 30
BTW, the new freezer is quite economical ...running at only 130 watts when on and 0.9KWhrs /day = $3 /mo ...I am pleased, since old Sears unit was burning 4KWhrs /day
Stew Corman from sunny Endicott
Harvest season is upon us and the tomatoes are getting ripe.
Last year we tried to oven roast sliced roma tomatoes and they were really good, but messey (stick to cookie sheet) and time consuming and frankly used too much electric juice.
535
This past spring at our local garage sales, I found a food dehydrator in primo condition listed at $10 early in the morning. Asked the fellow how much he'd take, figuring I'd settle at $8 ...he said $5 ..nothing more to say
These items have a small calrod element at the bottom ( 105 watts) and just use convection air flow ...takes days to run ...not my idea of green living
Here is the engineering change:
536
Removed the calrod, cut circular hole in plastic bottom, added standoffs to get higher off table, installed box fan.
I salvaged a 24v box fan rated at 0.3 amps = 8 watts, but connected to a 12v DC supply , so now only 2 watts running ( Kill-A-Watt measured):
537
The unit is placed in my sun room ie "solar eating" where during the daytime it reaches 120 degrees when sun is out and bonus: free of bugs ...took 2 days to get 85% dehydrated. Since skin side was on rack ...nothing sticks.
Today I filled all seven trays with 10+ pounds of cherry tomatoes and will weigh when completed to see how much drying really happened.
BTW, these will get frozen and I always plan to cook these after thawing ( never was so sure of myself for canning , etc)
The softer tomatoes in counter pic were cooked for freezing w/o spices ...makes terrific soup as is, sauce with diced scallions, basil, sugar and spices.
Trick to eliminating seeds is to puree in blender only 1/2 full, then add a spoonful of corn starch to enable thickening ...bring large stock pot to boil , then fill 1 qt containers ...last season we had about 30
BTW, the new freezer is quite economical ...running at only 130 watts when on and 0.9KWhrs /day = $3 /mo ...I am pleased, since old Sears unit was burning 4KWhrs /day
Stew Corman from sunny Endicott