12.4.2 Mini-dehydrator
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This article is from the Food Preserving FAQ, by Eric Decker ericnospam@getcomputing.com with numerous contributions by others.
12.4.2 Mini-dehydrator
From: A. T. Hagen
Mini-dehydrator
Back when I had a very productive garden going and had more herbs than one
man who works for a living should have to deal with I dried them all in the
house.
I have the same problem you do since I live in Florida. The humidity in the
summer generally stays over 70%, frequently goes over 90% and I doubt there
are three basements in all of Gainesville.
I took a good sized cardboard box, made rack holders inside of it and put it
in the corner of the living room. I took one of my shop clamp lights and put
a hundred watt bulb in it and fixed it to the bottom of the box. I put a
metal colander over it to block most of the light and made sure that it
wouldn't overheat. I put the racks of herbs in, turned on the light, put the
lid on so it would stay dark inside and made sure that I had plenty of vent
holes. The house air conditioning kept the humidity down and in two to three
days I had dried herbs with color and flavor that you can't buy. Made
terrific Christmas gifts. I kept a careful eye and thermometer on the whole
works for the first day to make sure that the herbs weren't overheating and
that nothing was going to catch fire. I kept going like this for several
weeks until a truly torrential downpour put my garden under two feet of water
and put me out of business.
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