Makeshift Solar Dehydrator

bushdoctor82

bushdoctor82

Well-known member
Piggybacking off of @scott_va thread yesterday ( https://figfanatic.com/threads/caprification-marseilles-and-violette-de-bordeaux.2553/ ) I put together a makeshift solar dehydrator that may or may not be successful. Cardboard was used as the structure, aluminum foil as inner wrap, tulle fabric as vents, plastic as a cover and small glass jars as the stands.

Clockwise from top left are my Family Etna, RdB, underripe Molise Red / AJH and Byadi. On the other tray I have Jalepenos, Cubanello, Celebrity Plus and Cherry Tomatoes.

It’s supposed to be 90F and clear today, though with dew points in the low 70s. I weighed each tray beforehand to calculate moisture loss at days end. I’ll update this evening.

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bushdoctor82 said:
Piggybacking off of @scott_va thread yesterday ( https://figfanatic.com/threads/caprification-marseilles-and-violette-de-bordeaux.2553/ ) I put together a makeshift solar dehydrator that may or may not be successful. Cardboard was used as the structure, aluminum foil as inner wrap, tulle fabric as vents, plastic as a cover and small glass jars as the stands.

Clockwise from top left are my Family Etna, RdB, underripe Molise Red / AJH and Byadi. On the other tray I have Jalepenos, Cubanello, Celebrity Plus and Cherry Tomatoes.

It’s supposed to be 90F and clear today, though with dew points in the low 70s. I weighed each tray beforehand to calculate moisture loss at days end. I’ll update this evening.

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I’m thinking a lot of that wouldn’t be able to sit like that around me. Thats teasing and I’m weak. I’d have to eat them up! 🤣
 
I am curious to see how the results turn out. I've wanted to sun dry my tomatoes back in July when it was really hot and dry for days, but out humidity was quite high, so I decided against it and just use a dehydrator. I don't know how your humidity is for next week, but if you are close to Bridgeton, NJ, you will have average humidity in the 50-60% range during day and 80-90% during night. I am afraid that's too high for drying, but I am guessing here as I've never done it. Good luck though. I hope it works out well.
 
Results after 8.5 hours are in and are mixed. The contraption managed to remove 30% of moisture from the figs and vegetables. I was not trying to dry for storage, just as a curiosity.

The top left (Etna) and bottom left (Byadi) taste nearly identical - just like raisins, and I don’t care for raisins. It’s interesting because when eaten fresh they are so far apart in the taste profile. What makes up the raisin taste? Both much better fresh.

RdB (top right) was delicious and had the same taste profile as when eaten fresh, but more concentrated. Still prefer fresh, but very good. Molise Red had the best texture but lacking in flavor due to being underripe and AJH had good texture but blah, also due to being underripe. Both also better eaten fresh.

On the vegetable side, I actually liked the cherry tomatoes a lot and I hate fresh tomatoes, regardless of variety. My dislike must be due to the excess liquid in fresh tomatoes. Peppers turned out good, but better fresh. Celebrity tomato had to be sliced or cut in smaller pieces for better results.

In general, if I choose to do this again, I would leave the figs in for a shorter duration in an attempt to limit the raisin taste and to keep a texture closer to a fresh fig. If not drying for short or long term storage, I don’t see the upside of dehydrating figs. I’ll take the mush of storing figs in the freezer over raisin figs any day of the week.

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I think drying used to be a traditional way of storing surplus crops before refrigeration. A lot of figs are still sun dried, blanched in sea water, redried, then stored in cloth bags. Of course you have to like the taste of
dried fruit for it to make sense for you ( I love raisins). Humidity here 50% during the day. The box comes in at night. I don’t take them completely dry, just most of the way then they are stored in in a bag in the freezer for snacks. Panache is also good dried.
 
scott_va said:
I think drying used to be a traditional way of storing surplus crops before refrigeration. A lot of figs are still sun dried, blanched in sea water, redried, then stored in cloth bags. Of course you have to like the taste of
dried fruit for it to make sense for you ( I love raisins). Humidity here 50% during the day. The box comes in at night. I don’t take them completely dry, just most of the way then they are stored in in a bag in the freezer for snacks. Panache is also good dried.
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Without a doubt, drying all sorts of food has merit and is relied upon by many for storage. I’ll experiment again next weekend if the weather cooperates. I’m glad I ran across your other thread. Do you find certain varieties keep their “fresh flavor” more than others?
 
I only have dried a few types, so I don’t know which would still have their fresh character intensified. I’m mostly drying Marseilles becauseI don’t like eating it fresh. I throw a few others in just to see how they do. It was good to see from your post that RdB sounds like a winner.
The subtle tastes that make some figs special when eaten fresh don't always carry over into processed products. I can remember making Black Madeira jam thinking it would have the black madeira taste, but it was just good fig jam.
 
I’ve never done this myself but back in SoItal (I’m calling it that now.) the method for drying generally involved three things.

Direct sunlight

Placed crop on concrete that was rough for airflow and acted as thermal mass

Air flow (huge)

The mini greenhouse will definitely provide the temps but you need air to move away the moisture. My family would lay them out on exposed slabs or on top of walls.

Tried it here too humid… or sun not hot enough.
 
Seems to work here. Air flow is handled by perforations in sides of box— low on one side and high on other. The fully dried whole fig on the right was initially similar in size to the fresh fig on the left. I have recently taken to cutting them in half and just drying one day then freezing or eating them.
 

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scott_va said:
Seems to work here. Air flow is handled by perforations in sides of box— low on one side and high on other. The fully dried whole fig on the right was initially similar in size to the fresh fig on the left. I have recently taken to cutting them in half and just drying one day then freezing or eating them.
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Love that you can do this at your latitude
 
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