When I was new to homesteading and gardening I immersed myself in canning and preserving. I tried canning everything I could think of, whether we wanted to eat it or not. It was fun, it was an adventure, it was a lot of work, and it soon got old.

Over the years I have cut back a great deal on the food preservation work by: (1) eating in season; (2) eating simply; (3) root cellaring; (4) canning only what we truly want to eat; and (5) building and using a solar food dryer. The biggest relief came with the dryer.

Food drying is hardly new. And much of our drying is no more complicated than the methods of years past. But for large-scale drying and serious food preservation the solar food dryer can't be beat.

There have been, and are, many designs available for solar dryers.

Unfortunately for those of us in the short season, humid midwest, most of those designs will only work in hot, dry climates. But a number of years ago Larisa Walk of southern minnesota came up with a great midwestern design. She and Bob Dahse experimented and perfected the design and shared it with others. Steve and I borrowed their design, rearranged it to suit us, and built our own version. It has quietly and simply dried many, many quarts of food since. Now I can only tomatoes and pickles, a little fruit sauce, and jam. The rest is either root cellared or dried. The solar food dryer, along with our simple above-the-wood-stove dryer, helps put a lot of food in our pantry with a lot less work.

My main and favorite solar dried foods are green corn, apples, and greens (such as Swiss chard and celery). It's also nice to have some dried peppers, onions, and carrots to toss into the winter soups, camping meals, and the time between stored and fresh availability. With a root cellar full of potatoes, squash, carrots, and onions; a pantry stocked with dried beans, peas, apples, and corn; and shelves full of tomatoes and pickles (not to mention wine), we have plenty to eat with a reasonable amount of effort. The midwest solar food dryer is relatively simple to build, and can be inexpensive, depending on what materials you use. The advantage over most solar dryers is that there is less air inside the dryer, and what is there is hot and moves out quickly, drawing moisture from the food with it. The photographs give an overall idea of the dryer, and the drawing the details. Our dryer was made around already existing cold frame windows. By the time I'm ready for the dryer, I'm done with the cold frames. Simple handles on the windows are handy for both the dryer and cold frame use.

The two sets of two windows on the dryer are hinged side-to-side with loose pin hinges (using nails for the pins) so they're easy to dismantle, yet easy to open.

The base of our dryer is regular saw horses, which get used for various projects when not holding up the dryer. The frame was made from extra poplar boards we had around and are coated with a nontoxic oil finish. We bought the galvanized roofing, but in many areas used pieces can be found. Short pieces of boards top and bot tom, and full length boards on the sides, give the windows something to rest on. Make them tall enough for your food screens and shading frames. The bottom blocks are stepped to prevent the windows from sliding off (the dryer is propped to tip slightly toward the south). Make your rack a bit larger than your screens so you can easily get them in and out. If you use a droopy screen material, such as fiberglass screen, make the frames thick enough to keep the screen from touching the galvanized roofing. Or you can lay sticks under the screens. If you use hardware cloth (covered with thin cloth or screening material to keep the food off the galvanized wire), or sturdy stainless steel screening this is not a problem.

The stainless steel screen, though expensive, is worth it if you can swing it. It's easy to clean, sturdy, round food pieces don't all roll into a droop, and it lasts a long time.

To shade the food from the sun, you can just drape a black cloth over it. But I found it much handier to put the cloth in a simple wood frame to keep it off the food. Black polyester lasts longer than black cotton. Put the cloth in the middle of the frame so you can turn it over to get double duty when one side fades.

Larisa and Bob have started using aluminum flashing painted with BBQ black paint on both sides for their shade. If you use metal you will have to leave an air space between the food screens and the metal shade.

Neither the dryer or its use is an exact science. There are many materials that will work. Once you understand the function of each piece, then common sense is the main requirement for design and building.

You'll have to experiment with your dryer in your climate and conditions. On clear, hot, sunny days I have to block the windows open a bit to keep from cooking the food to cinders (yes, you can burn food in a dryer, and there is not much call for blackened broccoli). But it's nice to have a close fit for the hazier sunny days.

You do need good sunshine for drying. If it turns damp I bring the trays of food inside to wait for sunshine. If they have gotten a good start on drying, most food will hold over a day or so just fine if stacked in a dry, airy spot.

The dryer and the windows are stored in the garden shed off-season. The screens go in a rack in the house which hangs above and behind our wood cookstove. Thus they continue their use as drying racks into the fall when the solar dryer is put away, and the wood stove is going. I dry a lot of apples that way in the fall, and herbs in late summer.

Just as different foods will take different amounts of time to dry, different weather conditions will also affect the drying times. Read up on food drying so you understand the basics, then experiment with your own.

Dried foods are not going to be the same as canned or frozen, but they don't have to be. They are good food in their own right.