Dry Food on you Roof!? Below your Ceiling?! For Free!!

[coxmw]

Dang it! back to Lowes AGAIN!!! lol

[shadowwalker]

I don't know about doing it without a woodstove. I will have to try that at my house, it may take longer not using something that sends the heat to the top of a room and dosen't circulate it around the room.
He said his father in law said they have been doing it in the southern states for over a hundred years that he new of,.

[teach]

Shadow, to be clear on his apple drying. He dries them inside in the winter in the room where his wood stove is? What if you don't use a wood stove but the heat is on? He is a smart man.

[Lostinoz]

I never thought of drying apple slices on a string. I do dry my peppers that way, though. Thanks for the information!

Some of my apple slices I dip in a cinnamon/sugar mixture, after treating of course, and they are delicious!! :)

[shadowwalker]

I was shown ways to dry out fruit,vegetables even jerky.
I was out to a new aquaintances property to see a way to do this his father in-law from Kentucky told him about. You take and make a frame out of wood. He made his 3 feet x 4 feet out of 3/4x1 1/2 inch wood laid flat with 45 degree cuts. Now make another one, they are going to be laid on top of each other.
On one side of the frame staple screen wire, he had some made of steel and some made of plastic.Now drill a hole about 1/4 inch at each corner and one in the center of the long side of the frame. Do this by laying the frames on top of each other and drilling them at the same time as to match the holes.
Now he had screws with wing nuts on them to go through the holes. Next he sprayed Pam cooking spray on the screens wire. Now slice what ever your going to dry and lay it on one of the frames with the stapled screen side up. He had the fruit pieces about 1/2 inch apart. Now when it's filled take the second frame screen side down and lay it on the one with the fruit. Use the bolts and wingnut screws to secure it to gether. Now take it and put it on the roof. He had 11 of these different sizes.
You just let the sun and the roof relecting heat to dry it out. He said he has to watch these for the weather,take in if rain is coming, birds, the little critters will peck out a free meal. Bugs, he said don't really mess with it after it starts drying out and gets a "skin" on it,so the flys wont lay eggs. He said this takes only a hour or two. He said depending on the weather,humidity,sunlight it may take only 5 or 6 hours or it make two days-take inside at night. He turns the frames on the roof about every 3 hours during drying.
Down a couple of inches from the ceiling of his house he had 2x2 wood pieces about 6 feet long screwed into the wall above the wood stove he used to heat his house. He had the little hooks like you use to hang Christmas lights screwed into the wood below the ceiling. He had these about four inches apart and in line with the ones on the wood piece across the room.He also has a made up piece of wood that looked like a clothes line post. Only it had a square bottom to set in the floor. It was the same height as the boards screwed into the wall. This is for the sagging string with fruit to hold it up. He said he used this in the winter time to dry out food he might come across at the grocery store on sale or to make his favorite snack. He cuts his crab apples into slices about 1/4 inch thick and pokes a nylon fishing string through the middle of them usually juist above where the apples seeds are he has the string premade as long with a knot on each end as to reach the walls. He uses a needle that has one side of the eye cut out. He said it was a "unused" needle that you use to run a line through a minnow for fishing. Ha,ha. He sprinkled cinnamon on the apples slices before drying. He said he puts the slices about 1 inch apart. He said it takes a week or more for this to work, but the smell of them drying is worth a hundred dollars!
He said he cleans the strings in a mild solution of clorox between dryings.