Dehydration... of food.

[Legionnaire]

I was sitting here at work and this idea suddenly struck me, as I chewed on some jerky, I wonder if there is a way to make a dehydrator without using electricity or fire. A solar dehydrator would be handy for fruits and vegetables. Here ya go...

http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/solarchm.htm

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2006-08-01/Build-a-Solar-Food-Dehydrator.aspx

Also if you don't know how to make jerky this site explains it pretty simply.

http://door44.com/jerky/

And another handy item would be a homemade smoker, pretty simple to make out of a steel trash can. I would make it so you can use fire as well as an electric hot plate to heat your wood chips in case of SHTF and no more power. Enjoy.

[TheUnboundOne]

Legionnaire, Yep, the old handy-dandy steel garbage can works every time.

According to the Foxfire series of books, Appalachian mountain people used to put their fruits and vegetables out to dry on their tin roofs. Naturally, thin cloth or tight netting would be good to keep the birds from feeding off of your produce. Also, they would run a needle and thread through green beans and hang them to dry out. They called this "leather-breeches beans."

[kenno]

As a kid I could watch the Hawian (spelling) folks put tuna out on thier tin roofs to dry (tuna jerky). The wealthy islanders had bug screens mounted on frames which allowed them to use sugar and soy sauce marinade on the tuna yet kept the flys away!

[Rustyshakelford]

Here in the desert, we use the wind and sun. Won't work everywhere, but it does a good job here.

[Legionnaire]

Here in the desert, we use the wind and sun. Won't work everywhere, but it does a good job here.

Ya, you definitely need to be in a dryish climate or else the natural humidity will cause food to spoil before it dries.

[Brosia]

I just bought an electric food dehydrator from good old walmart, but I'll definitely be trying out the solar one.

I want to start dehydrating store-bought fruits and veggies, figure I can throw them in the new ziplock bags and pump the air out (should I get some oxygen absorbers anyway?) All the news I'm reading lately, does not bode well for those who are unprepared, so I don't even want to wait until I'm growing my own food to dehydrate or can.