Dehydrate Food in a Solar Dehydrator - PEP BB food.sand.dehydrate

I chose the "sunny dashboard" method for this solar dehydrating. Regular windowsills in my home would attract too many flies. It's fly season! So I dehydrated one of my favorite things: zucchini chips! These are dipped in barbecue sauce. I placed them on a cookie sheet, since the temperature in the car is variable and I wasn't sure if they would drip. They did drip, so it was a good idea. They took 2 days of full sun to dry all the way. (Side-note: I also dehydrated some in my electric dehydrator at the same time to compare. The dashboard chips turned out better!) It's not a practical way to dehydrate a lot of food, but it could do 2 lbs. at a time.

Rebekah Harmon wrote:I chose the "sunny dashboard" method for this solar dehydrating. Regular windowsills in my home would attract too many flies. It's fly season! So I dehydrated one of my favorite things: zucchini chips! These are dipped in barbecue sauce. I placed them on a cookie sheet, since the temperature in the car is variable and I wasn't sure if they would drip. They did drip, so it was a good idea. They took 2 days of full sun to dry all the way. (Side-note: I also dehydrated some in my electric dehydrator at the same time to compare. The dashboard chips turned out better!) It's not a practical way to dehydrate a lot of food, but it could do 2 lbs. at a time.

Yes, the 2 lbs. made about 2 and a half trays. The other trays were on another "sunny dashboard" in another vehicle. I didn't snap a picture of them, but hey! it's that time of year that I've got zucchini coming out my ears! here are two more trays, in my car. They took 3 days to dry this time. Probably because of the overcast skies that keep interrupting!

Here is my submission for "Dehydrate Food in a Solar Dehydrator - PEP BB food.sand.dehydrate":

I am providing photos of the following:
 - Food on a scale before dehydration (or, obviously far more than two pounds)
 - Food in your solar dehydrator before dehydration (with entire structure of dehydrator)
 - Food in your solar dehydrator after dehydration (with entire structure of dehydrator)

I did a side-by-side comparison of the Wheaton Labs solar dehydrator versus the rocket assisted dehydrator, without firing the rocket stove at all.  I chopped over 2 lbs of onion and put half in the solar dehydrator and half in the rocket dehydrator at about 8 pm yesterday. The high temperature yesterday was 105 F so the thermal mass of the rocket dehydrator held a lot of heat.  By morning the onion in the rocket dehydrator was well ahead of the solar dehydrator, probably close to done drying.  Today the high temperature was 102 F with some smokey haze preventing the day from reaching what we thought might reach 107 F. I removed the dried onions from both dehydrators this evening after approximately 24 hours in the dehydrators.

So for this BB I dried some onions in my solar dehydrator that's now going into it's 10th life year and is still going strong.

I've dried 1.6 kilo's (about 3.5 pounds) of white onions that turned out deliciously. Sweet and savoury!

I dehydrated some bananas I'm the big dehydrator at Wheaton Labs.  Very tasty!

Using the ATC Solar Food Dehydrator at Wheaton Labs, I was able to dehydrate a little over 2lbs of Honeycrisp apples. Yummy!!
*Note- The two screens in the bottom of the before photo are the two pounds of apples. In the photo there is another participants' apples above mine, but I bought, prepped, and prepared my screens all by myself for this bb. No plastic, teflon, or aluminum touched the food during the process.

While at Wheaton Labs, I dehydrated apples. Delicious!

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
  - You must use a solar food dehydrator
  - A proper solar food dehydrator is preferred, but we will accept the use of the “sunny rocks technique” or even “the sunny windshield technique”
  - You must have two pounds of food before dehydration

To get certified for this Badge Bit you must provide pics or video (<2 min) of the following:
attachment 1   - Food on a scale before dehydration (or, obviously far more than two pounds)
attachment 2   - Food in your solar dehydrator before dehydration (with entire structure of dehydrator)
attachment 3   - Food in your solar dehydrator after dehydration (with entire structure of dehydrator)

Clarifications:
- All food prep and preservation BBs strictly prohibit plastic, teflon or aluminum touching the food at any point

Repost with required photo! I dehydrated a bunch of bananas in the big boy solar dehydrator here at beautiful Wheaton Labs.  I salted half of them and they all tasted great do next time I won't.  BEHOLD!

I dehydrated onions on a outdoor table covered in glass (except for the 2 trays that didn't fit under it)

It took a few days for 2 main reasons. I forgot them outside overnight twice and i lined my sheets with parchment paper. (My stainless steel dehydrator trays are already in use 24/7) I didn't think it would make much of a difference at first but I believe it really did.

On the plus side they are incredibly delicious. We are an onion loving house.