DIY mushroom dryer

For long-term storage and preparation of food products for future use, various methods of processing them are used - drying, drying, smoking, and salting. Often, processing processes are associated with air drying. Some products, which contain a lot of water, are subjected to heat treatment, that is, they are dried at a rather high temperature in the oven (melons, apples, some fruits). Many other products are dried in the wind or in the sun (fruits, fish, poultry, ham, salted meat). An excellent alternative to such methods is a do-it-yourself mushroom dryer, which can also be used for harvesting other products. Consider the convenience of such a device and how you can assemble it with your own hands.

to contents ↑

Harvesting difficulties

There are certain difficulties and inconveniences associated with the drying process. It often happens like this: just put the food to dry, when the wind died down or the sun hid, or it started to rain at all, and all the work goes down the drain. But the greatest evil in summer is due to flies. They are worn in a swarm around the exposed product and before you blink, you will lay your eggs in it. In this case, do-it-yourself mushroom dryer will save.

Important! Flies are malicious carriers of infection. Contacting these insects with products is simply unacceptable. It is because of this that many fish and meat preparations are wrapped with gauze before hanging fish and meat preparations in the sun or wind, however, this does not always guarantee reliable isolation from flies, and with a little wind it can complicate the drying process.

Fishermen have particular difficulties, because after a good catch and salting, it is simply unrealistic to wrap gauze with each gauze for drying, and the likelihood of product spoilage by flies grows significantly, especially if the fish is layered. But still, there is a way out.

After many experiments, a wonderful solution was found - to make a mushroom dryer with your own hands, reminiscent of the shape of the box for matches, more precisely, the lid of this box, only a few tens of times larger.

to contents ↑

Dryer Option No. 1

The design of the dryer and its principle of operation is quite simple. To perform such a dryer, you should:

1. From the rails, make the frame in the form of a parallelepiped.
2. Put it on the edge (matchbox gray down).
3. Sheathe both side, as well as the lower and upper faces with solid material (oilcloth, roofing felt, cardboard, plywood). Moreover, the upper face will be a lid on the hinges, like a piano lid.
4. End faces tighten with gauze or fine mesh.
5. Along the side walls inside the dryer, pull the wires to suspend food.
6. Inside, on one side, directly next to the gauze, install a tabletop indoor fan, and pass its conductive wire through the gauze, leaving no free passage in it, and bring it out to the outlet.

Device application

Food products should be worn on metal hooks and hung on tensioned wires. After a complete check and expulsion of all flies, the lid closes and the fan turns on.

Important! The intense air flow that is created by the fan provides a fairly quick drying of products in compliance with sanitary requirements.

As a rule, the duration of drying in a mushroom dryer with your own hands is established empirically.It will depend on the humidity of the surrounding air, its temperature, as well as on the size of the dried products, their moisture content and the required value of the final humidity.

Useful Tips:

• The dimensions of the dryer can be arbitrary and depend on the amount intended for drying of the product.
• In order to reduce energy consumption, it is recommended to use fans that have several operating modes, which will make it possible to produce a change in the ventilation mode in the dryer.
• You can install such a dryer almost anywhere: on the veranda, balcony, under a canopy or even on the street.
• It is better to load food in the evening or early in the morning when there are no flies.
• Larger parts of the products are best hung first closer to the fan, and then they can be swapped.

Important! Many years of operation of dryers of this type made it possible to study their operation in different conditions. Wonderful results were obtained in drying fruits, churchkhela, low potatoes, dill, parsley, salted chicken and ducks, boiled sausages, ham, dried mushrooms.

to contents ↑

Dryer Option No. 2

Let's look at another option, how to make a mushroom dryer with your own hands over a gas stove. So let's get started:

• For work, we need aluminum corners of various lengths and a wire mesh.
• First, measure the dimensions of the stove to make a dryer, which can later be put on its surface.
• Drill holes in the corners with a drill or electric drill so that they can be fastened with bolts and nuts.
• Now it came to the grid on which the mushrooms will be placed. Cut it to the size of the plate and the frame itself, with a margin.

Important! A grid of bandage, gauze or plastic will not work, since it is dangerous to hold such materials over a fire.

• In order to fix the grid to the frame, use the same aluminum corner, but smaller. It should turn out so that from below the grid is laid on the platform from the frame, and from above - it is pressed by a patch plate.
• Attach the plate to the frame with screws threaded through pre-drilled holes.
• The height above the fire should be determined independently, approximately 60-70 cm can be (just saw off the legs of the required length).
• Lay out the mushrooms, turn on the gas and that's it, the process has begun.

Important! Never leave the gas unattended.

to contents ↑

Stock footage

The useful work of a mushroom dryer with your own hands is very difficult to overestimate. Surely, many people will be interested in such a dryer, the material used for its manufacture is practically waste, the work is completely uncomplicated, the energy consumption is small, the fan will be found in almost every house, and the benefits are huge.