It has always been my motto that if I can’t build it myself then I don’t need it, or at least it means a lot more to me. After hearing that the family dehydrator that we have been using for years had finally bit the dust, I thought to myself I wonder if I could build one. The concept seems pretty straight forward a lot of air and a lot of heat. So I went to work with the help of JT, we built a 2′ x 2′ x 4′ box from some of dad’s scrap OSB (Plywood to Jodi). The next challenge was to design some type of a tray system, I planned on using 1/2" square holed chicken wire but found it to be pretty spendy. So I purchased a couple cheap sheets of 1/8" Masonite board, same stuff they use for white boards. It was cheep and also somewhat water resistant.
The first round of 10 trays took about 36 hours because of the wimpy little fan and heater I had. We took a late night trip to the local DI and found a powerful window fan. With it installed drying time was cut in half, now we have 24 trays being dried a night. I gleaned a bunch of tiny little apples from the Sugar High School apple trees, all from the ground. No apples were picked in the making of this fruit leather. We cranked out over 15 gallons of apple sauce from what most would call the waste apples. It just makes me smile to think about that when I munch on a piece of the final product. I took a roll over to Mom to give and told the kids that mom used to give it to me as a kid, now i can make it and give it back to her. Lily said, "And when we get old we will make it for you and bring it to you." I can hardly wait.
Comments:
John said…
Great work. I was impressed with the creativity and make it work attitude. You have an amazing mind and drive. Keep up the great work.
Monday, November 02, 2009 8:46:05 PM
Anne said…
Very cool! The leather looks yummy:).
Monday, November 02, 2009 8:57:30 PM
Mom and dad Parker said…
You better get a patent on that, everyone will want one.
Monday, November 02, 2009 9:23:12 PM