God has Power 1  Dry My Way  Have Fantastic Foods 
Dryer Photo below. As Summer ends, 9/1/2002 and gardens are picked I thought I should do this link.
War changes the food supply.
So learn how to keep it yourself.  Being a farmer all of my life I have made some observations.
The heat on a tin roof of a hay shed is very hot. And for ‘thousands’ of years the only way to keep food was to dry it. So make yourself a dryer for $14 Buy some ¼ inch hole ‘wire cloth’- 2 pieces each 2 feet by 2 feet, cost $2 each piece, then at Wal-Mart buy 1 yard of “Black” double-knit Polyester  cloth @ $ 2  Then get 30 inch wide Fiberglass window screen @ 60 cents per foot, buy a 5 foot long piece, cost $3.    
Then Buy a 6 foot long piece of corrugated galvanized roof tin, Cost $ 5 
The 6 foot long piece will hold 2 dryer racks side by side = 8 square feet of dryer racks.  Small enough to do inside if the weather is bad.   In window sunlight.
Just lay the tin in the Sun and put the ¼ inch wire cloth on it.
Then put ‘over’ the wire cloth the ‘Fiberglass window screen’ to keep fresh cut food ‘from’ touching the wire cloth and absorbing Zinc from the Galvanize metal. Next put the food to get dry on ‘top’ of the Fiberglass window screen and cover it with the “Black” Polyester cloth.     Insects can’t get to the food from the bottom or the top.
The corrugated tin allows the air to flow beneath the food and the “Black” cloth on top absorbs the heat from the sun. Keep pieces of food from touching other pieces to allow for good air flow.  
                    Then 'Only' put food on 1 layer deep.     With 1/8  or 1/4 cuts.
The reason the window screen is 5 feet long is to overhang on the ends and 30 inches wide to overhand at the sides, it makes it very easy to peel off the dried food. And keeps bugs out.
The Black cloth is 60 inches wide and sold by the running yard. So by buying just 1 yard you get a piece 36 inches wide by 5 feet long. Covering the food with overhangs on all sides because the tin is 24 inches wide.
Put the tin over a side-walk that the Sun shines on that absorbs heat in the daytime and releases it at night.
Set the tin on a Cinderblock or a Gallon can to raise it enough to allow the cloth to hang on the sides.
IF you want to paint a part of a sidewalk black under your racks it will absorb more heat in the daytime as the Sun shines. Indians dried food on dark rocks. And hanging it up in camp where critters didn’t get it.      OR you can just put dark garbage bags under the dryer to collect heat.
OR paint a piece of cardboard BLACK to put under your dryer rack if it is outside.

I have nailed my racks together with small wooden sides but that is not necessary to dry foods.  
Very cheap. And you can eat for about $3 per day.
Light a match to see which way the wind blows and align the tin that way if you can.
By raising one end a little higher the air flows up the groves of the tin and helps to make it dry quicker
because of the “Air Flow.”  My house has the porch facing South so see the picture below.
                       It’s easy, fun, and cheap to dry food.
IF I get a rain shower when I am gone the water runs down the tin and I just have an extra day to wait till it’s dry.        God washed the food again. 
Even when it’s freezing at night you can dry food very well.  The freezing draws out the moisture from the stuff you have drying.
When its snowing outside you can cut one 2x2 rack into half and set it near a wood stove. OR on a couple of cans of food by a floor heat vent. 
Just put a dish towel over that vent to catch any furnace dust. If you use a small Electric Space Heater with a fan in the winter. $20 to keep someplace warm just put your drying racks where the air blows across them.     You still get your heat and the aroma of the drying food.
My home place smells very good of drying ‘meat Jerky’ often in the winter.

While at Wal-Mart buy a “Mandolin Kitchen Slicer” $6 it works fine for most foods. I have talked with the makers and told them they need to make it work for ¼ inch cuts.    Some things you may want to have thicker.” Like a Kraut cutter. 
With their ‘thin’ very-even cuts everything will dry in just one day. As a general rule the faster food dries the more tender and flavor it has.   But some things I like the bulk of the thicker ¼ inch --2 days to dry ‘chewy’ fruits.
They probably won’t change their design, they sell more than 15, 000 “Mandolin Kitchen Slicers” each month just at Wal-Marts. The cut apples are so thin dry they just melt in your mouth.
Wash everything well and then just cut up the food as you are loading the racks to put out in the Sun.
That keeps the nutrition higher. Don’t slice and refrigerate, before you put it out in the Sun.
IF you get dew at night where you live cover the racks with a garbage bag at night. OR if you are at home when the rain shower comes, move it out of the rain or try to cover it with plastic sheeting.
Any fruit that is too ripe to slice then make it into Fruit Leather.  
When I say 1 day, I mean 24 hours. Some Fruit Leather takes 2 days to dry. I like to load the dryer with any fresh food just before noon. The ‘Afternoon’ Sun starts the process and overnight evens the moisture and then the morning Sun finishes it off. If there is any question in your mind about dryness you can then benefit from ‘another afternoon’ sun and then unload the rack.
For the very even ¼ inch cuts you will have to get a “Kraut Cutter” that is used to cut cabbage for homemade sauerkraut, or coleslaw.   

For the Best Cutters The Mandolin at $6 is just to small for big cabbages. Or 1/4 inch cuts. If you have any doubts as to if it is ‘Crispy’ dry then put it in a paper bag in the Sun for “Another” Day to dry more.  Better ‘real dry’ than have moisture and “Moldy.”     Store it in the bag is ok if you want.
Just mark on the BAG how many cuts it took to cut it up onto drying pieces. Then later “IF” you see 40 cuts you will know that 20 dry pieces is ½ of what-ever you dried.
If you read that you cut apples into 10 pieces you know what it takes to have ½ an apple.
Slice summer squash seeds and all. Wait till they get to at least a pound each. Too large to cook at meals as fresh squash. 6 plants will make a lot of squash. I have big paper bags of dry squash before I grind it.      Tape the TOP of a paper bag and it is tough.
They start to tare at the top. I just use cheap masking tape to make it strong. What do you mark on the bag?    How many cuts it took.
Put a small thermometer under the ‘black’ cloth to ‘check’ the temperature. Anything “Above” 120 degrees destroys vitamins. To “Re-Fresh” food remember 2 to 1--= Add 2 parts boiling water to 1 part food.      A  1 pound summer squash will dry to less than 2 ounces.
So it’s easy to dry and store 100 # pounds of squash for winter.      
     Re-Freshed food spoils quicker, so eat it all or discard it.
                                Don’t refrigerate it.
Everything can be dried. ONCE! Carrots, cabbage, beets, potatoes, onions, peppers, peas, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, kale or any greens, herbs, melons, fruit leathers, strawberries, apples,
peaches, any fruit. Even pineapples. Berries, plums, bananas, and mushrooms all dry well.

Honeydew melons are really a FALL melon and  the only melon that sugars itself after it is picked off of the vine. They keep well and are slow to ripen. See when its creamy yellow and the blossom end gets soft.          Dried Cantaloupes are just like candy for kids. Slice it in half. Then cross slice it into round slices 1/2 inch thick. Then into 1 inch pieces. Dry it for at least 2 or 3 days.
      Sweet as candy. Sweet fruits stick to the Fiberglass Window screen so the 2nd. day you can pick up the screen and turn it over on the Dryer. That exposes the bottoms of fruit to the sunlight. Dries quicker. 
With very little practice you will be very happy with what you can do.
Summer squash dries up to almost nothing. A one pound squash dries to less than 2 ounces. Crushed in a blender it is about 3/4 cup of powder.
With  2 cups of ‘hot’ water and a bullion cube it’s a sweet good quick soup. Like eating a 3x 8 inch round squash that’s over a pound and you will feel full. And not get fat. Use home dried foods and lose weight.

I just get 20 “ElegantWare”  picnic plates for $ 1.50 at Wal-Mart.
I have found that the “Hefty” Dark Blue ‘ElegantWare’ picnic plates work the best to make “Fruit Leather.”  They are strong and dark to absorb heat.    Use any fruit and a blender.
Just blend 1 cup of fruit at a time, it takes the 1^st. cup just to coat the blender.
If you overload the blender you have to add water to make it “Puree.”
That makes drying time much longer. So just do ‘1 cup of fruit pieces at each pour’ Put in ‘just’ the fruit for a minute, and pour onto the plate covered with clear plastic wrap like Saran wrap to cover the plate before you pour.
Put it out in the Sun and the 2^nd. Day peel it off the plate and you have fruit leather. Use the same plate
many times. If the leather is to soft roll it up with the sticky plate side to the inside of the roll and put it in a paper bag in the Sun for another day.    OR just put it between the window screen and the black cloth at the bottom. So it hardens. Then re-wrap it in the plastic wrap.      ‘Chewy’ good fruit Leather rolls can be made from Apricots, Pears, Apples, any fruit alone or with a blend with Bananas.   
I sprinkle Cinnamon over my summer apples “Puree” on the  plates for “Applesauce” Leather.
Use very little! Cinnamon (India), can overpower a sauce. You can use Nutmeg from (Americas), Ginger (China), Clove (SE Africa), Mint (Mediterranean area),
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint.”   Matthew 23: 23  
                                   Or any other spice to add flavor before you dry it.
 Just be very light as you sprinkle spice. It’s strong. OR better yet, carefully add it as the blender is running on the fruit. OR just ‘dust’ any fruit WHEN you 1^st. cut it up to add some flavor. IF your fruit is too tart just add some honey. OR corn syrup that is sweet.
A spoonful of syrup per cup of fruit. You can adjust to your own taste when you have done just one fruit roll.
I prefer the natural taste of 'Tart' apricots and plums.  A cup of fresh (in season) fruit “Puree” for each plate. I do 2 bananas each time in the blender.
A banana a day gives you the Potassium to help you resist strokes.  Sticky leather keeps a couple of months.
To keep it longer (till the next crop) it has to be brittle rolls to crack with a hammer.     Shatter to pieces. 4# of fruit should dry to about 1 # pound. 25% of the original weight. 6 Tablespoons of Pickle salt in 1 Gallon of pure water mixed well will help to slow oxidation of fruits. Just slice them into the salt water and leave them for 3 minutes and then put them out to dry.      Let someone watch the Clock and load the dryer as you are slicing another batch to soak for just 3 minutes.

Warning --this will become very addictive when you realize that fresh fruit does not have the flavor of dried fruits. 
      Your Bible says that 1/3 of humans will die “By these three was the third part of men killed, by
the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.”      Revelation 9:18
Do you believe in Revelation? "...and when Israel is attacked Babylon will burn...Yea, my son speak unto those people who profess to have taken my name. (Christians) Mine anger is kindled against the rebellious, and they shall soon see mine wrath and indignation upon the nations. Russia and Iraq have common goals. In times of crisis even old enemies fight together. Persia (Iran) will join with Iraq to vanquish infidels. Speak and help to prepare those who will listen to my words...behold blood, and fire await this nation ..."   Amen. 8/7/02       So I do this link.

That is Nuclear War and you still want to live and not starve.
God Has Power to dry your food so dry it. Dry Food and live.

In the winter just 1 fruit roll is like a cup of fruit without the water in it. I live in paradise, home dried pineapple is really great. I have some kind of melon every day at breakfast for 6 months.
And with 3 or 4 other fruits in season daily, plus grains and nuts with a normal American diet I live in paradise.
The only thing I do different is that I try to eat the seeds also. Just peel an apple and plant the peel and what do you get?      Core an apple and then plant it and what do you get?  
BUT, if you plant the core of the Apple with the seeds in it you may soon have hundreds of apples huh?   
“The life is in the seed.”
When I wake up each morning I am as ready as when I was 20 years old. The past 40 years hasn’t made any difference at all.
Abraham fathered Isaac at age 99 I think he ate all of the seeds  too! CLICK HERE to read about Isaac and his son Jacob-Israel. I think he ate the seeds too and I still have babies coming.

Get a 2#+ Can of Salted Mixed Nuts at Wal -Mart each month for $7, Umm good.
My big Apricot tree is over a hundred years old, and almost 3 feet thick. It has sweet pit seed apricots. 
 save the seeds and in winter crack them to eat, they taste about like almonds.
Sour pit apricots seeds are not good to keep for winter. Check before you plant a tree.
Drying fruit really concentrates it.  The flavor is very much better.
A cup of fresh apricots is 50 calories. A cup of dried apricots is 250 calories.    So drying is powerful.
Do it at 80 to 120 degrees.  Try it--- Dry it , you will like it! It will melt in your mouth and not in your hand.

In the cold winter drying can also be done inside.  But just have good air movement.
Set the trays in the window Sunlight.   Wa-La get dried food.  
Not everyone can make a good food dryer. So try this yourself.

How about ‘Chips’ on a stick? Cut the bottom straight wire off of a coat hanger. Slice a banana into ¼ inch slices and run the long piece of wire through the centers BUT keep a space in between the pieces.
Put the ends on glasses in the Sun and get chips in a few days. Pineapple chips are great.
Dry fruit pieces the same way.    It’s just like eating candy.    It is sweeter.     
It will cost you just one coat-hanger. 

OR buy a 100 Bamboo Skewers for Sish-Kebabs that are reusable.   
Use a narrow box to hold the skewers in the air. See Photo. I use a ‘Frozen Juice’ box.
It holds 8 bananas @ 15 pieces each = 120 chips from 2 ½ pounds of Bananas. Cut holes in the box sides to circulate air. Dry any fruit in small pieces this way. Very cheap $1 Bamboo
Skewers. Good very dry fruit has to be broken off Kebabs, it is tough from the fruit sugar.

Sweet corn on a board. Just drive some nails through a board and then spike fresh corn onto each nail. Turn the board after a few days. Soak DRY Corn for a day and boil it like corn on the cob.
Or just rub the corn off the cob and then cook it. 1 Cob =1/2 cup dry or 1 1/2 Cups of corn when re-hydrated.    It is not like fresh corn, but nutritious to keep you alive.  
  

Remember the 'Black" cloth to cover the dryer? Just use it when you have 'Bugs' as pests. 
It's like a spare tire.   When you need it, you really need it now. Remember the hot tin roof on hay sheds. 
Shiney Tin is hot.         More on # 4 about cooking for nothing. Zero $ cost.
    
    Dryers and Sun Solar Cookers I made. Some covered with Reynolds Turkey Roasting Bags. 
    
Holding Banana Chips and Peaches. And Cooker experiments.  Onions and Garlic need to be dried on a 
different piece of window screen. The oils in them stays on the screen and will flavor other things. 
Pickled Onions are good. Pickled Peaches are good. 
But Onion or Garlic Peaches are not good.  See information about what I have found to be the best 
Solar Cooker. CLICK HERE  If you like pickles, it may be because your ancestors lived in Egypt.   
                              CLICK HERE to read about that. 
A daughter mine also grows herbs in her garden. She dries them, her herbs dry in one day. 
She has both spice and medicine herbs.  One son of mine is a Licensed NaturoPath Doctor in Idaho. 
My older kids have all grown up using medicinal herbs to cure sickness.
 Learn a little about WHAT is a Naturepath.   http://www.naturopathic.org/     
http://www.bearcreekclinic.com/faq.html 


God has Power # 2  CLICK HERE