More on dehydrated pumpkin

Even though I’ve bought a food dehydrator, my preferred method of drying food will always be the sun. Why use ancient sunlight*, when you can use the current version without the cost and associated problems.

Last week I bought a full butternut pumpkin and only managed to get half done in the dehydrator.

With 34 ºC and northerly winds predicted for Melbourne last Saturday, I thought  I’d try the rest outside on the deck, in the sun.

My drying racks are simple wooden frames, with flywire stretched across. The flywire is actually wire (as in metal), because I figured the cheaper plastic stuff would soften and stretch in the heat and all the contents would end up in a heap in the middle. What I have has worked well for many years, long before I bought the dehydrator, which is really only intended for winter use.

As usual, I chopped up the pumpkin in the Thermomix. Out on the deck, the sun was already coming up over the yardarm. Look at that golden glow:

The second tray goes over the top to keep insects out. However many trays you make, you’ll always need an extra one for this job:

I haven’t shown it here (because I can’t find it), but I’ve also made a reflector out of a thick piece of cardboard covered in aluminium foil, which goes under the tray to reflect sunlight back up onto the bottom of the food.

I expect it to take a few days to dry out there (I always bring the trays in at night), but if we get a cold snap, I can use the dehydrator to finish off.

*fossil fuels

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While I was out on the deck I took a photo of the nearby garden showing the massed flannel flowers (Actinotus helianthi) which have self-seeded everywhere:

They really are beautiful. Hard to propagate (they don’t like root disturbance) but leave them be and they’ll do it the way nature intended: