Solar oven corn dehydrating

 I decided to see if I can dehydrate corn from my garden in my SOS solar oven.  You'll notice the tape in the top....that's to keep the oven slightly open.  Solar ovens are excellent at holding in moisture, so you need to have a way for it to vent in order to dehydrate.  I used a black letter tray I got at the dollar store.  Black is better in solar ovens because it traps in the heat.  The Global Oven now comes with dehydrator trays if you buy during a sale (like is going on now!) but I don't have any, so I used these.  They worked great!

After probably 8 hours in the sun, I had dehydrated corn!  It probably would have gone faster if I'd paid more attention to keeping the sun directly in the oven all day.

Dehydrating corn

I was blessed to get 50 lbs of corn on the cob free.  But what do to with it?  First of all I decided to try dehydrating it.  I shucked it, washed the silk off, & then cut it off the cobs.  The first suggestion I'd have to is to try to get an electric knife.  By the time I'd cut the corn off all 50 lbs I was blistered!  I did notice it was a bit easier to cut if I used hot water when I was washing the silk off.
I spread the kernels on the dehydrating tray & turned it on 135.  It took approximately 9 hours to dry.  I had 12 dehydrator trays filled...the dried corn filled 2 quart & 1 pint jar.  My friend & I tasted some, & it tastes really good!  I could see eating this as a snack!  (I was using sweet corn).  I'm going to mostly store it though & use it in soups, where it should rehydrate.  Stored in glass jars, this should last a really long time!  And it doesn't take up very much space!

Let the kids do the labor!

I know you're probably thinking, "I don't have time to do chickens, pick raspberries, dry fruit, can chicken, raise rabbits, etc".  That's what your kids are for!  And it's great for them too!  My son mows our lawn.  When we can chicken he puts the meat in the jars while I put the broth & lids (we can get 18 lbs in the canner in under 20 min).  He completely takes care of all our animals.  They're under his stewardship & he gets their food & water every day.  When we can or dry peaches he takes the peels off while I do other stuff.  He goes out & picks the raspberries & strawberries.  The work goes much faster than I could do by myself.  And imagine if I had more than 1 child!

Sure, you have to train them to help.  At first it might seem easier to do it yourself than hassle them into it.  But now my son is just used to helping as part of his daily routine.  (ok, he still complains sometimes about mowing the lawn, but he does it).  And he's only 8 years old.  Kids can usually do a lot more than we think.  He's been doing all the mowing since 7.  He started taking the peels off the peaches & tops off strawberries at 4.  Don't waste these great helpers you already have!  It's in their best interest too.  And they can take such pride in the peaches they helped can, fruit they helped dry, & "their" animals!

Best ever jerky (antelope or beef), solar too!

Everyone I give some of this jerky to, say it's the best they've ever had.  I use ground meat & a jerky gun.



This is great with ground beef or antelope.  If you use beef, use 90% lean or better.  This is for 1 lb of beef.  I will put the recipe for beef; if you do it with antelope I would use 50% more marinade to get the same flavor.

The frustrating part about this recipe is I learned it by watching someone who has no recipe.  So here's my best attempt to explain it:

1/2 cup soy sauce
1 shake ginger
1 shake dry mustard
8-10 shakes minced garlic
Pour molasses in thin-med stream for slow count of 3 1/2 seconds.
Mix into meat, put into jerky gun & squeeze out onto trays.  You can dry this in dehydrator, oven or solar oven.

Really simple & super tasty.  It is also an outstanding marinade for steaks, sheesh kabobs, & chicken or fajitas.  Yummy!!

I also tried this in the solar oven.  The top piece is in my dehydrator, the bottom piece is in the solar oven. It shrunk smaller, & had more flavor because of this.  Both tasted great.  One might fill your tummy more, & one would take less room to store.  I store this in the fridge, & then if we haven't eaten it after a few months (rare), I put them in #10 cans & seal them.

dehydrating strawberries in solar oven

I have a lot of strawberries in my patch & I love drying them. My son eats them like candy & they're completely healthy! I hate the sound of my dehydrator going all day though, & wonder what to do if there were no electricity. So I tried some in my solar oven.

One concern was you need heat to circulate around. And darker things work better in a solar oven. I found some black metal letter holders at Dollar Tree. They are black mesh, just the thing! I used them right side up, but I think they'd be even better upside down, so there's more air underneath. I propped them up on another pan so they were nearer the lid of the oven. I propped the lid open so that the moisture could escape (this is the one solar cooking you don't want the moisture to stay in). I just used a glue bottle to prop it open. The other concern I had was the strawberries sticking. On my dehydrator I use those mesh plastic sheets, so they pop off easy. I found some white plastic sheeting (also at Dollar Tree), but it was white, so I didn't know how it would work. I decided to try both ways.

After about 4 hours, the ones on just the black were done. And they didn't stick! The ones on the white worked as well, but they took a bit longer. In the future I'll probably just use the black mesh.

I'm way excited I found a rack for only $1. Since the strawberries grow in my yard, & I didn't even use electricity, this is a totally free food storage item!

Another thing I recently discovered was a strawberry slicer. I was dubious...most kitchen gadgets don't really work. But this thing is awesome! It is going to save me hours on my drying strawberry time! Rather than slicing each berry by hand I can put 2-5 (if they're smaller ones) in at a time & have them perfectly slice for drying. Some of the best money I've ever spent!