4.2 Homemade Sun Dryer

• How to make a homemade sun dryer for vegetables.
• Sketching and constructing a homemade sun dryer using locally available materials.
• Using the constructed sun dryer to dry vegetables.
• Promoting the use of the equipment to the school community for adoption purposes.

• describe how to make a homemade sun dryer for vegetables
• construct a homemade sun dryer to preserve vegetables
• adopt the use of a homemade sun dryer in the preservation of vegetables

“How can innovative technology be used to preserve vegetables?”

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1. Why drying preserves vegetables
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Take the water away and nothing can grow.
2. Open drying against a sun dryer
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Hotter and enclosed. Faster drying, and nothing lands on the food.
3. How a sun dryer works
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Trap the heat, then let warm air carry the moisture away.
4. The four essential parts
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Cover, dark inside, vents, tray. Leave one out and it does not work.
5. Sketching the design
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Sketch with measurements first. Mistakes on paper cost nothing.
6. Choosing the materials
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Cheap and local, provided it does the job the part has to do.
7. Building the dryer
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Box, blacken, vents, cover. Build to the sketch, not by eye.
8. Preparing the vegetables
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Wash, cut evenly, blanch, and spread one layer deep.
9. Using the dryer
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Turn it, close it at night, and test by snapping rather than bending.
10. Storing dried vegetables
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Airtight, cool, dark and labelled — dried food reabsorbs moisture.
11. When the dryer does not work
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Six faults, all of them in the dryer rather than the food.
12. Testing the dryer
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Five measurements, and a fair comparison against open drying.
13. Sharing it with the community
    40 min · 2 practice tasks · quiz
    Design, build, test, share. The last step is part of the job.