Harvesting dill
I bought a dehydrator at Lee Valley a month or so ago after thinking about it for a while. I considered building a "sits outside in the sun solar powered" dehydrator but eventually went for the one pictured below because:
- It looked to be well made and Lee Valley has had a better than average track record with the products they carry.
- It is thermostatically controlled.
- The price was moderate.
- I have way more to do this summer than I have time for.
- As it will be used only on sunny days, it is in any case solar powered already.
Our two dill plants are doing nicely so I chopped off perhaps half the leaves, trimmed off the woody stems, put the rest in the dehydrator trays, then set it on the low "herb" setting. I ran it for half a day, sat out a cloudy day, then ran it for most of the next day at which time the dill was nicely dry. I took out the remaining larger bits then finely chopped the dried leaves with a mezzaluna resulting in a fine, pungent product which we put in a glass shaker for use over the winter.
Measuring the power consumption with our power meter, I was pleased to find that, although the nameplate says "500 watts", it in fact draws only 466 watts with the heating element on and 32 with just the fan running. On the low setting used for drying herbs it drew on average around 120 watts which for sunny-day use is eminently reasonable.
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| Dill in the garden | Dehydrator loaded with dill | Dehydrator running |
On a side note, the dehydrator manufacturer plays the usual marketing games around place-of-manufacture. On the outside of the box it says in big, bold letters "MADE IN U.S.A." then, in smaller less prominent letters "of domestic and imported components" and on the underside of the unit itself it says "Made in China". So presumably the actual dehydrator was made in China while the box and the packing material came from the U.S.A which, by some bizarre logic, allows them to claim made in the U.S.A. I expect that as crude oil over time becomes more expensive there will be less and less of this stuff coming from China.