Transcript Powerpoint for Future Harvest Casa and Moffa presentations

Exploring Low Tech Food
Dehydration to Increase
Profits on Small Farms
Experience with year one of a SARE
Farmer Grant, at Jug Bay Market Garden
in Maryland
Jug Bay Market Garden
We grow mixed vegetables, cut flowers and herbs on about seven acres in southern Prince
George’s County. We market primarily though a CSA delivering to Washington, DC. We have
been growing since 2001.
Our Farm is Facing:
1) increasing competition & changing market
2) fresh produce and flowers going to waste due to seasonal time crunch
3) Insane increase in deer pressure
The idea for this project emerged from:
1. Seeing the need to reduce waste on our farm and increase
profits with value added products.
2. Pricing out commercial dehydrators and experiencing
sticker shock at the jump from $30 home units to $20k for
quality commercial dryers!
3. Research demonstrated that there are promising existing
low cost designs available that have not been tested in our
region.
4. Kale Chips are all the rage.
The Two Dryers
We built and tested two very different dryers with several farm
products.
1) an extremely low cost low tech passive solar dryer designed
by UC Davis Professors James Thomson and Michael Reid.
2) A homemade version of a commercial scale electric cabinet
dryer designed by a UC Davis Grad Student.
Construction Costs
• Materials for Cabinet Dryer
$500
• Materials for Solar Dryer
$100
• Trays
$300 or less
• Labor for Building
$1000
Cabinet Dryer
$500 in materials
Includes fan, heater
and side vent.
Large capacity for 18
2 by 2 trays
Dried tomatoes in 48
hours, kale in 12.
Dried Herbs from the Cabinet Dryer,
August 2013
Inside view of Cabinet Dryer with
tomatoes and mint
Summary of Cabinet Dryer
PROS
- Great for tomatoes and
eggplant and peppers
- Can run overnight
- No loss of color in product
CONS
-
Less flexibility for larger items
Can overheat
Costs money to run
Higher Construction Costs
Requires weather protection (we
used a hoophouse)
Solar Dryer
• Very low cost, can be built for under $100
• Uses the chimney effect to increase air flow over product and
speed drying times
• Dryer has been tested in many countries around the world for
mangoes, tomatoes etc.
• We found it very effective for greens but did not dry tomatoes
and other high moisture crops fast enough.
Solar Dryer
preheat section
2’x2’ trays separated
by about 3”
Slide Credit: James Thompson, UC Davis.
Solar Dryer
The chimney
without plastic,
solar dryer
Solar dryer berm
Under construction
Solar Dryer in use
A Word on Drying Trays (Donut Screens)
Why stainless?
$286 for shared set of trays
($15 each for 18 with shopping
around)?
Modified designs to use them
interchangeably
Could go down to 18 by 18 to
fit in a dishwasher
Trays inside cabinet
dryer, same trays used
in solar dryer
Summary of Solar Dryer
PROS
- Excelled at greens, herbs and
flowers
- Variable space very helpful
- Almost Free to build
- Free to Run, Passive Solar
CONS
- Tomatoes did not dry well
- Had moisture problems we are
working to correct
- Some products lost color
Results
We focused our testing on
these six crops
Tomatoes
Sweet
Potatoes
Basil/herbs
Kale Chips
• We collected data on weight of
products before and after drying.
•
We compared results between
the two dryers
Flowers
• We recorded impressions from a
team of tasters including chefs
who support our farm.
Peppers
• This project will continue through
2014 and the grant will be
complete early 2015.
Sample of Tasting Results: Kale Chips
appearance
Kale Chip w salt and olive oil
Chef Tom
AVERAGE
taste
color
texture
overall
comments
5
3
5
4
5
3
5
3
4 (oil tastes a little strong, needs salt)
5
3
5
5
3 (vinegar and salt would be good)
4
3
5
4
4 (a little like cellaphane, breaks up)
4
3
5
4
4
5
5
5
3
4
5
5
5
5 exellent
stems should be removed, glass
5 packagaing?
4
2.5
4
4
4.5
3.4
4.9
4.0
needs more salt
4.2
We held a taste testing with 7 participants in December. We tested products on a 1-5
scale for appearance, taste, texture and overall impressions.
Data Collection Sheet
Date
Dryer
Prep
Hours
bachelor button
19-Jun
solar
removed heads
24 hours
cabbage
20-Jun
solar
outer leaves
5 hours
herbs/mix
19-Jun
solar
single layer
5 hours
tomatoes
7-Jul
solar
sliced, seeds removed
5 hours
calendula
15-Jul
flower heads removed
12 hours
spearmint
20-Jul
solar
on stems
12 hrs
Tomatoes
30-Jul
electric
sliced, seeds removed
48hrs
Basil
30-Jul
electric
leaves removed from stem
24 hrs
Eggplant
2-Jul
electric
sliced 1/2 inch
48hrs
Eggplant 2
30-Jul
electric
sliced 1/2 inch
24hrs
Tomatoes2
1-Aug
electric
sliced, seeds removed
48hrs
Tomatoes3
10-Aug
electric
sliced, seeds removed
48hrs
Tomatoes3
12-Aug
electric
sliced, seeds removed
24hrs
Basil2
30-Aug
electric
leaves removed from stem
24hrs
Basil3
10-Sep
electric
leaves removed from stem
24hrs
boc choy
10-Sep
electric
in tray
24 hrs
sweet potatoes
0ct 17
electric
sliced, food processor
12 hrs
Kale with olive oil
2-Nov
electric
in tray
12 hrs
Kale with olive oil
2-Nov
electric
in tray
12 hrs
okra
Product Potential
Dried tomatoes and tomato basil mix received great reviews.
Kale Chips: Packaged in plastic or sold “fresh” at market in
paper bags have great potential and are very popular.
Sweet potato chips need another round of effort, texture
was off but lots of potential, great flavor.
Dried Flowers to add to Farmers Market sales are a good
add-on.
Packaging Note
We used a basic kitchen scale and a Foodsaver vacuum sealer to pack the
products in plastic bags and mason jars.
We plan to develop a label and test different packaging this season.
We received feedback that people would prefer glass or paper and want
to work on that piece in 2014.
Sample package
Upcoming Needs and Plans
•
Get the farm certified as a “farm kitchen” to legally sell value
added products in Maryland
•
Address moisture issues in solar dryer by putting it up on a
platform or table.
•
Perfect and finalize recipes in consultation with food safety and
chefs
• Finish packaging, learn to use glass
A Few Resources:
ATTRA
USDA
UNC
UC Davis
I have lots of resources to share that I will post links
on my website, thelettuceedge.com
[email protected]
@tanyatolchin
Special Thanks to:
o All the rock stars at NE SARE
o The Great Farmer Scott Hertzberg for growing
everything we dried
o My Tasting Team esp. Chef Tom Mueller,
Pineapple Alley Catering
o Jim Thompson for all the advice from California
o Ross Williams, fish biologist turned dryer builder
o Maryland Organic Farmers, CASA and Acres
USA for helping to share the findings