Roy and I are attempting to find some ways of food preservation that will work out here. Obviously canning works for us, but we are wanting to find ways that anyone who lives here can do, even with very little resources. We found a solar food dryer that works on the concept of convection (no actual solar panel, electricity, or battery involved). However, we don't actually have plans for building one, just an illustration in a book. We are attempting to make it using only things that are readily on hand here in Kabala. If we can make it work, we are going to attempt to teach others how to dry various fruits and vegetables and store them so that fruits and vegetables ( and thus vitamin C, ribofavin, niacin, etc.) will be available in and out of season.
Roy and Mr. Noah (a carpenter and good friend) spent a day or two collaborating and have made a wooden box and a tray using glass suspended above a piece of roofing zinc that we painted black to be a reflective surface. The plan is that the green house effect will heat the air, causing it to rise into the top of the wooden box and that it will then circulate down through the food as it cools, carrying the moisture with it. We set it out today and the air b/w the glass and the zinc has heated to 165 F. I put some cabbage in the box in order to do a test run. Wish us luck!!! If anyone has any insights or ideas, please send them our way!