GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

428 HARVESTING, STORING AND PACKING
Figure 381. A commercial dehydrator utilizing a large volume of air to remove moisture from mushrooms.
Fresh mushrooms are placed onto screened shelves on wheeled racks, entering the drier downstream from the
drying mushrooms. Hundreds of pounds of mushrooms can be dried at one time, inexpensively.
natural form or powdered for soups, spice mixtures,
teas, etc. Some cultivators actually sterilize
their dried mushrooms, without harm, to prolong
storage. Sterilization assures that no bacteria, insect
eggs, or other microorganisms consume the
crop during storage. Once dried, the mushrooms
should be hermetically sealed, and ideallyfrozen
until needed.
Many types of dehydrators can be used for
drying mushrooms.The smallest are those also
marketed for home use in the drying of fruits,
meat, and fish. For most growers, home dehydrators
have insufficient capacity so many
fashion their own dehydrators .Window screens
can be stacked within a vertical framework, 3-
4 inches apart. At the bottom, heat lamps or an
electric coil, are positioned. Ample air inlets are
located near ground level. The vertical frame-
work is solid save for a hinged door on one face
which allows easy insertion and retrieval of
trays.A fan is located at the top, drawing air out
of the dehydrator. This arrangement insures a
chimney effect whereby heated air is drawn
through the bottom and exhausted out the top.
The humidity of the incoming air greatly affects
the efficiency of this type of dryer. Some growers
locate their dryers in hot rooms, typically
low humidity greenhouse-like environments,
which helps the drying process.
The best commercial dryer I have seen is also
the simplest. Mushrooms are placed onto trays
and stacked into vertical racks equipped with
wheels. The wheeled racks are inserted into a
large plastic wind tunnel. (See Figure 381 .)The
plastic wind tunnel can be kept inflated by
hoops of plastic pipe and through the force of
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