Solar Fruit Dryer

We've had such a strong apple crop this year—not to mention all the pears, plus some peaches from a friend's tree—that we've had to come up with a way to preserve the fruit.  Along with freezing and some bottling, Valerie has been drying a lot of it.  Using an electric fruit dryer loaned/donated to us from the in-laws, we've accumulated bags and bags of dried apples.  Of course, what the true hippie-greenies say is that we are using more energy—generated from the combustion of fossil fuels—to dry the fruit than the fruit is worth.  I don't know if this is true, but I read about it in one of these how-to-live-off-the-grid type magazines.

In any case, it is true that we have very strong solar radiation and very low humidity in southern Utah, and that we are heating the fruit dryer in the house on the same sunny days that we are running the air conditioner to cool the house.  To get around this contradiction, I have created a solar fruit dryer.  Tada!  See picture, above.  Using a design recommended by our friend Kelly Buemer, I clamped two window screens together with simple wood-working clamps.  The fruit can rest between the screens, and we've decided to set the whole thing inside the car during the day where it gets really, really hot.  Of course, while I can take credit for the sophisticated engineering and construction, it will actually fall to Valerie to do all the work of processing and drying another 40 pounds of apples.  How does that saying go?  Genius is 1% engineering (me) and 99% perspiration (Valerie).