Making a Food Drying Rack

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Yesterday, I build my wife a drying rack, she has been wanting.  She intends to start drying fruit, vegetables and maybe meat outdoors.  A friend who dries fruit and vegetables on a similar rack says he can dry most things in one day if they are cut thin.

The rack was easy to make and once I had the materials took less than an hour.  The one I built measures 3 X 5 feet.  The materials list is shown below.

  • 2 – 5ft. lengths of ¾” PVC
  • 6 – 3ft. lengths of ¾” PVC
  • 4 – ¾ to ½ in male adapters
  • 4 – ¾” 90 degree side outlet elbows, to take ½” male adapter.
  • a 3 x 5ft. section of ¼” hardware cloth
  • 20 6” cable ties
  • I can of PVC cement

This is enough material to provide you with a finished 3 x 5 rack that is 3 ft high.

This shows the 90 degree side outlet elbows with the male adapters screwed in
This picture show how the legs unscrew for storage

Fit the 2 – 5 ft. lengths of PVC together with 2 – 3 ft lengths using the 4 – 90 degree side outlet elbows. This will make a 3 x 5 rectangle.  Glue the corners together.

Take the remaining 4 – 3 ft lengths of PVC and glue a 3/4″ male adapter,  one to each length..

Screw the male adapters into the 90 degree side outlet elbows.  This gives you the 4 legs.

 

The frame is now finished.  Now lay the hardware cloth on top and attach it with the plastic cable ties.

Attaching the hardware cloth with the cable ties.

Your rack should now be finished and ready to use.

We will let you know the results of our drying efforts in a few days.

Howard

See also  Suet and Tallow

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9 thoughts on “Making a Food Drying Rack”

  1. I remember when we first discussed the drying rack my top concern was that flies/etc. would disturb the food, but you mentioned a reason they would not. Can you remind me why that is?

  2. What a clever idea! Will you share in future posts how to keep the bugs out and how to keep ants from crawling up the legs of the rack? Thank you for sharing your creative ideas with us.

  3. Thanks for the info.
    The drying rack looks fairly easy to make. I am wondering though how well it would work here in Ontario. Our summers can be very humid.
    Erika Wolff

  4. thanks…i am gonna try this out maybe this weekend. i had an elderly neighbor who used to do this using window screens propped up on top of her car…she had the best fried apple pies made from her dried fruit.

  5. Wow … it’s an interesting tutorial. Incidentally, I was in need of food drying racks to start my small business. I was with my sister tried to start a business selling cookies in the package. I can not wait to try him. Thanks for sharing the information in this post.

  6. Thank you so much for sharing…This is my next project as soon as my other works are done. Hope comes out as great as yours. Wants make for my spicy Rice flour tortilla /nuddles/nuggets & Potatoes chips to dry.

  7. Thank you so much for sharing…This is my next project as soon as my other works are done. Really wants to make for my rice flour tortilla/nuddles/nuggets & potatoes chips…Hope, comes out as great as yours…

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