How to Make Drying Shelves for Vegetables

Drying shelves turn your backyard into a home dehydration area for vegetables. The best vegetables to dry outside on drying shelves are tomatoes, peas and peppers, notes Casey Keller in "Quick Fix Healthy Mix: 225 Healthy and Affordable Mix Recipes to Stock Your Kitchen." With basic supplies from a hardware store and rudimentary building skills, you can construct one or more drying shelves in a morning to begin drying your vegetables in the afternoon.

2-inch by 1-inch by 72-inch board
Saw
3-inch nails
Non-metallic screen or cheesecloth
Heavy-duty scissors
Staple gun
4 bricks or cinder blocks

Instructions

- 1
  Cut the board into two 24-inch pieces and two 12-inch lengths.
- 2
  Saw off the ends of each of the boards to create 45 degree angles.
- 3
  Arrange the longer pieces parallel to each other with the shorter boards at either end to create a rectangle.
- 4
  Insert nails through the corners to create a picture frame shape.
- 5
  Cut the screen to completely cover the frame.
- 6
  Stretch the screen over the frame, and staple it onto the frame with the staple gun.
- 7
  Suspend the drying shelf above the ground on top of two bricks on cinder blocks placed under the shorter sides of the frame.
- 8
  Place a second pair of bricks on top of the frame over the first bricks to hold the frame in place.

How to Grow Asparagus From Rootstock

How to Grow Lentils Indoors

Growing Edibles