The mushroom pickers, gathering in the woods, do not think about what they will do with two buckets of selected mushrooms, podberezovikov with the boletus. Collected plate mushrooms, tulips, chanterelles, mushrooms and honey agarics will go to salting - they are all clear. But tubular mushrooms will require drying, and not just drying, but a qualified approach, a thoughtful unhurried implementation of the whole process, which will result in several kilograms of high-quality dried mushrooms. This will require a dryer for mushrooms - a fairly simple device.
Of course, there is not much anyone at home will have equipment for drying mushrooms by sublimation, and besides this technique is far from perfect and does not give a fragrant, remarkable in its natural elasticity of the fungus. Sublimated mushrooms are hard, hard, brittle and, of course, tasteless. The same is obtained with the use of factory-made mushroom dryers. The stores are full of all kinds of "Squirrels", "Sukhoveyami", "Miracles" and "Wind". The price of these clever devices is 2-4 thousand rubles, and the mushrooms from them are such that they can be thrown out and go again to the forest. It's all about the haste of "Belochok" and "Miracles", which are equipped with powerful heaters. The passport loudly announces: "our dryer for mushrooms will dry your mushrooms in a few minutes." The speed of drying is given for undeniable dignity, and in fact mushrooms and berries do not tolerate rapid drying, they shrink, hide from heat and eventually perish. Therefore, the mushrooms should be dried using the grandfather's method, when mushrooms and berries were laid out on a wide Russian stove and dried there for two weeks and one day. Or a dryer for mushrooms and berries should be based on natural drying in the sun and under the breeze.
But the Russian oven is not at everyone, now on summer residences there are more and more gas stoves. So, you need to make an adaptation that will be your faithful assistant from year to year in the matter of drying the mushrooms collected in the forest. For effective uniform drying, four rules must be observed. Mushrooms are cut into pieces-cubes measuring 2.5 by 2.5 centimeters. The cut mushrooms are laid out evenly so that the pieces do not climb against each other. Mushroom dryer, the construction of which we will discuss later, should be located under the wall of the house, on the side where the breeze always blows. Set the drying should be at a height of 80 cm from the ground, under a high awning. And the last is a gauze curtain, which will cover mushrooms from flies.
Dryer for mushrooms is quite simple, you can make it yourself. It will take two coils of fishing line 0,8 mm, four wooden bars with a cross section of 40 mm, a length of 1200 mm, as well as four brusks 50 mm thick, 800 mm long. In addition, you need to stock up with 30 mm galvanized stainless nails to stretch the line and nails 110 mm to connect the horizontal bars with vertical posts. Through the entire length of the horizontal bars in a neat row drive the studs so that the hat does not reach the wood by 10 mm, and between the studs there was a distance of 15 mm. After all the four bars are even rows of columns, you can connect the bars to the posts. Apply the end of the bar (studs up) to the stand, at a distance of 80 cm from the edge, and drive a few long nails. We do the same with the other bars. The result should be a square frame on the legs.
The mushroom dryer with its own hands will be a success, if at the next stage of production, pull the fishing line correctly between the two opposite sides of the frame - so that parallel rows of stretched lines are produced. Then pull the line between the other sides of the frame. It is possible to pass the end of the line alternately through perpendicular rows, "one after one". In this case, we get an interlacing. But you can pull on top of existing rows. Then it remains to install the finished drying under the wall of the house, fill it with chopped mushrooms and cover them with a gauze curtain. The whole construction will be blown by the breeze, warmed by the sun and in a few days you will get magnificent dried mushrooms.