The question of dehydrators

It comes to mind often whether or not I need or want a dehydrator to futher enhance or support my explorations into living and raw foods. The Excalibur, popular among raw foodists have never sat particularly well with me, made from plastic, rather expensive, consuming a lot of electricity and removing all that delicious water from foods. But there are of course great things about owning a dehydrator such as gently warming soups and raw dishes to body temperature and maintaining enzyme activity and making crackers and raw bread conveinently and cheaply...so I've been reconsidering purchasing a dehydrator, especially as part of what I want to do is make food for others as well, and at some point do big dinner events and possibly some catering, so a dehydrator would be well used and useful in my kitchen.
One I had seen before and came across again recently is the Living Foods Dehydrator, it is wooden, beautiful and very well made, it is also adaptable to alternative heat sources such as solar. They are heavy and expensive to ship outside of the US but sell the plans so you can make your own. I also came across this blog post about making your own dehydrator from recycled materials. Awesome, cheap, practical and you can make it to your particular specifications. I might ask my younger brother with amazing carpentary skills if he would help me build one. So inspiring to even consider taking something like this into your own hands. There are also a lot of plans on the net to build your own solar ovens. This is the future. The sun.

'Making Time' exhibition by Makeshift in Perth

Dear friends,

We’ve just begun a new project in Perth called ‘Making Time’, as part of the P4 (pilot) initiative from Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts & Performance Space. It’s happening at PICA, where we’ll be pickling, preserving, making jam and having conversations about our practice with participants this weekend only (11am – 6pm Saturday/Sunday) in the Westend Gallery. After Sunday, our improvised test kitchen can still be viewed (without us) until December 19, as part of the Now! Right! Now! live art program.

If you know anyone west side who would be willing to share their pickling skills or recipes with us, has an overburdened olive, fig or lemon tree (or any other surplus backyard produce, native or otherwise), knows where some good public fruit can be found, or who might be interested in visiting us to hear more about what we do … or for any other reason, please send them down quicksticks. We only have a very short time here, so any personal connections would be very much appreciated.

We’re taking appointments for mini preservation workshops by phone (0411 873 322) and email (makingtime@makeshift.com.au). Preservable foodstuffs can be brought in anytime, and recipes can most certainly be emailed to us if you’re too far away to attend in person. We promise to try our hand at anything you send in...

The project can also be followed online here: www.making-time.net
 
Best regards,
Tessa & Karl

makeshift
--
www.makeshift.com.au
& www.makeshift.com.au/journal
0411 873 322 / 9357 1528
mailbox@makeshift.com.au
--

Gwago patabagun _ _ _ We will eat presently

Makeshift's current exhibition at the MCA in Sydney, featuring an Asian style food cart with a hive of native bees and all the equipment to serve pikelets and local honey. For more on the project.

Thoughtfully eating

Makeshift is the collaborative practice of Tessa Rapaport & Karl Logge, artists working across all mediums enabling, encouraging, stimulating, inciting discourse into sustainable futures.
"At the core of all our work is a desire to make people question why things are done the way they are, and how they could be done better."

We will eat presently
current installation at the MCA as part of the exhibition 'In the Balance'

Eating the City
Makeshift's online database of food and design links to complement the subject 'Eating the City 2.0' they are teaching at CoFA in Sydney. Regulary updated with really interesting things!

Makeshift Journal
the process of ideas

love (heart) pikelets

 

Heart shaped buckwheat pikelets served with sour cream and five different locally produced honeys.