Solar Dryer extends harvest and creates microenterprise opportunity

Elyse Peterson is an experienced food scientist in the dairy, seafood, meat, and soft drink industries, Elyse served two terms in the Peace Corps helping promote sustainable food security solutions. As part of her work in the Peace Corps, she helped to develop a Solar Food Dryer which became the catalyst for a community-based food security and economic development project in in Antigua.

We talked to Elyse about this technology, which is highly appropriate for many tropical areas, and may have application into other climate zones:

Photo: Mangoes drying in the sun.

 

TBG: How does Solar Food Drying work?
Solar drying is a low cost method of drying food.  It is important to understand moisture in food and the properties of the air around us.

All food contains moisture which comes in three forms: liquid, solid & gas.  This moisture is what microorganisms need to live and thrive, so in order to stop microorganism growth you may reduce this moisture to a safe level to preserve and extend the shelf-life of your harvest.

The design of the Solar Dryer harnesses the power of the sun's rays to raise temperatures within the unit to between 110 - 130 degrees Farenheit. 

This heat lowers relative humidity while increasing absolute humidity, so that the air inside the unit attempts to reach the absolute humidity of the climate outside the unit by taking moisture from the food.

Coupled with proper air circulation, this is what makes the solar dryer work.

Photo: Solar dryer built with locally available materials in Antigua, 2007.

TGB: What kind of Solar Dryer Designs have you developed?

There are three basic designs of solar dryers that you may follow when building your own solar dryer: direct absorption, indirect heating, and mixed mode. In this project a direct absorption solar dryer was designed because it was found to be the most sustainable for Hawaii’s needs.

In these designs the food is placed inside a cabinet or “hot box” which allows the rays of the sun to heat up food and air around it. A compartment with a transparent roof and insulated walls is used, but if designed properly all the walls can be transparent. These may also use reflectors at the bottom of the compartment to increase light (metal or foil).

Ventilation holes are required to promote proper air circulation. Indirect heating dryers dry the food with heated air collected by a “solar panel”. The food is placed in an insulated heating chamber with proper air circulation.

These models are effective but cost a lot of money. Mixed Mode dryers are a combination of the other two designs. Food is heated directly by the sun but additional heat is collected with the “solar panel”. These can cost about $1300EC to build, effective but expensive.

Businesses attempting to expand and produce higher quality products should look into building one of these models (for the purposes of this project and the situation in Hawaii the direct absorption model is the best fit). When constructing your dryer be sure to follow the design carefully, because the angles achieved are vital for efficient processing.

Photo: Mangoes selected for drying are peeled and cut.

TGB: How do we select produce to dry?
When selecting food to process in the solar dryer it is important to remember that drying will not improve the quality of the produce. Only produce that you would consume fresh should be dried.

Produce with cuts, bruises, or other evidence of contamination should not be used. Select fruit that is ripe yet firm. Using over-ripe fruit can cause the final product to come out brown and sticky. Ripeness is about 2/3 ripe.

Photo: Mango is prepared for dehydration in the Solar Dryer.

TGB: How do we prepare produce for drying?
Produce shall be soaked in a bleach solution to remove microbial contamination (1 tsp bleach in 1 gallon water). Peel fruits and cut into appropriate sized pieces. The smaller the size piece the faster the drying time. As the size of the piece increases the time for drying grows exponentially.

Example: A slice or piece two times larger with take four times longer to dry. Experiment with your dryer to see what size piece is the best.

TGB: Doesn't that mean we will be eating bleach? 

There are alternative methods for sanitation, but bleach is the most available and inexpensive. One must remember that bleach is highly volatile. It evaporates into the air, so there is essentially no bleach on the product by the time we eat it. This is a standard practice in the food industry that many of us don't know about but owe our safety to.

 

Photo: Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha utilizes the Solar Dryer.

TGB: Does it work in the rain? How long does it take?
No.  The dryer should only be used on days with consistent powerful sun as to reduce the time required for drying. Depending on the results you may find it necessary to rotate the trays throughout the day so every tray gets equal amounts of direct sun exposure.

Drying should take about 12 hours of full sun power (possibly one day with good sun). Optimal temperature for solid drying is 110-120°F but 130°F will be the most effective temperature. Putting a thermometer in the dryer during processing is a  safe way of monitoring the efficiency of your dryer.

Keep a close eye on the produce towards the end of drying because drying happens at a faster rate just before it’s reached 10% moisture. To test for doneness you should see that vegetables at about 10% moisture will be brittle and easily can be broken apart.

Fruits should be soft and chewy, but test the moisture content to verify 5-8% moisture (refer to Principles of Solar Drying). There are a few quality issues that need to be considered when solar drying produce.

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For more information and detailed instructions on how to build your own Solar Food Dryerin Hawaii, download the Solar Dryer Manual here:

solar-dryer-manual-hawaii.pdf Download this file

Making fuel briquettes from waste materials

We came across this innovative little piece of appropriate technology developed by Beaverton Rotary during our research prior to the consultancy trip this March which is has been used successfully in other developing nations to start microenterprises:

The device uses a car tire jack to compress locally available organic waste material (such as rice or coffee husks, shredded paper, dried grass or leaves, etc) into a high-density, slower-and-cleaner-burning fuel briquettes.  

This could be adapted to Mongolian conditions, although adjustments would need to be made:

• Briquettes can only be made during warmer months, when rivers are flowing and the briquettes can dry out.
• Water squeezed from the press during the manufacturing process should be caught and used on crops, as this water will contain 'pulp' organic matter that will break down and help build soils. 
• Suitable organic matter needs to be found: paper waste is plentiful in urban areas, and once trees and/or crop systems are established, the plants may drop enough organic waste matter to be used for briquettes.  

Populus laurifoila grow prolifically on the floodplain we crossed en route to Altaitsudz soum.

Once again, we can see how valuable tree-cropping systems can be for creating food security and economic opportunity.  Appropriately selected species of trees can provide:

• Renewable sources of winter fuels (coppiced woodlots).
• Emergency animal fodder (Ulmus and some Salix species).
• Human nutrition (fruit & nut trees).
• Construction materials (Larch and Spruce).
• Bimoass (all of the above species + more), which can be used to protect & build soils (mulches, green manures & biochar) and create an additional fuel supply through biogas (fermentation process).

For more information about the Peterson Press, download this information brochure:

How_to_Make_Fuel_Briquettes_-_web.pdf Download this file

 

Regenerative Business in Bayan Ulgii (Day 17)

 Theme Song for the day: 'Money', by PInk Floyd.

 

Photo:Regenerative Business is...

Today we played a game called: 'Let's Lend Money to Matt. 

But first, the morning was spent in lecture-format, to lay a foundational understanding of the Principles of Regenerative Business:

  1. Only buy Assets which regenerate themselves.

Photo: Petrol pumps are perceived as a high-value asset, however are costly to run and maintain.  A pump powered by renewable energy (such as a solar or RAM pump) would be examples of regenerative assets.

   2. Business is a Team Sport.

Photo:Creating support systems for your business increases your available resources to tackle challenges and capitalize upon opportunities.

  3. Invest Profits into your Community.

Photo: Investing in the community the business operates in cycles energy back into the people who support the business in the first place, creating a positive feedback loop which can increasingly flourish over time.

  

Students were then asked to pretend they were a bank, and I was a customer seeking a small loan from them to start a business.  Their bank (and the loan they would give me, if they decided I was qualified candidate) was based on their pooled savings, and so what kind of questions did they have for me?

•   What kind of business? (I'm gonna sell tour packages of Bayan Ulgii Province)
•   What is your business plan? (I'm gonna sell a lotta tour packages!)
•   Where will your business be located? (Above the pub, of course.  For networking and public relations purposes.  Of course.)
•   Show us your SWOT! (...as in Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats-Analysis).
•   Have you sought permission from the authorities?  (Yes, of course...)  ...Prove it.
•   How much money will you make? (One MILLion Dollarrrrsss!!.....(in your best 'Dr. Evil' voice))
•   How much money are you making right now? (Ummmmm..... not so much?)
•   Well then what can you give us for security? (Well... I have this eagle ring you might like....??)
  

The game was presented farcically, and students had a lot of fun interrogating their poor Instructor (who just wanted a small loan of 1,000,000 MNT (approx $10,000 USD), after all!), coming up with the novel idea of requiring me to marry a local suitor (named Gugan, remember her from the design briefs?) of their choosing in order to ensure i) that profits would be cycled back into the local community, and ii) that she would sort me out if profits were not cycled back into the community (Mongol-Kazakh women are very strong).  Quick learners, and crafty dealmakers too!

The entire exercise was designed to give students an interactive lesson to utilize the principles discussed in the morning sessions, to demonstrate how to teach financial literacy with an engaging experience, and -to see if I could actually get them to lend me the money- to facilitate the process of forming individuals into a Self-Help-Group (SHG), which will form the basis of the project's microfinance initiative.  Studies of sustainable SHGs in India indicate that groups which are savings-based (ie lend their own money) are more likely to succeed and flourish(i).

Beneficiaries will form informal support groups based on needs, proximity to each other, and personalities - especially as so much infrastructure (root cellar + passive solar greenhouse + drip irrigation system) will be built over the summer of the first year.  Learning curves will be steep in the first two years (training will be mostly hands-on, learning by doing, while in winter months theoretical 'debrief' lessons can be facilitated), and beneficiaries can accelerate their learning by sharing information, lessons learned, and resources.

Only when a family's basic needs are met, and a surplus in crop production is achieved can we shift our focus to developing microenterprise; however, the foundation for credit co-operatives and SHGs can be laid as early as Year 1, when informal support groups form to self-organize working bees and information sharing sessions.  Seed-saving groups (which are necessary to ensure the sustainability of any aid & development initiative so that beneficiaries are independent from having to purchase seed each to year to grow a crop) can grow into seed-banks, which can then grow into savings & loans SHGs as the group's needs evolve.

Leadership, membership, and systems (the three key factors in the sustainability of SHGs)(ii) can be nurtured to grow and dvelop from these informal support and seed-saving groups.

The step from saving seeds together is not a huge leap to saving money together; the seeds for regenerative economic development can be sown through permaculture design.

Photo: Words of wisdom from Bill Mollison.

 

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(i) 'Sustainability of Self-Help Groups in India, part I - Do India's Self-help Groups Provide Value for Money?', by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), 2007

(Ii) 'Sustainability of Self-Help Groups in India, part II - Designing SHG Programs for the Long Term' , by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), 2007

 

Chickens in Bayan Ulgii (Day 14)

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[Excerpt from SEAL 2011 Permaculture Design Training Report, by Matthew Lynch]

Mongolian chickens are very cold hardy breed that lay one egg every 1-2 days from March until October.  There are successful breeders currently raising chickens in Ulgii City; ADRA staff brought us to one family hasha during our pre-course resource inventory to meet with a breeder and view her system.

Photo: Heavily insulated chicken house design with warm-weather chicken run attached to entryway.

A small, well-designed and  fully insulated (including the floor) earthen shelter is sufficient to keep the chickens warm throughout the winter without active heating.  The site we visited had a small earthen chicken house (approximately 2 x 1 x 1 meters) nestled in a corner between the outer hasha wall and an earthen block storage shed, with a south-facing aspect.  A small caged chicken house of similar dimensions was built over the entryway for use in warmer months. 

The compact size and strong insulation (layers of felt insulation were also installed over the floor) of the winter shelter helps to conserve the chickens' precious body heat, which was sufficient to heat the chicken house throughout the winter.  Household food scraps and grain bought from the local market provide their feed, and they are let out during the day to forage and scratch in the hasha courtyard.  The children bring the chickens water from the house, and the shelter is cleaned out once every couple of weeks.

 Photo: The Rooster watches over his hens.

Photo: The flock huddles together against the cold.

Photo: The owner demonstrates how she calls the chickens to feed.

This flock of 10-12 chickens has been thriving for the last 10 years in this design, laying 5-10 eggs per day from March - October, providing eggs, meat, and baby chickens when need, as well as an additional family income of 300MNT per egg (360,000 - 720,000MNT annually)(i).  A strong demand for fresh eggs exists, and this family is easily able to sell all their surplus eggs to the neighbours. 

Successfully introducing chickens into a permaculture system for Ulgii City will have multiple benefits: increasing food security, boosting nutrition, building soil fertility, and creating additional income sources from microenterprises based upon chicken products (eggs, meat, baby chickens, perhaps even baking).

The existing design, while effective, could be modified to become more productive, functional, and resilient by integrating the chickens into a permacultural food production system. 

For example, a passive solar greenhouse would make an excellent winter run for the chickens, keeping the birds out of the wind and in the warmth of the sun during the day, while providing fertility and preparing the soils for a jump-start on the short Mongolian growing season.  Locating the heavily insulated winter shelter next to the greenhouse (so that it can be entered from the courtyard or from the greenhouse) could make it easier to clean; a larger door could be installed on the greenhouse side of the shelter (since it opens into a warm still-air chamber), and the dropping simply swept out into the greenhouse to be used as fertilizer.

Fruit trees such as seabuckthorn and blackcurrant could be grown along the hasha walls, to take advantage of the chicken manure during warmer months when the birds can be let out of the greenhouse.  Grasses and 'weeds' such as fat hen and plantain, could be cultivated and encouraged within the hasha walls and fed to the chickens to boost the quality of the eggs (layers who are fed greens will produce eggs with healthy, bright yellow yolks).

Photo: These chickens' hasha courtyard is bare.

Photo: Outer entrance.

Photo: Inner entrance.

Photo: Family watchdog doubles as chickens' bodyguard.

Photo: Chicken's bodyguard warns us off.

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(i) 1,500 MNT per month would be considered a strong salary in Bayan Ulgii.

Mongolian Permaculture: Day 24 – Microfinance

WHICH GUY WOULD YOU WANNA LEARN ABOUT FINANCE FROM?
...EVOLUTION.

Two years ago I read a book called: Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus.

I had recently closed my business, and was desperately looking for something to jump right back into so that I could make back all the money I had lost.

In six short months I had gone from flying around the islands teaching finance classes 2-3 times per week, supported by a small, super-efficient team that allowed me a 4 ½ day work week, and making more money each month than many people earned in ½ year …to working for a former Investment Banker 16–20 hours/day, 6-7 days per week.

Reading the book sparked a transition in thinking which changed my entire perspective on money, finance, and financial literacy.

There I was, worrying about all the the income, the material items, and the socioeconomic status I had lost …when in a blinding flash of the obvious, the realization struck that over half the world is living on less than 1 dollar per day.

Yunus’ book told the story of how he, a college professor with no entrepreneurial background, had an epiphany one day while walking to the high-finance class he was teaching.

As he walked through the poverty of the neighbouring village reviewing his lesson plan in his head, something dawned upon him...

If he applied this knowledge towards helping the people surrounding him, he could make a far greater impact upon improving their quality of life than if he spent his life teaching privileged students, who would then go on to leave their communities in search of better lifestyles elsewhere for their families.

Thus was born the concept of microfinance: lending tiny amounts of money to those whom were deemed unimportant and unprofitable by lending institutions, in communities where severely limited opportunities exist.

Yunus designed a system to educate, equip, and empower some of the poorest people on earth to create new opportunities through these small loans which allowed them to create micro-enterprises which could generate incomes for their families.

Grameen Bank was founded, and went on to create a billion-dollar institution which helped hundreds of thousands of people in Bangledesh to finance and create small businesses of their own to break the cycle of poverty in their communities. Traditional banks in developed countries are still amazed at the low default rate and high profit margins of a Grameen Bank, which makes its loans $25 at a time.

This got me thinking – perhaps I could use all the lessons I have learned in business and finance over the last 10 years to do something bigger than finance my [formerly] affluent lifestyle. There is far more to life than $300 dinner tabs, driving a fancy car and living in a wealthy neighborhood.

Problem was, I had no idea how to make the transition from flat-broke former businessman to social entrepreneur working on projects to contribute to the betterment of humanity.

Two years later, somehow I find myself in Outer Mongolia preparing a lesson plan to teach nomadic herders the basics of business and finance.

My lesson plan was simple:

1. Introduce myself and explain why Rick has asked the course photographer to teach a class on finance.
   
   
2. Break the class up into four groups - i) Co-Operative Members
   ii) Co-Operative Leaders
   iii) Field Officers
   iv) Project Managers
   [Demonstrate how different perspectives, at all levels, are crucial to gain a deeper perspective of your organization to support future planning].
   
   
3. Brainstorm for 20 minutes on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to their existing enterprises/projects.
   [Demonstrate how SWOT analysis tool can be used to lay foundation for future planning.]
   
   
4. Facilitate discussion amongst class to examine what is working, what is not working, and how they can improve.
   [Identify areas of most urgent need, and demonstrate how valuable a resource the support network they have created here with each other can be.]
   
   
5. Highlight and examine wins and problem areas to explore and create possible strategies to overcome challenges. [Open the door to this kind of continuing conversation to learn from each other’s successes and failures, add input where appropriate if group is unable to come up with solutions. Bek has identified sales and marketing as one of their weakest areas, so cover 3 Fundamental Principles of Marketing here.]
   
   
6. Introduce and explore 3 Fundamentals Principles of Business through class discussion. [Provide framework to work from in designing their organizational structures and business plans going forward.]

Class highlight: as I began the transition from my twenty-now-fourty minute SWOT brainstorm, a policeman appears at the back entrance to the tent. Bek and I keep a nervous eye on the officer and continue in hopes that he will disappear, but he moves quietly towards Gumbataar, and I groan inwardly with visions of him being carted off in handcuffs…

…then it is Bek’s turn to flinch as the officer asks to speak with The Boss… turns out that the police have shown up to commandeer our metal tent pegs for their own tent, and have generously brought wooden replacement stakes for us.

We take an unplanned morning tea break to switch out all the tent pegs, grab a quick cup of tea, and then resume the lesson with a big sigh of relief.

The 3 Fundamentals of Business that I shared with the nomadic herders?

1. Business is a Team Sport.
   None of us is smarter than all of us.
   
   Problems and challenges shrink relative to the number of like minds working towards a solution.
   
   The SWOT brainstorming group session was analyzed and discussed to highlight why and how to use this tool effectively.
   
   
   
2. Assets feed you. Liabilities eat you. Focus on buying assets.
   The class was asked to classify a petrol water pump as an asset or liability.
   
   Concensus was that it is an asset because it represents a large investment and was necessary to irrigate their crop fields. However, if co-operatives’ income were interrupted, the petrol pump would begin to ‘eat’ them because of the high and rising costs of petrol to keep it running.
   
   In contrast, a pump running on wind, solar, water power would begin to ‘feed’ co-operatives almost immediately after the initial purchase because low operating and maintenance costs will create a far quicker return on investment.
   
   
3. Use profits to strengthen your community. The example of Cuba and their transition from a high-energy to low-energy society was given.
   
   Community leaders recognized the need to change pro-actively with changing times, and those with growing knowledge and ability became the new wealthy.
   
   The shift to natural, organic, low-energy food production systems led to better health and money earnt from food production cycled into the local economy to help create stronger communities.
   
   

As I type, I realize how ambitious it was to cover all of this in just 1 hour …no surprise that my class went for 1 hour, 40 minutes! Unfortunately we were unable to cover any of the marketing lesson I had planned, though Bek tells me later that the class was highly engaged and interested with what we were able to get through.

Biggest lessons learned with input from Rick and Kat on how to improve my teaching:

• Include a review mechanism in the lesson plan to check and see what the class has learnt.
• When using a story to illustrate a point, be sure that the connection between story and point is very clear.
• Plan mechanisms to compress your lesson should one area begin to run overtime.

Today I made my first small steps towards becoming that social entrepreneur whom I envisioned two short years ago.

I love this work.