August 06, 2004
Orðanc II
And now the answer to the question I posed the other day: it’s a setup for drying herbs, specifically in this case (as Madhava indicated, though I suspect solely from the file name of the image) mint.
It’s a box fan with herbs from our garden (as I said specifically in this case mint, both leaves and flowers) sandwiched between air filters weighed down with some cans. The idea is the extra air circulation allows the herbs to dry much faster. We first did it with two layers, but I think our air filters are don’t permit enough airflow to allow more than one layer of herbs, as the process was somewhat slower than expected. We’re tried it again with only one layer and achieved bone-dryness in about a day.
This brilliant invention is not ours, but in fact comes from Alton Brown. Incidentally, have a look at the latest entry (June 30th) in Alton’s blog for a very amusing photo.
Posted by Mark at August 6, 2004 12:05 AM