[NOMADE DES MERS ] A solar encounter!
Date of publication: November 26th, 2020
Writer: Guénolé Conrad
Place: Oaxaca region, Mexico
During our Mexican stopover, we enjoyed the abundant diversity of local fruits and vegetables: coconut, passion fruit, pineapple, papaya, mangoes, green tomatoes, cactus, peppers and many others!
Unfortunately, we learn that 54% of the country’s annual mango production is lost. Imagine, some 300,000 tons of mangoes per year! No wonder that on a global scale, 1/3 of our garbage is organic waste. However, it is never too late to change things!
Thanks to Juana, a Mexican friend we met through the “International Solar Cookers” network, we were put in touch with Poli & Rodrigo. A young couple of entrepreneurs full of energy! Under the great sun of the Oaxaca state, Poli & Rod are dedicated to the conservation of local seasonal fruits through solar dehydration. An exciting project that proposes a simple technique to avoid food waste 🤩
They collect unsold fruits and vegetables from many farmers in the region. They peel them, cut them into thin slices and expose them to the sun and wind on the roof of their house. The simplest drying room there is: shelves protected from insects by a mosquito net. In 2 days, they obtain tasty fruits that are 80% dehydrated. A passage in an electric dryer allows them to finish the work and make sure that the fruits can be preserved for months! For 30kg of fresh fruit, they still obtain 4 to 5 kg of dehydrated fruit.
This method requires little initial investment, little maintenance and allows to create value with surpluses considered as waste! In addition, it allows us to consume our favorite fruits in any season while preserving their vitamins and nutritional value. What more could you ask for?
We, in any case, are totally convinced ! And we quickly adopted it aboard Nomade des Mers. Especially since during long crossings, it is often complicated to preserve fruits and vegetables. We took the opportunity to shoot a video tutorial which will be available soon…
Thanks to them for their warm welcome! We wish them a lot of success and that the idea is replicated all over the world.
