Anyone sun dry peppers?

[austin87]

I know a lot of folks seem to be fans of the dehydrators. I don't have one and have a small space, so I was thinking about trying to dry them in the sun at the end of the season.
 
The plan would be to place peppers cut in half on a screen stretched over a small frame of 2'x4's for good air circulation and give them a couple days.
 
Anyone ever give this a shot? Pros/cons?

 

[hogleg]

It works good with goatsweed and other thin skinned annuum, not so much with rocoto and manzano 

 

[austin87]

It works good with goatsweed and other thin skinned annuum, not so much with rocoto and manzano 

I've not growing any rocoto or manzano this year. I think most of my peppers are fairly thin skinned chinense (scotch bonnets, bhuts, yellow bbg7, reapers, wartryx) and I would think my two thickest skinned peppers would be jalapeño and poblano. Would it work for those?

 

[hogleg]

Chinense have a more delicate flesh IMO, I dont sundry mine. I slow dry em on top of my fridge halved on paper plates. I dont have ac and its pretty fricken hot and dry here end of summer, takes about a week+

 

[Dan Piepho]

I've not growing any rocoto or manzano this year. I think most of my peppers are fairly thin skinned chinense (scotch bonnets, bhuts, yellow bbg7, reapers, wartryx) and I would think my two thickest skinned peppers would be jalapeño and poblano. Would it work for those?

They should work, especially if sliced or cut in half. I've sun dried tomatoes in 1/2 inch thick slices. Just need to protect from birds and egg laying bugs if that matters to you.

 

[geeme]

I am also in Ohio, in the NE corner area. My next door neighbor always dries his chiles outdoors in the sun. He strings them together by their stems and hangs them from the corner of his garage. Look up "ristra" - the traditional way of drying chiles. 

 

[Spicy Mushroom]

^What Geeme said. That's how my grandmother would always dry hers. There were strings upon strings of those things drying whenever my family would visit. Really neat to see. I'd avoid putting them in direct sunshine though as I think that will leech the color out pretty quick..

 

[karoo]

I only sundry my peppers , but you quickly realize why certain peppers have been selected by people to dry and others not.
The traditional cayenne , paprika , alleppo and guajillo dry very easily , uncut . They also keep their colour better and you can break them into flakes by hand.
I have not tried any of the others.
Older civilisations have tried and tested, we should just follow.