dehydrating

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I had them pretty thin, but will try even thinner. It would be nice to be able to have a flour consistency while maximizing product in the dehydrator, though.

My feed grinder will make flour but it's not meant for these small amounts.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

@ClemKadiddlehopper
Hope it's okay to post this here. A friend emailed instructions and I did a post. It's been so long, the pictures aren't loading on my screen, but you can read what she did and the differences. Might be helpful.
https://www.thelocustblossom.com/2015/01/marys-dehydrated-potatoes-from-scratch.html

Absolutely OK.

 

[Tommyice]

@ClemKadiddlehopper maybe it was the variety of potato used that made them so hard to grind?

I've done so little dehydrating so just throwing out ideas.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Dehydrated veggies get very hard. The blades on coffee grinders and in blenders are shaped and positioned too high and the resulting grind is too course and uneven for smooth rehydrating.

I realized in the middle of the night that I owned a kitchen -aid grinder attachment though I have never used it. I did find it in an unpacked box and it did refine the grind considerably to an almost flour consistency.

The potatoes were still grainy but not near as bad. Gravy has a chance of hiding the texture.

I found that 1 T. potato powder to 1/3 C. hot milk to be a reasonable ratio for rehydration.

 

[Tootsie]

This week’s fun. Apricots, strawberries, pineapple, celery, and grapes. Grapes cut in half worked well.
The pineapple is so good that it disappears as soon as it’s done.
The apricots were a #10 can.

 

[LadyLocust]

Have the small dehydrator loaded with apricots.

 

[Bacpacker]

I need to load ours up with tomatos

 

[Bacpacker]

Set up a station to slice up a bunch of ripe maters to dehydrate. Filled 7 of the 9 trays in my Excaliber. 2 of those were small slices or chuncks from the tops. I had less than a bowl of scraps. Did some trays with basil, some oregeno, some with cayenne flakes. All of them got a little garlic salt, some more than others. Unloaded a 5 gallon bucket to refill the counter for final ripening.

 

[Amish Heart]

Just took trays of sliced cabbage out of the dehydrator, and had meats in the freeze dryer.

 

[Bacpacker]

Just took trays of sliced cabbage out of the dehydrator, and had meats in the freeze dryer.

How do you do your cabbage?

 

[Amish Heart]

I just chop it in ribbons (strips) and put in on the trays. Have to do every other tray.

 

[Bacpacker]

Never tried cabbage. I'll give that a shot

 

[Amish Heart]

I add a handful to vegetable soup, or other soups I make in the crockpot. It comes back real well.

 

[Bacpacker]

Thats a nice bulk to a soup. Wife makes a cabbage soup we like at times. Don't recall what all is in it

 

[Amish Heart]

Mmmmm....cabbage and new potato soup. Well, not now. It's too hot out.

 

[Bacpacker]

Mmmmm....cabbage and new potato soup. Well, not now. It's too hot out.

Now I may be looking for a head of cabbage tomorrow

 

[Amish Heart]

I grew some and have some heads in the fridge I'm either going to have to dehydrate or make some coleslaw with it. I love the purple cabbage. Green cabbage at our Aldi is still 65 cents a lb, so it's pretty cheap to dehydrate. Purple cabbage at our Kroger Store is crazy high priced, but we did manage to grow a few. And just started new seedlings to try to get some more before the first freeze.
Goal for tomorrow's Aldi shopping....get sales. Somethings will go in the dehydrators just fine. Some in the freeze dryer.

 

[LadyLocust]

Thank you @Amish Heart and @Bacpacker for having that conversation. I have cabbage to pick in the morning

 

[Tootsie]

And cabbage too will be appearing at the local farm stands. Best to get it early, and affordably.

 

[LadyLocust]

Big dehydrator has cabbage, smaller one still working through apricots.

 

[Dani]

@Amish Heart Why dehyrate at every other tray?

 

[joel]

The cool thing about dehydrating is it is one of two ways to overwinter food without the grid, not just off grid, but no grid at all.
The other is canning, which is so easy on grid, but can be done in a cast iron cook pot.

 

[Amish Heart]

Every other tray on the Excalibur if I pile on the shredded cabbage.

 

[LadyLocust]

Both dehydrators are empty - but that will all change tomorrow -

 

[snappy1]

Did 6 trays of figs. When all trays are dry, I will do a couple of bags of marshmallows, just as a test.

 

[Amish Heart]

I like doing mini marshmallows. We have a jar of them next to the hot cocoa mix in the kitchen.

 

[Peanut]

Did 6 trays of figs. When all trays are dry, I will do a couple of bags of marshmallows, just as a test.

Any tricks to figs... to late for this year, my figs are gone but I'd like to know for next year. One year I tried dehydrating figs, about half molded while in the dehydrator. I tossed them and haven't tried since.

Took my Mountain Mint out of the Excalibur today (48hrs). Nice and dry, will vacuum seal it in mason jars for now. (I'm going to use it in my clothes dryer)

I knew my sida bolted this year during the June drought. After regular rains it put back up and I made tincture.

So today I checked the basil l left growing in the garden after making tincture from a few of the plants... It put back up also, another foot of growth. The leaves smell heavenly! I harvested it. It's going in the dehydrator this afternoon.

Basil

Mtn Mint

 

[Amish Heart]

I'd make jam out of those figs.

 

[snappy1]

I'd make jam out of those figs.

I have enough jam to choke a horse. Lol

@Peanut. I cut them in half. Put in dehydrator cut side up and dehydrated about 13 hours at 135.

 

[Dani]

@Peanut did you take the pit out? Then would cut at least in half.