Record Low Temps ~ Dehydrating Garlic

Last night, we hit an all time record low.  When Hubby called me from work about 7pm, it was already -17°F (actual temperature), with a wind chill of lower than -35°F.  The dogs are not taking the cold well at all.  My son said their legs start shaking after a few minutes outside to do their business.  Some times they won't even go, and he'll have to go out again.   It's too early to tell how the barn animals handled it.  As soon as the sun is up, we plan to do a quick check on them all.

Reclaiming the Garden

I'm reclaiming my vegetable garden . . .

. . . cleaning  it up

Frugal Tip ~ Dehydrating Cottage Cheese

I am learning to be much smarter with my dehydrator, and saving money at the grocery store.  They had 16 oz. tubs of organic cottage cheese marked down for clearance.  I paid $1.49 each, for two tubs.  They are normally $4.89 each.  They fit nicely on the 4 trays in my dehydrator. 

Dehydrating Garlic ~ Making Garlic Powder

Dehydrating garlic was next on my list of "to-do's," and to make garlic powder from my home grown garlic.  Some of my followers have probably already made homemade garlic powder, so forgive me if it's a boring post.  This is a first time for me.

We were gifted garlic two years ago, and planted all of them in the garden in the fall.  I dug them up the next season, and repeated that for one more year, expanding our harvest this year.  

Dehydrating Onions ~ Making Onion Powder

My garden may have produced small onions, but boy they are potent.  You would have had a good laugh, if you were here to see my 14 year-old and I, cutting them up for the dehydrator.  

She had goggles on, and I was trying to fan my eyes, but that failed.  We had tears, and tears and more tears. Sorry for the bad, blurry photographs.  We were laughing so hard at the time.

Dehydrating Blueberries & Topless Blueberry Pie

Each year we purchase 20 pounds of blueberries, and it gets us through winter and spring.  I make blueberry syrup, jam, jelly, freeze some, and bake some. 

This year I am doing something new - dehydrating some.  They will be wonderful in baked goods for after school snacks and lunch packings.  I will use them in my homemade granola bars too.

Dehydrating Cucumbers

(partially dehydrated)

Considering I have enough pickles stocked up, I decided to dehydrate the last of the cucumbers.  My cucumber plants are already turning brown.  I have not dehydrated cucumbers before.

I tossed the cucumber slices in chili powder, salt and paprika, to dry for chips.  I will also grind some into powder, for soups, stews, sauces, and dips.

My super chili peppers are being dehydrated today.  They are the only pepper that produced this season, out of all of our 50-some pepper plants.  I have a few habanero peppers on a few plants, but I'm not sure they will amount to much.  The chili peppers were sliced for drying, and then later I will be ground into chili pepper. 

Radishes in Soups & Radish Pickle Update

Use your extra radishes for soups.  I am planning to dehydrate some here for just that reason.  My Farmer's Market neighbor told me this tip.  You could freeze them too, but she says they are great it soups.  One year I did this with my extra Kohlrabi.

Update on the Refrigerator Radish Pickles - Hot!  Joke-ster Hubby was the first to taste, and graciously gave me one, saying, "These are crunchy, but they're not hot."  

He lied.  They are hot.  

I guess the amount of "heat" they would have, will depend on the "heat" that your radishes already have too.

I do like the fact that they do last for up to 6 months in the fridge.  I can make several jars for salads, just eating, or what not.  Yum!

Using Up

It's been a while since I posted anything regarding the Dark Days Challenge.  Yesterday, breakfast was fresh farm eggs, and organic waffles.

Dinner was a pasta dish using my home canned tomato sauce, frozen (garden) green peppers and dehydrated mushrooms.  My home canned, organic applesauce is a wonderful side for breakfast, lunch or dinner (or for baking too).

This week I have had a hankering for iced tea.  I have been making a gallon almost every day.  Mmmm!  

Today, I will be scrambling up 2 dozen eggs, and adding onion and green peppers (from last year's garden), and adding frozen spinach.  This makes it easy for hubby to grab a quick breakfast burrito before he goes to work.

Evening, wind down time, usually involves hot tea.  I purchased organic, loose leaf tea from a small (privately owned) local business.
 

Cooking with Dehydrated Garden Potatoes

I would have a photo of our finished dish, but it was devoured.  Literally.

Going Bananas. . .

 Bananas were on sale, so I decided to try dehydrating them into chips.  If they kids like them, they will be healthy, inexpensive lunch packings and snacks.

 My intention was to sit, sip a hot cup of tea, inhale the wonderful apple spice candle, and read over some magazines from the library.

However,  while the tea cooled, I looked over to see that more of my bananas were ripe - too ripe to eat.  So I hopped on the handy dandy computer and made these Healthy Banana Cookies.  So simple, and so delicious.

Then I sat back down to sip my tea, and came across another recipe - Banana Chocolate Cupcakes.

I ended up baking again. 

I whipped my egg whites by hand this time.  Very easy to do also.  It was a rainy, dreary day, so it may be why I got the "baking bug" or it may be just the case of "when you give a mom a muffin."  You know how we can all get side tracked so easily in our day?

These were in the "Lower-Calorie" section of the Diabetic Cooking magazine.  We are not diabetic, but love their lower sugar/calorie recipes.  The family devoured these, even before I had a chance to frost them.

I still have more ripe bananas for baking, but need to run to the store for some butter.  Otherwise, you'd be looking at photos of banana bread also. 

Baking - the best therapy for stress.

Watermelon Jelly and Watermelon Fruit Leather

With more watermelons in the garden, I decided to experiment with new recipes.  We grew heirloom watermelons, so they are full of seeds.

Stocking Up

Well, if you have been wondering where I've been.....

I canned a second new recipe for salsa.  I canned 4 pints of Fiesta Salsa.  This is delicious too.  I found the recipe on-line.  In place of the chili pepper, I used green pepper, and used 1/2 cup combined jalapeno and cayenne peppers.  Yum!  There are many recipes on that site if you are seeking for recipes for canning or for other tomato recipes.

I canned another 3 1/2 quarts of seasoned tomato sauce.  This is tedious work - chopping 23 pounds of tomatoes.  Thanks to my sauce maker, I don't have to peel, remove seeds, etc. prior to heating it all up first.

I dehydrated another quart jar of potatoes, some kale and Parmesan cheese.

I canned 4 half pints of homemade ketchup.  This took another 10 lbs. of tomatoes.

I canned another 4 half pints of Pepper Jelly (a mix of green peppers jalapeno and cayenne peppers).

I finally dug up some of the sweet potatoes, but still have another row of red potatoes to dig up. 

I canned a third type of salsa - Home Canned Salsa.  I'd like to can peach salsa, but I need to see if I can still find peaches at the produce stands.  Our tree is not mature enough yet.

Oh....it continues.  I froze more tomatoes and green peppers too. 

Note:  I found this neat site that gives 30 tips on what to use leftover salsa for:  http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/03/serious-heat-what-to-do-with-leftover-salsa-30-uses.html

Keeping Up?

If you are wondering if I've been keeping up with my own family as well as items to sell, I have on some things, but not so much on jelly and jam.  We go through many jars during the winter, due to kids packing school lunches.   

I canned 2 batches (6 pints and 4 1/2) pints of blueberry jelly, but that's not enough for my family for the winter.  These jars will be gone all too soon.  I am told now, that they prefer blueberry over grape. This year I was lucky to get 20 lbs. of blueberries this late.  They are out mid-July around here, and next year I will have to be more prepared.  We really need double that amount. 

I blanched and froze 3 quart bags of tomatoes, with the help of my 15 year-old. 

Canned 20 - 1/2 pint jars of Peach Jam.

Canned 4 more pints of Sweet Pickle Relish.

Canned 6 pints of our first canned salsa. The last two years I have made "fridge" salsa. This recipe was the Jalapeno Salsa recipe from Ball's recipe book.  Instead of 3 cups jalapeno peppers, I mixed 1/2 cup jalapeno with 2 1/2 cups green bell peppers (2 varieties).  Uh, I'm gonna need to plant more onions next year, and larger ones.  I still need to can sauce and I'm running low already.

Dehydrated more garden potatoes.  These were sliced this time. It was suggested to put a coffee filter between the jar and the lid for storing them in jars.














 



Canned another 12 pints of blueberry jelly.

I need to go out before it rains, and cut more oregano to dry.  I am using it in my canned salsa and seasoned tomato sauce.

I know you are all probably tired from reading our updates, but I know it will pay off over winter.  I'll try to relax some today, and post a less tiring blog post. My son said to me yesterday, "Are you ever going to catch a break Mom?"

Dehydrating Potatoes

  I'm dehydrating potatoes this year.

I have a 4 tray Excalibur dehydrator.  I filled those trays up in no time, and will have more to dehydrate during the next few days.

Dandelion Jelly, Dandelion Root and Fun Mail

I canned this season's first dandelion jelly.  Last year it did not set, and I had to re-boil it.  This year, I used a different recipe, and it set.  Now....we just have to taste it.