"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Finishing up homemade garlic powder ~ Growing Rhubarb Question

 

Using parchment paper on my dehydrator trays makes this grinding part easier.  I push the dried garlic to the center of the paper, and lift the sides to slide it into the coffee grinder.


The jar I use fits my canning funnel, making that part easy too.  You could use a smaller funnel for smaller jars.  We use garlic a lot, so hence large jar.


I dump out the older garlic powder into a cup with spout, put the new garlic powder in first, then the older on top.  All set for another year (maybe, ha ha!).

It's not exactly a quick job.  I wash all the trays after I dehydrate, so tastes and smells do not permeate into the next dehydrated food.  I wash the coffee grinder and clean out anything that blew off the trays inside the dehydrator.


Question about rhubarb:
Our rhubarb died last year, and we were going to move it anyway.....but...

I believe someone on here bought root starts online one year.  I can only find seeds (organic, non-gmo), and our local produce stand that sold them, closed their doors.

Where can I find them online?  If not, I need to order seeds or check our garden stores here.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Making Garlic Powder Day

 I finally got around to dehydrating garlic.  I typically do this when I can open my windows, but saved this job for this winter.


You put your cloves into the rubber tube, roll gently pressing to remove garlic skins.  My tools are from Pampered Chef, but I am sure Amazon sells something similar.  I got mine free, and love them!  It is so much faster than hand peeling/slicing.



Put the cloves in the slicer compartments, and press and turn to slice garlic.  Not real easy to clean, but works great.


I first started doing this all by hand - hand peeling, hand slicing then grinding.  I sliced my cloves onto parchment paper this time.  It just makes it easier to get it all into my coffee grinder to grind up.

I am dehydrating the garlic on 125°F in my Excalibur for 8 - 12 hours.  I store garlic powder in an air tight jar in my pantry.  Unlike onion powder, it will not collect moisture (best way to store  my onion powder is in an airtight jar in the freezer).  I use garlic powder in a lot of recipes.

Now, if you want minced garlic (which I need when I can Cowboy Candy), I chop it up in my smaller food processor.  They have other tools for mincing, but that's what I have on hand.

I'm finishing up the last few hours of drying this morning, and will put them into a coffee grinder to grind down into a powder. One more job off the winter project list.