D.I.Y. Homemade Tomato Powder

This year I have decided to focus more on dehydrating instead of canning. I have learned that dehydrating tomatoes instead of canning them is better (for me anyway) in many ways. Let me list some of them.

• It takes up a LOT less space in the pantry (one quart jar of dehydrated tomato powder holds well over 20 pounds of tomatoes, maybe 25-30 pounds)
• It is more shelf-stable if done properly
• No heavy pots or hot jars to maneuver around
• It takes much less prep and work time; most of the process is simply waiting for them to dehydrate
• It does not heat up the house or put a bunch of extra humidity into the air
• It's easier to use (in my opinion)
• It can be done a little each day

I'm sure there are more benefits, but those should give you a good enough idea as to why I prefer this over canning. Really though it all comes down to the fact that it is something I can do myself, even with my physical limitations. This has been a major blessing to our food storage efforts! All of these fresh, ripe, organic, heirloom tomatoes are sitting on our shelf in powder form, waiting to be used, and the effort was minimal.

The process is simple. The photo above has the steps in order:

•  Slice the fresh, ripe tomatoes 1/4" thick (I used my nifty Borner V-Slicer Mandoline purchased from Amazon - LOVE IT!)
• Place onto the dehydrator tray, do not overlap. Dehydrate at 135* until dry (tomatoes will be slightly leathery but obviously dry). Some say to squish out the seeds and juicy middles but I say leave them in! It will take longer but why waste the nutrition these things provide? The type of tomato will have an effect on the drying time. For instance, a roma tomato (which is a paste variety) will dry much quicker than a juicy beefsteak tomato. Plan on at least 8-10 hours but probably longer for the juicy kinds ... and even longer if you leave all the seeds and juicy pulp in.
• Remove from trays and pack into a coffee grinder or blender. I found the coffee grinder worked better and I think that's because I was able to pick the grinder up and shake it while it was on. If you use a coffee grinder you will have to grind in batches.
• Funnel the powder into a mason jar. When it is full, add a 100cc oxygen absorber and vacuum seal it with a Food Saver mason-jar attachment. Add the jar ring.
• Write the date and the jar number. Store in your pantry.

So far I have 4 full quart jars with a lot more on the way. So simple and rewarding!!

To make tomato sauce, whisk a few tablespoons of powder with a cup of water (or paste - use half the water). Now with that you can make so many things ... add basil, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and a little sugar for spaghetti sauce. Add oregano, onion, garlic and salt for pizza sauce. Or whatever other tomato-based sauce you like :)
You can also add this to soups, stews, homemade bread, popcorn, etc. There are so many possibilities.

It's hot outside!

The last week and the upcoming week have been and will be HOT! It's been rough but we'll make it.

I've been updating my chicken page each week with new photos of the chick - here's a link to that if you want to check it out, or you can just click on it at the top on the menu bar. CHICKENS

I've been looking on craigslist for turkey poults and finally found a few that seemed worth getting. They are Bourbon Reds (a heritage breed). I'm not sure of the sexes yet but we have 3 so I'm hoping they'll be opposite sexes. We'll see! The previous owner was not sure how old they are ... they just noticed them following around a hen one day.

The garden is quite full of weeds but producing well. Brianna has been selling produce and I've been dehydrating it. My goal this year was the dehydrate more and it's been going well so far (it seems anyway?). I have learned that about 25-30 POUNDS of tomatoes can fit into one quart jar. ONE. How many jars would that take if I were to can them? I'll do a blog post on it some day but for now I'll just share my method. I slice them 1/4" thick with my nifty Borner V-Slicer Mandoline (love it!), dehydrate them at 135*, grind them into powder with my coffee grinder (seems to work a little better than the vitamix but it might just be because it condenses it down so small), and then vacuum seal them into a mason-jar. I purchased a few oxygen absorbers that I'll use when I'm ready to do several at once. To use, just simply add water until it's the desired consistency. Easy! I'm excited about this method because it takes me much less time and energy, it does not heat up the house, and it really saves on space and jars. We'll see what I think about it after the year is up and I've used the dehydrated food a while.

Ok, time to go.

Easy Dehydrated Zucchini Chips and May Produce Tallies

A recent experiment turned out really good, and what a fun way to use up all those zucchini that everyone is trying to get rid of every year!

The possibilities are really endless, but here are a few tips.

Size - Our mandolin slicer does 1/8" and 1/4" slices. The 1/4" slices will be a little 'leathery' and have more of the zucchini flavor (not much, but noticeable), which might not be the best for those who do not care for the taste of zucchini. The 1/8" slices are crispier and take on more of whatever seasonings you use. The thicker slices would be ideal for dipping, however the thinner slices might break in a thicker dip such as hummus.

Shape - Round works well for chips, however if you want to use your dehydrated zucchini for soups, bread, etc., then cut the rounds into quarters, or shred for breads.

Oil or not - The un-oiled 1/8" slices might be slightly difficult to get off the dehydrator tray. The oiled slices are ... oily ... and can make a mess on your fingers. As for storage, the slices with oil will have a much shorter shelf-life, so if you are looking for long-term storage it's best to leave off the oil. Whether oiled or not, the seasonings stick well to the zucchini, so really the oil is for flavor and texture (if you use too much, it will produce a softer chip ... just a very thin brush of oil will do). For a super crispy chip, oil and bake in the oven ... but watch it carefully so as not to burn it! But, the thin, dehydrated, un-oiled chips are plenty crispy in my opinion.

Seasonings - A personal preference but here are some ideas. You may marinate the slices in soy sauce or braggs (or even Italian dressing), or just sprinkle with something. We did some with salt, season salt and cinnamon sugar.

Dehydrating tips - Do not layer the chips! If you are shredding the zucchini, be sure you do not pile a whole bunch on to one tray - it will rot before it has a chance to dry and all of your food and efforts will be wasted. I suggest you check your favorite zucchini bread recipe - how much shredded zucchini does it call for? For instance, if it calls for 2 cups, place 2 cups of shredded zucchini on one dehydrator tray (or only one cup per tray if two looks like too much). When dry, put the measured 2 cups into a labeled bag or container of some sort with the fresh amount marked.
If you want to keep these raw you will have to have a dehydrator with a thermostat that can be adjusted. 105* for raw or 125*-135* for vegetables. The time will vary depending on the temperature, moisture level and the thickness. Count on at least 4 hours, but up to about 12 is possible.

Rehydrating - For soups, just toss the zucchini in dry but watch your liquid level. For bread, take out your pre-measured two cup baggie (or whatever!), put the dry zucchini in a bowl at least 3 times its size, add water to cover double, and allow to soak until rehydrated. Drain off the excess water (save for soup or stock!), and use as usual in your bread recipe.

 



Now for the May Produce Tallies ...

Lettuce 263.10oz
Kale (baby) 129.95oz
Kale (dino) 92.65oz
Strawberries 687.87oz...
Beet greens (baby) 115.50oz
(Also dill and lemon balm but I did not weigh them before I dried them ... dry: .5oz dill and 1.75oz lemon balm)

TOTAL: 80.5lbs ... not bad for a few 8'x4' beds in a church parking lot!! Hopefully our new country garden will do just as well, if not better. We'll see. 

Estimated store price total of above said produce: $399.81 ... all organic prices at our favorite store. We can knock $100 off that total if I consider the fact that I usually get non-organic frozen strawberries from Azure.

I hope I'm able to keep up with record keeping when things really get busy!! It sure has been helpful knowing what's going on and I know it will be helpful for planning next year. I'll try to get a post going to share the system I've worked out ... because it's been working really well and I believe it's worth sharing ... though it might not be until the end of the gardening season when things slow down a bit and I've had time to reflect.

We've just now started getting cherry tomatoes and a few tomatillos in our country garden. Spinach was done at the end of May. Lettuce is almost done, though I planted a new batch in a shady area in the country as an experiment. We're using the more bitter leaves in our smoothies ... very thankful for them! My dehydrator is on nearly non-stop. Lots of kale and beet greens right now (see my recent post Homemade Green Powder and Washing Greens the Easy Way).

Homemade Green Powder for Smoothies and Washing Greens the Easy Way

Ever wonder how many fresh greens fit inside a one pound container of powdered greens? Wonder no longer.

Homemade Green Powder for Smoothies
Every year I try to dehydrate lots of green things, turn in to powder and use in our smoothies (just remember to add a little extra liquid to the smoothie!). I've been wondering for a while how many greens I am actually putting in to my smoothie when I add a tablespoon or two and since Google turned up no answers for me (IMAGINE THAT! Maybe I was not using the right search words??) this year I decided to figure it out myself.

To begin my experiment I started with one pound of two kinds of greens: kale and spinach. In each photo they are pictured side-by-side, kale on the left and spinach on the right.

FRESH

DRY

POWDER

I did two different kinds because I wanted to see how they compared when dehydrated and turned in to powder. Both were the same ... each pound produced about 1/2c of powder (maybe a tablespoon over a half cup) and weighed nearly the same (a gram or two different).

Now, on to WASHING all of those greens.
Sometimes I have to wash about 25lbs of greens in one day. That's a LOT of greens to try to put through the salad spinner!!! So what I do instead is wash the greens in a bowl of water, put into a pillow case, secure the end with a rubber band and put it through the SPIN CYCLE of my washing machine. This works prefect! Of course I still have to spin them in several batches but it is a real time saver.
For those who do not know, spinning greens helps pull the water off and dries them quite a bit. This in turn helps them to keep longer in the refrigerator. If you are planning to dehydrate them, do not bother spinning :)

Beet greens ready to spin.

Set dial to final SPIN cycle.

I hope this was helpful! Maybe you have a more efficient way than this? If so, please share!

Dehydrating Peppers and Saving Pepper Seeds

Our peppers have done pretty well this year [especially the hot peppers :) but that's a post for next time - Home Canned Salsa Roja - stay tuned!!]. This year instead of dicing and freezing the peppers I decided to dice and dehydrate them. I am really trying to get away from depending on my freezer so much and since I only use the peppers for sauces, who cares if they are frozen or dehydrated prior to use?

In order to know exactly how much dehydrated peppers equals one serving (I consider one serving a half of a cup of small diced peppers) I simply put a half cup of freshly diced peppers on ONE tray and then filled the remaining trays as usual.

In all I got 4 full trays plus the one tray with one serving. Each tray contained 6-7 servings, so that's over 24 servings. Not too bad I guess? This yielded almost one packed quart of dehydrated peppers. 1/8c dry equals 1/2c fresh. To rehydrate, simply put 1/8c dry peppers into a half cup measuring device, fill with filtered water and allow to sit until rehydrated.

Saving pepper seeds is super easy. Hot or sweet, the procedure is the same: simply set aside the seeds to dry for about a week. Once dry, store in a cool, dry place. Be sure to label the drying seeds!! You can see below that I just set the bowls over a paper with the seed description. I then taped the paper to each bowl just in case it got bumped or moved around. Of course your seeds must be heirloom to properly reproduce.

Homemade Beef Jerky using Ground Beef

We really like beef jerky, however we do NOT like the high sodium nor the toxic preservatives and flavorings. Seriously, have you ever researched the stuff? If not, I encourage you to. These things are there for a reason - not only to excite your taste buds but to prevent the growth of bacteria, mold, fungus, etc. and also to keep it from going rancid too quickly - but at what cost to our health? Yes, we do still eat store-bought jerky from time to time, however recently I decided to experiment with making my own using organic, grass-fed GROUND beef someone gave us. No more store stuff for us! Making it at home is easy and affordable (especially if the meat is free), and the results are tasty and nutritious. 

Ingredients

2lbs ground beef (grass fed, organic is the best if you have access to it)
2T Bragg's or soy sauce

2t liquid smoke
2t salt

1t garlic
1/2t onion

1t cayenne

1/2t black pepper

Directions

Place the beef in a bowl with the liquids. Mix the dry ingredients separately and then pour over the beef/liquid and mix well with hands. Spread on to parchment paper, waxed paper, teflex or paraflexx sheets, or whatever other kind of sheet you have that is used for this purpose, score with a pizza cutter to desired size (see photo below), and then transfer to the dehydrator tray. If you do not have a dehydrator, I suggest using parchment paper placed on cooling racks. A baking sheet will work too, but only for the initial 4 hours or so (see further instructions below). I found it was easiest to use my hands, however you might prefer a rolling pin or some other device. Or maybe you have a jerky gun? Whatever the case, just be sure it's thin and even.

According to the settings on my Excalibur, the temperature for jerky is 145*, though some do it at a lower setting (I've seen instructions as low as 105*). If you do not have a dehydrator it is possible to use an oven set at 170*. Some ovens only go down to 200* ... that will work too but the results will not be as nice.

Side note: The USDA recommends heating the meat to 160*-165* PRIOR to dehydrating because of the potential risk of Salmonella and E. coli. I personally believe this is silly, just like a lot of what the USDA recommends, however you must do whatever you feel comfortable with. If you are concerned about things like this, here is the USDA website with further information.

Dehydrate for about 4 hours, or however long it takes to dry the jerky enough to keep it together while flipping it over. Turn it over on to a dehydrator tray (or cooling rack or the rack of your oven if it will not fall through the slats). Remove the teflex sheets, parchment or whatever you used for the first phase. Place dehydrator tray lined with teflex or parchment (etc) on the bottom of your dehydrator or a baking sheet on the bottom rack of your oven to catch any grease that might spill. Continue dehydrating till jerky is done, about 6 additional hours or longer. Thinner jerky with higher temps will obviously require less time than thicker jerky at lower temps.

Blot off excess grease, break along the scored edges and taste it. What do you think? Have others taste it as well. Note any changes you would like to make to the seasonings for next time. Maybe you will prefer more salt? More garlic? Less bragg's? No cayenne? Whatever. Just make it suit YOUR likes.

Remember, this is preservative-free jerky so the storage method and time will be a little different than the store jerky loaded with nasty stuff. Vacuum sealing is the best option and travels well, however a Ziploc freezer bag works too [yes, I am brand-loyal to Ziploc]. Whatever the case, just be sure it's an air-tight container. Keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 months unless travelling - it will last outside the fridge but as a general rule, keep it refrigerated - or in the freezer for longer periods of time (be careful for freezer burn though).

And if you were wondering, 2lbs of raw meat produced about 10.5 ounces of jerky. Not bad at all!

Dehydrating Apples

In case anyone has ever wondered ... here is what one pound of apples looks like before and after dehydrating.

One pound of fresh apple slices.

One pound of fresh apples fits just right into one dehydrator tray!

One pound of fresh becomes 2.35 ounces dried.

Now we know!

KALE: Dehydrating it and turning it into powder

I FINALLY did something I've been wanting to do for years. Why did I wait so long? I'm not sure. Over the last couple of years I did attempt to google some information so I wouldn't have to do it myself, however I really do not like to sift through the 50 billion hits google gives. I don't have time. I did however at least scan the first page of hits and nothing matched at all. I must not have worded it exactly right?

So what did I do? Well, I picked some kale from our garden, weighed out one pound, dehydrated it all by itself, and then ground it up into a powder.

One pound of kale next to the 1c measuring cup.

The same 1lb of kale turned into powder and placed in the same cup.

So now I know!!! I hope this information was useful to someone else besides only me.

On a side note, this is kale grown from the seed Corban saved last year. We still have a few pounds of seed; plenty to give to friends and family and some to sell too.
Also, here is a link that shows how to save kale seeds. Enjoy!