BYC Café

[ronott1]

I par boiled some French beans for the freezer and I've tried sun drying tomatoes in the past. You need a decent fruit dryer ( a cased in unit with a glass roof here) or the wasps, flies and anything else that fancies a snack gets them. You could of course go the Sicilian route and let grandma sit outside with a fly swat turning the tomatoes on a rack.
We would need at least 2 large freezers, a medium sized room with good ventilation for the potatoes, beans, onions, garlic, chilli and mushrooms.
Then there's the figs and the nuts......
We produced a lot of stuff one year and what was needed was a proper canning process. It's not going to happen here.

I have a nesco food dehydrator that does well for us. It sits on the kitchen table so there are no wasps

 

[ronott1]

Good morning Cafe.
Tea and coffee is made; please help yourselves.

The miserable drizzly weather finally lifted and the sun has returned, so, after much dithering, the chicks decided it's OK to come out of the coop now; meet Brecon, Laugharne and Zac

View attachment 2251705

They look like they are doing great with mom!

 

[DobieLover]

The feral...or do you have other cats?

She's mine. That's Mogwai. She's 18 and an indoor only cat.
The feral and her kittens are down at my mom's house. I still haven't figured out a plan for them. I'll have to call ACC (Animal Care Council) tomorrow and see if they'll help me. They just cannot stay there.

 

[pennyJo1960]

It is tough call for you I had close relationship with the paws reps here
forever

 

[DobieLover]

Good afternoon, Cafe. I didn't wake up until 8 this morning .
After taking care of all the animal chores which included going down to mom's house to feed the ferals and close up the house, I decided to cut the grass here because it's been over 2 weeks since I last cut it and I wanted to get it done before it got too hot. We're already at 93 and it's just after noon.
I also have 4 loads of wash to do. Two are on the line, one is in the washer and one up on deck. Watered the plants, took out the garbage and recycling... I only just sat down to my first meal and cup of coffee for the day.

 

[ronott1]

Good afternoon, Cafe. I didn't wake up until 8 this morning .
After taking care of all the animal chores which included going down to mom's house to feed the ferals and close up the house, I decided to cut the grass here because it's been over 2 weeks since I last cut it and I wanted to get it done before it got too hot. We're already at 93 and it's just after noon.
I also have 4 loads of wash to do. Two are on the line, one is in the washer and one up on deck. Watered the plants, took out the garbage and recycling... I only just sat down to my first meal and cup of coffee for the day.

It sounds like a very busy day. Thank goodness for Coffee

 

[Perris]

I have a nesco food dehydrator that does well for us. It sits on the kitchen table so there are no wasps

I have been experimenting with a dehydrator since Christmas, and it works well. Jerky has been the most successful so far - certainly more popular than dried fruits or veggies!

They look like they are doing great with mom!

they are - she's really got them moving around today, including what's edible 101 and a dust bath, and all the rest of the flock have been over to say hello - from a respectful distance of course - except Sven, who's been imprinting on them since they started hatching (He is probably the daddy of the darker two anyway, despite having been deposed since he lost his tail to the fox!)

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey there looking to get in kitchen make a breakfast here not sure what or how
at this moment english muffin of some sort

 

[Shadrach]

I have a nesco food dehydrator that does well for us. It sits on the kitchen table so there are no wasps

I suppose if you can afford to have 700 watts to a kilowatt burning hour after hour and are happy to do a few things at a time then they may do the trick.
My view is it rather defeated the object in some ways. Part of the point of drying out here is it uses free energy from the sun. I built a five shelf drying cabinet years ago and it worked well until someone backed their car into it. If my memory serves me the first year of operation I dried 18 kilos of figs.
The land here produces a lot of stuff without any agriculture added. I think we have seven fig trees left, nine walnut trees, 4 almond trees, three pomegranate trees, peach trees, plum trees, a couple of nispero trees, four quince trees, a few hazelnut trees, and this year a few of the olive trees have fruited. There are also a couple of grape vines and other stuff I can't recall at the moment.
The nuts I still collect and dry in the sun before storage. I get about one third of what the trees produce I reckon. The majority of the figs fall and rot along with much of the rest of the fruit. We did get most of the cherries this year and I have about thirty small peaches needing eating.
One of the people in the main house produces a grape cordial; he tried making wine and it was awful.

 

[ronott1]

I suppose if you can afford to have 700 watts to a kilowatt burning hour after hour and are happy to do a few things at a time then they may do the trick.
My view is it rather defeated the object in some ways. Part of the point of drying out here is it uses free energy from the sun. I built a five shelf drying cabinet years ago and it worked well until someone backed their car into it. If my memory serves me the first year of operation I dried 18 kilos of figs.
The land here produces a lot of stuff without any agriculture added. I think we have seven fig trees left, nine walnut trees, 4 almond trees, three pomegranate trees, peach trees, plum trees, a couple of nispero trees, four quince trees, a few hazelnut trees, and this year a few of the olive trees have fruited. There are also a couple of grape vines and other stuff I can't recall at the moment.
The nuts I still collect and dry in the sun before storage. I get about one third of what the trees produce I reckon. The majority of the figs fall and rot along with much of the rest of the fruit. We did get most of the cherries this year and I have about thirty small peaches needing eating.
One of the people in the main house produces a grape cordial; he tried making wine and it was awful.

Mine is a snackmaster and runs at 500 watts. It is supposed to cost between 30cents and a $1.29. to run a 700W dehydrator for 10 hours. Mine would be a bit less.

I do not dehydrate as much as you for sure. I did not notice a difference in my electric bill...Which is about $220.00 this much. Natural gas is $15.00.