Preserving Your Harvest

[Sally PB]

Another half bushel of Empire apples in the dehydrator. They make really good apple bits; that little bit of tang is delicious.

 

[BReeder!]

Another half bushel of Empire apples in the dehydrator. They make really good apple bits; that little bit of tang is delicious.

I'm jealous. No apples here. Planted a granny with tree this year but not sure it will make it. It was on clearance and rather rough when I bought it. Hoping it native plums keep growing and come back. They are still small plants right now, but seemed to do well. Looking forward to the peach tree producing again next year hopefully.

 

[Sally PB]

I didn't mean to imply that I grew them... I got them at the farmer's market.

I might get a few cherries next year, but I bet apples are 2-3 years away.

 

[WthrLady]

Seriously, I cannot find my blender! Tearing the house apart I also cannot find the gallon ziploc bag with all the food processor blades in it. Where on earth??? I have things to powder! Grr.

 

[WthrLady]

I went back to my regular way of processing cushaw for the dehydrator.
Usually I puree and freeze or cube and pressure can.
But when I dehydrate it I steam bake it and puree and spread the puree on the mats and dehydrate.
I saw someone online cube it, put it through their shredder and dry the shreds claiming it took less time. Ummmm, nope it did not. PLUS the tiny shards stuck all over the silicone mats and had to be scraped off with my bench knife, little bits flinging everywhere. What a PIA.
The second 7 pounds from squash #1 I cubed steamed whipped and slapped on the sheets.
Less effort, less time, less clean up. Period.

 

[wyoDreamer]

@WthrLady It sounds like you found your blender, lol.

I lost the probe for my meat thermometer and needed it for making roast for a party, so I bought a new thermometer. DH wanted the thermometer for grilling a roast, couldn't find the probe for the new one, so he went out and bought an expensive one.
I found the 2 missing probes last night, so now I have 3 meat thermometers and have to figure out which probe goes to which thermometer, lol.

Oh yeah, last night I started the stove on fire (sorta). I used the broiler to toast some buns for our steak sandwiches and blue smoke started pouring out of the vent at the top of the stove. I thought I burned the buns, but no smoke INSIDE the oven - just rolling out of the vent. DH pulled the oven away from the wall and turned off the propane - it smoked for about 10 minutes before it started tapering off and eventually stopped smoking. The back of the stove was not hot, the top of the stove where the burners are was barely warm but the area around the stove vent was too hot to touch.

Guess who is going shopping for a new stove tonight?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Canned 15 pints of the last of my frozen tomatoes and canned 7 jelly jars of black raspberry jelly today. I was licking the pan, so good! My family doesn't like the seeds, it seems like a waste to throw out so much but I'm sure that my peafowl will love their treat.
I saved back enough berries to make another pie.
Not tomorrow though, it'll be my 45th birthday and I plan on having Carmel Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake.

 

[WthrLady]

@WthrLady It sounds like you found your blender, lol.

I lost the probe for my meat thermometer and needed it for making roast for a party, so I bought a new thermometer. DH wanted the thermometer for grilling a roast, couldn't find the probe for the new one, so he went out and bought an expensive one.
I found the 2 missing probes last night, so now I have 3 meat thermometers and have to figure out which probe goes to which thermometer, lol.

Oh yeah, last night I started the stove on fire (sorta). I used the broiler to toast some buns for our steak sandwiches and blue smoke started pouring out of the vent at the top of the stove. I thought I burned the buns, but no smoke INSIDE the oven - just rolling out of the vent. DH pulled the oven away from the wall and turned off the propane - it smoked for about 10 minutes before it started tapering off and eventually stopped smoking. The back of the stove was not hot, the top of the stove where the burners are was barely warm but the area around the stove vent was too hot to touch.

Guess who is going shopping for a new stove tonight?

Nope I didn't, it and the food processor disks are still missing.
I steamed the squash and tossed it in the kitchen aid with the whip attachment and mashed them. LOL.
They're also almost done after only 5 hours. The shredded version took 20 hours. I'll check the pureed version before I go to bed. I'd LIKE to get the 2nd squash done tomorrow.

 

[WthrLady]

@WthrLady It sounds like you found your blender, lol.

I lost the probe for my meat thermometer and needed it for making roast for a party, so I bought a new thermometer. DH wanted the thermometer for grilling a roast, couldn't find the probe for the new one, so he went out and bought an expensive one.
I found the 2 missing probes last night, so now I have 3 meat thermometers and have to figure out which probe goes to which thermometer, lol.

Oh yeah, last night I started the stove on fire (sorta). I used the broiler to toast some buns for our steak sandwiches and blue smoke started pouring out of the vent at the top of the stove. I thought I burned the buns, but no smoke INSIDE the oven - just rolling out of the vent. DH pulled the oven away from the wall and turned off the propane - it smoked for about 10 minutes before it started tapering off and eventually stopped smoking. The back of the stove was not hot, the top of the stove where the burners are was barely warm but the area around the stove vent was too hot to touch.

Guess who is going shopping for a new stove tonight?

I wish you luck on FINDING a stove.

 

[Sally PB]

I made "squookies" (squash cookies) out of butternut squash in my dehydrator, and they were fabulous.

Cube and cook on the stovetop. Mix in some cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and brown sugar. I went light on the spices, since dehydrating them makes them more intense, ditto with the sugar.

Cook down so that it's not watery, but it's easy to scorch if you try to cook it too far. Drop by the spoonful on the silicone sheets, and spread them out so that they're 1/4"-3/8" thick. Dry like you would fruit leather. I only have 4 silicone sheets, so I made them thick-ish, and spaced the trays out.

To speed things up, when they were dry on top, I carefully peeled them up and turned them over so that the bottom would dry too.