Preserving Your Harvest

[Happy hen lover]

I don't enjoy canned carrots. I find them bland and mushy. Blanch and freeze perhaps. They may still get soft though. Cool, moist storage is the recommended method I believe. A root cellar is great, but we don't all have one. A crisper drawer in the fridge is next best I feel.

Thanks for reply.

 

[Happy hen lover]

Zone 5, here in Michigan. I think he said they had them down in their unheated basement. Not quite a cold cellar, but probably in the 50-55 degree range.

I might try that in our attached garage with a few of them for a test. My garage fridge ( where they are now) freezes things once in awhile.

 

[Happy hen lover]

Cantaloupe is AWESOME! Here's what I do:

Cut it in half, stem to blossom, and scoop out the guts/seeds. Save that for the chickens, of course.

Lay the cut side down, and slice into 1" thick slices. Lay the slices on their side and trim off the rind. (I cut them that thick so that they don't fall apart when I pick them up after I cut off the rind.)

Cut into 3/8" thick slices and put on the dehydrator trays.

125-135 degrees, and roughly 12-16 hours to dry.

If you think of it, turn the pieces over about half way through.

Mine don't get to the crisp stage, they're more chewy. I store them in jars. When they're first done, I put them in a cupboard (out of direct light) for a couple weeks and monitor for any signs of mold. Then they go down to a tote in the basement.

I bet they're sweet.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I actually thought of shredding some carrots and dehydrating them to add to carrot bread and cake once re hydrated. Thoughts?

 

[Sally PB]

I bet they're sweet.

Dehydrated melon is flat out CANDY, as long as the melon is halfway good, because drying concentrates the sugar.

 

[BReeder!]

Dehydrated melon is flat out CANDY, as long as the melon is halfway good, because drying concentrates the sugar.

Well, the canteloupe is in the dehydrator. 2 hours down and 14 hours to go. We'll see what it's like when it's done. The kids love the dehydrated golden delicious apples. DS calls it "healthy candy". If the canteloupe is even sweeter, he'll absolutely love it.

 

[igorsMistress]

You can also ferment, dehydrate and freeze. I hang my herbs upside down to dry; if there’s too much to put in the spice jar, I vacuum seal and put in the freezer.

Gifts! My husband’s grandparents had 9 kids and all of them had several children as well. The grandparents used to can all the things they grew at home and give a big box to all their kids at Christmas as a gift. Fruit butters and curds, jams, jellies, vegetables and fruits. Tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, you name it they had it.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I tried to gift homemade stuff to my family a couple of times. No real reply about if they liked it or not - so I stopped. No complaints about stopping so I figured they didn't care. My one sister would probably love to get homemade stuff, but she is halfway across the continent, lol.

 

[BReeder!]

cross posting this question.

Does anybody keep their own seed potatoes? How do I keep them all winter until the Spring without them rotting? I have some potatoes from the garden stored in the pantry in hanging mesh bags that are beginning to sprout root nodes. I would like to keep them until planting time (April likely). My cool options are garage fridge (garage itself is heated), unheated 3 seasons room, attic. The 3 seasons room and attic may freeze. I also want to avoid the attic because out of sight out of mind means I will not check on them to ensure mice don't come in to feast on them - I really don't want that to happen. I'm more likley to watch them in the 3 seasons room. So what's best and how to store them?

 

[Sally PB]

https://www.hunker.com/13427475/how-to-store-seed-potatoes
https://blog.southernexposure.com/2021/09/6-easy-steps-to-save-seed-potatoes/

Here are a couple of sites with info.

I have mine in a big cardboard box in my basement. I have 3 kinds: kennebec, elba, and caribou, and the kennebecs are starting to sprout a bit. So I'll be using them up first.

The seed potatoes I planted this last spring all had sprouts on them. Some were inches long! I just planted those deeper, and they did fine.