suggestions for dehydrating and root cellaring?

[ohiogoatgirl]

this summer i'm going to grow tons!!! and i want to preserve everything!!! if you say zucchini plant leaves are tasty i'll try it! well... just about anything.
i bought canning jars but i need to find someone to come and do it with me becuase i have no idea...
and i have 2 dehydrators and 2 that i can borrow (all electric ones) and i'm gonna build big ones in the yard (sun power!)

anyone have any tips on dehydrating and root cellaring?
i'm going to build a root cellar too.
i'm gonna work my butt off this summer!
... no butt!

thanks!

 

[Neko-chan]

...

 

[FarmerJamie]

If a middle-aged guy can figure out the canning thing, I'm sure you will be able to.

On someone else's thread here (AnnaRaven?), someone made a good suggestion of trying to just can a couple of jars of water to get used to the mechanics of using the canner and to get comfortable with the process long before the veggies start ripening.

You can always ask here, too.

 

[miss_thenorth]

http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A1135.pdf

 

[lwheelr]

Drying is pretty easy. Just a couple of rules...

1. Cut the pieces a uniform thickness. Anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2", depending on what it is.

2. Most fruits just cut and dry. A few need some kind of preservative on them to keep from browning (lemon juice, or even pineapple juice works to keep from using chemicals).

3. Most veggies should be blanched first, usually just a 1 minute dip, according to the instructions I had - but I never did celery or carrots. No need to blanch onions, garlic, peppers, or tomatoes.

4. Potatoes MUST be blanched until they are clearish through. Do them too little, and they'll turn nasty black in the bags and become unusable.

5. You can feel when things are dry - if you pinch a piece, and slide your fingers, it should not slip. That is pretty much the rule for everything.

Some fun things to dry:

Celery
Carrots
Red or Green Peppers
Onions
Garlic

With those five veggies, you have the beginnings of any kind of soup in a hurry. Throw in a handful of each, some potatoes or rice, your meat, cover, and let it boil a while and you have dinner with no dicing or slicing.

Toss them into the rice cooker with some rice and boullion and you have a fast pilaf.


Get one of those hand crank Apple Peeler Corer Slicer thingies. Super fast to make apple rings. If you want apple pieces for oatmeal, dry them, then cut them up with shears.

If you can get overripe bananas for cheap, or any other time you have bananas on sale, slice and dry those. Much better than the nasty papery tasting commercial banana chips.

We got a 1 gallon can of pineapple cheap once, and dried most of that. The kids thought that was candy.

Dry your own herbs - low heat. Best to dry them whole, and bag them up, and crush them as you need them - they keep their flavor better that way.

Dry some Raspberry Leaves for tea - a very good female tea, good for menstrual cramps, pregnancy hormone balancing, reducing blood clotting problems, anti-diarrheal, etc.

Dry some Peppermint also - good tummy tea, and fun to drink just because.

Black cherries and pie cherries dry really well. White type cherries (Queen Anne, Stella, or Ranier) turn black and taste nasty.

Blueberries dry well, though they work best if you reconstitute them - they get too hard to enjoy plain.

Blackberries and Raspberries do not dry well - they turn into little seedy bundles! Strawberries are also marginal.

Prunes dry well, but come out firmer than the commercial ones.

You can do jerky, but should have a good dryer with a fan to do it, otherwise the stuff gets positively gamey. Do not try to do Turkey, Pork, or Chicken, they can get toxic.

 

[Icu4dzs]

I bought a 30 quart canner/pressure cooker at a garage sale for $5. After taking it home I inspected it more carefully (just looked at the locking mechanism at the sale) and since it was in good shape all I had to do was buy a new seal for it. Works like a charm. The company that makes them (mine is Mirro) writes a very good book on the subject with step by step instructions.
N.B. ALWAYS FOLLOW THE EXACT INSTRUCTIONS. Do not skip steps or ignore safety actions with these canners. The results can be somewhat disastrous.
Once you get going on this, you'll be hooked.
Have fun.

 

[journey11]

"Root Cellaring" by Mike and Nancy Bubel

I have an older copy of this book, passed down to me from my FIL. It is an awesome, very informative book and will give you many ideas on how to grow and preserve (in many different methods) root cellar vegetables. Lots of pics and diagrams too.

 

[baymule]

Very important to remember: always use PLAIN salt, NOT idiodized. Idiodized salt will make your food slimy.

 

[AnnaRaven]

If a middle-aged guy can figure out the canning thing, I'm sure you will be able to.

On someone else's thread here (AnnaRaven?), someone made a good suggestion of trying to just can a couple of jars of water to get used to the mechanics of using the canner and to get comfortable with the process long before the veggies start ripening.

You can always ask here, too.

Yep - that's what my canner instructions said. Another tip I discovered is to do a small batch of any new technique to find out how it works. That way you don't end up with a bunch of over-gelled marmalade (don't ask how I know that... )

Pick up the Ball Blue Book or ]Complete Book of Home Preserving which has recipes for home canning and dehydrating and freezing.

 

[TanksHill]

I have that book. Its very good about describing Sturdy Keepers and the mechanics of a cellar. I should read it again.