Tag: Preserving

Dill Pickled Carrots
Preserving · Recipes

Dill Pickled Carrots

Sarah

I’ve been considering adding more easily preserved pickled vegetables to our meals. I decided to do carrots first. The hands-on time is very short, and I was done within an hour and had all my water bath canning gear packed back up. And that is how canning should be – quick and easy.

Dill Pickled Carrots

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
  • 2 cups filtered water
  • ½ cup pickling/canning salt
  • 7 cloves garlic
  • 7 tsp dillweed
  • 3½ tsp red pepper flakes
  • 5 pounds of baby carrots

Directions:

Place 7 wide-mouth canning jars in a water bath canner. Fill the jars with water and the pot about ¾ full of water. Bring to a simmer.

Place the lids and bands in a small saucepan of water, bring to a simmer, then let sit.

Add the vinegar, water, and salt to a large saucepan and bring to a boil.

Once the jars are simmering, drain them and place them on a clean kitchen towel.

Add garlic clove, 1 tsp dillweed, and ½ tsp red pepper flakes to each jar.

Pack in baby carrots, pushing down. Depending on how they fit in the jars, you may not use the entire amount of carrots.

Ladle the hot vinegar mixture over the carrots. Remove air bubbles, then add more liquid for a ½” headspace, if needed.

Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp paper towel, then put on lids and bands, tightening to fingertip-tight.

Place in the canner, ensuring they are fully covered in water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Turn off the stove and let it sit uncovered for 5 minutes.

Transfer to a towel-covered cooling wack and let it cool fully.

Remove the bands, ensure the lids are flat and sealed, and mark the contents and date on the lids.

Use within a year for best results.

Letting sit for a month before eating allows flavors to develop for pickled items.

Makes 7 pints.

~Sarah

Dehydrating Berry and Apple Fruit Leather
Preserving · Recipes

Dehydrating Berry and Apple Fruit Leather

Sarah

With a predicted windstorm looming, I cleaned out the freezers and consolidated them so we wouldn’t lose anything if the power went out, which was a good thing, as we lost power Monday morning. We had bags of frozen berries that we had grown and picked. They were mixes of Black, Marion, and Red Raspberries. We also had Honeycrisp apples we had grown this year, which were ugly on the outside. I can’t eat berry seeds, as they are not a friend to my body, so I strained the berries, discarding them. This, of course, leaves your mixture very thin. So, by adding apples, I got the natural pectin, which helped thicken it.

With a little hands-on work, I soon had plenty of mixture drying on the dehydrator and, within 12 hours, delicious fruit leather.

I run on an older L’EQUIP dehydrator that I bought in maybe 2004 or 2005, and it is still running strong. A newer version of it is here. If I were to replace it, I would probably buy a metal one with flat trays and a center spindle. That would more resemble my freeze-dryer trays. But since this works just fine, no need to upgrade. And yes, yuo can do it in an oven, on rimmed baking sheets, on the lowest setting. Be sure to check often; it takes far less time.

Want more recipes for dehydrating? See here.

Ready for storage (and snacking on).

Fruit leather drying.

Berry and Apple Fruit Leather

Ingredients:

  • 5 pounds berries
  • 3 apples
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

If using frozen berries, let them thaw on the counter first. Heat the berries in a heavy-bottomed pot and stir often until they break down.

Press the berries through a fine mesh strainer until the seeds are left. Discard the seeds. I had 4 cups of liquid.

Transfer the liquid to a blender, adding in the lemon juice.

Peel and core the apples, roughly chop, and add to the berries.

Blend until the apples are broken down.

Transfer back to the heavy-bottomed pot and bring to a simmer. Then cook for 15 minutes over medium-low heat to low, maintaining a low simmer. The mixture will thicken, so stir often. Once the time is up, take off the stove and let cool a bit, stirring. The natural pectin will thicken up.

Meanwhile, get out your dehydrator. Using parchment paper, cut out a rough shape of a tray, then trim it so it fits over the center core (if your dehydrator has that) for ventilation, then trim the sides so it lays.

Spread the fruit mixture in sections, about ½ to ¾ cup each, and make sure it is spread evenly. I used 3 trays total, and had about 4 cups mixture.

Place on the dehydrator, set at 135°. It took us about 12 hours. Every hour, I moved the trays so that each tray visited the bottom, where it was the hottest.

At about 8 hours in, the leather was set on top, so I cut the parchment paper to fit each section and placed them upside down so the top was more exposed to the heat.

In the last 1 to 2 hours, I peeled each section off the paper and allowed it to finish drying.

Once fully dry, turn the dehydrator off and let cool down.

Using a pizza cutter, I cut the section into halves.

Cut new parchment paper to fit, and roll each section up tightly, then tie kitchen twine around to hold it closed.

Store it in a glass mason jar, and if you are taking it with you for a snack, transfer it to a bag or plastic container before leaving.

For the long term, add a desiccant packet and seal the jar.

~Sarah

Freeze-drying A Naturally Sweet Healthy Snack
Freeze Drying · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes

Freeze-drying A Naturally Sweet Healthy Snack

Sarah

We spent the summer and early summer working on freeze-drying food for the winter, especially eggs when they were plentiful in the long days. It works well for us, do the work when it happens and eat later. A Little Red Hen tale always. Don’t be lazy when it is on. Often we freeze-dry a lot of the same things over and over (that we use often).

This treat is one we do often. It uses the prime harvest time or even when the best of it shows up in markets. Process it, and you will eat well for months.

And what is that?

Carrots!

Just out of the Harvest Right Freeze-dryer, ready to be put into small MRE-style mylar bags.

Yes, it is that simple. Raw carrots were freeze-dried. They become even more sweet when dried and can be eaten as a snack. You can, of course, soak them in water and cook with them after drying, but it is so easy that there is no need to blanch the produce beforehand. Just peel and slice up, then proceed.

What is the sweetest vegetable out there? For me, I would say carrots. When you freeze-dry them, they become intensely flavored and even sweeter.

Buying dehydrated carrot dice is easy, but they are not the same. Dehydrated carrots are tiny bits that must be rehydrated before eating. They are pre-cooked, so they work fine for meals with a 15-minute rehydration time or to be added into say stews and soups and left to simmer.

If freeze-dried raw carrots can be found commercially, they are often marketed as a dog treat (lucky them!).

So, if you want a fun snack, it will be a DIY project!

Freeze-Dried Carrot Coins

We usually prep 15 to 20 pounds of carrots at a time. If you are harvesting from your garden, you can process them as they are ripe, and once you have enough, put them on a run in the machine. This makes it very easy.

Try out the carrots. You want them to be as crisp as possible and taste great. You won’t get a good final product if they are soft, limp, or mealy.

This also opens up choices. Buy or grow the fancy carrots for a different look. Freeze-drying white, yellow, and purple instead of orange? Easy!

I buy carrots when I see them at good prices or when the harvest flow is happening. I give them a good wash, then peel and trim.

Slice into coins or on the bias (so at an angle). We have done it both ways. I find that the bias cut is best for enormous carrots. For smaller carrots, cut coins.

I spread them out on rimmed baking sheets and freeze them. Unless I work on a big lot (say 15 to 20 pounds at once), I transfer to bags once frozen and keep them frozen until I have enough. This lets you harvest carrots over a couple of weeks in summer and early fall. (We have a Large size unit, so we pack it pretty full)

Once you have enough to run a batch, lay the carrots on the freeze-dryer sheets and put them on. The machines are automatic, so it is quite easy.

Once dry, open the machine and test a carrot to ensure it is fully dry. If not, put it on for a few more hours. Otherwise, bag the carrots (or put it into mason jars) and seal it with a desiccant and an oxygen packet. If you use the small MRE-style mylar bags, you have a ready-to-go trail snack. Be sure to note the date dried and what is in the bags.

Enjoy your naturally sweet and crunchy treat!

Tip: When enjoying freeze-dried treats, drink water with it. Your stomach will appreciate you.

Want to see what else we have freeze-dried?

All the tutorials.

The Black Friday November Harvest Right Sale Is On!

This is Harvest Right’s best sale all year long, with the machines hundreds of dollars off. If you have been contemplating getting one, this is the time.

~Sarah

Preserving Chamomile For Tea
DIY · Gardening · Herbalism · Urban Homesteading · Wildcrafting

Preserving Chamomile For Tea

Sarah

Last week, I popped into the food co-op closest to us and browsed the bulk-dried herbs and spices. As I walked by, I saw a jar of Chamomile and gasped—$29.99 a pound!

The bulk bins are often sourced from Frontier Co-op, a very ethical and real cooperative. For example, you can buy their products in large bags directly from them or even on Amazon. On Amazon, a 1-pound mylar bag of Chamomile sells for $1592 currently (its retail price is $44.50, but sells for less). While far more affordable (and the same product, with both being organic), it’s not exactly affordable, even at $16 a pound. And neither does one know how “fresh” it is. That bulk bin could have been filled the day before…or 6 months before. The co-op has windows that let in the sun, further degrading the color and aroma of their bulk herbs. That is something that frustrates me at that particular store, and nearly all stores selling bulk herbs and spices have them in direct light, be it LED or whatever they use.

Now, I understand that the cost also reflects picking of the flowers, but I have to think it’s been mechanized, long ago, to make it quick and simple.

While I often preach the beauty of bulk bins, they have issues. The biggest is turnover. The second is quality, which is part of the first problem. If a store doesn’t have a great turnover, you face buying stale products. Stale herbs make people think the herb doesn’t taste good when it is so old that the flavor has long departed the mortal coil. The lesser third problem is that as the stock dwindles down, you get smaller pieces. No full flowers, but rather sprinkles of dry material. That is an issue, of course, with tea bags, which are often nothing but powder.

Many herbs are easy to preserve. Chamomile is one of the easiest. In the early morning, walk along it and pluck the flowers between your first and second fingers. The flower head usually pops right off. I pick into a new brown paper lunch sack till I am tired of stooping over or I run out of blooms. Chamomile rewards you often with a ton of new blossoms within days after each harvest.

Chamomile is a “plant once, harvest forever” kind of plant. It self-seeds easily and grows with zero input from us, the gardener. You don’t need to water it; it’ll still grow nearly always. It enjoys disturbed soil and happily crowds out the actual weeds. I only plant chamomile seeds if it is a new area, or I had to fully retill and reshape a growing area every 5 or so years. Even then, I often find it growing feral in our fields. It blows on the wind; chickens scratch the soil, and such.

Pick them at their height when the blooms are full and smell incredible. And let them air dry in the brown paper lunch sacks you pick in. Protected from light, they dry quickly, preserving their color and aroma.I leave the bag(s) on the counter, turning gently every day or so, as I remember. Once dry I transfer gently into a mason jar and tuck away.

Do not use a dehydrator for herbs! The heat will destroy the delicate essential oils in the leaves and plant material.

Freshly preserved and ready to be tucked away, the flowers will lose their vibrancy of color as time passes, but that is OK. Just store them in glass mason jars, as I mentioned above, tucked into a cool, dry, and dark area.

Then, enjoy the tea you can make in fall and winter by infusing the dried flowers in a tea basket with hot water. Boil the water and let it sit for a minute or two before pouring it over the tea.

For me, it needs nothing, but a drizzle of raw honey also gives a delicious boost.

~Sarah

How To Grow And Make Paprika
Gardening · Herbalism · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

How To Grow And Make Paprika

Sarah

Paprika is a spice that isn’t used enough these days. In the mid-century decades, it was the go-to garnishment for your meals. Deviled Eggs without a sprinkle of the orange-red delight? What kind of heathen are you? Of course, back in the 1930s to 70s, it was cutting edge to use paprika. Food wasn’t quite as exciting as it is now. But it was a start.

But I digress; there is a complicated history behind how paprika became a staple of Eastern Europe.

The Hungarian Pepper (capsicum annuum) came out of the Americas after it was “discovered” by the Spanish, while they were destroying central Mexico, and Christopher Columbus himself brought back a ship laden with spices, and the peppers made it on that sailing.

The peppers are in the nightshade family, so like tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants they all were brought to Europe, and then wound their way back the Americas, showing up in North America for the first time.

It eventually came to Hungary due to the Turks, in the 1500’s. It only came to the United States via Europe in the 1930s (though you have to know it was here long before, tucked into immigrant’s things. Seeds always came with them, so they could grow the food they loved.)

But there is an odd side note in it all. Hungary loved peppers. They didn’t have the best land for farming mono-crops, but they could grow peppers well. They mostly raised livestock and used paprika to flavor their meat stews (goulash).

Under the Soviet Union’s rule, every state and satellite state (Hungary was a satellite state) had to grow something, so they became excellent farmers.

If left to grow in a nice warm environment, they are yellow at first, then turn orange, and finally a deep red.

I grew ours in buckets in the greenhouse. In early summer, I had them outside with the tomatoes and brought them inside in August. I noted they were not doing well this year. This summer, it was below 60* every night. There were no warm summer evenings this year.

Once in the greenhouse, they started producing in large quantities. Peppers are still growing on the plants, even midway through October.

There are many paprikas one can purchase. The most common is sweet or mild paprika, made with peppers that have no heat.

There is smoked paprika, where the peppers are smoked before dehydrating, over wood smoke.

Then there are the spicier paprikas. These are often labeled “Hungarian Paprika. ” They can be mild to quite spicy. You can be as hot as a Jalapeno using a Hungarian Wax Pepper! There are so many choices.

Once the peppers were fully ripe, I picked them and let them air dry in a wire basket in our kitchen.

You can also split the peppers, remove the seeds, cut them into strips, and dehydrate them.

Once dehydrated, process in a coffee grinder or small mill, or, for authenticity, use a tiny mortar and pestle. Dried peppers are best kept whole and processed to powder as needed. They will be that much fresher and more vibrant in aroma and flavor.And enjoy adding it to your dishes, especially a good beef stroganoff.

Commercially processed paprika quickly loses its potency in aroma, taste, and even color. Within a month of opening, the color often fades into a light brick red.

So next year, consider growing some, either from the start (they do exist if one searches the fun growers) or one of the many varieties online in seed form—a nice spicy/hot one or this one, a sweet paprika.

~Sarah