Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
Drying, Canning, Freezing |
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Posted: August 03 2008 at 8:41pm |
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Hi Guys, it is that time of the year when our gardens are putting forth so much stuff!!! That is why I started this sticky. If we have questions or suggestions this time of year we have one spot we can all go to on Drying, Canning and Freezing.
Hope everyone agrees if not I will take this down! I have so many tomatoes that will be ripe in 2 weeks I am scared! Was considering a pressure canner but I really like to dry these vacuum pack and then freeze them they keep a long time that way. Howerver, my first question is...Has anyone ever dried Zucchini squash? Were you happy when you rehydrated and used the squash? Today I grated zucchini and put it in my dryer at 130 degrees and it took about 4 hours to dry. My Harvest Book said squash does not dry well and only lasts 1 month. So in my wisdom I vacuum packed it and put it in the freezer. It looked ok! So anyone out there know if I did the right thing? Does everyone agree that no matter what freezing will preserve it longer than 1 month? I use this zucchini for bread only. My family loves my Zucchini Bread! But to freeze grated fresh zucchini takes up LOTS of freezer room...dried takes up almost no room. Help! |
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flowerchild
V.I.P. Member Joined: March 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 134 |
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You can also make chips with zucchini and summer squash. Slice them thinly, sprinkle lightly with pizza seasoning, your favorite herbs, even cajun seasoning works good. Dry until crisp. I think mine took about 2 and 1/2 hours. Much better than potato chips.
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Yes, I saw this in my drying book too. How long do these chips last? Need to know if I make lots or just enough to eat in a few days.
Thanks, flowerchild! |
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flowerchild
V.I.P. Member Joined: March 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 134 |
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I hate to say it, I don't know how long they last. We have never had any still around after a week.
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I will try them! Have you ever dried grated zucchinni and then reconstituted and used in bread?
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flowerchild
V.I.P. Member Joined: March 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 134 |
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No, I didn't get alot last year, but I am thinking of doing some this year.
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coyote
Admin Group Joined: April 25 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8395 |
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Lot's of Zucchini! We have been de-hydrating also! My wife loves the zucchini chips! I think they would last quite a while if they are packaged in food saver bags. We still have bananna's that we did back in Jan, and they are still good.Going to be doing Tomatoes soon..
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Long time lurker since day one to Member.
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Has anyone made Tomato Powder. I just figured it was tomatoes without the skin and seeds dried then put in the blender to make it into a powder.
Anyone know? |
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hi...
here's some for sale- http://spicebarn.com/tomato_powder.htm http://beprepared.com/product.asp?pn=FS%20V160&name=Tomato%20Powder&bhcd2=1223744421 and... http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Tomato-Powder_c_26-1.html?gclid=CN2sw4bTn5YCFQVfFQodXDiU5w
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Howerver, my first question is...Has anyone ever dried Zucchini squash? Were you happy when you rehydrated and used the squash? .......................................... hi Flu Mom... I'm going to dry pumpkin...the colonials did it and it kept them alive. I'll let you know. I dried apples successfully before. |
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Dr.Who
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Is sit better to dry stuff in the oven or one of those food dehydrators?
Btw, I have bought dried oiled sweet peas and they are excellent. |
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The problem with the oven is that the temperature is too high and it drys the outside of the food before the middle gets dry. Then you get mold. I have a food dehydrator and it is worth it! I have dry tomatos, apples, herbs, and pineapple.
I would look on Craigs list or ebay for a used one. Mine is over 10 years old and working great. |
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Littleraven
V.I.P. Member Joined: May 10 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 438 |
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I have a question on canning that someone may be able to answer. I've been canning for only a little while--waterbath but I want to eventually start trying the pressure canning. My problem is that my jars tend to float or end up turning on their sides--how do you keep this from happening? I have a little jar rack but it doesn't help. Am I using too much water? With the blue book it says to add water to where it is over the top of the jars nut that just causes the jars to float. I ended up putting a plate on top to weight them down but that seems like it would be a problem when pressure canning and it's a problem when you try to load in your jars. I have been working with small pint jars so I figured that might be part of the issue. Can someone advise me as to the best method--I'm not sure that I'm following correctly and I certainly dont want to learn the wrong way. I've googled this but cant find any answers. I really would appreciate some good info from the experienced canners on this forum.--Thanks
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Wicker
Valued Member Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Mississippi Status: Offline Points: 242 |
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Littleraven ... Are you filling the jar to within a 1\2 a inch to a 1\4 of a inch of the top? If there not full, that may be causing them to float. With water bath I cover my jars with about 2 inches of water and I've never had one float. In the pressure canner it only takes a couple of inches. Mine "has a fill to line" on the inside. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
Wicker
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Wishbone
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If you buy a dehydrator, make sure it has a fan. Then everything dries faster.
I bought my 4 dehydrators at church sales..
2 are identical, so I can now stack all the trays onto one unit. It's tall, but I am saving space, and the food still dries nice.
The only tomatoes I dry are the little grape tomatoes. I slice them in half before drying
and place them on trays skin side down..
I sliced larger tomatoes and put them on trays, but all they did was stick to the trays. And I had a mess.
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Littleraven
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Thank you Wicker, It may be that I am not filling my jars enough--I tend to worry that the lids will not seal if I get too close and over-compensate, this combined with trying the smaller jars may be what is doing this. I will try this on the next canning run. I think you may have solved my problem Thank you.
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Littleraven
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I make tomato powder all the time. I use little screens in my dehydrator so that the tomatoes don't stick to the trays and I've dehydrated bushels of tomatoes You don't have to peel or anything, just wash, slice and dehydrate the tomatoes. When you are ready you just grind them up for powder- you don't notice the seeds or peels when grinding or flaking. I store them sliced and dried in vacuumn sealed jars and when ready to use them, powder or flake them up. I never have to buy tomato sauces or pastes. You can keep your dried tomatos in the freezer if you like, but I have tomatos which I dried 4 years ago and I still use them with no noticeable loss of flavor and they are just stored on a cool dark pantry shelf. I use them in soups, stews, salads, dressings, baked breads, pastas and anything you can imagine them in. Oh yes and they make those wonderful sun dried/olive oil packed tomatos that you pay a fortune in the store for-- for pennies.
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doomsmom
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We'll use our sun dryer again this year. It really dries much more evenly than my electric dehydrators. Also, if I don't have electricity, I'll surely have sun. We made a dehydrator that has twelve shelves, painted all the wood black and have plexiglass on the top and front. Have a door that latches. Just put it in the sun and turn it to whatever direction the sun is. Dries foods beautifully. Hope to keep it full all summer.
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Wicker
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doomsmom ... Can you post a picture of your sun dryer? This sounds like something I might like to use.
Wicker
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doomsmom
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Wicker - I'm not sure how to post a picture. If someone will tell me, I'll post one.
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Wishbone
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I thought I saw dried powdered tomatoes for sale at Gordon Food Supply in a large bag.
And they also have dried powdered re-fried beans that are easy to reconstitute...frijoles..
And of course, many different kinds of dried potatoes, some with cheese.
All their dehydrated foods and spices come in very large containers.
Too bad I can't go shopping anymore. I am surrounded by flu cases in my community.
I can't go out to buy little plants. I'll have to start everything from seed this week.
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doomsmom
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Wicker - here's a link to a solar dehydrator you can build. We put plexiglass on the front of ours. www.homegrownevolution.com/2008/10/build-solar-dehydrator.html
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I finally made zucchini bread with my dried and frozen zucchini. It tasted great! Next time I will not use as much water to rehydrate because I poured off some of the water and I figure some flavor.
So I will again dry my zucchini this year and freeze it. It just saves freezer space! Hope this was helpful. |
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Dr.Who
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Use for all those tomatoes:
My mom has been making (don't judge it till you try it) tomato jam, for years now. Everyone who tries it likes it. We just don't tell them what it is before they try it. I have never made any kind of jam but just two days ago I did for the first time. I was motivated because strawberries were very inexpensive and because I just don't like the taste of jam made with corn syrup. Jam made with real sugar is sooo much better and I am really liking my own jam. I did not want to get into all that canning on my first try so I made a cross between a freezer jam and a cooked jam. Obviously from a prepping point of view canned is preferable. |
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mercurymom
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Can you post how you did it? Recipe? I just got a whole bunch of strawberries, and we've eaten about half, but I need to do something with the rest, before they get too soft. I need to learn how to start making jam and canning, the sooner the better. lol
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Dr.Who
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I looked around on the internet for a recipe for a while. There are a lot out there and they mostly differ in the amount of sugar used. The freezer jams used very little sugar and one does not cook the fruit. I was afraid to try anything so different from what I was used to but I have heard that they do turn out just fine. The other recipes require that you cook the berries and sterilize the jars using stringent methods to keep germs from getting into them or you could get botulism. I created a hybrid. I cooked the berries (probably a waste of time but I was afraid to try anything so new to me) and used the full amount of sugar and pectin but then I froze the resulting jam (except for one container that went straight into the fridge). I noticed that there are several different kinds of pectin. Not knowing which to use I got the one that was on sale. It was powdered freezer jam pectin and it worked fine. I would also point out that by making the freezer jam one does not need to use canning jars. But it also won't last if you loose power to your freezer. I did not keep a link to the recipe I used so I can't provide it. But it had equal parts crushed berries and sugar, one packet of pectin and I cooked it for ten minutes adding the pectin in the last minute. I scooped off some of the froth as I have seen my mom do that when I was a kid. But it did not seem to make much difference that I left some on. If you make a jam out of something with a tough skin you might want to remove the skins (then it becomes jelly). My main reason for making this was that I just don't like jam made with corn syrup; it is not as good as jam made with sugar. |
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Wicker
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I canned 10 half pint jars of strawberry jam this weekend, from strawberries I grew. The recipe I used was really easy. It is a water bath recipe, so even if you don't have a pressure canner you can use a deep pot. Here it is:
7 cups granulated sugar
8 cups whole strawberries
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 pkg. regular powdered fruit pectin (1.75 oz. box)
1. Place the jars in a pot that will put at least 3 inches over the tops of the jars. Fill the jars and pot with cool waterr to the top of the jars. Cover and bring the water to a simmer over medium heat. (Do not boil)
2. Prepare two piece lids. Set the screw bands aside and place the flats in a saucepan and cover with water. Heat just to a simmer. Keep warm till ready to use.
3.Measure sugar in a bowl. It has to be added all at one time.
4.Wash strawberries and remove hulls.
5.Layer berries in a glass pie plate or flat bottom bowl, crush berries a with a potato masher. Tranfer to a liquid measuring cup and as you get 1 cup pour into a deep stainless steel pot. Repeat until you have 5 cups of crushed strawberries.
6.Add lemon jucie and pectin and wisk to dissolved. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar all at once and stirring constantly, return to a full boil that can not be stirred down. Boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from heat and using a large slotted spoon skim off foam.
7. Fill one jar at a time. Remove one jar from canner, pouring out the water (do not dry jar) and fill to 1/4 inch of the top. Run a rubber spatula around the side of the jar to release any air bubbles. Wipe rim and put on the flat and the screw band. Tighten band finger tight.
8. Put jars back in water bath and make sure there is at least 1 inch of water over the tops of the jars. Cover and bring to a rapid boil. Process for 10 minutes after the water starts to boil rapidly. At the end of the 10 minutes, turn off heat and remove lid. Wait 5 minutes and remove from pot. Sit on a towel and let cool for 24 hours.
I hope you enjoy!
Wicker
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grammajo
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Hi guys & gals;
Just wanted to ask if anyone has ever canned horseradish, and if they have, could we get the recipe? Thanks all. Keep prepping.
God bless. Jo
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Just waiting.
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