What are you DEHYDRATING today?

[ORChick]

DH and I are going on a little trip, so I went through the fridge and the garden to see what needed to be dealt with. So I now have some tomatoes in the dehydrator - I feel really odd about doing that; the tomatoes have only very recently been ready to eat, and I am nowhere near the point where I think that I need to do anything with them beyond tomato salad with basil, and some good olive oil . But the one neighbour will be away at the same time we are, and the others don't eat tomatoes , so into the dehydrator they went. Also some cucumbers that a friend gave me - I have no idea what I will ever use dried cucumbers for - any ideas? But I couldn't throw them into the compost, and the chickens will have enough other stuff, and they won't still be good in 10 days. A mango from the fruit basket got cut up, and spread on a tray. And some dill that was languishing in the veggie drawer. I'll put in some basil from the garden in a little while, when the dill is done, and the tray is free.

 

[dipence71]

I may be dehyrating corn soon

what all can you use dehydrated corn for?
I have sooo much and am thinking of try it but don't know what the uses for it would be....

 

[big brown horse]

Havn't dehydrated corn yet.

Today it is golden plums and red plums (from my trees ). Going to make prunes!

 

[detali]

I have been dehydrating pumpkins for the past two days.

My vines gave up before the skins on the pumpkins were cured enough for long term storage. So they got shredded and dehydrated. Now, that is going to make pumpkin pie making easy.

I also have some dehydrated corn. I plan to run that through my flour mill and make corn meal muffins out of it.

 

[unaspenser]

A lot of my dehydrated veggies wind up getting tossed in the pot when I make stew or soup in the winter. I've found dehydrated tomatoes are AWESOME in scrambled eggs.

Currently I'm mostly just drying apples, but I'll be doing grapes very soon as well.

 

[Blackbird]

Here is my drying rack that I set up. Its a plastic guard from a door that someone threw out in town. Washed it and strung it up.

Hanging in the back are three bundles of woodworm, a sprig of eucalyptuc plant (just because) and a bundle of sage.

On the rack, far left I have French tarrogon, front left I have lemon balm, and front right is sage leaves.

Tomorrow I'm going to harvest some mallow leaves, even though its a little late for them, and maybe some peppermint.

 

[Javamama]

I just did a sheet pan full of cherry tomatoes in the oven. Tossed them with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, bake for a few hours at 250 degrees, and voila - tomato candy I plan on freezing some if I don't eat them all first.

 

[Ldychef2k]

Sitting around waiting for work to come in, and I got the bug to organize my dehydrated foods and MREs.

Brought in an old beat up dresser from when I was in high school, two of five drawers not there, and decided that I would take the dehydrated/vacuum sealed fruits, veggies and MREs and put them in the dresser so I coudl get to them more easily than opening and then resealing boxes.

So, this is how the wall looks now. There are more that 150 meals in those three drawers, serving from 2 to 6 each, depending. Six boxes went into those three drawers, and now the food is more easily accessible.

The room is too small to get the whole wall in. There are two more stacks of boxes to the right.

While I was at it, I took a couple of pictures of representative packets that are now in the drawers. There are still a lot in the boxes, as well. I have had a lot of fun being creative with these.

Below are fruits and veggies. Squash, apple leather, peas, corn, mixed veggies, cherries, many kinds of berries, pumpkin leather, sun dried tomatoes, crisp dried tomatoes that I turned into powder, home made refried beans, mashed potatoes (chicken and beef flavored), sweet potatoes (powdered like the white poatoes), spinach, cilantro, white and brown mushrooms, spinach, and bruschetta powder, which is dried tomatoes, basil, and red onions ground up into a powder to add to soups and sauces.

This next picture is the stuff that feels good to make, because I like to be creative. What I did was get rice, orzo and other small pastas, bulk stuffing mix, TVP, beans, etc., to use as a base. then I bought bulk things like cheese powder, gravy mixes...too many to list, and gathered a selection of my dried veggies and some vacuum sealer bags. Then I went to town. I mixed things like beef TVT, refried beans, rice, cheese powder, beef base and made a burrito filling. Or I mixed polenta with onions, red bell peppers and bruschetta powder or sundried tomatoes. Lentils with flavorings and oats for a vegetarian lentil loaf, mixed veggies with ABC pasta and chicken base for soup.

My favorite thing is dehydrated spaghetti sauce. I got two cases for 50 cents a can, then dehydrated them in the oven on parchment, folded them up to the size of a deck of cards, and vacuum sealed them.

I also have breakfast packs of oatmeal, dried fruit and brown sugar. Powdered eggs in a large can are stored separately, to be combined with the sausage flavored TVP.

Anyway, here is a representative sampling of the MREs. Most of them can be prepared in 20 minutes with boiling water from the rocket stove, which was heated using about two handfuls of twigs !

I love this stuff....and I love it that you guys don't think I am wierd. (Assuming, there.....)

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I for one, don't mind at all. I am however, a bit jealous
I'm drying a basil plant that started going to seed.
Got some cilantro from the farmer's market. Froze some, dried the rest.
If my darn tomatoes will ever get ripe I'll do more of them.
More mushrooms, onions & taters.

 

[Blackbird]

I'm jealous too!

But I wonder how many rats are living in those boxes..