smallholderwannabe

This blog is mainly a rambling kind of diary of the transition from smallholderwannabe to smallholder.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Drying stuff

A friend has just acquired a dehydrator at a car boot sale. They were going to stay in their caravan for a couple of weeks so she offered to let me have the use of it while they were away. So I have been drying stuff. I have two big jars of dried apple rings, although some of the "rings" are slightly funny shapes because almost all the apples I have are windfalls. I also have almost a 1lb jam jar full of dried and powdered kale to add to winter soups/stews/whatever is suitable. I had three huge "bouquets" of kale, each one bigger than I could hold in my hands and when dried and powdered, it has all gone down to just under a jam jar full. I could not believe how much it reduced down. I have been reading about how kale is a super food and so a half teaspoonful in lots of things should give us lots of health benefits, hopefully. I was thinking about winter colds and flu and the coronavirus and that all this kaley goodness might help and certainly won't hurt.

I have also dried and powdered rosemary, sage and thyme. A vast pile of the herbs has been reduced to half a smaller jam jar worth of powder. I intend to mix it with some salt to have "Herb Salt". Some of it is for me and some to pop in Christmas hampers as something different. This is another thing i have been reading about. The idea is that not only is it flavourful but if you use the same amount as you usually use of salt, you will end up using less because of the herb content. Hopefully it will have more flavour than bought because it is made with home grown herbs. I am also looking for interesting and inexpensive ways of padding out the Christmas hampers as I am still doing considerably less shopping than I used to.

I went though the French beans at the allotment and was amazed at how many beans I have missed. I was hoping for a few to keep as seed for next year but there were so many! Last night I watched a film on the tv while podding the beans and put them in the dehydrator overnight - apart from a few to be kept for seed. I now have a jam jar of dry beans to keep for the winter. I foresee a couple of bean stews in our future. I am now absolutely convinced that there are no beans left but I daresay that I will find a few when we pull the plants up next time we are down at the allotment : )

I am now looking around to see what else I can dehydrate for the last couple of days while I have the use of the dehydrator. I have had fun. I want a dehydrator now. Maybe I need to write a letter to Santa this year...



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2 Comments:

  • At 9:57 AM, Blogger Living Alone in Your 60's said…

    Do you have blackberries near by, if so you could make fruit leather.

     
  • At 7:15 AM, Blogger Jo said…

    I could make fruit leather but I do love blackberries with yoghurt so we decided to put the rest of the blackberries in the freezer for winter puddings. Maybe next year...?

     

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