What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? (2016–)

[haresfur]

On 6/10/2020 at 11:11 PM, Darienne said:

There's really no need to buy a dehydrator.  I have dehydrated many items in my oven.   Just turn the oven to its lowest temperature and stick a double oven glove in the opening.  Voilà.  A dehydrator par excellence. 

 

Good point. My new oven will hold a temperature down to 30 C. With fan-forced, I don't need to keep the door open. I have dried herbs but haven't tried anything wetter.

 

My hint from when I had a dehydrator is to dip apple slices in orange juice before drying so they don't turn brown. Tastes nice, too.

 

Anyone have a good source for optimum drying temperatures of different foods?

[Okanagancook]

I have an Excalibur 

their guidelines have worked well for me so far..I use the manual but here is their on-line info

https://www.excaliburdehydrator-recipes.com

[kayb]

Bought a bag of 50 ears of sweet corn from a farmer earlier this week, and it was last night before I could get around to shucking it. I shucked and silked it, then life happened and before I knew it, it was 10 p.m. and corn wasn't going to get cut off and frozen before I went to bed. So I got up this morning and set about it.

 

Predictably, the corn had dried out a bit. So I thought, "hmmmmm," and set the first half-dozen cobs to boiling to make corn stock. Used that instead of water blanch the corn before cooling and freezing. Voila! Renewed moisture.

 

Eleven pints in the freezer. I may pick up another bag next week, and work it up more expeditiously.

[Shelby]

6 minutes ago, kayb said:

Bought a bag of 50 ears of sweet corn from a farmer earlier this week, and it was last night before I could get around to shucking it. I shucked and silked it, then life happened and before I knew it, it was 10 p.m. and corn wasn't going to get cut off and frozen before I went to bed. So I got up this morning and set about it.

 

Predictably, the corn had dried out a bit. So I thought, "hmmmmm," and set the first half-dozen cobs to boiling to make corn stock. Used that instead of water blanch the corn before cooling and freezing. Voila! Renewed moisture.

 

Eleven pints in the freezer. I may pick up another bag next week, and work it up more expeditiously.

I've found that I like my corn better when I blanch it first.  It adds an extra step, but it's worth it IMO.

[lemniscate]

I'm doing an experiment;  pickled romaine in the vacuum chamber.   I threw some quartered romaine, celery and green onions in a bag with a dill-mustard seed-salt/sugar-vinegar brine and vac sealed it.   To be served alongside ribs tomorrow.

 

Update:  It's really good!  Used some of the leaves on a salami sandwich for mid-morning snack.   The green onions are a standout also.  

Edited July 4, 2020 by lemniscate (log)

[Norm Matthews]

I have dried tomatoes in the oven for a pizza topping. They are almost like candy.  This method does not make very many at a time unless you have multiple racks. 

Oven-Dried Heirloom Tomatoes

Makes enough for one 12-inch pizza.

• 3 heirloom tomatoes, sliced crosswise 1/2-inch thick

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

 

Place a wire rack on a baking sheet and top with the tomato slices . drizzle with olive oil, S &P.  Place in a 250º preheated oven and bake until dry and shrunken, about 3 hours.

 

[Norm Matthews]

On the potters wheel, I recently made a fermentation jar like those used in China except smaller and was planning to use it for sauerkraut but then I saw some fermentation lock that fit wide mouth canning jars and felt those would be better because I can see inside a glass jar and not with a ceramic one.  I would have to take the lid off often to check it.  The first batch is going to be like my Aunt used to make. If it turns out, I plan next to make Cortido Kraut with other vegetables and seasonings.

[heidih]

30 minutes ago, Norm Matthews said:

I have dried tomatoes in the oven for a pizza topping. They are almost like candy.  This method does not make very many at a time unless you have multiple racks. 

Oven-Dried Heirloom Tomatoes

Makes enough for one 12-inch pizza.

• 3 heirloom tomatoes, sliced crosswise 1/2-inch thick

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

 

Place a wire rack on a baking sheet and top with the tomato slices . drizzle with olive oil, S &P.  Place in a 250º preheated oven and bake until dry and shrunken, about 3 hours.

 

 

Cleaning not my fortee so I do then on parchment - Yes like candy. I have yet to give salmon a go as they do in Alaska. https://www.great-alaska-seafood.com/Honey-Smoked-Salmon-Belly-Strips-Special-Offer.htm?gclid=CjwKCAjwrvv3BRAJEiwAhwOdM7xryR_KWFRrE4J2aIU4zuVdwvYldjnXNOQOxd17LDKs_Jg8XnaAoRoCGiIQAvD_BwE

[Norm Matthews]

Now I am tempted to smoke some salmon.  Years ago I saw Alton Brown cold smoke salmon but these look like regular smoking.  Maybe next time I do a brisket, I'll put some on behind them. 

[Miriravan]

No longer able to resist the siren call of those lovely-looking marinated mushrooms, I have succumbed.  

 

My attempt (using three pounds of criminis, just because I like them better than white ones, though they admittedly look murkier in the jar.)

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Miriravan
Left out a punctuation mark (log)

[kayb]

I had accumulated a big stock of tomatoes, and didn't want to can them, so I dried them in the oven; they'll go in bags and probably into the freezer, if I don't eat them all out of hand. My dehydrator seems to have gone the way of my big stock pot when I moved; can't find either of them, so I guess I'll be replacing both, at least before the apple tree bears fruit this year.

 

Also shelled and froze a quarter-bushel of crowder peas, which shelled out six pints. I'll get another quarter-bushel of purple hulls in a week or so and add those to the stash. A typical pastime on the Fourth of July has always been shelling peas and watching baseball. This year, it was shelling peas and watching Hamilton.

 

[Kim Shook]

Cucumbers started:

 

 

(I'm not at all sure that this is where these belong.  If not, I apologize!)

[MokaPot]

@Kim Shook, Sorry to be dense here, but what did you do with those cucumbers & onions? Salt on top? All that liquid in the 2nd photo was leeched from the cucumbers & onions? TIA.

[heidih]

@Kim Shook  The beginning of your everlasting cucumber bowl? Like this  https://forums.egullet.org/topic/105832-its-cucumber-time-ideas/?do=findComment&comment=1579190

 

[Kim Shook]

@MokaPot - sorry!  I do them every year and forgot that some folks might not have seen them yet.  Just pickling cucumbers, onions, apple cider vinegar, LOTS of pepper, and sugar (I use Splenda as we are diabetics).  The liquid is ALL vinegar at this point.  They will sit in the refrigerator all summer - I'll be adding more cukes, onions, seasonings, and vinegar as needed.  They do lose a lot of liquid as time goes by, so I have to keep topping up with vinegar.  

 

@heidih - yep!  Those are the ones.  I couldn't find that thread!  Thank you!

[kayb]

Four and a half more pints of tomato sauce...

 

...and six pints and three pint and a half bags of peaches in the freezer. Tomorrow I'm canning kraut.

[Shelby]

Picked a few ears of sweet corn yesterday.   Used the marvelous vacmaster.  Got about 7 servings packaged up for us.  Should have a lot more if the damn raccoons stay out of the garden.

 

[kayb]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Should have a lot more if the damn raccoons stay out of the garden.

 

I discovered the other day I have a beaver making excursions into my back yard and garden. I was somewhat taken aback by this. I have dealt with many different kinds of garden pests  (witness this, from a storytelling session years back) , but never beavers. I cannot see where they have been marauding, unless it is in the dying squash vines. 

 

I do have several eggplants ready to pick, and tomatoes are coming in apace and I have a small watermelon thriving. Those Romas are some prolific plants, for which I'm grateful. I'll make more sauce, end of the week, I'm sure. But I'm back to depending on the generosity of friends and neighbors for yellow squash and zucchini; who'd'a thunk it? And cucumbers; the cucumber vines died as well. Do beavers like squash and cucumbers?

 

The kraut molded, and I chunked it. May have had something to do with the week it was 80 degrees F in the house when the a/c was on the fritz. I'll try again later this year. 

Edited July 16, 2020 by kayb (log)

[chromedome]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Picked a few ears of sweet corn yesterday.   Used the marvelous vacmaster.  Got about 7 servings packaged up for us.  Should have a lot more if the damn raccoons stay out of the garden.

My father pounded nails through planks, and then laid them around his corn with the pointy sides up. It's pretty medieval, but it works well (you need to give the corn a "skirt" a good 20-24 inches wide, though...).

[Margaret Pilgrim]

46 minutes ago, chromedome said:

My father pounded nails through planks, and then laid them around his corn with the pointy sides up. It's pretty medieval, but it works well (you need to give the corn a "skirt" a good 20-24 inches wide, though...).

 

Your dad's device works for many crops and is certainly more humane than traps or, god help us, poisons.    Love it.     Just a "gentle hint" to keep your distance.

[heidih]

3 hours ago, chromedome said:

My father pounded nails through planks, and then laid them around his corn with the pointy sides up. It's pretty medieval, but it works well (you need to give the corn a "skirt" a good 20-24 inches wide, though...).

Oh we do that for pigeons. Every highrise  has the spike things. Ticks off the helicopter pilots when the birds flutter. Other methods  like sonic but physical deterrent more effective. 

[David Ross]

14 hours ago, Shelby said:

Picked a few ears of sweet corn yesterday.   Used the marvelous vacmaster.  Got about 7 servings packaged up for us.  Should have a lot more if the damn raccoons stay out of the garden.

 

We have racoons this year, big ones.  I've rarely seen them in the past but I know they lurk around here.  I live about a block from the Spokane River, so they probably have lots of good stuff to munch on down there.  A few weeks ago I came back early morning after and errand and a big one was halfway up a tree.  Big as in probably 20lbs.  Maybe that's why I've seen plants and such with munch marks on them!

[heidih]

2 hours ago, David Ross said:

We have racoons this year, big ones.  I've rarely seen them in the past but I know they lurk around here.  I live about a block from the Spokane River, so they probably have lots of good stuff to munch on down there.  A few weeks ago I came back early morning after and errand and a big one was halfway up a tree.  Big as in probably 20lbs.  Maybe that's why I've seen plants and such with munch marks on them!

 

They can be huge and they are bold. Have not harvested a persimmon, plum, or pomegranate in years. They raid at night just the day or so before you were going to pick. Ggrrrr

[Darienne]

11 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

They can be huge and they are bold. Have not harvested a persimmon, plum, or pomegranate in years. They raid at night just the day or so before you were going to pick. Ggrrrr

For us it's the same with our vast amount of blackberries and raspberries...one day they are not quite ready...the next day the bushes are denuded by the birds.  

[haresfur]

7 hours ago, Darienne said:

For us it's the same with our vast amount of blackberries and raspberries...one day they are not quite ready...the next day the bushes are denuded by the birds.  

 

I'm resigned to growing fruit just to keep the parrots happy. It's worth it.