Well today was a busy day on the homestead. Today I canned 7 pints of pickled beets and 6 pints of cherry jam, if you don’t count the 3/4′s full jar. That’s getting tuck into the fridge to enjoy now.
We headed out to the gardens this afternoon, to find the Italian zucchinis had exploded with the last rain. We harvested a whole wheelbarrow full. Two had already been taken out before I took this photo. I will have a lot of canning and drying to do! I might start on my zucchini relish soon to.
I also picked 1/3 of a storage bin full of green beans. I guess I’m canning and drying beans tomorrow to!
Hubby just finished building a grape arbor for us. We have a grape vine planted on each end. I love having it as an entrance into the raised beds!
The Swish Chard is growing great to!
Hi,
I was wondering if you would share recipes that you used dehydrated foods in? For instance, how do you use them, do you just add them to what you cooking or do you have to rehydrate them first?
For instance, I dice up green peppers from the garden and freeze them every summer, then during the year I take out what I want from the freezer and I just add them to what ever I am cooking, spaghetti sauce, chili, on top of hm pizza ect, I can see dry peppers working well in saucy type dishes but what like on top of pizza etc, would dry mushrooms work for pizza too?
I have always canned and am working on branching out to can more than just green beans, tomatoes, pickles and jams so I am definately curious how you make it all work.
thanks in advance!!
I will warn you right now, wasps LOVE grapevines! We had grapevines at our Millbank house and while the bees liked them, the WASPS were crazy about them and we couldn’t go anywhere near that side of the house!!! Anyway, I may have a great recipe for you to try with some of that zucchini! I’m making a dish tonight that uses potatoes, but I think it would be AWESOME with zucchini! I’ll be posting it tonight or tomorrow
Amanda
Wow, your garden is sure exploding with abundance…a real blessing.
Let us know how the cherry jam tastes….wishing I was there to share some with you (wink,wink).
Blessings.
@ Amanda:
Ahh I hope the wasps don’t try and claim my grape vines. lol Would make it a little hard to get in the greenhouse or raised beds.
Can’t wait to try your new recipe!!
@ Dana:
I use my dried foods the same way I would use frozen or canned. If I’m making a soup or sauce then I will add them dry. As they cook they rehydrate nicely.
But if I was going to use them in a stir fry or pizza topping I would soak them in water first. It takes about 30 min for them to rehydrate. Then just use them as you would a fresh or frozen veggie.
Your veggies look great.
I make mock apple pie and use zucchini cubes in cupcakes with cinnamon and apple spice , they all taste like apples and a good way to use the extra zukies up! Huggies, Reth in Anchorage AK
@ Dana:
Hello Dana
When you are using dehydrated food you can rehydrate before you use or while you are cooking you have to add enough water to the recipe so as not to have it come out dry, because of course the dehydrated food will consume a fare amount of it, I watch a youtube channel about dehydrating and how to use frequently and Tammy is very helpful, her youtube channel is Dehydrate2store. She has some helpful ideas and great recipes for using dehydrated foods.
I LOVE DEHYDRATE2STORE! I religiously follow her directions. I have 2 dehydrators going right now!