We have had a couple of cold, rainy days so I got to a few things I wouldn’t have done when the sun was shining. I did some more inventory update. I am vowing to be better about keeping track of what we grow and consume. I know I did very well with tomato sauce. I will not run out before the next tomato run. I am however, nearly out of applesauce. We eat a lot of it and I usually cut the amount of oil in quick bread in half and replace it with an equal amount of applesauce. With the amount of quick bread we eat, the sauce goes very fast. I have too much jelly and jam and not enough canned berries. I did go too heavy on the spiced pears. I will end up giving some of them away. The peaches are finally winding down.
The other thing I did was to watch a video series on dehydrating. It was so inspiring that I am now inclined not to can any vegetables. My family really does not like them and they are very energy intensive to pressure can. They also use up a lot of jars which are pretty expensive. In a post oil world, we are going to have to preserve food using as little in the way of fossil fuels as possible. I can run a full dehydrator for a quarter a day and don’t have to babysit it the way I would a canner. I will still pressure can meat although I plan to give jerky a try.
I also cleaned out my cookbook collection and got a dedicated folder for the recipes I downloaded last year using foraged foods. I have a lot of fiddleheads, elderberries and mushrooms to use up. The recipes are useless if I can’t lay my hands on them. I advoacted the OAR system in my book and I have to sure to use my own advice.
My final job is to finish my freezer and fridge clean up. The girls are on spring break right now and I have put them to work. Right now, I have a break in the rain so I will put everything else aside and head out to the greenhouse to talk nicely to my seedlings for a bit.
I am going to order some oxygen absorber packets today. Combined with vacuum sealing, this provides a nearly oxygen free environment for dried foods. I should have no trouble keeping stored food for the year I want. There were some recipes for mixes in this video. When vacuum packed, they provide a just add water meal, a real help when the power is out.
April 22, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Is there a link to the dehydrating video series or was it a hard copy?
April 22, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I was afraid someone would ask this. I went to letusprepared.blogspot.com which had a series of videos on the side. The dehydrating series was there. The videos kept changing. I had to watch for a minute to find it each time.
April 22, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I found it! The link is dehydrate2store. It is a youtube video.
April 23, 2009 at 7:39 am
I’ve pretty much come to the same conclusion re drying versus pressure canning. I will pressure can tomato sauce, but probably not much else.
Question on the oxygen removers – what’s the alternative if those aren’t available in the future?
April 23, 2009 at 10:31 am
I only pressure can sauce if I am adding other vegetables like onions, peppers and squash. If I dehydrate those I can add them while the sauce is cooking. I have added dry rice to jars of dehydrated fruit to absorb moisture but I can’t think of anything that will absorb oxygen. I am going to purchase a food saver system which has an attachment that removes the air from Mason jars. You can reuse jar lids with this gadget. It will do the job but it will require electricity. We have a solar system that charges our bee fence to keep the bears out. I know there must be some sort of solar system that will provide enough electricty to run small appliances like my dehydrater and food saver.
April 23, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Great video! Did you see that apple peeler/corer/slicer on part 2? I HAVE to have that! How much time have I wasted processing applesauce?!
April 23, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I have the food saver with mason jar attachment and have used it on half gallon jars. Unfortunately, a part is broken so I need to send it back for repair or replacement since it’s still under warranty.
Another option to a solar panel is a pedal-powered generator. Lots of plans for that online.
April 23, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I use a Squeezo for making sauce. I quarter the apples, cook them then run them through the Sqeezo. I am way too lazy to peel apples. I found the Food Saver at (dare I say it?) WalMart for a lot less than on-line today. I am weighing my moral options. They did not carry the attachments.
April 24, 2009 at 10:27 am
I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the show “Good Eats” hosted by Alton Brown, but he has and wonderful method of drying that I have used for jerky and herbs.
He uses a stack of paper furnace filters strapped to a box fan. Check out this Good Eats fan page for links to You Tube versions of some of the shows if you can’t find them locally.
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm
You specifically want to look at Beef Jerky (Urban Preservation II), Dehydrating (Withering Bites), and Herbs (Herbal Preservation). Although I’m a big fan of the show and I love them all. It’s the only television show that I actually purchase on DVD, lol!
February 9, 2013 at 12:11 pm
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