for a few minutes. For anyone who is interested, 50 lbs. of onions, when chopped into about half inch pieces, dehydrates down to 12 quarts. I should be good for a while on onions!
This morning I thawed out 8 lbs. of blueberries. I would rather have fresh wild blueberries, but that's not going to happen, so I will settle for frozen. They are packed into 32 half pint jars and are sitting on my kitchen table for a couple more hours, just to make sure they are completely thawed. I'll cover them with a thin sugar-water syrup and run them through my water bath canner this evening. This is an experiment, so I'll open a jar in a couple of days and see how they turned out. I have canned blueberries that I picked and froze myself, but have never used store-bought berries like this before. I have another 8 lbs. in the freezer and I'm thinking maybe a couple batches of blueberry jam.
Another 6 lbs. of frozen hash browns are in the dehydrators now and should be dry by late evening. They dry quicker than do the onions. By tomorrow evening all 24 lbs. of potatoes will be dehydrated, in jars and on my shelves.
And on Sunday, I'm going to do
NOTHING.
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I'll bring my corn over next...lol. my wife doesn't care if we can at all. She wants to give most of away. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. The boys told her let dad experiment all he wants. Do I need a pressure cannier or will a stock pot do. We have two stock pots and if I can I would use them. The books I down loaded on Kindle are useless. Mostly making jelly or picking.
ReplyDeleteVegetables and meat absolutely have to be canned in a pressure canner. Do you have freezer space? It would be easier to freeze it like Kymber said. Frozen corn can be canned later if you need the freezer room then.
ReplyDeleteThere are two blogs I visit, just to learn things. This is one of them. I've got a commercial sized (super large) sealed can full of dehydrated onions with a food grade dehydrating pouch inside - have NO idea how many 'quarts' that would figure out to be.
ReplyDeleteDana...I don't think I'm much help there. All of my dehydrated foods are foods I have dried myself. I don't buy the #10 cans. I store my dehydrated stuff in canning jars, so I measure by quarts and pints. From what I have seen on other preparedness folk's blogs or YouTube channels, the amount of dried food in cans varies from company to company. Some fill the cans to the top and others fill according to weight, even if the weight leaves quite a bit of space between the food and the lid of the can. In a perfect world, a #10 can holds 3 quarts (12 cups). Just depends on the manufacturer.
ReplyDeleteI admire your skills. Few know them, even fewer pass the information on, and I doubt many can make it look so easy.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jess. I guess I find these things easy because I've been doing them for well over 50 years. And I really hate to see so many of the old ways disappear for lack of use. There are too many now who, if the microwave broke and McD's closed, would probably starve for lack of skills. I know about what I do, but would be in deep trouble if I attempted to do what you do. And would probably do a lot of damage if I tried!!
ReplyDeleteYou deserve a rest on Sunday!!
ReplyDeleteDani...I don't know about the deserving part, but I am going to take a day and read and nap and maybe sew a little bit and not much else. Just because I can! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are a very busy lady!! So glad you were able to get this all stocked. I need to get some Fall produce to put up. I love acorn and butternut squash, so will freeze some of each. My garden was pfffffttt, this year, so have to buy the produce. Hopefully, next year will be better.
ReplyDeleteTake care.....Blessings!
CottonLady...I'm really glad to have been able to get so much done. Considering that our temps are already near the freezing mark at night, I think winter may be closer than we think! I still have a few holes to fill in the food storage, but that will be easy to take care of now that the worst of it is done. I'm hoping to get my hands on some squash as well. Last year I canned some and it was delicious.
ReplyDeleteMother, I will be bringing over all of the celery and carrots from our garden next week. We probably have 20 celery plants and only about 10 carrots as Jacob has been picking and eating them daily.
ReplyDeleteDavid
David...Woo Hoo! Celery! I am amazed that you could grow it in this climate. You must really have a green thumb. But you had better let Jacob finish off the carrots. They are good for him and he loves them so much.
ReplyDeleteLove, Mom
I have to buy all my dried foods ready made. You're a step ahead of me in this field, since you can make your own. That's a handy skill to have. I do have a dehydrator but I never seem to have t time to get it out and use it. Mostly I just make jerky with it and then I eat all the jerky.
ReplyDeleteHarry...That's what most people do with dehydrators - make jerky. When I first got back into canning, I would have lots of Farmer's Market produce and then run out of jars. So I researched dehydrating, dug out my dehydrator and started using it to the point that I wore it out. I bought another one and Oldest Son got me a second one. Now with the vegetables, I can about half and dry the other half. The dehydrated food takes up a lot less space to store and for me that is a big plus. I use the vegetables a lot for soups and they work really well. My dehydrated potato slices make great scalloped potatoes. The dried onions I use all the time. Plus it is much less expensive for me to dehydrate than buy ready made.
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