I got a lot of preserving done in the heat last week. I was working on getting my herbs dried. So far I've dried chamomile, mint, rosemary, thyme, and sage. I need to get to the parsley, basil and some more mint. Do you see where I put my dehydrator so I don't add to the heat of the house? I have that on my front porch. There is an outlet by my front door.
I was also busy freezing things this week. I froze some beans. I blanch them for 3 minutes and then toss the into ice water before freezing. I like to freeze everything on cookie sheets and them put them into bags so I can just grab however much I need.
And some celery. And some onions. I have a lot more freezing to do next week too. I really oughtn't dry out most of the Alicia Craig onions. I should just freeze them. I don't blanch onions or celery. They just get chopped and frozen. They loose some of their structure in freezing, but I'll only use them to cook with anyway so it doesn't matter.
How nice to have enough produce already to need to freeze it! My garden seldom produces that much of anything. Perhaps the Runner beans will be the exception to the rule?
ReplyDeleteI love having bags of diced and frozen onions, peppers, and celery. I use them in cooking all the time so it is very convenient to just scoop out what I need and then reseal it. Good thinking putting the dehydrator on the porch. Hopefully no one will mess with it.
ReplyDeleteHopefully I remember to freeze some of our celery too when they grow big enough. Hope you get many varieties of vegetable to freeze and supply until next year harvest.
ReplyDeleteOhhh I have dehydrator envy...yours is so fancy! I had never thought of putting mine out on the porch.Thanks for the great idea! Happy Preserving :)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until I can start dehydratoring my harvest.
ReplyDeleteYour dehydrator looks just like mine. However I inherited mine from my parents who were going to get rid of it. Because of that I didn't get the manual and all the directions. I noticed you have white paper pieces with holes cut out, is this so that the herbs don't fall through and if so where do you get yours? I had a tricky time trying to balance rosemary last year without the inserts.
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