Condo Blues: Dehydrating Garden Vegtables

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Dehydrating Garden Vegtables

Husband and I grew more than six tomatoes this summer. I can check one more goal off my 2012 DIY Project list. Yay!

I thanks to Food in Jars, I learned how to can five quarts and two pints of homegrown tomatoes for my September One Small Green Change. Double Yay!

Not so yay, our tomatoes are ripening in drips and drabs. It takes forever to collect enough ripe tomatoes to can them. I can one or two quarts at a time at most.

I see a lot of this and not much else.

I had some tomatoes that were getting close to the Eat-Me-Now-Or-Compost-Me-Later stage but enough to make a pint of canned tomatoes.

*light bulb goes off over my head* 

A compact florescent light bulb of course.


I have a dehydrator.

That I got two months ago and have been using regularly to dry the oops-we-planted-too- much-basil.

I can use the dehydrator to make sun dried tomatoes.





A fat duh moment because I pitched sun dried tomatoes to husband during the We Should Buy a Dehydrator talk. This wasn't a major negotiation because I had the washer and dryer covered with drying chocolate mint, peppermint, Chinese basil, Genovese basil, lavender, and cilantro at the time.


Over the weekend, I turned into a dehydrating maniac because I just figured out that the stuff I shove in the freezer because it is close to EMEOCML will be less likely to develop freezer burn and become compost fodder (I am the Queen of Freezer Burn *royal wave*)  if I dehydrate it instead of freezing it.

I dried garden basil and a few tomatoes. 
I have my eye on the bitter melon in the freezer.

 If we have another winter blackout, I won’t have to deal with garden vegetables melting in the freezer either.

My dehydrator didn't come with a recipe book. So far I’m winging it. Do you have any food dehydrator recipe book recommendations or recipes that rehydrate food beyond soup?


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