Preserving Foods

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Preserving season &Homeschooling are now in full swing!!

Even with the bad gardening season (especially for us since we didn’t even get one in this year), I’ve been extremely busy canning & dehydrating these last few weeks, as well as getting ready to begin an important year in the life of our homeschooling.  Melia, our oldest, is a Senior this year & Katie, our middle child, is a Freshman!  I still have one that has 1 foot in elementary school and is trying to stick the other foot into middle school, but I thankfully have 1 more year before that happens!

As I mentioned before, I’m in love with my new Excalibur Dehydrator!

 

I have been keeping it busy, let me tell  you!  With my last Azure order, I purchased 60 more ounces of Crimini mushrooms & 40 lbs of onions.  Out of the 40 lbs of onions, I dried 42 & still have about 12 left over.  Those 42 onions, filled 4 quarts!! I rough chopped them before drying them so that I will again have the option of either having dried minced onions, or placing a few in my grinder for onion powder as needed.  I love having this flexibility.  While I can say that I dried them in the house & the odor was strong for a short time, it really wasn’t as bad as people say.  Although, I family did avoid my pantry area for the first couple of hours. Winking smile  Of course, I also dehydrated my mushrooms.  I’m so thankful that I went ahead and purchased another flat of these delicious mushrooms because the price went up shortly from $18.00/60 oz to $26.00/60 oz after placing my order.  No more of these delicious mushrooms for me till the price comes back down!  I’ve also dehydrated some celery (since I somehow wound up with way more than we would get eaten before it went bad) and a few more carrots. 

I do have a few more head of garlic sitting in my kitchen that I’ll probably be dehydrating as well since there is no way we will get it all eaten before it starts to go bad.  Even though it’s fresher coming fro Azure, the outer cloves still have a tendency to want to spoil fairly quickly, which I’m assuming is from the drastic temperature changes that it goes through from being placed on the truck, shipment, & then being removed from the truck once it arrives. No biggie since I know this can happen & I will deal with it accordingly. 

 

After really losing my desire to want to can for a few years, I’m so very thankful that I did find my love for it once more.  While it is a lot of hard, tiring, & sometimes back-breaking work, I do love seeing all those beautiful jars of fresh foods lined up on the shelves just waiting for my family to consume them in the coming months. I know that my family will be eating healthier because of it because a lot of the food that I’m putting away will be BPA (no store cans) & preservative-free, & some will have been naturally/organically grown, which is even better.  I’m working on a tally of what I’ve canned so far this year.  As soon as I have that post ready, I’ll come back here & add a link. 

 

Now, as for homeschooling, it’s going to be an exciting year for us!  It’s hard to believe that my “baby” girl is a Senior this year & will be graduating from high school. She is so excited.  And, while mom & dad are excited, every parent out there knows that it’s also bittersweet.  Not only does it signify a new chapter in her life, but also a new chapter in our lives, as well.  We are so proud of the young lady that she as become & know that God has something special in store for her.  We are excited to see where He leads her in the coming months/years.  And then we also have another child entering high school.  I can’t say that she’s overly thrilled at the amount of work that she has to do, but she’s pretty excited about this new chapter in her life.  Mom & dad, however, are really beginning to realize that their babies are growing up way too fast & that there’s not a lot of time left that we will all still be together as a family unit before they start really spreading their wings & flying.  While we know that this is what we are raising them to do, it’s still hard to believe that it has already been long enough for these events to be right on our doorstep.  God has truly blessed us with 3 wonderful children.  We pray daily that He will watch over them & guide them in these crucial moments of life where they are just beginning to have to make tough decisions, & that He will help guide us as they look to us for wisdom & guidance to help them make the best decisions for their lives. 

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Update On My Excalibur Dehydrator!!

I’ve had my dehydrator for just under 2 months now & I couldn’t be happier with my purchase!  I’ve enjoyed being able to dry so many things already & we’re still in the middle of growing season here in Southeast Tennessee!  If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve probably seen several of the items that I’ve dried so far.  While I’ve had to add a little extra drying time to several of the items due to increased humidity (and a very few days of rain), everything has dried exactly like it’s supposed to. 

Here’s a few pics of some of the items that I’ve dried so far:

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These are my Crimini Mushrooms & Dried Cherries

Yesterday, I dried 130 cloves of garlic, sliced!! Isn’t it beautiful!!

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I’ve also dried strawberries, bananas,apple rings, bell peppers, jalapenos, green onions, banana peppers, onions, and various herbs.

 

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Dried Bell Peppers, Strawberries, & Apple Rings

 

Today, I have potato slices dehydrating, which will be used for dishes such as au gratin potatoes in the future.  Having a dehydrator is enabling me to take even more advantage of fresh fruits & veggies while they are in season by allowing me to increase my storage space (dehydrated foods take up much less space and, like with canning, I’m able to rely less on my freezer/refrigerator.  The really good thing about this is that, if we were to be without power for extended periods of time, I will not have to worry so much about my foods going bad.  Yes, I still have lots of meat in my freezers, but a lot of this can also be canned, if I want/need to.  And I will probably can some things just for ease of use for those days when I need to get dinner on the table very quickly.  Our plan is to also look at getting a generator at some point (when funding allows) so that we can run the refrigerators & freezers & not have to worry so much about losing our food stores.  I really strive for “no-waste” when it comes to food. If it looks like we’re not going to finish something before it goes bad, I will either freeze it into individual portions, freeze the little portions left to be revamped into another meal, or, if it’s past its prime, it goes out to the chickens.  (Not moldy or rotten, just past what/when I know my family will eat it.)

 

I’m so thankful that God has blessed me with a love for cooking, baking, canning, & putting food up for my family.  It truly is a labor of love that I enjoy, & I enjoy knowing that I have helped to save my family money & stretch my husband’s paycheck by preserving foods in so many ways. 

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Pantry Challenge Week #2 Update

Sorry to be so late updating this week.  It’s already been a busy week.  But, for us, that’s the way summer goes. 

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Last week, my order from Azure Standard came in so I spent most of Wednesday trying to deal with it.  I had ordered 18 pounds fresh cherries, 96 oz. fresh Crimini mushrooms, 8 lbs fresh garlic, & 40 lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes.  The cherries were starting to go bad (7 lbs worth), which Azure was wonderful about & gave me a nice credit back to be used on my next order.  Well, the kids & I halved, pitted, & placed the other 11 lbs into my dehydrator for dried cherries.  The next day, we sliced & dried all the mushrooms.  I still have to deal with the garlic, and I plan to get it done in the next couple of days.  I was planning to can a majority of the potatoes, but I only got 1 round done before I managed to drop my canner lid & ruin my gauge.  I did order another gauge & it arrived on Saturday.  I borrowed a canner from my father-in-law that belonged to my sweet mother-in-law before she passed away a few years ago, but the seal was so old that it wouldn’t hold pressure.  The other 2 rounds of potatoes that I had cut up & blanched did not get canned, but I have 7 quarts in the refrigerator & the other 7 divided up & in the freezer.  I wasn’t about to let them go to waste.  I also fixed a pot of pinto beans in my Crock Pot ™ on Wednesday, which did not want to get done until the next day (not sure why), so we ended up grabbing some chicken tenders & fries  from our local grocery deli.  Definitely not what I had planned.  It was not a good canning/cooking week for me, but I’m not giving up!  I jumped right back into cooking. Canning has had to wait due to our crazy schedule & us not being home much. 

Last Thursday (the day of my canning disaster) was my daughter, Katie’s birthday.  We ended up having the pinto beans on her birthday along with some homemade cornbread from freshly milled corn (delicious!), and I made a batch of homemade ice cream.  On Friday, the day I was retrying to can the rest of my potatoes I had prepped & blanched, she was due to have some friends over to spend the night.  Since I ended up “trying” to can again that day, which was not originally in the plan, we ended up buying 4 pizzas to feed everyone for supper that night.  Definitely NOT planned.

The rest of the week went okay with no unplanned spending taking place.  I did some grocery shopping on Friday morning, but it was mostly for party foods, which was planned & counted separately. As far as grocery spending last week, I spent $62.32 on Milk, heavy cream, frozen peas, bacon, pepperoni, marked down zucchini, vinegar, oil, & fresh fruits.   That leaves me with $161.86 for the rest of month.

As for my menu plan this week, well, I haven’t even really given it much thought.  We were gone to Dollywood on Monday, which is what Katie wanted for her birthday & that WAS planned, even the eating out.  Tuesday, we had leftover homemade chicken noodle soup, and today we had spaghetti.  Overall, I still feel like things are going well.  Even though things did not go according to plan on Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday, we still made the best of things & kept costs down.  Did I really want to have to buy the chicken tenders & fries for my family – not really, but since Brian had to leave for work in just over an hour & I was still neck deep in dealing with the canner & potatoes, there was no way that I could things cleaned up, cleared away, thawed, & fixed in time for him to leave.  Next time I can, I’ll have something already either thawed or already prepped & ready to be cooked.  I know to do these things but, since I hadn’t canned in a while and I wasn’t planning to go as long as I did, that was the price I had to pay for my poor planning.  Lesson relearned! 

So, that’s where we’re at so far in our month-long challenge.  I don’t feel that we’re doing too badly.  Most of our foods have been fresh/frozen/whole foods.  I can tell you that I can tell a difference in the way I feel in the last few days.  I don’t have as much energy and I feel more sluggish.  I’ll be glad to get all the “junk” foods out of the house again & not eat out again for a while.