Dehydrating fruits and veggies

I will be retiring soon from the Navy and my family and I have just started our homesteading journey with five acres, a cabin, and lots of work ahead of us. We are very excited and every job is an accomplishment that one cannot receive with a “normal” job. Anyway, thank you for all your wisdom. We bought all the anthologies, as well as a subscription to Backwoods Home, and read them all the time. REAL and usable advice! My question: We live off grid, as you do, and wonder how you dehydrate your fruits and veggies? I have plans for wood stove dehydrating, but what do you do during the warmer weather?

Judy Silva
Boulder Creek, California

I dehydrate in several ways. First off, I have a table under the six foot long window in our south-facing greenhouse/sunroom. I put cookie sheets of sliced food on it, in single layers, covered with old, clean window screens to keep off bugs and flies. The food usually dries in a day or two in warm weather. I also use my oven, with only the pilot light on, with food on cookie sheets and the door cracked open to allow moisture to leave. When we’re planning on using the generator for awhile, I’ll slice up veggies and use my electric dehydrator to start the food drying. Then, as our house is dry and our climate not humid, the food will usually finish by itself or with another spell of using the generator. This way, as you can see, requires a bit of planning. But it does work for me.

Congratulations on your new homesteading journey! What fun you’ll have! — Jackie

Canning pepper rings

I got a great deal on a gallon of mild banana pepper rings. Can I re-can these?

Robin Putman
Coolville, Ohio

Yes you can. To re-can your pepper rings, drain off the pickling liquid and bring it to a boil. While heating it, pack the pepper rings into clean, hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Ladle boiling liquid over peppers, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Remove any bubbles. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. — Jackie

Canning ground beef

I bought a large amount of ground beef and instead of freezing it, I decided to can it. Didn’t go as well as I would have liked. I did 3 batches, first vented in the extreme. Put less in the second batch and had a bit less venting. Finally got the amount to put in right for the last batch, no venting. On the first batch, I waited for the pressure to go to zero and for no more venting from the rocker. But when I opened it, the venting was going on and on two of the jars the plastic Tattler lid was domed up. Is that doming normal? I waited even longer for the second batch to cool and still had venting and doming. I let the last batch cool completely and had no venting. Was it the filling or the opening too soon causing the venting?

In all the jars that didn’t vent, I was shocked at the amount of fat inside. I had drained the meat and used beef broth with little or no fat in it. Is the amount of fat part of my venting problem? I also failed to add any salt to any bottle. I assume that salt or no salt would not influence this.

Erica Kardelis
Helper, Utah

You’re right; adding salt has nothing to do with anything but flavor in canning meats and vegetables.
When you can ground meat with broth, blowing out steam from the jars after canning can be normal, provided the lids then go on to seal. Same with jars which seem to boil forever after taking them out of the canner. If you do like I do and brown the ground meat lightly, then pack it loosely without adding broth, it will not do this and the jars will seal just fine, also giving you a better looking/tasting end product. It isn’t the “recommended” method by experts but sure does the job for me just fine. Unless you grind your own meat, you probably will end up with quite a bit of fat from boughten hamburger; that’s no worry other than sometimes fat will get under the lid of the jar and keep it from sealing normally. It usually doesn’t but it can happen. — Jackie

2 COMMENTS

  1. Jackie;

    Have you ever thought of trying to freeze dry/vacuum dry your eggs and such? Without getting detailed, you basically freeze and then put it under a vacuum to let the moisture sublimate into a gas.

    Mike

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