Preserving Garden Vegetables by Dehydrating.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?JBAOD 22 July 2012.Preserving Garden Vegetables by Dehydrating.
All produce currently available in the garden was chosen.
Carrots,basil,purslane,green beans,green peppers,parsnips,turnip,tomato,cabbage,egg plant,beets,cucumber,Walla Walla onion,Black Russian potatoes,and okra.Processing was almost identical for all produce, which is, cut into small pieces and blend in a tall cyclinder to a fine mash,then place in the mixing pot. A five gallon pail about twenty litre capacity,was used for the mixing pot. The quantity of material processed was about nine litres. The sample of the chopping, depicts the process for the cucumber. Preliminary preparation done outside on the picnic table, since processing can be messy. No water was added,all the produce was reduced in its own juices. This is possible with the hand blender, but impossible in a container blender.About a litre of material was placed on teflon pans, smoothed evenly, and placed in the Excalibur dehydrator set at 135F\57C initially for ten hours. Time was increased as necessary to get the material dry enough to move to the open mesh for complete dying. Always move to open mesh as soon as the materiel can be handled conveniently. The dried mixture is vacuum packed for storage and is reconsitiuted by adding boiling water.This particular batch has a most pleasant flavour.Apparently this method of preserving is the most nutrition retentive of all the current conventional methods. The process is relatively simple and straightforward.