With the freezers near to bursting with frozen diced peppers, stuffed peppers and roasted peppers and still peppers hanging on the bush we decided to experiment some. We have been using the dehydrator for apple chips and decided to try our hand at dehydrating peppers. With almost a 5 gallon bucket of peppers we washed diced and dehydrated all those peppers. You would think that would be a huge amount of diced peppers. It filled 4 jelly jars. That is so hard for me to believe. I used my oxygen absorbers to seal the jars and they look wonderful. Maybe next year instead of freezing all those diced peppers for seasoning I will dehydrate them and save that freezer space.
Same thing with the okra with pods still coming on we dehydrated okra as well. This year we have put up frozen sliced okra, frozen breaded okra, pickled okra and frozen stuffed okra. I already have okra and tomatoes in jars from last year. So we thought maybe we would try dehydrating okra for soups. So we washed the okra and sliced with the mandolin slicer and put on trays.
Once dehydrated we put them in quart jars and sealed with oxygen absorbers. Again it amazes me that a 5 gallon bucket of okra made 2 quarts of dehydrated okra. It shrinks so much but I think you would just throw a hand full sparingly into a soup.
It definitely takes up much less space than canning and doesn't require the electricity of running a freezer all winter. We shall see what the taste is like in the coming months. We have always used the dehydrator for jerky every year and maybe apples. I used to make homemade fruit rollups for the kids when they were little. But don't do that anymore. As we continue to produce more and more of our own food maybe the dehydrator will be the solution to storage issues.
Blessings from The Holler
The Canned Quilter
Last year was a great year for squash. Marcy used a Cajun seasoning and dried many. We all eat them like potato chips and love them!
ReplyDeleteWOW! That Okra is on the money. Your one smart cookie! Wish I were your neighbor I'd relieve you of some of that Okra..do tell how it turns out when you rehydrate it and for which dish! I wanted to put up some okra and tomatoes but the okra at the market has always been tough (old) and not appealing to the eye. Maybe next year we can grow our own I thought about using some frozen okra (store bought) and adding tomato's to the jar. Does that sound good to you?..It surprises me too how everything shrinks in the dehydrator.Thanks, Ginny
ReplyDeleteI have dried pepper before, and they last a long time.
ReplyDeleteI never would have thought about dehydrating okra! Would love to find out how well it does in soup. Looks like I need to find me one of those. Where do I start looking?
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how much space is saved just by taking the water out of the veggies! I'm interested in how the dried okra turns out in the soup too.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to how it turns out in recipes, too. :)
ReplyDeleteI am wondering how the okra will do in a recipe. I found a Magic Aire II dehydrator at a resale shop the other day, unfortunatly it did not come with the manual. Would you or maybe one of your followers/readers know anything about it? I have turned it on and it blows really well but does not heat. I'm not sure if that it right. Tried taking it apart, but one of the bolts is rusted and I'm waiting on Son to bring better tools than I have. Thank you for all the great information you let all of us enjoy and learn from.
ReplyDelete