Category Archives: Dehydrating

Dehydrated Kale – Super Food Storage

Dehydrating, Food Storage, Square Foot Gardening (SFG)

This year’s garden has produced an abundance of kale for us.  The deer have been eating the sweeter things in our Square Foot Garden, like the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.  Because the deer have started to nibble on the kale now as well, I decided it was time to harvest about a half a paper grocery bag full of kale and prepare it for long term storage.

The first step I took was to blanch the kale leaves for less than 10 seconds in boiling water.  Patting the wet leaves with a towel will remove much of the moisture and make the dehydration process go quicker.  Set at 95 degrees Fahrenheit, the kale was left overnight for dehydrating.  We set the temperature this low in order to preserve as many of the nutrients as possible.

Once dried, the kale is packaged gently into this half gallon mason jar and then we use the mason jar attachment to the Food Saver to remove the air from the jar.  This will increase the storage life of the kale to be used in soups during the winter months.

dehydrated kaleNehemiah 13:13
In charge of the storehouses I appointed Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and in addition to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were considered reliable, and it was their task to distribute to their kinsmen.

Homemade Wheatgrass Powder

Dehydrating, Microgreens

What does one do with an aging half tray of grown wheatgrass?  Juice it, dehydrate it and keep it as a powder, of course!  How much wheatgrass juice powder does a half of a 1020 tray yield?  Take a look below:

dehydrated wheatgrass juice powder

If I do this again, I would want to do a much larger quantity.  Scraping the thin, dried sheet from the dehydrating liquids tray was a little tougher than I thought it would be.  In the thicker spots, it seemed to come off a bit better.  Perhaps if I started with even more liquid, this scraping step would have gone smoother.

I was surprised at how quickly the liquid dehydrated.  It was set for 105 degrees F in order to keep the temperature low enough to maximize the nutrition in the final powder form, and I was scraping it off the tray by lunch time.

Next step in this experiment … rehydrating it and ingesting the reconstituted wheatgrass juice.

Dilly! Dilly!

Dehydrating, Food Storage, Indoor Vegetables

An amazing compliment to our farm fresh eggs is our homegrown dill.  It’s one of my favorite herbs we grow and goes so well with fish and eggs.  What we see here is the product of growing densely seeded dill seeds in two different one gallon grow bags over the winter, in our basement, under a 27 watt LED panel.  Cut and hung upside down in our basement, this dill is going to be harvested and stored in empty glass herb containers when it is all ready.  So easy and delicious!!

dill drying

Genesis 1:29

Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

Spicy Cheesy Sunflower Shoot Snack

Dehydrating, Food Storage, Indoor Vegetables, Microgreens

One and a half pounds of freshly harvested sunflower shoots, covered in liquid aminos, nutritional yeast, olive oil and just a hint of cayenne pepper made for a delicious snack after hours of dehydrating at 105 degrees F.  It filled the house with an odd asian food smell that wasn’t entirely unwelcoming.

Any guess as to how much 1.5 pounds of sunflower microgreens would reduce to in a dehydrator?  5.8 ounces.  That’s a pretty good amount of water weight that was taken out of the product during the process.  It wasn’t quite as crispy as I would have thought. Maybe I used a little too much oil; maybe I hadn’t dehydrated quite as long as I should have.  Regardless this is still quite the tasty snack, and the aftertaste is better than the initial bite.

spicy cheesy sunflower snacks

Click: Article on Making the Sunflower Snacks

cheesy spicy sunflower microgreens

Psalm 107:9 
For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

Move Over Kale Chips … Here Comes the Sunflowers!

Dehydrating, Indoor Vegetables

Today’s experiment is to turn a pound and a half of freshly grown sunflower shoots into a tasty snack with the aid of a dehydrator.  We’ve enjoyed making kale chips in this fashion with excess kale from our Square Foot Garden, so why not apply this technique to nutritious sunflower microgreens?

I’m sure I’ll have to tweak the recipe, but a fellow microgreen grower shared that he does this all the time with his left over sunnies and people love them.  For one version he uses Liquid Aminos (a gluten free alternative to soy sauce), nutritional yeast (gives it a cheesy flavor) and a bit of olive oil and a dash of cayenne pepper.  After the sunnies are fully dressed, they are place on the dehydrator at 105 degrees F for hours until they become crisp.

Any guesses as to what the after dehydrating weight will be?  Comment below.  It’ll be fun !!

Dehydrated Sunflower Snacks

Dressed Sunflowers for Dehydrating

Psalm 37:2

For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb.

2.5 Year Old Banana Chips Still Taste Good

Dehydrating, Food Storage

It was March 2015.  The girls and I took advantage of a sale on bananas and made a mess of banana chips in our dehydrator.  Not sure how this happened, but we failed to eat a quart mason jar full of these goodies which were on the shelf, vacuum sealed, for two and a half years!!

They still taste very good, and we ate these a couple of days ago, so far as look, smell, taste and giving it a few days, I’m confident to say that these were perfectly fine after all this time.

banana chips two years old

Matthew 4:4 ESV 

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Thyme to Dry

Dehydrating, Food Storage, Indoor Vegetables

The indoor thyme plant has overgrown slightly, so it is time for a trim.  Below you see the cut thyme resting in my prized Stonehenge souvenir cup air drying for future consumption.  I just love the way it makes my fingers smell when I handle fresh thyme.  Once the leaves are dry they will be easier to remove from the stems, and then the dried thyme leaves will be stored in a reused herb shaker container.  With indoor growing … you can always find the thyme.

Air Drying Thyme

Genesis 9:3 – Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

Making Fruit Leather in HumblevilleUSA with Apple Sauce

Dehydrating, Food Storage

Welcome to Humbleville, USA!! Here is a tasty and easy treat to make with the little ones … homemade fruit leather!! Apple sauce with no sugar added is a great base to make not only apple flavor fruit leather, but you can also puree in other fruits to add variety to your dehydrated fruit leather choices (strawberry is Clare’s second favorite flavor).

If you like this video, you may also enjoy our other dehydrator and food storage videos. Thank you and God Bless !!