Preparedness for when

ALIBOBSY

fuddle wrote: »

I would just like to thank you preppers. We've made elderberry syrup at a cost of 52p (lemon and ginger) I used cloves, star anise, honey and cinnamon from the cupboard (some about 3 year old) and obviously foraged elderberries.

The house smells of medicine come sourness but I have to say it has cleared my blocked nose. I have high hopes for it and will be investing on dried elderberries when I run low on this batch (stored in olive oil bottle but would like a airtight bottle). The amount spent on shop tincture normally will outweigh the dried stuffs.

A lesson learned for life, one that I will repeat for sure every autumn. Thank you

You could pick some more berries and bang them in the freezer for later cooking into syrup?

Ali x

Perplexed_Pineapple

boultdj wrote: »

All ink's now 'should' be vegtable based, which is safe to compost, according to the booklet they sent out with the darlik compost bin[council deal a few year's back]hth.

Thanks boultdj, that's new to me. I've been chucking shredded paper on the compost for years without really thinking about it.
Really quite excited - seeds from realseeds arrived today, can't wait to get them in the ground and see what happens, hopefully a real treat to grow something a bit different to the standard varieties that the big garden centres all sell.
All the talk about dehydrators is a mystery to me - I have a feeling I'm missing an important trick by not having any way of storing autumn gluts of hg/foraged fruit and veg (other than the freezer, which is always full of YS stuff anyway...)
Time to get out in the fresh air and prepare some ground for my new seeds

hauxwell

pineapple wrote: »

I'm sure this must have been posted but what dehydrator do people recommend? And how big? Is going for a small budget model a false economy? The big names all seem so expensive :eek:
Does dehydrating preserve nutritional value?
I'm thinking one benefit - aside from storage - would be a healthier snack for when I have an attack of the TV munchies

Pineapple, I used to have a cheap dehydrator from Westfalia which was about £30. It worked perfectly well but it broke in less than two years. (It was also very noisy)

I now have a Stockli dehydrator which cost £109 from ebay which is excellent. It is very well made and you can get loads of parts/extras for it.

I find the best way to make sure your dehydrated products don't go soft/mouldy is to make sure it has cooled down properly before packing it away otherwise moisture will be released into your jar.

ALIBOBSY

DawnW wrote: »

GreyQueen wrote: »

Has anyone ever done anything with rowan berries (aka mountain ash)? This seems to be a pretty common street tree in some urban areas. I believe you can make a tart jelly useful as an accompaniment to game dishes?

De- lurk alert

I have made rowan jelly several times, and it is ok, though I wouldn't choose it over other wild fruits such as elderberries, crab apples, sloes / other wild plums and blackberries which all make fab jellies. I find that rowan doesn't have nearly so much flavour, and needs more help to set. Incidentally if anyone has had trouble getting any jelly to set, just add a few apples next time at the boiling up stage - crab apples / windfalls are all good, and if you only add a few, do not affect the flavour.

I am currently waiting for the elderberries that hang over my gate to ripen, then I will make jelly. It is really nice on toast as well as with meat

I must be tight as I save apple cores and peel from the kids eating apples and throw them in at the first stage of cooking for jelly/jams, works a treat and I believe the seeds are where most of the pectin is. Or you can cook down the cores/peel with water which then becomes a sot of pectin soup you can use when jamming.

Ali x

alfsmum

Folks, I'm sure I read somewhere that dehydrating might not be cost effective because you have to run the dehydrator for so long to dry things properly that you don't recoup the cost of the electricity. Has anyone monitored how many hours their dehydrators is running and the rough cost? A decent dehydrator would be a big investment for me and I 'm thinking about saving to get one next yer, but want to be sure it's worth it. Obviously have to factor in how much the things you're drying cost to grow as well, compared with buying the ready dried berries etc. glad of any thought and experiences. Off to deal with fruit and veg mountain now

[Deleted User]

What a dehydrator does is to save you electricity on not having to store things in the freezer which you would have to run permanently to keep produce frozen and edible. Once the initial drying is done the storage is passive in a sealed container. I think it would even up in the long run but you'd have the safety of stores being unaffected by any power outages once they were fully processed. Swings and roundabouts?

ALIBOBSY

Hmm have pondered on getting a dehydrator for a while, just seems so much cash up front, but I do think we could store more of the stuff we grow by using it. At the moment our freezers are busting with veggies and fruit.
I am wondering if I would get more use from a pressure canner as it would preserve meat and so much more and I think if the power went off for a prolonged time it would give me more scope to save some of the contents.

I have been doing some drying of herbs in trays in the shed which works well and want to try doing some stuff over a low heat in the oven.

Still torn which I want lol.

Ali x

[Deleted User]

ALI I've ordered in a pressure canner as my combined christmas present from the whole family combined this year. I'm so pleased with the dehydrator as it condenses the storage space you need right down to a minimum, i.e a whole carrier bag full of rhubarb once dried fits into a standard jam jar, so I can store much more produce in a smaller space than I can in the freezer. Our 2 freezers are groaning
with home grown produce as well, it's been an amazing year hasn't it? The pressure canner would give me the option to store some of the produce not in the freezer, I don't know if I'd use it for meat but would definately use it for vegetables, the only downside being the amount of cash needed to do the initial outlay on kilner type jars, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Mrs_T_M

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

ALI I've ordered in a pressure canner as my combined christmas present from the whole family combined this year. I'm so pleased with the dehydrator as it condenses the storage space you need right down to a minimum, i.e a whole carrier bag full of rhubarb once dried fits into a standard jam jar, so I can store much more produce in a smaller space than I can in the freezer. Our 2 freezers are groaning
with home grown produce as well, it's been an amazing year hasn't it? The pressure canner would give me the option to store some of the produce not in the freezer, I don't know if I'd use it for meat but would definately use it for vegetables, the only downside being the amount of cash needed to do the initial outlay on kilner type jars, Cheers Lyn xxx.

I use a water bath canner (for high acid foods) and I use jars with one piece lids. I don't know if posting links to businesses is allowed here, but I buy jars in bulk! If the link is ok, let me know and I'll recommend where I get my jars. Also, for water bath canning, jars from the store (like sauce jars, mayo jars, etc) can be reused with new lids!

Pressure canning - definitely go with the Kilner type. I miss having Mason/Ball jars in stock this time of year for next to nothing. I brought over 5 of my half US gallon Ball brand jars last year and I am constantly using them for dry storage (and for mixing up homemade ice cream starter).

maryb

Two weeks ago Wilkinsons were selling the Kilner discs for £1.25 for 12. Don't know if they still have them at that price. Robert Dyas also had a really good deal a while back. Keep your eyes open and you should be able to get them for a good price. Sainsbury's don't sell the discs but they do sometimes have good offers on the complete jar. I've also seen them in TK max.

I was a bit worried about BPA in the discs so I emailed Kilner and they checked with the supplier and came back to me to confirm they are BPA free. But in the meantime I found the Ikea range of clip top jar which are excellent and quite cheap. They also sell replacement rings cheaply. I use them a lot for dry storage as they are taller and narrower than other makes so they use the space in my kitchen cupboards more efficiently. The 2 litre one will hold spaghetti for example. I'm trying to move away from plastic for storing food