Whos into home grown

[Sidekick]

First year for my Chicago hardy figs. Took 5 years and the wait was worth it. About a dozen every 3 days and boy are they good. Be careful how many you eat at once .

 

[Yotekiller]

I got a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers from the garden this year. I just tilled up the garden last week because the drought here in Southern Indiana has been awful. The pear, peach, Pecan, fig, and chestnut trees didn't produce because they aren't mature yet. The walnut, hickory, acorn, and paw paws have been bountiful around my property. I have 3 huge persimmon trees in my front yard that are absolutely loaded with persimmons. My mom and sister love making persimmon pudding from them. They say they produce the best tasting persimmons they've ever eaten.

 

[MOOTS]

Is MI in drought too?

Our peppers (only jalepenos) have done well …they are hotter than usual, but I suspect that’s because they have been sort of starved of water. We water couple times a week but then stop watering before we pick the peppers. We freeze dry them with most of other vegetables. (Squash and cucumbers have had a big year).

Georgia here, so drought too. Our jalapeños have been on the hot side too, but man, have they produced! 23 pints so far with more being picked daily.

Green beans did well, canned 23 quarts this year. That puts us over 200 in the cellar.

Peas did 46 pints from the original 3 rows. Planted 6 late rows that are just starting to show signs of producing.

Roma tomatoes had a very bad year, only 7 quarts from 14 plants.

Cucumbers were amazing, 67 quarts of pickles have been made.

And I gotta say, my wife is an absolute animal when it comes to canning.

 

[drygulch]

We freeze dry them with most of other vegetables.

I'm intrigued by freeze drying (or any alternative methods of food preservation).

Anything in particular freeze drying is best/not suited for? Glancing at equipment cost, I would speculate that it's (much?) superior to dehydrating?

Greg

 

[rc51stierhoff]

I'm intrigued by freeze drying (or any alternative methods of food preservation).

Anything in particular freeze drying is best/not suited for? Glancing at equipment cost, I would speculate that it's (much?) superior to dehydrating?

Greg

I'm intrigued by freeze drying (or any alternative methods of food preservation).

Anything in particular freeze drying is best/not suited for? Glancing at equipment cost, I would speculate that it's (much?) superior to dehydrating?

Greg

Good day.

It’s more expensive than dehydrating and canning or freezing IMO. Not only the machine itself, but if using the mylar bags those are not cheap either IMO (if using jars then it would be just higher cost then canning). Now, that being said in theory it will keep things safe to eat a bit longer (supposedly 25yrs if done right way….i don’t really know we have not had it long enough to know it’s true or BS). It’s way easier and quicker, less process, and less mess than canning IMO. It’s definitely a lot quicker to do a batch( or two or three)from the garden during the week vs set up canner 2 or three times a week for a small batch.

I think it will preserve longer than dehydrating and maintains more nutrients and taste than canning. (It does change the texture, but if using in cooking you would not notice…but it’s hard to make a tomato look the same as off the vine after freeze dried…but mixed into something cooked, no muss no fuss.

We generally freeze dry most vegetables and eggs (if not selling or using)that we are not going to eat while fresh. The items we continue to can are our syrup and other items we pickle or candie(black walnut syrup/pickles, jalepenos/cowboy candy/apple sauce/jams)…with this stuff we like to take out of a jar and eat. Vs freeze dried which requires reconstitute it with water. So with the items we want to eat out of a jar to us doesn’t make sense to try reconstitute that stuff…but I suspect you could?

I am not sure that makes sense or not, that’s just how we have used ours and when we prefer it.

 

[drygulch]

I am not sure that makes sense or not, that’s just how we have used ours and when we prefer it.

Appreciate the followup. I'm going to investigate further.

I don't do any high temp canning, and would prefer a more practical alternative. I just do things that are acidic enough (pickling, tomatoes, etc) that I can do using the sous vide. Ours is a relatively small garden, but would love to preserve more of the excess.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Appreciate the followup. I'm going to investigate further.

I don't do any high temp canning, and would prefer a more practical alternative. I just do things that are acidic enough (pickling, tomatoes, etc) that I can do using the sous vide. Ours is a relatively small garden, but would love to preserve more of the excess.

So to that point about small garden, as an example, our freeze dryer has 4 trays. A tray will hold about 3 ears of corn worth of kernels and that will fill 1 Mylar bag. As a comparison a tray would hold about 2 zucchini squash and fill 1 Mylar bag. So that nets out to a dozen ears of corn in a batch or 8 zucchini in a batch or a mix and match…you can do different things in same batch…so you could have 6 ears of corn and 4 zucchini if that makes sense the way I am explaining?

Anyway that makes it pretty simple on a daily basis (a batch is usually done in 24hrs or less) that you put a little bit of whatever extra you have from garden that you are not going to use fresh. It’s normal for us to have corn tomatoes and squash all in a batch. We would not want to bring out the canner for a couple zucchini’s or a few ears of corn on a several times a week basis let alone just once for no more than what we have. What it does though is allow us to preserve our small overages and we can use that in cooking through the fall winter and spring pretty easily to where we don’t have to buy those items from the store. Is cheaper than buying canned food? Absolutely not. However we know what it is, where it came from and it’s taste like fresh from our garden.

 

[chris_the_wrench]

First year for my Chicago hardy figs.

You know what your climate zone is? Ive been thinking of adding some of those to our garden. Glad to hear they are tasty and productive.

 

[Sidekick]

You know what your climate zone is? Ive been thinking of adding some of those to our garden. Glad to hear they are tasty and productive.

We are in 6a not too far from the 6b line. Last winter was very mild. Got little twigs from baker creek seeds to start and had them in pots the first 2 years so they could be moved in our unheated garage until they had good roots. Then put them out in a raised bed.

 

[drygulch]

So to that point about small garden...

Your explanation makes sense. Seems to check a lot of boxes for us. Knowing what's (not) in our food, maximizing nutrients, eating our own (non-pickled) veggies over the winter and throughout the year, no high temp canning, no freezer space used, and not having my wife make me eat okra 100 days straight (slight exaggeration, but I was thankful for a slow okra season).

Glad to hear some first hand about it, thanks.

 

[RCW]

It’s very much the tail end and very small, but we grow some herbs in boxes behind the house. Just oregano, thyme, basil, chives, rosemary and parsley.

Very much a bumper crop this year. We dehydrate quite a bit while we’re using during the season.

Still quite a bit left.

We have a dehydrate function on our Air Fryer (130 degrees F). Also started using the 170 degree setting on the ovens. Low as it will go. 2 hours on parchment on a sheet pan works well for oregano and parsley. Haven’t tried basil in the oven yet…little more tender.

 

[8upbowhunter]

First year for my Chicago hardy figs. Took 5 years and the wait was worth it. About a dozen every 3 days and boy are they good. Be careful how many you eat at once .
View attachment 138289

Been having a tree in a pot for 2 years. Will plant it this coming spring and hope this variety makes it at my camp in southwest Mississippi.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Good news we finally got some relief with rain the hurricane sent North. I hope everyone down South is doing well.

With that rain, I confirmed my suspicions that spousal unit is trying to kill me .

This morning out in the rain I was afforded the opportunity to pick crabapples on an aluminum ladder. Today we made and canned some crab apple jalepeno jelly. (Then we freeze dried the balance of the jalapeños and some corn, and did a small batch of refridgerator pickles)

 

[DaTow'd]

We have been pressing apples since 1978- a lot of apples not being used so we built the Immaculate Contraption and started asking for the apples. Everybody was glad to have the apples gone, which kept the bear out of their yards. Our machine makes 25 to 30 gallons per hour depending how juicy the apples are.
With a crew of 4 we have done 500 gallons a year with 1600 gallons on our best year. We split up the juice and we freeze our share in 3 freezers. Great trading commodity.
We also have grapes and figs and 2 greenhouses with tomatoes and peppers.
Then there is the acre of gone wild Jerusalem Artichokes.