Here in Maine we have about 12 weeks to harvest ripe vegetables and fruit from our home gardens. This short window of opportunity can provide food for the winter, and feed us for 52 months, if grown in sufficient quantities and preserved by dehydrating, canning, pickling, or freezing.
Let each family plant a backyard garden.
Reny's seeds are affordable (some still 10 cents a packet).
Learn to plant, weed and cultivate, water and fertilize until the crop
is ripe. Then preserve all that your family doesn’t eat fresh during the summer
to enjoy and nourish your bodies all winter long while the ground is frozen.
Canning, freezing, pickling, and dehydrating will give you enough food in your
home pantry year round, and it's a very rewarding and gratifying.
Drying with the Excalibur Dehydrator is energy efficient as well.
500 pounds of vegetables, meat, or fruit can be dried for approximately $8.50
in elect power. The food will stay fresh for approx. a year, if properly dryed, tightly sealed
in surgically clean glass jars, and stored in a dark cupboard. Lehman's Non-electric catalog sells them for $229.00 + S/H.
Tol Free: 1-877-438-5346.
The companion Book PRESERVE IT NATURALLY costs $24.95, has extensive information, and will answer all your questions. It has recipes for your dried produce which are delicious and nutritious.
Dehydrated foods are great for hiking and camping being nearly weightless, yet nutritious.
Dried fruits like apples, pears, kiwis, blueberries, grapes make great lunch box snacks.
My family loves winter soups and stews simmered on the wood stove,
along with homemade bread baked in our $35 Sunbeam Bread Baker.
'Sure beats the high cost of groceries these days with no loss of vitamins in the process.
We harvest from our garden at the peak of ripeness and freshness, then wash and cut
the vegetables to lay on the trays. Then just set the timer and temperature according
to the instructions, and the machine does the rest.
Why don't you give this 'reinvention of the wheel' a try? Our ancestors were
drying for centuries, before grocery stores existed. This will give your family FOOD SECURITY. Web-site for the Excalibur Dehydrator - Excaliburdehydrator.com
'SIMPLE ABUNDANCE'
A Community Project Concept - to dehydrate excess local garden produce in season.
To stock local Homes, Food Pantry, or sell, economically to support charities.
Fairbanks Community Center future Commercial Incubator Kitchen could be used.
Volunteers could prepare food and place in commercial dehydrators.
Volunteers then would 4-8 hours later remove dry products and
place them in sterile airtight jars.
Keeping this simple might be possible. For instance: 'the committee' could advertise in churches and newspaper a date for drop off of overflow produce from local or their own gardens.
The designated days throughout the growing season would then be spent
by volunteers, washing, slicing, and placing the vegetables or fruit on the
dehydrator trays and turning the equipment on for the proper length of time.
When the produce is thoroughly dried, everything would be taken off the trays and placed into large 2qt..-1 gallon jars. Thus the food would be preserved for 1 year
and could be used to mass produce dehydrated soups and stew mixes.
I use ziplock sandwich bags which cost about $2.50/100. I have been sending
a 'Priority Mail' box each month to elders among my family and friends,
for less than $9 s/h., which will foreseeably feed them for one month, with
whole, fresh, highly nutritious, uncontaminated, and delicious meals.
List of Dehydratable foods possibly donated by local gardeners:
Tomatoes, Kale, Broccoli, Cabbage, Scallions, Shallots, Garlic, Onions,
Leeks, Carrots, Beet greens, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Peppers, Beets, Cauliflower, Corn, Potatoes, Peas, Squash, Pumpkin, Celery, Parsley, Dill, Kohlrabi, Beans, Fennel, Basil,
Oregano, Thyme, Chives, Mints, Pears, Apples, Kiwis, Plums, Blueberries, etc.
meats: Venison, Chicken, Turkey, etc.
During the growing season enough can be harvested in this economical,
fuel efficient way, (approx. $8.50 for electricity to dry 500 pounds of produce) from local garden overflow, a contribution which would mean much to those who give otherwise wasted food. Foreseeably enough preserved to last all winter long, providing
'LOCAL FOOD SECURITY'. We have seen the price of food jump 50-150% around the world in just the past 12 months! Remember the old adage?
“WASTE NOT, WANT NOT”
Dehydrators cost around $250 each and have 9 trays . We might be able to
find a wholesale house that would give a Church discount, as a 'Non-Profit'.
Idea submitted by: Carolyn P. Jenson 6 Dodge Corner Rd., Strong, ME. 04983
Proprietor of Maine Cottage Garden.com phone: 207-684-3400. jenson@tds.net
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