What are good veggies to dehydrate? I like tomatoes and shiitake, but most other veggies I've tried don't taste all that good months later. I don't have a vacuum packer, which could be why. I don't know what that is.
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They work best in stew or another slow cooked pot food (chili, spaghetti sauce etc.); where they can be rehydrated thourghly.
You must blanch the vegetables before drying, or enzyme action will continue to toughen them post processing. If you use frozen vegetables from the store, they have been blanched in boiling water already! This is a cheat I use when I find a real deal on frozen vegetables. Otherwise it's like chewing leather, including the taste. Blanching is required for freezing too!
Here's a batch of mixed frozen vegetables I found a case lot deal on. They will be vacuumed from here, and go into long term storage. I like the jars, because I can use some out of the jar, and re-vacuum the remaining food; with no loss.
The vacuum tool I bought off of eBay, and it fits over a jar with a lid only. A tube connects the assembly to a vacuum pump. When the pump removes the air, the lid seals down when the pump is removed. I use a refrigeration type pump, but they have kitchen models; and one Lady, Uses a hand pump designed to bleed brakes. How You get the vacuum is not critical. The kitchen style pulls 14 inches of mercury, mine pulls over 28; while the hand unit pulls about 22. The better the vacuum, the longer it will store safely.
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Excellent info! Thank you!!! So you just put the whole veggies in your dehydrator? I didn't blanch anything, and most of it is inedible. There must be some types of veggies I don't have to blanch though. I can't, for instance, blanch tomato slices. Do you blanch the cherry tomatoes? I have so many questions now!!!
Hey, hivegarden community is adding a prize for best prepper advice to their monthly garden journal contest. I'd love to see you posting for that one. Should I tag you when the contest comes out, on the first of every month, give or take a day? We need more preppers posting with us, if you ask me.
Tomatoes are a fruit, not a vegetable, so they don't need blanching. Short immersion in boiling water (blanching) stops the enzymes on the vegetables, so they don't continue to process the food. Corn and beans are the worst.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/blanching-vegetables-before-freezing-1327660
https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/vegetable-blanching-directions-and-times-home-freezer-storage
Here's a couple of links on blanching...pay attention to the rapid cooling after the boiling water! It says that steam can be used for blanching, I hadn't considered that; so I learned some blanching information today myself.
I agree on the need for prepping posts, knowledge is survival. Let me know, but it's hard to do a good post on 'schedule'; but I'll make the attempt!
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