Home food preservation can be a very rewarding pursuit. Here I will introduce you to dehydrating pumpkin for long term storage.
Enjoy!
Please note, I am not an expert in food preservation, or pickling, or even homesteading. I am just a woman who loves to put flavorful food on the table to feed her family.
If you found something interesting, educational or inspirational in this post, stay tuned for more adventures in food and everyday life with:
Kate, the Busy Boomer
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Hi katedansyng,
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Thank you so very much for your confidence in my content and your vote. I will be checking out the Discord community later today. Have a great day as well.
Thanks for mentioning the fact that seeds can be eaten! It is incredible that I still find people who are surprised when they see me eating toasted seeds with salt. Then they tests and well ... they join the clan of the pumpkin hahahah
Cool video, you say many interesting tips!
Cheers for you and your parrot!
nelsinho, thanks for your comment. My husband and I both love the toasted seeds, especially with a little salt and some garlic. Our only problem is we must fight our three Macaws for them. Have a great day and please keep watching.
Fit 20 pounds of pumpkin in a pint jar! I first thought it is not possible but you did it! You have been very patient to capture all of those in a video. Thanks for sharing it here, Kate!
What is the name of your parrot again, Corie? She's beautiful. 😊
They say that peeling vegetables before cooking would reduce the vitamins and nutrients content. I wonder if this was your reason behind not peeling the pumpkins before putting them in the oven. Instead of roasting, maybe steaming can also be an alternative?
The dehydrator is interesting. I do not have it so the pumpkin may end up as pie or cake after blending just in case I try this one at home. 😃
macoolette, thank you for your kind comments. I enjoy dehydrating just about everything. It is truly amazing just how much water dissipates when dehydrating. I have dehydrated several things that amazed me.
My Macaw parrot is Carribe. He is 20 years old. My husband has had him for 17 years. All three of our parrots are Macaws, and all three were rescues. While I am grateful to have these wonderful companion birds, I am constantly amazed at how people will adopt or purchase "wild" animals and then just give them up. Our guys are beautiful, but as with all large birds they can be very loud.
As far as the peeling goes, I left the peelings on when roasting as a means to protect the flesh from becoming hard and dry, and also to help prevent nutrition loss. The pumpkin you saw here was steemed/roasted, hence the one cup of water in the bottom of the pan.
If you do not have a dehydrator, food can be dehydrated in the oven, at low temps and for a longer time. Just remember to check for doneness.
Cheers!
The parrot is 20 years old and with you for 17? Wow! I did not realize birds last that long. And he is still looks full of vigor. We haven't tried having special birds like parrot but when I was young my elder brothers used to catch small birds in the forest and give to me as pet. Unfortunately, they don't last long. It was either we do not know how to take care for them or they should be really left on their own in the wild. You must be very good at taking care of those birds.
Oh, roast... Funny that I was thinking of toast! And yes, the oven as dehydrator indeed! I just remember when I was a child, my mother used to dry cassavas under the sun. A natural way. 😊
Thanks again for sharing your tips here!
@macoolette, yes Caribe is 20. Macaws that are well treated can live over 100 years. In the wild they usually live to be around 30, I am told. We love our three and are very interested in keeping their health at the best we can, which includes proper nutrition.
I have only had good luck with raising one bird caught in the wild. I found a baby mockingbird which had fallen from it's nest. I brought it in and raised it to adulthood. Then I let it go back into nature. For 3 years after that he would come back to the tree outside my home and whistle to me.
Please keep watching and commenting.
Birds living for over 100 years! Amazing... You give them special foods I suppose? Not just the carbo and the like leftovers?
It is very lovely of your mockingbird to keep visiting you. That is another proof that humans can have special relationship with animals and other creatures around.
Thanks for sharing all of these!
@macoolette yes we do give our Macaws some special foods, and not left overs. They receive many kinds of nuts and seeds as well as fresh vegetables. In fact, the seeds from these pumpkins will mostly be roasted for eating by both the humans in our hosehold and the birds.
My Mockingbird friend was a very special bird. I often thought he saw me as his Mama since I raised him from a baby.
Cheers
Oh, thank you very much for the tips Kate! That will come handy just in case I get the chance with birds.
That's so adorable of him! How I wish I will really have the chance to care for at least one bird at a fair duration and not lose them soon.
I found your pumpkin dehydration interesting I didn't know that trick. this cute your macaw :D I'm from Venezuela and yesterday just passed like 10 macaws flying over my house, here are very abundant.
i will put your recipe into practice, especially to reserve and make delicious pumpkin creams. you know i am curious, i have seen many pumpkin recipes in steemit, but i have not seen the first person to save the seeds to dry them and then toast them in the oven, they are delicious, i think it's a waste to throw them away :(
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Greetings
@arrozymangophoto, first thank you for your kind comment. Macaws are indeed beautiful birds. Two of ours are "blue and gold" macaws. The third one is a hybrid known as a "Maui Sunset". I would love to see a flock of Macaws in flight.
I am glad you got something from my post that you can use to preserve food for your future. I have a video coming perhaps next week in which I will show how to collect seeds, use some for planting next spring, but the majority will be roasted for eating. My husband and I both love roasted pumpkin seeds.
So do our birds!
Cheers!
Carribe the Parrot! hahaha I love this. It's great that you incorporate him into your how to videos. I'm no expert either but it looks like you know what you're doing.
My brother and father make sauerkraut all the time. It's so good but smells so bad hahaha Your preservation process reminded me of what I've seen them do so many times.
Thanks for sharing! I wish you luck in your steemit endeavors. Cheers!
@jocqua, thank you for your kind comments. Yes, Carribe the parrot is a fun name. Our other two parrots are "Bravo" and "Gandalph". They are also in some of my videos. Keep watch, you never know when one will come into the kitchen and ask to sit on my shoulder and watch what I am doing. This evening my husband and I were processing a large squash and we had all three "helping" us.
I have made sauerkraut in the past. I have 8 heads of cabbage waiting processing right now, and will probably make a sauerkraut video using some of them.
Thanks again for watching.
Of course! I enjoyed it. I love the name Gandalph hahaha I'm in New Zealand right now so that's pretty relevant 😂
Good luck with the sauerkraut. I'll have to check back and see if you have anything to add to my brother and fathers process. Cheers!
Jocqua, I would love to know your family techniques and recipe for sauerkraut. My last (and also my first) batch came out too salty and I had to rinse it before eating. Surprisingly after a quick rinse off there was still enough salt to make things wonderful.
Welp, I'm gonna try and see what they're doing the next time and I'll let you know. They probably make a new jar every week or two. I swear they eat it with every meal hahaha I usually join them.
@jocqua, they eat it every day? My that's a lot of sauerkraut. At least it is very good for them. Yes, please do let me know. Cheers!
Hahaha yes! They make HUGE jars of them and practically have it with every meal except breakfast. But I've already talked to my brother and he's more than willing to share his recipe. The next time they make some I'll be sure to share it with you.
Wow! I have dehydrated some foods, such as watermelon and strawberries, but nothing like this. I love your tiny jar of powder at the end, and I am sure it packs a punch in flavor.
I watched, liked, and subbed you over at yt and also looked at your raw egg dehydration video. You are a wonder! I wish I had the overflow of eggs, just to give this a try.
@fitnfun, thank you for your comments. It is nice to know that someone who already dehydrates food takes something away from my videos. Yes, the pumpkin powder does pack a powerful punch, and pumpkin pies made with it are truly a wonderment.
Thanks for your support both here and on YT. I do the raw egg dehydrating every year when eggs come my way. I also dehydrate a lot of the produce that comes from my garden, and some of the foraged greens as well. I keep a jar of dehydrated greens in the pantry to mix into casseroles and soups as well as smoothies to increase their nutrition.
Cheers!
Greens too! I love them fresh and I'm definitely going to try this. I'm all about the nutrition and find the more power-packed food tastes better and is more satisfying anyway.
@fitnfun, good for you, there are too many people who don't care much about nutrition. I enjoy a smoothie now and again, and love a salad or side dish of fresh greens.
Cheers!
I thought Gandy (did I get it right, today? is the only guy you have, little did I know that you have another, (Carrib?) Is his tail as long as Gandy's? How many more of theses guys do you have?
That definitely is a smart and efficient way to store up pumpkins. I noticed that the pumpkin somewhat lost its color after dehydrating it and grinding, does it regain that color when rehydrated?
@audreybits, yes, thank you, you got Gandi's name right. We have three Macaws. There is Carribe, a blue and gold, who is 20 and has the longest tail feathers of the three. Then there is Bravo, who is also a Blue and Gold. Bravo's tail isn't as long as Gandi's. Finally there is Gandi, and you have seen him. Bravo is 17 and Gandi is going to be 10 on his next birthday,
When the pumpkin powder is re-hydrated the color comes back very well. I think it looks lighter when powdered because powdering breaks the bits up very small so they look lighter.
Thanks for your lovely comments and I hope to see you again in my next video. Cheers!
Macaws are usually so colorful and yours definitely aren't short of that beautiful colors... Gandi is the youngest and he happens to be my favorite...😀
Oh, I get it now.... The break up must be the reason. Preserving food always is a labor of love, one needs a great deal of patience and love to get through with that. And you have them! 😊
@audreybits, thank you for your lovely comments. So glad you like Gandi, he is my favorite as well (but don't tell the other guys). Gandi and I bonded immediately when we first saw each other. I had never had a Macaw companion before, and apparently he felt a kindred spirit in me.
As far as the preserving, it is a labor of love, as you said, but it can also be addictive. I can't imagine my life without food preservation in it. It certainly makes meal preparation so much easier. Cheers!
First of all I love your parrot! It looks like out of the fairy tale :)
Now to your video... your tutorial is so detailed and you speak in a very clear and understandable way. I also enjoyed the speed of your talking. It's perfect for non-native speakers.
I love pumpkin and I thought that I have used it for almost everything but I have never thought about dehydrating it. This is an awesome idea!
And the process is not even difficult. It is time consuming but not difficult. And WOW! It's funny to see how much powder do you get from so much pumpkin. It looks like a lot of work to finalize the powder. I think I would maybe use the food processor before using the sieve. The pieces would be smaller already and it would be easier? I don't know..
There is so much pumpkin nowadays in Switzerland that it would be a pity not to try to dehydrate it. I will go for it and will let you know if it worked :)
Thank you for sharing! Everyday is a school day :)
@delishtreats, Thank you for your kind comments. I am so blessed that you enjoyed it and could gain information to use in your daily life. It is nice to know that the care I take to make my videos understandable and easy to use is doing what I want. I have many friends for whom English is not their first language, so I am aware of how some people struggle to understand those of us who use it only.
Thank you for the lovely comment about Carribe. He is one of three parrots that my Husband and I have and love. They are wonderful companions, and a great deal of fun to have around. They can be a bit loud, but make up for that by being sweet.
My husband and I eat a lot of pumpkin when it is in season, and dehydrating gives us a way to store it on our pantry shelves without worrying about spoilage. As far as the trouble processing, yes, doing it the way I demonstrated does take a bit more work, but it makes a great product. It also saves lots of time during the year. If I want something that uses pumpkin, all I have to do is mix some of the powder into boiling water, and in about 15 minutes the puree is ready to use. That is a real time saver.
I do not use the food processor as most people do not have one and I try to keep my videos useful for people everywhere. Most folks, at least those in developed countries, do have mashers and blenders, so this is what I use in my videos. However, you are right, the food processor does a much faster job of pulverising the pumpkin.
I'm so glad you will use what you learned here in my video to enhance your every day life. Cheers and have a happy life.
Three parots must be able to make a LOT of noise. But do they sleep when you sleep or do they have different sleeping habits?
You are right with using of equipment that is available to everyone. I didn't think about it and I must say that not many people do. If you watch YouTube videos most of them use the most fancy equipment and people don't know what they could use to replace it.
Thank you for your extensive respond. Sending hugs and lots of love your way :)
@delishtreats, Yes, our three parrots do make a great deal of noise, but they can be sweet and silent as well. They definitely have their own cycles of sleep and awake, but we control that to an extent. Birds natural rhythms are usually based on light conditions and sun locations, however, We help our birds have good sleep times by putting them to bed at a set time each night and covering their cages.
Gandi is like a typical 3 year-old in that after everyone is put to bed and settled, he will call out to me in a quiet voice and ask to come out again. I know it's probably not a good practice (just like with children) but I usually get him up again for a while for some one-on-one time with me. This is when he likes to play in the kitchen with Mama.
Woooow this is crazy :D This should be called food powdering haha :D How do yo use that pumpkin than??? It reminds me of whey protein powders which you drink after the workout haha :D
This was pretty crazy, what you've done haha :D And I loved it, u have things under control at home hah :D If I was your kiddo, I'd never be bad. You don't want to make angry a woman, who can squash 20pound pumpkin into such small jar hahhah :D You might end up in the jar yourself...maybe the same with the pumpkin hahahah :D
@matkodurko, you are so funny. You had me laughing out loud with your jokes. Thank you for your comments, they made my day so much happier. As to what I do with the dried pumpkin, I mix it with some water to re-hydrate it and then I cook with it. I've made pumpkin pies, cookies and breads. They all turned out wonderful. I will have a video coming out in the future that will show how to use several of my dehydrated foods. I'm sure you will find it entertaining as well. Cheers!
Howdy there katedansyng! wow I've never seen pumpkin dehydrated before or even a dehydrator so this is very interesting and I like that it can be stored for a long time. So this is a great video, the descriptions are thorough and very good. Plus that bird is cool! lol.
I assume you do alot of food videos?
@Janton, Thank you for your kind comments. My bird is something special. We have 3! This one is the youngest, and the most brightly colored. As to videos, I started making videos about 3 months ago, and find I am enjoying doing them. I'm glad you got something out of this one. Keep watching!
Such a brilliant method @katedansyng! I can imagine this method works for other pumpkin like veges too? Oh but they do look like a great snack :) How does a dehydrator look like? Congrats on another curie vote!! :) And your parrot is really cute and tame :)
@marblely, Thanks for the comment. The method works well for most veggies. I have done pumpkins, squashes, onions, and garlic. I am now doing apples and apple peels. Hopefully they will turn out well. My dehydrator is a Crawford brand professional stainless steel dehydrator. It has 10 trays and the heat source and fan are in the back so the air travels horizontally across all trays at once. This eliminates moving the trays during dehydration. If you look back at some of my other videos you will see a thumbnail of 4 different food preservation methods. The dehydrator is pictured there.