Dehydrating, Vacuum Sealing Oranges & a Tasty Treat

                                      

I often use my mandolin to slice items. It works really well. I HIGHLY recommend you use a Kevlar glove when using a mandolin, It is EXTREMELY sharp.
I have sliced off part of my finger before using the gloves. I was being very careful.

Then simply lay the slices on the trays.

Here they are in my dehydrator. I personally use the Excalibur. Many use smaller dehydrators, which work well. I just tend to do big batches & quickly graduated to a 9 tray dehydrator.

Lots of yummy oranges.

Then I use my Food Saver vacuum sealer with attachments to seal them in quart jars. Then they are stored in a cool, dark, dry location. How to: Album on vacuum sealing.

When I get around to eating the oranges, I peel off the rinds and save them. When I have a good amount of the rinds, I take some of the pith off and lay them out on parchment paper in a baking dish...

I break up some dark chocolate bars (which I also have vacuum sealed & stored in canning jars). I put them in the oven at a low temp. Probably about 250 degrees.

Once the chocolate is melted, I mix up the chocolate and the rinds.

Then I smooth the mixture out evenly...

Once the chocolate hardens, then I break it up into pieces and store. Goodness, it has been awhile since I have done this and this is making me really hungry. I haven't been able to store this sweet treat, since I eat it all up when I make it. 

Perky Prepping Gramma's Store

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How to be prepped for long term storage: Elderberry Juice...

Has anyone canned elderberry juice?

From the wall: Stephanie's Question: "When making Elderberry syrup are you canning it? If so do you water bath it or pressure can? I've made it and frozen some but it doesn't last long without molding in my fridge so I need to figure out if I can can it for long term storage." 

The short answer would be I haven't canned the actual juice. I use it so frequently & for me it is quick and simple to make. 

I do have it prepped for long term storage by having the individual ingredients stored. Each of the highlight words below link to a post on that topic.
I use four ingredients & have three stored. Water, dehydrated elderberries, dehydrated ginger and local raw honey. Didn't get my ginger in this picture.

First, I have dehydrated elderberries and dehydrated ginger. 

 

Then I vacuum seal them for long term storage. 

The honey is a forever food. Just keep enough in stock.

It is that simple to keep all the supplies on hand.   

It's that time of year...

My first batch...

Dehydrating Ginger

The house smells heavenly today. I just happened to about about a pound of frozen ginger from my friends at Gold Hill Blueberry Farm.

I tend to work on wanting everything to be sustainable without electricity. So, it is an ongoing task of getting things out of my freezer and preparing them for longer term storage.

Ginger is one of those plants that has so many benefits. I have used it often for nausea, colds and allergies. I was reading up on the benefits at Herb Wisdom and I am planning on utilizing ginger even more medicinally and in my cooking. 

TIP: You can find ginger at a lot different grocery stores. Often the rhizomes (root) purchased in a store will have a brown skin. You want to be careful not to bruise the root, so a very simple method is to use a spoon to scrape off the skin.

So, I thawed the ginger and sliced it up.

Spread it out on my dehydrating tray and set the heat level for fruits. The flexibility of variable heats is one of the reasons that I like my Excalibur dehydrator. This batch took about 5 hours because it was really wet from being frozen. You really want to get ginger dry.

After we get settled in our new home, I will get some slips of ginger to grow. I need to find out the variety. This one is marvelous and has a slightly sweet taste.

I love the smell of ginger dehydrating & my sinuses are certainly clear today.

5 Tips & How to Use Elderberries for Winter...

I have always been fascinated by homemade homeopathic remedies, so early on I decided to start learning how to make these remedies at home. I've been making elderberry syrup now since 2013. 

Mr. Perky stayed home from work today, which is a really rare occurrence. He was experiencing cold/flu like symptoms. So I went full scale making elderberry juice. I actually made four batches total. 

Today I am sharing various tips I have learned, plus how to dehydrate elderberries (sambucus nigra) and how to make elderberry juice.

Ripe berries:  The berries ripen varies from late summer to early fall. Mostly you can tell by the birds and the berries. If the birds aren't eating them, they are not ripe. When they are ripe they are soft, turn a deep purple color and are full of red juice.

How To Dehydrate Elderberries

First you need to identify your elderberry bushes, in Virginia they grow wild.

My DH and friends went elderberry picking a couple of weeks ago. Initially I just popped the bag in the freezer. Some of the seeds I am saving to plant this spring in my new home. 

TIP: Before or after dehydrating you need to clean/process the berries. They have short shelf life, so if you are not freezing them immediately they will need to be process within a few days. If you float the berries in a bowl of water after you have removed them, you can easily scoop up any floating debris. You need to remove berries that are not ripe, leaves, stems, old flowers blooms etc. It is time consuming, but leaving these other parts in the mix will leave a bitter taste to your elderberry juice. 
While we tried transplanting some elderberry bushes on our new farmette, I will probably order some elderberry bushes to insure I am getting sambucus nigra elderberries. I will keep you posted.

I find I am able to see a difference between the elderberries that we picked & the ones I purchased from Amazon (associate link). But, they both are really good. 

OLD FARMER TIP: Freeze the clusters, then shake the bag.

Left is before putting the berries in the freezer and the picture on the right is what was in the bottom of the bag after shaking. I did still need to pluck some berries, but shaking them certainly saved time. You may also do this when picking.

                        

    

Next, remove the remaining berries from the umbrels & my results.

TIP: Melissa Barnes Blake suggested using a fork to pick the berries off of the umbrels. Definitely going to do that next time.

                

  

I wasn't sure, but I spread the elderberries out in the 
Excalibur dehydrator tray. (associate link)  I was concerned they were going to fall through, but they didn't. I dehydrated the berries at 135 degrees until they were no longer soft. Probably about 4-5 hours. Honestly, I think that my dehydrator was one of the very best purchases I have made. I use it continually. 

Afterwords I set the trays on a towel (glad I did) and gentle rubbed the berries to remove them from the screen. Next time I will use dark towels.

Put the elderberries into a canning jar.

Then what was left of the towel was added to a canning jar and vacuum seal them.

There you have it. The elderberries on the left are the ones we picked. The ones I got from amazon are on the right. Look good don't they?

TIP: I write the recipe for elderberry juice on the lid of my stored elderberries. I also vacuum seal the jars between usages. Now my berries are ready to make elderberry juice.

How To Make 

Elderberry Juice

Originally I was using a recipe I found online, but I have edited it so much now. Many recipes I have found use 1 cup of honey, which is far too much for my taste.

Ingredients: (personally I now double the batch, since I use it so often)

1 Cup fresh or 1/2 cup dried elderberries.

3 Cups water

1/3 Cup honey (not really needed)

EDITED: Now I add a couple of slices of dehydrated ginger to my recipe. You may also add other medicinal plants.

First, add 1 cup fresh or 1/2 dried elderberries to a pot and add 3 cups of water.

Bring to a boil & then reduce the heat and simmer for 1/2 hour.

Strain everything through a strainer. Then smash the berries to get all the juice out. Previously I used a regular strainer and a spoon, but I have to tell you I just got an Oxo Food Mill.  It's one of those tools that I really wished i had gotten a lot earlier. I love this thing. Particularly, it makes the work so much easier and it is a breeze to clean.

CAUTION: Don't eat the seeds. There is some chance of toxicity. I just googled it & read about it. A couple won't hurt. just use caution.

Lastly, add 1/3 cup of honey. Since the juice is still hot, I pour it back and forth to melt & get all the honey out of the measuring cup. 

Don't you just love this bottle? I like them so much, I got them at Ikea. I just went back and bought some more swing-top bottles. Then I used a funnel and pour into a bottle of jar. You store the syrup in the fridge. It will last for several months.

DOSING: You may take it every 2-3 hours. Personally I have been just drinking an ounce or two at  time. 

REMINDER: Don't use raw honey with young children you are able to use other sweeteners like raw sugar. 

TIP: Since I made 4 batches, I also freeze my elderberry/ginger juice. Recently I have been utilizing the frozen elderberry/ginger. The cubes are super convenient. Which leads us to...

Perky's Go-Go Juice

One of my gramma names is Go-Go, long before Honey Boo Boo's go-go juice came into being. Once I started making the very best blueberry juice ever, I started mixing my elderberry/ginger juice which  I now have frozen and blueberry juice. This is an absolute fantastic afternoon pick me up. While I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on t.v., I am only able to share that this works extremely well for me. 

Items I used in this post and this week.

    

Just so you know I participate in the Amazon associate program. What that means is when you click on a link I post & purchase items; I receive a small percentage from Amazon. your cost is exactly the same. I try to make sure these are products I have used and recommend.

From herbwisdom.com: "Used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, improve vision, boost the immune system, improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsillitis. Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 1995.

Elderberries (Sambucus) have been a folk remedy for centuries in North America, Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, hence the medicinal benefits of elderberries are being investigated and rediscovered. Elderberry is used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, to improve vision, to boost the immune system, to improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsillitis. Bioflavonoids and other proteins in the juice destroy the ability of cold and flu viruses to infect a cell. People with the flu who took elderberry juice reported less severe symptoms and felt better much faster than those who did not."

April Review

I am a little late in showing you what I accomplished in April. But, here it is:
Canned bacon (36 pounds of Zaycon bacon in quart jars) and corned beef (9 quarts)

 
Dehydrated mushrooms & blueberries (got some more free ones from work), vacuum sealed these items.

Always more coffee to store

Added more chocolate &stored more eggs

Plus, I gave away several days of food to a local homeless shelter that takes care of and helps reestablish families in our community. I love that when there is a need, I just go “shopping” in my store!
You are able to find more details on any of these pictures by scrolling back through this months photos on my facebook page.I am pretty amazed considering this month I injured my back, had to deal with the heart stuff again (currently wearing an event monitor) and spent three days in the hospital for a kidney infection and kidney stones. 
My May goals are Meat & BOB again. I am still working on getting my freezer completely empty of meat, that will take me awhile. Plus, we are still working on revamping our BOB's.
Actually we are revamping our supplies into "get home bags" and "bug out bags". 

Care to share what you have been doing?

One Pomelo: 6 uses

I really enjoy trying new foods. I did a lot of reading and did all of this on Sunday with my new friend the pomelo fruit. First I cut the top off.

Then I cut into the skin and through the pith, scoring it about 6 or 7 times.

Then you dig your fingers into the top, into the fruit and open it up.

Look how nice that looks. Then I took the sections of fruit out. Then I made a pomelo hat. Evidently this is what you are supposed to do. No, really. Try goggling "pomelo hat", it may surprise you. So, here I am in my first pomelo hat.

Next, I ate some. I really like it. It is similar to grapefruit and sweeter.

Then I got busy. I cut out some of the pith to freeze for use on poison ivy. I probably will give it to someone else, since I don't seem to react to poison ivy. LOL.

Prepared the skin for candying. Sliced the skin into strips. This time I removed almost all of the pith,next time I may leave a little more on. To prepare the skin, add it to a saucepan and cover well with water, boil for 10 minutes. Drain and repeat the same step two more times.

Then I took half of the strips and left it plain (on the right) The other half I candied. TO do that simply add about equal amounts of water (and skins) again to the pan. After reading several recipes and knowing I like things tart, I only added about 1/4 cup of sugar to the saucepan. You slowly boil way the water, stirring as you go.

Then I dehydrated the skin for about an hour. I waited until I thought it looked right. 

The ones cooked in the sugar bath, I shook in a baggie of a little more sugar to coat the pieces. 

The ones without the sugar bath, I laid out in a pan and broke up a dark chocolate bar on top and heated it in the oven until the chocolate melted.

After the chocolate had melted, I stirred it up and let it cool.

Here are the results. Dark chocolate cover pomelo skin and candied pomelo skin.

I also added some of the skin to a jar and covered with vodka. I am going to see if I am able to make some essential oil from it. I will keep you posted.

There you have it. Pomelo 6 ways. 1) to eat, 2) as a hat, 3) remedy for poison ivy, 4) chocolate covered, 5) candied and 6) essential oil. I forgot to tell you, both of the candied skins are wonderful! They are almost gone.