Making Do Without Missing a Thing--Jars of Pure Gold--week four

   Hello everyone, and welcome back for our next installment in the Making Do Without Missing A Thing series. This post will be the last for week four as I have covered how we save a tremendous amount on our grocery bill every year through canning and dehydrating with sales and gardening. This has been so much fun to share with you all the different ways we make "do" around here as we live on a small budget. I hope many of you are walking away learning new things and excited about trying them!


   When I first started this series, I just knew I had to share our story with different people, and how we got to the point we are now. I would encourage you to start at the beginning if you are just joining us, and browse through the last four weeks of posts. There is so much good stuff there, and I hope you enjoy reading. Here are the links to take you back:

                week one--using Master mixes to break the convenience food habit

                week two--building up a pantry, anticipating grocery sales, and buying in bulk

                week three--the six kitchen appliances that will save you money and how to use them

          week four--learning how canning and dehydrating can save you thousands on your yearly grocery bill

   We are going to end week four by talking about one of the most ancient ways of food preservation, which is dehydrating. I had a sweet friend over yesterday who just purchased her first dehydrator with her husband, last week. She was very curious to see how I do things, and how I store them, and what I ended up doing with them. I mean, its all fun and games with dehydrating until you finally realize that you have to actually EAT the food---and then what?

   When I was a kid I was always experimenting with different things to see how they changed. I can remember picking our neighbor's roses and distilling it in water for perfume when I was about seven...and I remember the scolding I got from my mom when the neighbor came over to tell her what I had done to his prize roses (I am quite sure I left at least one or two roses on the bushes, so I still don't understand why he was so upset).
   Dehydrating gives me the ability as an adult to start out with food in one form, stick it in the box, and voila, hours later, it has changed and turned into something else. Kinda like those little easy bake ovens we had as kids, remember those? If you would ask the average person what dried food they are familiar with, at least a few would come up with raisins. I  mean, who hasn't heard of raisins?
   But one of the best parts about dehydrating is that the storage space it takes for dehydrated products is so so much less than even canning. Add into that how dehydrating has the lowest loss of nutrients in food, and that they can store indefinitely for most items...well, those are both winners in my  book. I absolutely love canning, and do it all the time. But I also love taking advantage of sales, and saving produce from my garden that would otherwise go to waste before I could get to it.
   Some of my favorite snacks that come out of my dehydrator are apple chips, smoothie roll-ups, and granola. I can also make yogurt using my dehydrator, but tend to use the crockpot method way more often as my dehydrator is normally running a couple times a week.
   The first fall that we had the dehydrator, I was amazed at the difference in what got taken care of from our garden  versus what had to be thrown out because I was running out of time and space to take care of it. We estimated that we saved a good $300 of produce just that fall alone when I canned and dehydrated in tandem. The dehydrator ran for almost a full month, 24/7, and performed amazingly well for the entire time. It has been in constant use for almost four years, and still is a workhorse with no issues. We did our research, and ended up settling on an Excalibur 9-tray with a timer and extra non-stick sheets. Again, as I have said before in some of my other posts, this was an investment, and has more than paid for itself probably times 10 at this point.

   We take advantage of produce or canned goods sales all the time. My husband thinks nothing of hauling home 30 lbs of potatoes, or when the frozen veggies go on sale, he brings home 10 bags. We buy in bulk, often from Azure, and a couple months ago before my surgery I dehydrated 25 lbs of carrots. When that bag was done, it filled one half-gallon jar, and one quart jar.

   I dehydrated celery when it went on sale for $1 a package around the holidays. 10 bags of celery barely filled a quart jar. Or onions, at 25 lb bags, can fill up a half gallon jar with diced dried onion, and last I checked prices, that was some pretty spendy stuff in the spices aisle at the grocery. I can make my own onion salt, non-salt seasoning, and celery salt for a fraction of what I would pay, even on sale.


   Frozen veggies store in a very small space and can sit on the shelf indefinitely until you use them. I had a very large bag of peas and carrots that went on sale about four months ago, and after dehydrating, they filled a pint jar to the top. That bag would have taken up valuable and needed space in my freezer, and now, if the power goes out, it is still there, safe and sound, waiting to be used when I have time for pot pies or even just for dinner.




   Dried food is convenient, and shelf stable. I like that. When I go to use it, depending on what it is, it is either rehydrated in the meal I am using it for, or I will rehydrate it prior to use. For example, I like to use dried fruit in my baking. We were blessed last spring to be offered the use of someone's property that had cherries and mulberries in abundance. We dried them and filled two half-gallon jars with free berries and cherries. Drying intensifies the flavor, so less is needed if you are looking to flavor something, and a normal amount of fruit placed in a baking batter makes for some seriously amazing quick bread or muffins. I have powdered up the cherries using a coffee grinder and made them into smoothies, even.

   Or what if you are trying to get more veggies into your kids without them knowing? Dried foods are perfect because many of them can be powdered. I cant tell you how many times I have powdered up spinach (purchased on sale, or from my garden) and included it in something without them even knowing. You can even make some pretty amazing homemade potato chips with a dehydrator that have none of the yuck and fat of the store-bought stuff.

   

Have I convinced you yet how valuable a dehydrator can be to the serious minded saver? 

   If you love camping and backpacking, you will use a dehydrator often as well, as you make your own trail food for a fraction of the price.
   And if you love jerky, but hate paying the price for the really good stuff, a dehydrator is the way to go. You can make you own jerky, from top quality meat, and pay only for the ingredients. My husband loves to make his own jerky, and we have had everything from turkey jerky to venison jerky thanks to his creativity. Now if I could just get him to clean the sheets in the dehydrator when he is done, my life would be much easier. However, being able to eat jerky when we want for cheap is a great thing, and did you know that in a pinch, if you use jerky as your meat in a soup, it is really really good? I did that a while back because there was a tray of jerky that had been sitting for a little longer than needed and was really dry (we heat with wood, so our house tends to be very dry in winter). I just broke up a couple pieces, and made some soup with it, and the flavor was amazing. If I had powdered it with a blender or coffee grinder, it could have been "instant" soup in a cup---one of my favorite things to have in winter in MN.
   Measurements for rehydrating stuff is pretty basic. If you have one cup of peas and you want to rehydrate them, you can do it one of two ways. You can pour one cup of boiling water over them (or stock), and cover and let it sit for an hour or so. Some items take longer than others, such as meat. Or you can plan ahead, place those veggies in a crockpot with water and seasoning, a little pat or two of butter, and have an excellent side dish of veggies waiting for you when you come home. If you are cooking a roast or something in the crockpot already, you just add the veggies ahead of time with an adequate amount of liquid, and have a one pot meal ready for dinner.

   Another way I love to have our dried food is in soups and stews. As already stated before, dried foods are more intense tasting, and so when you add a bunch to a soup that simmers for dinner or lunch, it is really good stuff. If you dont have veggie or chicken broth to start the soup, no problem, because the dried foods will impart their flavors as they thicken throughout the day. And it will be good enough to serve company, who will exclaim that it tastes amazing and have no idea they are trying your latest science experiment while eating at your table. :) just kidding. :) I really haven't ever done that. (yet)
   This series of videos is absolutely amazing in showing you all of the things that can be done with dried foods, and how to go about it. I am only linking you to the very first of the series, because if you are like me, once you start learning something, you tend to do it in batches where you have the time, and then learn in big blocks. Tammy runs a site called Dehydrate2store, and it has some of the most comprehensive information on the web about drying food and then using them. Check out her first video:

   She has an entire series on just about everything having to do with dehydrating, so go get yourself a cup of coffee or tea and plan on spending some time realizing just how amazing, easy, and profitable using dried foods can be for your family.

   Next week we are going to be talking about my meal plans and I will be laying out for you one a day of my six week plans, and including recipes and cost breakdowns for you. I am also gearing you up for the last week of our series, where I will be having a giveaway, giving a few more tips from the weeks that have passed, and finally giving you an opportunity for sharing your own links, sites and tips for other readers. I hope to see you back here soon!

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather