Dried Applemint And Other Herbal Stuff

   

      My extremely awesome neighbor gave me some Applemint cuttings that sat in a cup of water to root in my kitchen window. I transplanted it a couple of months ago into a flower pot that sits under a tree in my front yard. Not sure why, but it does not smell like apple like it used to. Still smells nice, just not like green apples and mint anymore. 

     After getting my dehydrator, and our bananas not being ripe enough, I decided we needed to try dehydrating the applemint. My daughter went out with me and helped pick leaves. 

Then we brought them in and rinsed them off, making sure there was no dirt, dead leaves or bugs left on them. 

After they were dry, my daughter placed them on the dehydrator trays and we turned on our machine for the first time.

Yes, we actually clapped.

We let our leaves dry until they were crispy. It took about 3 hours. 

We did not want to break up the leaves, so we were careful when we placed them into the little jar we recycled from a minced garlic jar. We love recycling, re-purposing and reusing!

     But now what do we do with it? I have never tried making my own herbal tea. My daughter can't stand any sort of hot tea or herbal tea. (Insert sad face here!) I nibbled on a piece of dried mint leaf. Ya... not so good. I still wanted to try making an herbal tea from them though! I asked my friends if anyone knew of any posts, blogs or articles on making your own herbal teas with dried mint leaves and I got a lot of different responses. Not all were about teas, but definitely worth the read! I will list them at the bottom of this post so you can read and learn too! 

     It just so happens, a few days after reading about mint's herbal properties I ended up with a tummy bug. I was miserable. Anyone that walked into the bathroom after me was miserable as well. (Sorry for the TMI!) So I took the leap and decided I would make my very first home grown, self brewed cup of Applemint herbal tea to help with my upset tummy. Tea leaves in the bottom of the cup are something I did not want. I have nothing to hold tea leaves or a tea pot. My dilemma was solved when I saw the tulle I used to strain out the tomato seeds in. I cut a 6x6 piece of it off, added some tea leaves, gathered it at the top and them secured my little bag with a small rubber band. 

 Pretty ingenious don't you think? It worked! 

Barely any tea leaves!

     I seeped it for about 5 minutes. I was worried because it was not very dark. When I tasted it, I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted just like an herbal mint tea I would have up in my cabinet. I added a bit of local raw honey and enjoyed. I could not get my daughter to try it, but the hubby did. I expected all sorts of funny faces, (was kinda the point in letting him try it,) but he liked it as well. Success! AND, it settled my stomach enough that I was not running into the bathroom every 10 minutes. 

Now onto the learning links!

The Medicinal Mint Family and Herbal Instruction:
http://herbalacademyofne.com/2014/07/herbal-remedies-the-medicinal-mint-family/

More Mint Ideas From The Nerdy Farm Wife:
http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/mint-ideas/

Amazing Herbal/Medicinal Properties of the Raspberry Leaf:
http://chickenscratchny.com/2014/07/diy-raspberry-leaf-tea.html

Great Info Explaining Tinctures, Elixirs and Cordials:
http://pixiespocket.com/2011/10/lets-talk-about-tinctures-elixirs-and-cordials.html

Robin's Nest Naturals- great video tutorials on making Tintures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-2Ubzvq7B0&feature=youtu.beUbzvq7B0&feature=youtu.be

Learning Herbs- Free Herbal Remedies and Kits You Can Buy:
http://learningherbs.com/ Also, if you sign up for their newsletter you get a very cool ebook on wildcrafting herbs

Richter's Herbs- The Best Source For Everything Herbal
http://www.richters.com/

My New (To Me) Dehydrator And Making Banana Chips

 

    A couple of weeks ago, I posted on my Facebook page that I was in the market for a dehydrator and a pressure canner for cheap to free. My post was lost along my page and I had no idea someone had responded until my mother called to ask if I had picked up the dehydrator yet. Well, no... I had no idea a friend had commented on my post. One of the great ladies at our Ag Extension Office had an extra one, I just needed to go pick it up.

Waring Dehydrator instructional manual and Drying Guide

     I am very excited to have a dehydrator! The Lady that gave it to me said, 'It's an oldie but still a goodie!' So far, I have to agree. It does not have any fancy knobs, no cool attachments.. But my daughter and I could not be happier. Learning to grow, harvest, and preserve foods we grew ourselves is an important part of our life learning experience. We homeschool with a whole life aspect. 
     So far we have dehydrated applemint leaves and have bananas in there today. Doing bananas first was my daughters choice, but after reading some instructions, we realized our bananas were to green. That is when we decided to dry the applemint leaves from the plants our awesome neighbor gave us. You can see that post HERE. 
      After a couple of days, our bananas were finally ready. We followed the instructions we found on a mommy blogger page. (We were so into making the banana chips, we forgot to take photos of the steps. Whoops!)

Dehydrating Bananas

1. Peal your banana and slice it into 1/4 inch rounds. (We ate the ends as we cut them.)
2. Soak in fresh lemon juice to prevent over browning. 
3. Oil your dehydrator trays and place the bananas around the tray making sure the edges do not touch. 
4. Place trays in your dehydrator that is set to about 135 degrees. 
5. Leathery/chevy slices will take up to 12 hours. Crisp chips take around 24 hours. Move the trays around to different levels to insure even drying.
6. For long term storage, it is better make them crispy rather than chewy. Moisture aids in bacteria growth and will cause them to spoil faster. You can use food grade mylar bags and oxygen absorbers to store your bounty. You can find them HERE. However, I am going to put these in a jar so we can munch on them for a while. :)

We had not found the instructions about oiling the trays before placing them on, so about 4 hours in I realized there was a problem. I flipped them when they were already in the process of drying so they were stuck just a bit. That is why they do not look all flat and pretty like other people more experienced. This does not effect the flavor, so we are not worried about it.)

     They took a lot longer to dry than we expected. We are were nearly 24 hours in and they were still kind of chewy. Since I am not planning on storing them long term, this is not a problem. Bananas in any form or fashion do not last long in my house. (Just ask us how long the freeze dried bananas lasted us!) 
     One thing I have read that surprised me, but also gave me an common sense moment, was people tend to eat more of dried fruits than they do fresh fruits. They are smaller, but the only difference in a dried fruit and a fresh one, is the water content. So eating 1/4 cup of dried fruit is the same as eating 1 cup of fresh fruit. Yes, some of the nutrients will be lost in the process, however, home dried fruits retain a higher level than processed, store bought dried fruits. Both dried fruits and fresh fruits are both healthy, but fresh fruit contains needed water to keep you hydrated and feeling full for longer and faster. We are learning about long term storage of fruits and vegetables, so this does not bother me. 
     Back in grandma and grandpa's time. Fruits and veggies were seasonal. We have forgotten what is like to not be able to go to the big box store and get our favorite fruits and veggies when we want them. (But what if you could not just run to the store and get what you want when you want it? Dried preservation and canning is what grandma and grandpa did!) Now, honestly, bananas are not something we can grow ourselves in our area. This was still a learning process we enjoyed. We have peach trees and wild plums on our property (our nectarine tree died early this year) but we did not have the dehydrator when we had those fruits to practice drying on. Next year we will be busy!

    Want to learn more about dehydrating foods? Wikipedia and The National Center For Food Preservation has a lot of interesting facts, history, and how to information. By far the the best info I have found has come from Dehydrate2store and  Wikihow. 

This blog is for entertainment purposes only, do your own research before attempting to any dehydrating on your own. This post may contain affiliate links.

Oven Drying Zucchini

   

     One of our abundant garden items this year is zucchini. Only the kids and I eat it, and we just can't eat it as fast as it is growing. I thought about pickling it but we have also had a huge crop of cucumbers. Pickling at this time is out, but I might try that later on. What do you do with extra produce that can not be eaten fast enough? I thought of freezing it until I saw a post in one of my Facebook groups about drying vegetables. Excellent homesteading option for long term food storage! I do not have a dehydrator, and prefer to learn methods not requiring electricity. We are looking into making an outdoor dehydrator, but for now I decided to oven dry them. Lots of fruits and veggies can be dried this way. 
     Of course we started by researching Drying Zucchini in the Oven, and found a great article over at Real Food Mama that describes the process in clear and simple steps. Here is what we did with her info.

Oven Dried Zucchini

1. We started by washing and drying our zucchini. We had 3 and a half large zucchinis we started out with. (I completely forgot to get photos of us washing, cutting and preparing our zucchini. :/ )
2. Cut into 1/4 in slices. Any smaller than that, and it will dry too quickly. Any thicker, it might take too long. We did end up with some larger and smaller slices. My daughter (and I have to admit, myself as well) ended up making all sorts of sizes of slices by hand. This wold probably be easier with a veggie slicer of some sort. It is now on my wish list to get one. 
   
3. Place slices on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Place in oven. 
4. Set your oven to the lowest possible setting. My oven's lowest is 150 degrees. You are drying them, NOT cooking them! Think 'Low and Slow' while they are drying. Also, air flow is key in drying foods in your oven. I propped my oven open with a knife set on its edges in the door. You might have a better option and I would love to hear it if you do! 
   
5. You must flip them over quite often to insure even drying on both sides and to prevent them from sticking to the cookie sheet. I figured this out the hard way. My second batch the next day dried a lot quicker since we sliced them all at the same time. I stored them in the fridge overnight and this might have caused them to dry a bit while they were in there. 

   

   This is what the look like as they
   are drying when you flip them.

   

   Ooops!

6. Dry your zucchini until they are no longer flexible. They will be crispy to touch. My first batch took 6 hours. The second batch took just 4 hours.
   
   
   
   
7. Store your dried and cooled Zucchini in jars or baggies. Note a whole sheet of dried Zucchini did not fill up a pint jar. Extracting the water significantly reduces the size of the slice. Zucchini is 96% water. 
8. Now what do you do with your dried zucchini? I hear it is good in soups and sauces. I have never tried them before and have never used them in cooking. (Right now, my daughter is preforming an experiment on re-hydrating a piece of our newly dried zucchini. I will let you know how that goes on another post.) I would actually like to try them in lasagna layers. We did try them just they way they are and we all kind of liked them. My last batch I seasoned them with a dill/onion seasoning packet I had up in my cabinet. They were yummy! But I tell you, a little seasoning goes a long way! 

Do you have a good recipe that uses dehydrated zucchini? We would love to hear about it!