Garden Huckleberry Time

The black raspberries are almost done and now the garden huckleberries are starting to ripen. The early ones I threw in the berry mixes I use for bumbleberry spread. Today I got about a cup and a half and put them into the solar dehydrator. I'll use them like raisins or currents over the winter.

Some seed catalogs call these ground huckleberries. They are of the tomato plant family. I got my first seeds from Baker Seeds, a Missouri company. They didn't do well for me. I didn't plant any last spring. But late last summer I noticed a volunteer garden huckleberry in my lettuce patch, seeded there from the compost I fertilized it with. In September I picked the handful of berries it produced because they were larger than the berries I had gotten in my first planting.

In the spring I crumbled the dried berries and got out enough seeds to start about twenty-four plants. I've got them in three different locations. The ones in my front garden have turned out the smallest, but I'm still getting some berries. The others have done very well and I'll have berries for several weeks.

Preserving Food Without Heating the House

Well, 20 mm of rain in the rain gauge this morning, but no real break in the heat -- and it's supposed to be hot all through the week (with possibly more rain on Thursday). The rain barrels are full again -- it's how I've been keeping my kitchen garden (lettuce, tomatoes, basil, cukes, celery leaf, broccoli) going.

I've be religiously watering the main garden on the odd dates of the week (we can water only every other day) with city water. So with the heat I've been getting harvests: green beans, snap peas, black raspberries, greens, herbs. How to keep up with preserving it without superheating the house?

I had a couple of cool mornings with a good cross breeze so I did do some canning early in the morning (all done by 8 am!). Two batches each morning with 10 or 15 minute boil times; and I could use the preheated water to heat the jars for the second batch. One morning I canned pineapple and fruit salad; the second morning I canned black raspberry syrup and black raspberry butter.

The clear, hot days are a boon for the solar dehydrator: basil, oregano, garlic chives, yarrow, lavender, soup greens, celery leaves. I've been converting all my leftover fruit spreads (chiefly bumbleberry: mixed berries with rhubarb pulp) to fruit leather.

I froze some snap peas for stir fries while my second planting gets going and refrigerator pickled a quart of them. The excess green beans went into a fermentation pickle jar this morning. I froze some excess black raspberries (along with other berries just starting to come along: yellow strawberries, ground huckleberries, and red raspberries) for future bumbleberry spread (and possibly future fruit leather). One jar of black raspberry vinegar is steeping now and I just started a jar of blackberry liquor.

Fruit Leather Weather

The days are long, the sun is warm -- and we've been have several sunny days in a row! It's fruit leather weather!

But what fruit is harvestable now -- other than rhubarb and strawberries -- in southern Ontario? Well, I'm using fruit that I harvested last year, put into fruit spreads -- and didn't use this winter. Now it's time to use up the odds and ends of the preserving shelves...

If the spread is chunky, I whirl it in the blender. Otherwise it goes straight on the silicon baking sheets (you can use parchment paper too) in the solar dryer trays. After a day or day and a half, I carefully lift the 70 percent or more dry leathery sheet off the silicon and flip it over to finish drying (the underside is the dampest part at this point).

In two days, maybe three, of sunny weather, I have fruit leather. I cut it in 3-4 inch strips and roll it up in wax paper, then stuff it cans or jars.

Solar Food Dehydrating in a Humid Climate

[This post will also be published in the next issue of Greenzine, the official magazine of Transition Town Peterborough.]

Peterborough, Ontario does not have a desert climate; we're not likely to get one even with extreme climate change. So how does one dry food for storage using only the energy of the sun? With a keen eye on the weather forecast and a solar food dehydrator designed to function even if the humidity is 70 or 80 percent!

Sue Robishaw in Minnesota designed such a dehydrator – four feet by twelve feet! I didn't have room for such an installation so I adapted its principles for a humid climate solar dehydrator using the two glass panels from a storm door that I also use for my cold frame. I used cedar fence boards in the construction and made two units. I can easily move them from winter storage to any of several good drying locations in my yard.

The dehydrator works by forcing air to continuously move over the items to be dried. Outer glass captures the sunlight which warms the heat sink (black metal) resting on the drying trays; a shiny metal bottom reflects the heat up into the drying trays as well. The unit is roughly square and the drying trays are long rectangles; these are easier to handle than a large square tray. There is an inlet for air to enter the bottom front of the unit and an outlet for the air to exit the back top. There must also be a gap between the main body of the drying tray and the metal bottom. Using corrugated roofing tin provides such a gap, as do side bars on the bottom of the trays that rest on a flat metal surface such as aluminum flashing. I put detailed construction directions in an Instructable.

Any edible green can be dried in this dehydrator: I've successfully dried dandelion, garlic chives, herb leaves, lamb's quarters, spinach, and chard. Tender leaves work best; remove any ribs (such as in chard) to compost, use in a stir-fry, or preserve separately. Layer the leaves one leaf deep; feel free to combine different leaves on the tray (for a soup mix). If you start the drying early in the morning and there is a slight breeze with humidity less than 70%, you could have dried greens by sunset. I've gotten crumbly dry greens in as little as six hours. The leaves should be dry enough to crackle before putting them away in air-tight jars and storing in a cool, dark place. If you pulverize the leaves into a powder, it will take a lot to fill a jar. Use in any soup or stew during the winter for a hefty dose of vitamin A and minerals.

Herbs will dry to a nice dark green (not a brownish-green) because the heat sink keeps out the direct sunlight. For parsley, remove the heavier stalks and place the leaf bunches on the screen close together.
You can leave mint leaves on stems for ease of handling, but strip the leaves off to pack away. Sage is a “dry” leaf and will dry quickly. Garlic chives preserve their flavour as they dry; regular chives do not. Generally leave herb leaves on their stalks and strip them off the dried stems to pack away. It is best to fill a tray with one herb only (unless you're doing a “herbal blend”), as drying times will vary and it can be tedious to separate them for storage.

I've had success with fruit leathers and tomatoes, but they can take two or three days to dry. Be sure you're entering a fair weather spell if you want to solar dry these! Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook by Mary T. Bell has good notes on what things you should pretreat (usually by blanching) before drying. Dry It--You'll Like It! by Gen MacManiman is another good source book for recipes and food ideas.

March List for the "Anyway" Project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• start some seeds
  
• convert toilet to low-flush mechanism
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted)
  
• eating down the stores through March to reduce outside purchases (challenge)

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• thermal pot cooking
  
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible)
• keep the art room door closed and heating vent covered when not in use
  
• turn down heat and hot water heat off when we are away on vacation
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• "put up" granola for the summer
• make more custom-sized socks
• starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!)
• coaching a celiac neighbor in making gluten-free bread
• coaching a disabled young man how to make no-knead artisan English muffins and pizza
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• travel south!
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books)
• continue with art journal

February Review for "Anyway" Project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• start planning the garden (ordering seeds, etc): inventoried seeds, some old beans went into the soup pot, and I ordered some new varieties to try
  
• convert toilet to low-flush mechanism: not done yet
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted): still here!
  
• eating down the stores through February to reduce outside purchases (challenge): a few more things off the priority use-up list; spent less than $100 on purchased food!

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• thermal pot cooking: all soups, stews, yogurt making, and rice cooking done in this
  
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible): lots of walking!
• I kept the art room closed up with the floor vent covered when I wasn't using it

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• "put up" granola for the summer: used up squash likely to go bad before the butternuts do and a half dozen pints are on my preserve shelf
  
• make hot sauce from canned and stored food on hand: did this with some friends and it was a lot of fun
  
• start making custom-sized socks: first pair done and "my pattern" written up
  
• starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got: no projects started
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!): between weather and health issues for both of us, never got to it
  
• began planning to build an outdoor oven with neighbors: never got to it
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis): did a set of maps and reports for them
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy whatever sunshine we have this month and get fresh air: also did some Nordic skiing and snowshoeing with a friend
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books): more time devoted to art than to reading!
  
• continue with art journal: also joined the Milliande Art Community for Women while putting together a few journals; have participated in one art swap
  

Week Eight: Eating Down the Pantry

Food eaten:
• leftover lentil soup
• leftover curried veg soup
• beef stew with local grass-fed beef, local veg, home-canned stocks (beef, tomato, and vegetable)
• beef with broccoli with more of the grass-fed beef and rice from last week's stir fry session
• stir-fried veg with shrimp and more rice

I really only cooked three things this whole week for us! We ate everything up with no waste.

I did spend some money on groceries: stock up on milk, sugar, bread, and shrimp and I got lots of remaindered produce: broccoli, tangerines, kiwi, celery as well as some root basics at the farmers market: organic mushrooms, parsnip, carrots, rutabaga, green pepper. Total spent: $25.29.

Now we'll heading into the two week stretch before we go away for nearly a month, so eating down the refrigerator becomes important!