Celery

As long as the dehydrator was out, and the price for celery wasn't too bad, I picked up three batches of celery to dry (we've been out for a looong time). I cleaned and trimmed the celery, kept out the hearts for some ants-on-a-log, and weighed the remainder. I had 3 pounds. Then I used the food processor with the slicer blade and did 6 stalks of celeery at a time. What quick work that made! I put the celery on the dryer trays 1 layer deep and dehydrated for about 16 hours at 110 degrees. My final yield was 2 ounces of finished product, or 1.5 pounds per ounce.

Cabbage!

Since the summer kitchen isn't ready to go yet, I took the advice from my friends at the Canning2 group and decided to dry most of the cabbage. I kept one head out to make fresh cole slaw, leaving 14.5 pounds to work with. We have an Oster Meat/Food Slicer which I used to shred the cabbage. Then I filled 25 trays on the dehydrator and ran it for about 14 hours at 110 degrees. Once everything was dry I removed the cabbage and weighed it on the kitchen scale, parceling it into 15 plastic zip lock bags of 2 ounce each, or just over the equivalent of 1 pound of product per 2 ounce bag. To finish, I put all 15 bags in a larger sealed container that will go into our canning pantry.

Onions and Cabbage

We got some produce from Second Harvest of Wisconsin today, including 12 heads of cabbage (about 16 pounds) and 19 pounds of onions. I will spend tomorrow processing them. The Canning 2 group on Yahoo has an excellent recipe for canned coleslaw that I will try. If it works well, I will post the recipe. There is also a recipe for carmelized onions. I plan to dehydrate most of the onions, but I will reserve some for canning.

Back 2 Basics Challenge

Spent lots of time learning about seed saving, freedom gardens, the 100 foot diet and lots more from the people at The Path to Freedom. Please check out their site and join me in taking their harvest keepers challenge.

New Equipment for the Summer Kitchen

We were driving around town last Friday and drove past a garage sale where we saw a gas grill. It has a large grill area where two canners can sit, and a side burner where we can keep a small pan with the lids in it. For only $50 we bought it. It will be the start of our summer kitchen. Now we need a screen tent and sink that we can connect the hose to.

The Garden

We're waiting...
Waiting for decent weather - not rain.
Waiting for life's little emergencies to give it a rest.
Waiting for Godot...

While we wait, here's what we have gotten done so far:

Upcoming Training

I am planning to attend Master Food Preserver training on June 17 through June 19 at the Dodgeville high school. There is still time to sign up if anyone else is interested. It is open to anyone who has a background in food preservation and is interested in learning more, and is also willing to provide 10 hours of volunteer services per year. The registration deadline is May 16. Contact one of these specialists at Iowa County UW Extension:
Donna Peterson, Nutrition Educator, Donna.peterson@ces.uwex.edu
Sarah Weier, Family Living Educator, Sarah.Weier@ces.uwex.edu
Ruth Schriefer, Family Living Agent, Ruth.Schriefer@ces.uwex.edu

The instructor is Barbara Ingham, Food Science Specialist, UW-Extension, UW-Madison. She is a food scientist with a PhD from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She has worked in the area of food preservation and food safety for six years and enjoys answering questions on food topics. She is an avid gardener and is looking forward to sharing information on high-quality ways to preserve the bounty of the summer.

Class Agenda:

Day 1 - Tuesday, June 17

• 8:30 Registration
• 9:00 Introductions, overview of class, and resources to share; overview of food preservation; overview of food safety; summertime food safety; lunch break; freezing and drying; group exercises in freezing and drying
• 4:00 Adjourn

Day 2 - Wednesday, June 18

• 9:00 Evaluation of dried products; overview of canning; group exercise in canning vegetables; lunch break; pickling; group exercise in pickles, relishes and apple pie filling
• 4:00 Adjourn

Day 3 - Wednesday, June 19

• 9:00 Evaluation of pickles and pie filling; overview of canning tomato products/jams and jellies; group exercise in canning fruits, salsa and jam; lunch break; review of in class assignment; final questions; and Jeopardy!!
• 3:30 Adjourn