A New Heartsease...

A Happy and Prosperous New Year!

May all the "eggs" in your 2023 "basket" hatch!

 

May your New Year be Kind, Prosperous, Happy, Blessed and bring all your wishes to fruition!

Tuna Steak In Wine-Reduction Topped With Shallots and Wood Sorrel Sauce

 

A Tuna Steak topped with a wine reduction sauce, shallots, and wood sorrel sauce with a side of green beans almondine.

 

    This recipe is more process than recipe!

To start, you'll need a tuna steak...and to set your oven to the "keep warm" or lowest setting. Add serving plate/s to warm.

 

Recipe/Process (serves one, but may be increased)

    

Thinly sliced shallot, about 10 slices, or as desired

One tuna steak, raw

1/4-cup Sauvignon blanc wine

Prepared sorrel sauce, warmed (see previous post, or URL below)

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

lemon slice or wedge as garnish

Salt & pepper

    In a seasoned or non-stick, 8-inch skillet (or larger for more steaks), saute the sliced shallots on medium heat until just starting to turn golden. Set aside using a slotted spoon to retain as much oil in the pan as possible. Set the shallots on a folded paper towel to drain. 

    Salt and pepper one side of a tuna steak. If you need to add a bit more olive oil to the pan do so and allow it to heat up. Turn the tuna seasoned side down into the still hot oil of the skillet.

     Salt and pepper the upper side of the tuna. Sear on medium-high until golden. Turn and sear the other side until golden. Turn off the burner and allow the pan to cool for about five minutes leaving the tuna in the cooling pan. Add the wine to the skillet and turn heat to a medium-low simmer to poach. When the wine starts to simmer cover the pan tightly with a lid.

    Poach the tuna for 7 to 10 minutes (7 for desired inner pinkness, 10 minutes for less pinkness). Remove the tuna to the warmed plate and keep warm in the oven while making the wine reduction sauce.

    If needed, simmer the wine until it has reduced by half and slightly thickens. Add butter and stir into the wine to silken the sauce. Taste and add a dash of salt, if needed.

    Drizzle the sauce on top of the tuna, add the cooked shallots, a generous dollop of sorrel sauce, and a wedge of lemon for garnish.

    The tuna goes nicely with a side of green beans almondine or baked asparagus. If desired, squeeze a bit of the lemon garnish on the vegetables. Enjoy!

   

* * * * *

 

Notes:

Ideally, tuna steaks are served a bit pink in the center.

If you don't want your tuna pink in the center, you may cook it for 12 to 14 minutes. It will be firmer and less moist, but still tasty.

Of course you'll need to increase the ingredients for each additional tuna steak you prepare i.e. four tuna steaks would require one cup of wine, and so on.

Click the link below to access the wood sorrel sauce post which also includes another link to a post containing a variation on the sorrel sauce.

 

 https://heartseasecottage.typepad.com/gails-garden-at-heartsea/2022/08/micro-harvest-wood-sorrel.html

 

Micro-Harvest: Creamy Wood Sorrel Sauce

 

A "micro-photo" for a micro-harvest!

 

   Because I know that many people don't have time to do much reading through a blog to get to a recipe at the end...and simply want to cut-to-the-chase...here's the recipe for creamy wood sorrel sauce that goes great on fish and egg dishes.

s

Recipe: Creamy Sorrel Sauce (serves two)

1-cup of wood sorrel leaves stems removed, and rinsed

1-1/2 to 2 tsp. melted butter

Scant dash of salt

Cream for thinning to desired consistency

Wedged or thinly sliced lemons for a garnish.

    Melt the butter in a non-stick or seasoned skillet. Add the sorrel leaves. On medium-low heat, cook and stir the leaves until they attain an olive green color and "melt" down into a thick sauce.

    Add a splash, or several, of cream to create the sauce consistency you desire for fish, chicken, or egg dishes. Garnish with sauteed shallot slices and lemon slices or wedges, if desired. 

 

Seared and poached tuna steak with Sauvignon blanc reduction sauce, sauteed shallot slices, wood sorrel sauce with a side of green beans almondine. See my next post - in a few days - for the process of making this dish.

 

* * * * *

    Wood sorrel goes by several names...sour grass, creeping wood sorrel, lemon clover, pickle plant, and oxalis...yes, you read me right. OXALIS! Yes, that common lawn "weed" that is so hard to kill. But why would anyone want to?

    Wood sorrel is beautiful (and cute from a clovery and miniscule standpoint), tasty, and useful. I say, what's not to love!

    Botanically, it's known as Oxalis stricta. And, it has so many wonderful properties - both edible and medicinal (see Notes below for its medicinal uses).

    Today, we're going to explore my favorite way to prepare and eat this so-called "weed".

    Remember a weed is simply a plant growing in what we have deemed the "wrong place". I might also add, that a weed is a plant we have not allowed ourselves to appreciate - rather like the unmet stranger with the potential to become a dear friend or strong ally. 

    When I think of wood sorrel, French garden sorrel with its large, arrow-shaped, lemony-flavored leaves comes to mind. So tasty as a sauce, as a base for soup, an ingredient in soups and salads or pasta dishes, and my favorite...sorrel sauce. And wood sorrel has the same flavor as French sorrel!

    Sorrel sauce goes wonderfully with eggs and fish, also chicken. French Sorrel grew in my Utah garden but went mostly dormant during the summer heat, coming back robustly as cooler temperatures returned. It grew in an honored spot at the back steps near the kitchen door.

    A smaller wilder version grows here in Idaho. It's called "sheep sorrel". It has small arrow-shaped leaves, the same lemony flavor, and may be gathered from late Spring until Fall.

    Today we'll explore another sorrel, wood sorrel. It has the same flavor as the other sorrels, grows everywhere - the woods, in garden beds, and, of course, lawns. It's easy to find and harvest, but a little tedious to prepare.

 

Wood sorrel harvested from garden beds and borders around my condo. It differs from the clover family of plants because it has heart-shaped leaves.

 

    Now comes the "tedious" part, but I make it enjoyable instead.

    After all, it comes down to how we think about a thing or event that determines our enjoyment and level of inner peace. So, I fix myself a dande-mocha-frappuccino (will share this recipe in an upcoming post), park myself at the bistro table on my front porch and begin to process the wood sorrel.

    The fibrous stems must be removed from the tender leaves. I pinch the stems off at the base of each leaf. Processed leaves go into one bowl and the stems in another for discarding.

 

    

A metal bowl for the de-stemmed leaves, my harvest bowl in the center, on the right a bowl for the discarded stems. Near the Mason jar candle is the remains of my dande-mocha-frappuccino. Yum!

 

    I try, and most often succeed, in elevating seemingly tedious tasks by adding enjoyable elements to the process or giving myself some sort of reward upon completion.

    This morning while processing the sorrel leaves I relished the view across the condo common to the woods beyond, sipped my beverage, and enjoyed the coolness of a lovely Summer's morning soon to turn way too hot. My heart was buoyed by gratitude that I'm retired and have the luxury of time to spend on wee, and not so wee, tasks and chores, for the place where I live, and that in this moment - all things and beings in my world are well.

 

After separating the leaves from their stems, a gentle rinse is needed.

 

    After rinsing I allowed excess water to drain from the leaves for about 10 minutes. 

 

My leaf harvest resulted in about one cup of leaves. To a pan I added about 1-1/2 teaspoons of butter to a skillet to melt before adding the sorrel leaves.

 

As the leaves soften they change from bright green to olive green and "melt" into a saucy consistency.

 

All cooked down. The sauce is now ready to use as is, or after adding a splash of cream to thin and create the proper saucy consistency for your needs. Or, at this stage - prior to adding the cream - it may be frozen for up to three months.

 

    The finished sauce - sans cream - has a bright citrus taste, plus a hint of artichoke heart-dipped-in-butter flavor. Once cream is added the sauce lightens in color and maintains a mild lemony/citron flavor.

     If I need just a bit of sauce for only one or two servings I'll harvest the wood sorrel from the condo gardens. If I desire more servings, with only a minimum of processing, I'll go a few miles farther afield to a nearby forested park where sheep sorrel grows in abundance.

    My purpose for this micro-harvest of wood sorrel is to make myself a tuna steak with sorrel sauce for lunch today (see photo near the top of this post) and a poached egg "Florentine" using sorrel sauce instead of spinach for my breakfast/brunch on Sunday morning.  

 

Notes:

Sorrel is rich is oxalic acid and therefore shouldn't be eaten in great quantities by those with kidney failure or who are pregnant. I eat it several times a year in small quantities as a sauce or flavoring ingredient in soups.

 Sorrell soothes the stomach, cools the skin, treats scurvy (Vit. C content), fever, urinary tract infections, swollen gums, sore throats, nausea, and mouth sores. It is said to cleanse the blood and benefit the liver. and may aid in cancer cases. However, sheep sorrel - Rumex acetosella - displays even more of these attributes.

For another version of my Sorrel Sauce visit:

https://heartseasecottage.typepad.com/gails-garden-at-heartsea/2017/08/creamy-tangy-wood-sorrel-sauce.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Saucy" Oregon Grape Experiment and Tasting

 

Oregon Grape Sauce on cream cheese-smeared Ritz crackers

 

    Sometimes I'm an urban forager!

    I'm lucky enough to live on the edge of town and have access to forest trails a block from my condo for my daily walk. 

   During various seasons I find wild herbs and edibles, and now as summer is half over I decided to harvest some Oregon grape berries and experiment with them.

    These plants are native to many Northwestern states and are also a popular landscape plant bearing bright yellow, fragrant flowers in Spring. They come in both a tall shrub version (Mahonia aquifolium) and a smaller prostrate type (Mahonia nervosa). Both grow abundantly near where I live in Northern Idaho.

    Their bright yellow roots have antibiotic properties due to their berberine content. Roots are easiest gathered from the smaller, prostrate variety.

    Their leaves look like holly and are just as prickly!

 

Holly-like leaves turn burgundy in the fall but don't fall off. New growth leaves are red.

 

    I know the berries are edible but have never gathered them. So, I decided to experiment with them as they're now ripe and grow in numerous places along the forest trails where I walk.

 

On today's walk I noticed that the lush grasses from copious Spring rains are just  beginning to droop and turn yellow as summer heads towards Autumn.

 

    So let's walk on up the path and around the corner. I know there's some Oregon grape up ahead!

 

This medium-size bush has some ripe berries! Some bushes grow up to eight feet tall.

 

    Using a small pair of pruners I carry when I walk so I can gather whatever is ripe and useful, and being careful of the thorny leaves, I harvested a few bunches off of several plants. I'm careful not to harvest everything off of a single bush, but take several bunches before moving on to the next one...good forager stewardship benefits the plants, the animals, and people, too!

 

My research indicated that after the first frost some of the natural tartness is mitigated and natural sugars are more abundant, but they're edible all season long after they ripen in late June.

 

    Did I say "edible"? Did I mention "tartness" and "natural sugars"? 

    It must be noted that while the berries may be eaten fresh off the bush - birds and animals do - for humans the berries are usually way too tart! Therefore, sugar or honey is added to the berries before they're made into sauce, jelly, or wine because to be palatable to us bi-peds they need to/must be sweetened!

 

I gathered about a cup of berries - just enough to experiment with - and plucked them from their stems. Notice that they have a grayish bloom - similar to that found on grapes and some varieties of wild elderberries.

 

   
One cup of rinsed berries with 1/2-cup of sugar added.

 

After a few minutes of simmering the berries are beginning to soften, burst, and release their juice and seeds.

 

Next I separated the juice from the seeds and mashed everything with a wooden spoon to extract all the juice and some pulp.

 

The strained juice and a bit of the pulp that came through the strainer is heated to a low boil. The berries are said to contain their own pectin so in the future I'll try cooking them down sufficiently to form a jelly. Today, I simply wanted a thick sauce.

 

I ended up with a smooth, glossy, slightly-thickened sauce. The pulp seemed to have emulsified into the sauce.

 

    I dipped a spoon into the sauce and lightly licked it. Wow! The sauce was very "berryishly" tasty!

    There was only about two tablespoons of sauce so I decided to spread some herbed cream cheese onto some Ritz crackers and top the cheese with the sauce. Yummy!!! So yummy I ate the remaining sauce straight up with a spoon!

    I'll experiment again by gathering more berries for making a few small jars of jelly in the near future, then again after the first frost, to see if there's a noticeable difference in taste and sweetness.

    Perhaps at a future time I'll also experiment with making a honey mead or some wine! The berries are rich in Vitamin C.

    Most of the berberine and medicinal qualities of the plants are found in the roots and bark from which tea and tincture may be made.

 

  * * * * * 

 

Notes:

As with most wild plants, use moderately, consuming only a small amount to see if there are any allergic or other reactions.

Herbalists recommend no more than three cups of root tea per day - boil one to one-and-a-half teaspoons of chopped roots in one cup of water for 15 minutes, cool and strain.

Root cream is used topically to treat moderate psoriasis and is commercially available.

Oregon grape - Mahonia Aquifolium is sometimes listed as Berberis aquifolium.

The roots of Oregon Grape are often substituted for Goldenseal - a  now very endangered species.

Oregon grape roots - in tea and tincture forms - may be used for other ailments such as fever, jaundice, diarrhea (from E. coli), infections - throat, urinary tract, intestinal; and arthritis, as well.

Babies and pregnant women should not be given or use Oregon grape in any form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Campfire Lesson In Rising To the Challenge

 

When camping, my SUV also functions as my sleeping chamber. You can see the foot of my 8-inch mattress in the bed of the Jeep...my type of "roughing" it!

 

    On what may have been the last camping trip of the season, my nephew, Jeff, and I were sitting around our toasty campfire roasting marshmallows on our first night in camp.

 

 

    I was telling him of our hardy and stalwart pioneer ancestors and how on their long treks west - some to Ohio, some to Pennsylvania, others, to Utah - they cooked over campfires as they didn't have the modern convenience of a camp stove, such as we do.

    They cooked on a grate over the fire, a kettle suspended above the fire on an iron tripod, and a dutch over placed in the coals. They used skills I'd never tried to replicate. After all, I had a camp stove!  

    Everything from soup to bread was done on their nightly campfires, which when banked with ashes before retiring to their blankets, could be easily reignited the next morning for cooking breakfast. Lunch was usually bread, biscuits, cheese, or cold, cooked meat from the evening or breakfast meal.

    Well, as luck and synchronicity would have it, the next morning when I went to light my 40+-year old camp stove, it wouldn't ignite. I could hear the propane hissing but it wouldn't take the flame from the match.

    Hmmm....gas/air mixture issues? A buildup of propane film from many trips over many years? I tried swapping out propane canisters (I always bring at least two spares). 

    Nothing.

    It was a chilly September morning and we wanted our tea! What to do, oh, what to do. 

    We sat without tea for about 20 minutes in front of our (banked and relit) morning fire. I thought about cutting the trip short. I contemplated eating our food raw - except for those items that must be cooked - raw weenies didn't sound too appetizing...nor did tuna melts without the "melt".

    Perhaps shrimp scampi minus the shrimp? I could boil water for pasta on the campfire grate...

    No French toast either, just cold bread!!!

    Perhaps, driving off the mountain back into town and buying another camp stove was an option? Well, that would have obliterated one whole day of our trip.

    Finally, it occurred to me to at least pour water into a small pan and heat it over the fire for tea and instant coffee.

    With hot beverages finally in our tummies we were better able to shake off the morning cobwebs and really think over our plight.

    With that small success of hot drinks, we stuck some pre-cooked sausages on the ends of our marshmallow forks and browned them over the open flames. They were even better cooked that way than browned in a skillet. Things were starting to look up. 

    We snacked for lunch, but come dinner our menu was to have featured shrimp scampi in a garlic, butter, lemon sauce over orecchiette (little ears) pasta, mopping up any remaining sauce with rustic sourdough. Trying to light the stove many times over was a repeated failure.

    Well, maybe I needed to hark back to my hardy and stalwart pioneer DNA and just get cooking!

    While Jeff tended the pasta simmering in a wok on the campfire, I prepped the shrimp, squeezed the lemon, and got the butter and garlic out of the ice chest.

 

Jeff tends the pasta simmering in a small wok, the only camp pan big enough to hold water and pasta

 

Pasta in a wok, cooked over the campfire coals.

 

    When the pasta was cooked, I drained it on a tree stump in a footed colander I'd brought for the purpose. Then, re-using the wok, I melted butter, added minced garlic, and the prepped shrimp, and simmered it over fire and coals for a few minutes until the shrimp turned pink and opaque. I added the lemon juice and a bit of sea salt, then returned the pasta to the wok and heated everything through.

    The sauce wasn't as thickened as I'd planned, but it was delicious with a sprinkle of Parmesan, and sopped up with torn, rustic sourdough bread.

 

Yum-a-licious!

 

    I ended up cooking the best French toast I'd ever made, with a side of a few more sausages for a meal the next day...over the campfire.

    We decided that our tuna melts on rustic sourdough were so good that henceforth, we'd always cook them over the campfire in the cast iron skillet.

    Of course, hot dogs are always tastiest when the wieners are roasted on marshmallow sticks over the hot coals until they blister! And so we did!

    Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and more foods, were cooked over the campfire each day of our trip.

    A lesson presented itself in the days following our camping trip as I reflected back on our unplanned cookouts.

    I learned that when faced with a dilemma, a challenge, a hardship, or some other event or condition beyond our usual milieu, we have at least two choices.

    The first is to retreat into apathy and spend time trying to resurrect what once worked but is no longer relevant...

    Or, we can face the issue head on, give it a think, and adapt, make do, get creative, or reach deep into our DNA and resurrect the hardy and stalwart spirits of those who've gone before! 

    

    

 

 

 

Foraging for Sheep Sorrel

 

Lemony, wild, and free! Sheep sorrel makes a tangy sauce for eggs, fish, or chicken!

 

    When I lived in my Folk Victorian Farmhouse - Heartsease Cottage - I grew garden-domestic French sorrel. 

    Now, living in a condo (Heartsease Haven) in Northern Idaho, I forage for the same tangy, lemony flavor, but in its wild versions of sheep sorrel and wood sorrel.

 

    

From left to right...French sorrel, sheep sorrel, and the clover-like wood sorrel.

 

    All three of these "sorrels" have the same lemony flavor and make a delicious sauce. While I no longer grow French sorrel - it doesn't seem to like growing in a pot on my balcony - I now forage for both sheep and wood sorrel.

 

Sheep sorrel leaves, stems removed, and washed, are ready to use. The small, heart-shaped clover-like leaves of wood sorrel are similarly removed from their stalks.

 

Saute one cup sorrel, one teaspoon minced shallot, in one or two teaspoons of butter in a small skillet until the sorrel changes from bright green to dark green,"melting" into the butter/shallot mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

    Sorrel, regardless of variety, reduces significantly when cooked. So gather four times, or more, than you'll end up with after cooked.

    After cooking this simple mixture, I freeze it in small containers for use throughout the winter.

 

I freeze many of these small containers of sauteed sorrel. Each one contains about two servings...more when mixed with cream.

 

    To use the stored, frozen sorrel, I thaw it out and add a splash of cream and stir it in. The sauce is ready to serve alongside fish, omelets, or chicken.

    Of course the sauce may used without adding cream for a more tangy version.

 

There are many wonderful, free, and delicious foods to be found in Nature!

 

Sheep sorrel is usually found in semi-shaded areas growing near the base of trees and logs in early to mid-summer. 

 

    Both French and sheep sorrels tend to die out as Summer's heat comes on. Wood sorrel persists and can be gathered until Fall.

 

Look for clusters of three heart-shaped leaves - as in the photo above - and a lemony taste, otherwise you might be "saucing" up several varieties of oxalis minus the lemon flavor! Yuck!

 

    Nature's free and delicious bounty is part of the Natural Abundance Lifestyle. 

    Always be sure that what you're collecting is safe to eat!!!

    For wonderful tutorials on foraging visit Learn Your Land on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcbf8wnyVJl631LAmAbo7nw

 

Bon appetit!

* * * * *

 

Natural Abundance is realizing, utilizing, and being grateful for the beauty and bounty that surrounds us. 

Woods Walk In the Age of Covid-19

Here in Northern Idaho we're all under self-quarantining restrictions, but we can still get out with some restrictions as I'm doing here at Farragut State Park.

    Although bars and restaurants are closed to entry - we can pick up food at restaurants on a "drive thru" and "curb-side" basis - there do remain a few doable things that maintain that important social distancing.

    Going for a walk or a hike is something we can still do. The State of Idaho has left its State Parks open during the day for our enjoyment.

    Nature and physical movement are gratifying and emotionally uplifting. While gyms are out, walking, an outing with your dog, hiking, and gardening are physical activities we can yet enjoy even during home quarantining.

 

 

 

Be Safe. Stay Well.

 

 

 

Using Your Oven To Dehydrate Food In the Age of Covid-19

 

You can use your oven to dehydrate some foods.

 

    You can use your oven to dehydrate foods thereby adding to your food security. 

    Dehydrated foods are compact, require no refrigeration, and store for long periods of time. You can make tasty dishes, snacks, sauces, soups, desserts, gifts, crafts, and more, with your home-dehydrated fruits, veggies, and herbs.

    The "pros" of oven dehydrating:

    1. It's possible

    2. A convection oven has an inbuilt fan. Some even have a dehydration feature!

    3. You likely own an oven

 

    The "cons" of oven dehydrating:

    1. It's not energy efficient

    2. The oven won't hold as much food to dry

    3. It will warm up your home

    4. Not all ovens have low enough temperature settings

    5. You'll have to re-position the food trays to achieve uniform drying

    6. This may not be a safe option if you have small children

    7. You won't be able to use your oven for at least a day

    8. Most fruits take too long to dry by oven

 

    Check that your oven's lowest heat setting can go below 150-degrees, ideally, otherwise you'll likely slow cook it instead of dehydrating it. Many ovens have a "keep warm" feature. Even if your lowest temperature is 200-degrees, the fact that the oven door is left slightly open, will mean that the inside temperature is less than 200. So give it a try and see. Less than ideal, but still possible.

    Your oven will likely cycle on and off during the dehydrating process to try to maintain internal temperature when the oven door is slightly open, so not as energy efficient.

    You want to keep the oven door slightly open to mitigate moisture which will prevent dehydration. A fan to circulate air means a better dehydration.

 

    Okay let's get started. You'll need:

Some cookie sheets. Old battered ones are fine.

Some cooling racks (the ones used to cool cookies, etc.)

A fan

A chair or stool

Something to hold the oven door ajar

 

 

Cookie sheets and cooling rack combinations allow air to reach the underside of foods you're dehydrating.

 

    Air circulation is of paramount importance for dehydration. Without a rack system of some type, as pictured above, you'll have to turn the food periodically.

 

A chair or stool, and a fan will help with air circulation around the foods your drying.

 

    Position the fan so that it blows into the opening of the oven door as in the photo above.

 

You'll need something to keep the oven door slightly ajar. A garlic press, lemon reamer, whatever works.

 

    The inbuilt "stop" feature of the oven door leaves too large a gap so most of the heat will escape. You want the oven to be slightly ajar by an inch or two; enough so that air from the fan enters, but most of the heat is still retained inside the oven. Dehydration may take six- to 18-hours, depending on the foods you want to dry.

    Some foods need pre-treatment to prevent browning. Apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and bananas need this. Although potatoes do need it, too, most other veggies do not. Many veggies will need at least a three minute steam blanching. Steam blanching also means that your dried foods are more tender when re-hydrated.

    For that need an anti-browning pre-treatment, a dip in Fruit Fresh or acidulated water (to each pint of water add 1/2 cup lemon or line juice) does the trick. Again most veggies - except potatoes - don't need this.

    There are some vegetables that don't need steam blanching. Mushrooms, onions, garlic, frozen vegetables, rhubarb, and most fruits. 

    I mentioned frozen vegetables. Frozen potatoes need no pre-treatment or steam blanching. Simple thaw and spread evenly over the drying racks. I also buy bags of frozen green beans and corn. My favorite frozen vegetables to dry are thawed packages of mixed veggies containing corn, green beans, diced carrots, and peas...sometimes there's lima beans in the mix also. I thaw them out and spread them over the drying racks. They're handy to tote along on camping trips, or to re-hydrate when I want to make veggie fried rice and don't have any fresh vegetables on hand.

    Acidic fruits don't need a pre-treatment. Examples are citrus, pineapple, mangoes, strawberries, rhubarb, berries, and plums. 

    Foods need to be cut in 1/4-inch slices or cubes. Grapes, strawberries, cherries, cranberries, raspberries should be cut in half for oven drying. You may need to spray or rub a light coating of olive or other cooking oil onto the racks to prevent sticking.

    Arrange the foods to be dried in single layers on the racks so they aren't touching. Set them into the oven, set the temperature, arrange your stool/fan combination, turn on the fan.

    Every couple of hours or so you'll need to turn the racks 180-degrees and shuffle their positioning to insure even drying. Even so, you may find that the top of the food is drying faster than the bottoms of it. If this is happening use tongs to turn the food over so the bottoms are now better exposed to heat and air.

    I used to oven-dry foods before acquiring my dehydrator. The dehydrator is so much more efficient in every way. However, the oven will get you started until you can acquire a dehydrator.

    Onions, leeks, shallots, garlic, mushrooms, and peppers are some of the easiest items to oven-dry, and some you'll use most often when you're out of the fresh versions. They dry quickly and on those occasions when I find them on sale, I will still use my oven for the overflow.

    When fruits are shrunken, dry, and malleable they should be finished. Low sugar fruits such as cranberries and rhubarb (actually a vegetable used as a fruit) that have little sugar content will tend toward crispness. It's hard to tell if foods are fully dehydrated when they're still hot, so allow them to cool a bit and check for doneness and dryness. They must be dry all the way through.

    If your foods aren't dry at day's end you can turn off the oven, leave the foods in overnight, and simply turn on the oven again the next morning. I do this with my dehydrator, too, if I've waited until late afternoon to start it up. It won't harm the fruits or veggies to sit overnight in a cooling oven or dehydrator.

    Don't do this with meats. I'm not giving instructions for dehydrating meats with an oven for food safety reasons. If you are adamant to oven-dry meats, the Teresa Marrone book, "Dried Foods" (see my previous post) will tell you how to do so. Dried meats should be refrigerated or frozen or they're likely to go rancid.

    Store your dried foods in lidded jars or Ziploc baggies. Potatoes I store in paper bags due to their propensity to mold even if they appear dry.

    Your dehydrated foods may need to be re-hydrated before using. My favorite method is to put veggies into a heatproof bowl or cup. Just cover with water then microwave for 30 or more seconds and allow to sit for 30 minutes. The liquid left over is great to use as a flavoring in sautees, soup stocks, or sip as a hot beverage.

    If you're making soup, re-hydrated veggies may be sauteed in butter or oil, then added to the mixture for simmering. If a soup or stew is set to simmer for 40 minutes or more, the dried veggies may be added straight to the soup as they will re-hydrate sufficiently during cooking.

    For recipes made with dehydrated vegetables that haven't been sauteed first, I like to add a pat of butter or a drizzle of oil before serving to add a mouthfeel of silkiness that only a bit of fat can give.

    Dehydrated fruits may be used to make pies, cakes, added to nut mixtures, and eaten as is. Most fruits dehydrate to a sweet flexibility that makes them tasty as snacks with no preparation. Apples, bananas, pears, mangoes, pineapple,and peaches come to mind.

    I like to make a muesli using my dehydrated fruits, pan-roasted nuts and seeds, and old-fashioned oatmeal. I take this camping in a Ziploc baggies. It makes a nice breakfast by adding some hot water or milk and letting it soak for about 15 minutes. I also make "overnight oatmeal by putting everything on to soak overnight. Add some hot milk and you have a nearly instant hot and satisfying breakfast.

    Adding dehydrated foods to your food security-system is easy, compact to store, and you'll always having something to eat whether camping, traveling, when times get tough, or you run out of a fresh ingredient.

 

I store a pantry's worth of food in a box! 

 

    Be well. Stay safe!

    

 

 

 

    

    

 

Dehydrating Foods In the Age of Covid-19

Today I'm drying potatoes.

 

    At this moment, my dehydrator is working away to dry the sliced potatoes I loaded into it this morning. After submitting them first to Fruit Fresh to keep them from oxidizing and browning, then a steam blanch for eight minutes, followed by a dip into honeyed water - another treatment to prevent darkening, I laid them in single layers on the trays of my dehydrator. Fortunately, most foods I dehydrate don't require this much preparation for dehydration! 

    My dehydrator holds about five medium-sized potatoes worth. Most often I'm drying a variety of different vegetables (or fruits) simultaneously, but having acquired five potatoes, I decided to dehydrate all of them.

 

I dehydrate in my balcony's storage closet. Although not noisy, the dehydrator is out of the way while it operates.

    My dehydrator is about 15 years old and gets fairly regular usage. It's not one of the most expensive on the market, but it is one of the simplest to use and I've always gotten good results from it.

    My dehydrator is a Nesco American Harvest. Although there are recipes for making jerky and fruit leathers, I've only ever used it to dry fruits and vegetables. It has four trays and a ribbed base for laying out the items to be dehydrated. I bought mine at Ace Hardware and they can be ordered on line. Nesco makes a variety of dehydrator types. My model is the least expensive - $36.00 - at Home Depot.

    Dehydrated foods are compact so you can store quite a bit in a small space. Studies have shown that there's a little nutrition loss when foods are dehydrated...Vitamin C particularly. Dehydrated foods are rather pricey, so home drying is the frugal option.

    I add dried foods to recipes, especially if I've run short of the fresh versions such as, onions, garlic, tomatoes, celery, leeks, and mushrooms. However, I dry just about everything!

 

This delicious soup is made entirely of dried veggies and minute-style rice. The veggies were re-hydrated, sauteed in a little butter and simmered in a reconstituted beef stock. 

 

    I don't use the dehydrator for mushrooms. These I simply slice or quarter - the stems are diced and used in sauce and gravy mixes. Mushrooms are air dried on a tray lined with waxed paper, parchment paper, or a paper towel. They dry in a few days out of the way on top of the fridge. They, and most of the items I dry, are stored in Ziploc baggies and labeled. Greens, such as kale, cabbage, and collards are better stored in jars because they crumble easily.

    Dried potatoes are stored in paper bags because if they are not absolutely dried, the whole batch will mold. They can look and feel dry but the slightest amount of moisture and the batch is ruined.

    Most fruit will be leathery and flexible when dehydrated because of their natural sugars. Vegetables are firm and crisp.

 

Foraged wild plums seeded and ready to dehydrate.

 

    There are many great books that will guide you through the process of drying foods. And there are a variety of methods and dryers to choose from. You can even dry some foods in your oven!

 

The book on the right is the one that came with my dehydrator. For years it was the only one I used. A few years ago I purchased the Teresa Marrone book, "Dried Foods" which has a greater selection of fruits and vegetables one can dry.

 

    The Teresa Marrone book also has tasty recipes for using your dried foods, such as baby foods, gift and camping mixes, sauce recipes, and more. The Nesco booklet also tells how to use your dried foods in recipes and has some fun projects for using home dried herbs in crafts, potpourri's, and making tasty chips and snacks.

    My method of operation has always been to dry some of the foods I grew. When I lived in my Folk Victorian cottage/farmhouse I grew nearly everything I ate, and my dehydrator was used often, along with freezing - I had a large chest freezer - and my home canning stored in a large walk-in pantry.

    Now, living in a condo, my dehydrator is my main food storage strategy with a bit of freezing - what my fridge's narrow freezer will hold. I don't have a pantry, so I've co-opted the narrow linen closet in the hallway near the bathroom to serve as my pantry. I now store towels in a basket in the bathroom and sheets on my closet shelf so I can claim the luxury of having a "pantry". Dehydration allows me to store a lot of foods in not much space. If the electric goes out I don't lose all my food storage.

    I can no longer grow much in the way of food due to lack of a garden, but do use the portion along my balcony railing to grow a few edibles. I get about six hours of sun a day in the Summertime and I can grow a few crops such as lettuce, scallions, herbs, spinach, lettuce, arugula, some types of tomatoes - those that need less sun such as cherry tomatoes and yellow tomatoes - and surprisingly I can grow pole beans in pots! While my balcony harvests are limited, some of what I produce goes into the dehydrater.

 

Pole beans along with Grandpa Ott morning glories, grown in a pot on a bamboo tepee on my balcony last year.

 

    My dehydration strategy is to dry some of whatever I purchase, forage, or grow. If I buy a small bag of potatoes, I'll get a second one for dehydration. However, I usually only buy two or three at a time for fairly immediate consumption and then buy double that amount so there'll be some to dehydrate.

 

balcony-grown fresh pole and bush beans.

    This method has served me well over the years and I highly recommend it.

    Dehydrated foods are now my main tactic for food security, especially at a time when the availability of goods is, or could get a bit iffy, depending on how this viral contagion goes.

    The health experts are predicting that even if we get a handle on this present outbreak of Covid-19, they expect we'll have another resurgence this Fall. This is a good time to implement plans to add to your food security - not by hoarding - but buying a couple extra items of canned goods, foods to dehydrate, dry goods like beans, pasta, rice, and toilet paper. Most market presently limit purchases to two of any one item. Consider and plan for what you'll do if our water supply becomes compromised. Make a plan!

    What if the folk who insure our safe water supply become ill?

    What if the supply becomes contaminated?

    Just in case, you might want to start saving plastic and glass containers over one quart capacity. Even wax milk cartons can work in the short term. 

    I mentioned above that it's possible to use your oven to dehydrate foods. In my next post, I'll show you how to do this. In the meantime, acquiring a dehydrator will be more economical, efficient, and better designed for dehydration than your oven. Still, it's best to start where you can with what you can - right now! - until you acquire the better option.

    Stay well. Stay safe! Keep others safe by following all the guidelines! 

 

Dehydrated potatoes from a previous batch.

 

    * * * * *

    

Whatever space you have available may be turned over to food production. It may not yield a lot, but it will be so tasty. Planting "seeds of hope" for a brighter, tastier future uplifts my spirits!

 

Happy 2020!

 

I have always liked the idea of hearing the clock strike twelve on the last night of the old year.... wakeful to welcome the new year's angel when the old one has winged his flight from us, bearing with him the record of our inner years, its sins and sorrows.

~Claribel (Charlotte Alington Pye Barnard, 1830–1869),

"New Year's Eve," Fireside Thoughts, Ballads, etc., etc., 1865

 

    Let us recall the good times that last year brought and make way for the good times this year shall surely bring!

Happy New Year To All!