We have been blessed this year with lots and lots of blueberries. Usually we have to buy some to last through the winter, but this year we’ve stocked the freezer. We are planning on making jam in the next day or two with a different kind of pectin. Crafty Gemini recorded a great tutorial on…
Read MoreAll articles filed in dehydrator
How to: Tomato Leather
We have been blessed this summer with an ample supply of tomatoes. Our freezer is full of tomato sauce, puree, marinara sauce, and slow roasted tomatoes. I’ve also dried lots of these red jewels and Dave’s made ketchup. So I thought I’d try making leather again. I made some several years ago but it didn’t…
Read MoreDrying & Using Tomatoes
Over the past five years here at Happy Acres we’ve found that Juliets are one of our favorite tomatoes to dry. They are good fresh (Dave made some killer salsa the other day with them), but drying really brings out the flavor. So last week I harvested almost 10 pounds from our four plants. This…
Read MoreA Surprise and More
Yesterday I took a walk around Happy Acres with my camera. Spotting these surprises made my day. I usually don’t spot these until they are all blooming. Been drying a lot of tomatoes. I’ve got a whole countertop full to work on this morning. I snapped a couple shots before they went in to the…
Read MoreBlackberry Fruit Leather
Last year I tried my best to use up our blackberries. We froze a lot of them and put them in smoothies. I also made jello, syrup (which I’ve already made two batches this spring from last year’s harvest), popsicles, and cobbler. But leather – no. I made apple leather – do that every year…
Read MoreApple Drying Taste Test
Dave and I made a trip over to Reid’s Orchard last week to purchase some of their apples. Dave loves to make and freeze applesauce. I love to dry slices of apples or make fruit leather. Since I hadn’t dried any sliced apples yet this season, I did that. We bought four varieties: Cameo, Gala,…
Read MoreMaking Fruit Leather
While we were over at Reid’s Orchard picking up some peaches, we also picked up some early apples. We usually wait for the main harvest to come in, but thought we’d like to see what these tasted like. They weren’t real good for eating – a bit too mealy for us – but they make…
Read MoreOur Sweet Juliet
I know. I just can’t stop singing her praises! After pouring my first cup of coffee yesterday, I got dressed (long pants, tshirt, sunhat and Off slathered all over my body) and went down to find our sweet Juliets. It was another drying day for these beauties. I had no idea that I would end…
Read MoreIt’s Drying Time Again
Well, it’s that time of the year. The tomatoes are really starting to ripen so I’ve got the dehydrator going. For information on our dehydrator see this post. As I mentioned there, I sure wish I would have bought the larger tray version instead of just five trays. It’s fine for right now, but it…
Read More