Tag: Dehydrator

Dried Beans

When I was growing up, dried beans or as some call them leather britches, was a staple in our home.  Every year, we spent many hours stringing them up on strings and carrying them to the attic to hang on nails.  I can still remember going up to the attic and seeing rows and rows of green beans drying.  I SO wish I had a picture of that to share with you all.  However, I searched the internet and found this one at wildwoodforestlogcabin.com.

Yesterday, though, I thought I would try something different.  We dehydrated them in our dehydrator following the directions in the book.  They were finished in about 10 hrs-not weeks.  However, I do think we might do it the old way sometime, just so the girls can have that experience.  I hope these taste as good as the ones we used to do.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

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Mullein

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I thought I would show you all a picture of mullein.  The girls and I went gathering it this morning.  We got quite a lot.

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I then looked it  (I think this might be a mountain term) and removed any that did not look good.  I have the first batch in the dehydrator now.  As I said yesterday, this is the first time I have tried drying it.    I will show you all pictures of it after it is dryed.   I usually just gather the leaves and make a tea from them, add sugar or honey and use it as a cold tea.  It is very good cold with a minty taste.   The problem with this is there are no leaves to gather in the winter.  I have never tried this as a hot tea but according to what I have read on line, you use 1 tbsp. dried mullein to a cup of hot water.  Let it steep for about 10 minutes and strain the liguid through a coffee filter or cheesecloth.  You will need to add honey to this, as it is bitter without a sweetener.  This is good for coughs and respiratory ailments.

 

I have finished drying the mullein and I thought I would just add the picture of it here on this post.

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I will store this in an airtight container to enjoy over the winter.  It actually yielded much more than I thought it would.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

 

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Jerky

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Monday we made jerky.  Jerky is one of our favorite things to dehydrate.  As some of you may remember, we were blessed last year to have a beef given to us.  As it was an old bull , we made hamburger out of most of it.  Above is a picture of our dehydrator, our jerky shooter and the type of jerky mix we use.  All this came from Wal-Mart.  There a lots of jerky mixes out there, this is just the one we use. 

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This is what it looks like after it has dried.  The rack is not necessary.  I just put it on it to take the picture.  I thought it would show the jerky better.

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When finished, it all fits neatly back into this basket and off the the attic it goes to be stored until next time.  We have dehydrated apples and peppers too, a few bananas and grapes.   We used to dry our green beans on a string in the attic when we lived in Grundy.  I wonder how green beans would be dried in a dehydrator.  Anyone out there ever tried this?  I think I will try it this summer and see how it turns out.   We just called them fodder beans but I have heard them referred to as leather britches.  I know they are good no matter what you call them. 

We did get a storm last night but it was only rain.  YEAH!  Temperatures are very nice today.  Mid 40’s already.  Lots of sunshine.  I have clothes outside on the line.  The wind is supposed to pick up after lunch, about 30 mph with gusts in the 50 mph range.  Typical wind for Floyd.  It helps the clothes dry and makes them soft as long as you can keep them on the line. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

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