Well, I'll be thinking good peach thoughts for you next year!

Meanwhile, I have the 9 tray Excaliber full of hot peppers, including two trays of Carolina Reapers, one tray of habaneros and 6 trays of Sugar Rush Peach.

I just took the last of 16 pints of pickled Sugar Rush out of the canner, as well as one pint of pickled Reapers, and I put two quarts of Sugar Rush, one pint of Reapers and one pint of habaneros in the refrigerator to have as refrigerator pickles, recipe for the fridge pickles from Epicurious.

I still have a single quart box of jalapenos, that's all I got this year from 4 plants. It was such an odd year, the Reapers went crazy and the jalapenos struggled, when it's usually the opposite.

Annie

Itsmce - you can use ripe red, orange, or yellow bell peppers in place of the green bells. I do that and then only use 1/2 of the amount of sugar called for.

Annie - yes you need a skull and crossbones label on those pickled reapers! That's a great deal on pint jars. We have a few Menard's around here now but the one nearest to me is a little out of the way and I've only been there a few times. I need to get up there and see if jars are on sale here. I also want to buy some drip irrigation supplies for next year. That might be on sale too! That's a lot of peppers! Put the extras out by the road with a sign saying 'free to a good home'. LOL

Here are a few pictures of our small Hereford herd. I had to tend them over the weekend because my friend went to the lake.

The youngest heifer calf. I think she doesn't much like the heavy rains we've had the last couple days.

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The whole 'herd' eating breakfast with the mamas posing for the camera. The calf on the far right is the male who's destiny is on the grill. I'm surprised the last one that hasn't calved yet. She looks like she could pop.

Garden pictures · More Info

Jack, cows will have calves when they are darned good and ready. I always worry, and watch carefully to make sure there is no trouble. About 99% of the time my worry is unnecessary, I'll hurry out in the morning to check on some young cow due for her first calf and there they'll be, safe and sound in spite of all my fussing. I have had to "pull" a couple, and I did lose one cow and her calf because I didn't find her in the back of the pasture on time to help. I might not have been able to help anyway, but I would have liked to at least have had the chance to try. That was while I was still working and lived 20 miles from the farm, so I could only go out in the evening after I got out of work. I cried.

That's some really nice looking girls you have there, BTW. You've never really been stared at until you've been stared at by a herd of cows, LOL. They're intent! I love the little girl with the rings around her eyes, like she's got a mask, she's so cute.

So, what have I been "putting up"? More peppers. (sigh) Dehydrating this time, I had to drag out my old "heirloom" half gallons and save the quarts for canning greens and sauerkraut. So, one blue Ball, one old Atlas and one Drey, all full of Sugar Rush Peach. Two wide mouth quarts and one old Ball quart, made some time between 1933 and 1942, according to the "charts". So nine quarts of dehydrated pepper slices, ready to be reduced to powder/dust. That ought to be enough for a while!

http://minnetrista.net/blog/2013/06/27/ball-family-history/how-to-date-a-ball-jar/

And that's it, no more peppers. I'm taking your suggestion and putting the darned things out by the road, with a "free" sign. Think I should also mentioned that they're HOT? (grin)

Annie

Annie - folks will find out they're hot soon enough. You might want to label the reapers and ghost peppers! Someone might sue!

I've never made pepper powder before. Not sure why. I still have some Jalapeno, Hungarian Wax, and Banana peppers left to pick that I should probably get to today or tomorrow. We are supposed to get down into the mid 30s on Thursday morning.

That's sad losing a cow and calf. I was a little concerned that the cow would have her calf last weekend when I was taking care of them. I wouldn't have a clue on what to do if she had trouble. But there are some farmer/rancher friends right across the road that have probably been through it a hundred times or better. They have over 1000 head of mostly Angus. I'm sure they would have helped if I could find them.

It's always good to have a neighbor who is experienced, that's for sure. Be sure to be nice to them. (grin)

Here I'm still canning, today it was 16 quarts of sauerkraut that's been smelling up my laundry room for about a month. I was glad to put it in jars!

Annie

Hit the farm store yesterday so today is Applesauce Day! Picked up 1/2 bushel of 3 different kinds - Gala, Jonagold, and Cortland so hope it is a tasty blend.

Dave

Yum, Dave, that sounds like a good blend to me, the Gala and Jonagold should be sweet enough that you won't need much sugar, just apples.

My day started early with a wake up from Elery to come and help him drag a deer out of the woods. It's bow season and although he made a nearly perfect shot the deer managed to get into the thick underbrush and he was having trouble locating it. We took our shelter dog, who we were told was part Sheltie and part hunting dog and went to track. Molly jumped out of the truck, headed straight into the brush and went directly to the deer, who was only about 100 yards away anyway. Good dog! A quick field dress and Elery and the deer was on the way to the processor's while I made coffee. We then got everything out of the garden that was left because we will have a frost tonight, we've escaped so far but I'm afraid not tonight.

So, I canned collard greens, 16 quarts of them, and I have all 9 trays of the Excaliber full of Ajvarski peppers chopped and drying. Tomorrow it's kale and by Monday or Tuesday, there will be more venison for the freezer.

Annie

God bless shelter dogs and those who adopt them Annie. They are often the over-looked treasures of the pet world. We once had a Molly (unknown mix). Couldn't track worth a darn but what a lover. Her favorite part of canning days was knowing anything that got spilled - or 'accidentally' dropped - on the floor was fair game for her.

Dave

Dave, I agree, they are many times diamonds in the rough, or maybe that's "ruff". (grin) Molly was 3 when we found her, she'd been surrendered because she "was nippy with their toddler". Well, she's part Sheltie, and she has to herd, she can't help herself, even when it's a toddler she's trying to herd. She was neutered, house broken, groomed, had her shots and was well fed and well mannered. She immediately jumped onto my husband's lap and just like that, we had a dog. She's seldom away from his side, whether they're walking fences or picking up feed. She's behind his chair in the evening and in the kitchen in the morning while he's making coffee. Some people only want a certain breed of dog, but I just like all kinds of dogs. I figure that if I'm not breeding them or showing them then I don't need to spend hundreds of dollars for a purebred when a perfectly good dog is out there waiting for me to find them.

So what is being canned? 7 quarts of kale, I got a quart jar of garlic dehydrated, a couple of sheets of pepper strips in the freezer, waiting to be put into bags and what is probably my last quart of raspberries, also in the freezer. I think I'm about done, except for beef and venison. I picked the last of the poblanos and they'll be in the crockpot with some chicken tomorrow.

Annie

So everyone is finished? I still have apples to press into cider and lots of greens that I don't even know what I'm going to do with. We managed to pick 73 Hokkaido blue squash and 37 butternuts, they are in the back storage room with the potatoes. I dug the celery root so I can get the garlic planted in that space. Cattle were slaughtered Tuesday, so that'll be in the freezers next week.

I did find that milk crates make perfect storage containers for squash and potatoes, as well as "over flow" canned goods that don't fit on the shelves.

They stack well, are sturdy and I get them cheap at the on line auction. I've used 15 and I think I'll pick up some more when I can and use them in the freezer, there's one in there now full of ground venison, makes it easy to find and handy to move...

Annie

Come on, guys, I'm waiting. (Foot tapping) I canned 9 more pints of applesauce and planted the garlic today and I still have a bushel of hot peppers that I've just given up on. (grin)

Annie

Winding down.... did make a batch of peachy mustard, sold a couple of yearling calves, found a home for a cat that found us, dealt with a broken freezer that we'd just put a half of beef in, and wonder what to do with the last of the peppers and green tomatoes. Maybe make Chow Chow out of them... oh.. and what to do with the frozen berries that thawed d/t the broken freezer.... jam? Better decide quick.... Got to a cider press, late because of the cows breaking through a fence... came home with a couple of gallons of cider... now that the freezer is working again... need to freeze them or we'll be drinking hard cider... ;)

canfan, I'll be picking up beef the end of this week and I still have to press cider. I have several bushels of imperfect apples waiting, and the old hand cranked press is cleaned and ready, but tomorrow I have to go pick up that new freezer, so it'll be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get to the cider pressing....

I'd also like to make some raspberry jam, but it has to be seedless for my Mother, and maybe a batch of that apple maple jam too, yum.

Annie

Annie - I'm almost done but not quite yet. I blanched and froze a few heads of broccoli on Saturday. I'll probably do that again next weekend. I'll wait to do the same to the carrots around Thanksgiving. I always dig and process the horseradish around Thanksgiving too.

I spent most of my long weekend prepping my vacant garden beds for winter. Tilled in some compost and put a blanket of shredded leaves and grass clippings over them. They should be nice and fluffy come spring. I've finished 7 beds and still have 6 more vacant beds to add a blanket of leaves to. That will leave 6 beds to do that still have broccoli, carrots, lettuce, and asparagus growing.

I need to buy another freezer soon. I have a Monkey Wards upright that is about 30 years old now that I don't trust and a 5' chest freezer. I'm not sure yet if I'll buy another upright or another chest freezer.

I took a pint of the chipotle ketchup I made this summer to a Chiefs watch party yesterday. It was a BIG hit. We had burgers, brats, onion rings, and french fries. I wish I had made more than one batch when I had the chance. I'm down to 3 half pints left.

I also took a batch of broccoli salad to the party. I used garden broccoli and onions along with chopped bacon bits, golden raisins, and sunflower seeds. It is so good with home grown broccoli!

Oh, how I wish I was still “putting up” garden goodies! My broccoli plants haven’t yet set heads. I don’t see a frost in the long range outlook, but I doubt I will have a Fall broccoli crop. Also still in the garden are potatoes and carrots. The carrots are still small... I guess I need to a bit more prepared next year and time my fall garden better than I did this year.

itsmce, I always tell myself that I need to plan my fall garden better than I do. Somehow, I never do, though, everything else happens here in the fall, from cider pressing to beef processing, and so the fall garden gets kind of a short shrift.

Jack, I also make the Chipotle Ketchup, love the stuff. It's good with fries and on fried potatoes and makes a super topping for meatloaf. Good luck with those garden beds, I still need to prune raspberries, cut the asparagus ferns and winterize my little figs, this will be there first winter and I'll see if I can actually get them through, no one I know has ever grown figs here, or even tried. My broccoli finally gave up, but I still have greens out there. For some reason the deer don't want them.

As for the freezer, I like chest freezers. I'm short and I have to stand on my head to get things from the bottom, but every time you open an upright you lose a lot of "cold" and they require defrosting a lot more often than a chest freezer does. I never get self defrosting either, the freeze/thaw cycle makes it hard to keep meat long term without compromising the quality, but I've dug an errant steak, vacuum packed from 3 years ago from the bottom of the chest freezer and it's been fine.

I use milk crates to "arrange" the items, they're sturdy and will stack and round tubes of burger don't roll around. Keeps items in their assigned spots too! Those flimsy hanging plastic baskets they put in freezers now are so weak they are nearly useless.

Annie

Annie - I hear you on having to defrost the upright freezer more often. I have to defrost mine about every 2-3 months because I open it more than I should (I'll put room temperature beer in there to get it to the proper drinking temperature of 31F faster). I can defrost it in about 1 to 1.5 hours if I put a fan in front of it. That way I don't have to worry whether the food will thaw.

I've been using printer paper boxes in my upright to store my frozen veggies but I have a few milk crates I can use when it comes time to process the bull calf we are calling T-bone.

LOL, Jack, I always name the bulls something food related, the Cooking Forum used to have "naming" threads for me. We usually raise two for the family, so we've had Chuck and Stu, Tom Shanks and Flank Sinatra, Sir Loin and Mr. T(bone). It reminds the kids that even though the bulls start life little and cute and fuzzy, they are destined to be dinner. This year's beef was named by my granddaughters, who are 5 and 6, so we have Naughty Head (because he kept butting everyone) and Rosie. Yeah, he's a bull, but he's a Hereford, so he's red and so Rosie makes sense when you're 5.

So, what have I put up? We cranked apple cider yesterday. We have an old fashioned hand cranked cider press and all the leftover apples that are knotty or weird shaped and won't fit on the apple peeler or that just didn't get eaten fast enough go into the press. This year we pressed 8 gallons of mostly Red Delicious, with some Jonathan, some Ida Reds, a few Gala and a couple of bushels of Ginger Gold from a neighbor. I freeze the cider because if I can it, it just becomes apple juice.

There will beef within the next couple of days, and I'm going to make some apple cinnamon syrup for that Grandson you see here, he loves the stuff on pancakes and to dunk chicken nuggets.

Edited: I just edited this to add that I canned 11 half pints of apple cinnamon syrup today, my Grandson Bud is going to be a happy, happy kid when I make gingerbread pancakes and he has his favorite syrup for them!

Annie

Well, as I mentioned on the other thread, the beef is in the freezer. I need to make room for Christmas cookie dough, so today I canned 6 quarts of beef stock from some of the soup bones.

So everyone else is finished?

Annie

I never really got started this year. We have a lot of other things going on, an already well stocked pantry, building a house + impending move and a less than stellar gardening year.

We continue to empty jars and now I'm running out of room on the "empty jar" shelves in the basement. I was tempted to count the empties, but then decided I really didn't want to know how many there were.

Lorri

Annie - I'm finished now. I harvested the remaining carrots over my long vacation week and froze about half of them. We had some with our Thanksgiving Rib roast and they were the sweetest carrots that I can remember.

Next up will be pickled asparagus some time in March when the Mexican harvest comes in and the price drops down to around $1.50/lb.

Lorrie - I don't think I could get an accurate count on my canning jars because at any one time I have at least a few dozen AWOL with various friends and family.

Lorrie, I've been stacking empties in the pole barn, and my designated shelves there are getting pretty full, so we're using what I canned at least. That's a good thing, that empties are stacking up, it means your product is being used!

Jack, I also have AWOL jars, I've learned to be careful about where I send my "vintage" jars, because I just might not get one of those unique ones back, ever!

I'm never actually finished, LOL. I'll still make jam with some frozen fruit, and I have that beef, and I want to can Dave's BBQ beef, and I just canned another 8 quarts of beef stock so I could get some of the soup bones out of the freezer and make room for Christmas cookie dough.

I'm envious of those carrots, though, mine just did not do well this year. Some things did amazingly well and others did not. I guess it was too hot here for carrots this year because they never got any bigger around than my pinkie finger, and that was the big ones!

the asparagus patch won't be producing until probably May, but I just might make some marmalade with the good citrus in January. Until then, I have Christmas baking to keep me occupied, and I'll be able to use some of my canned goods, like jam in thumbprint cookies, and the hot pepper relish or jelly on savory cheesecake.

Happy Holidays!

Annie

Annie - I've never had luck with carrots planted in the early spring (March) here. Now I don't even try and just sow some in late July into one of my vacated potato beds. They sprout in about a week and grow pretty fast thru September. They are so much sweeter after they have been frost kissed a few times. I actually tried to harvest mine a week earlier and the ground was frozen solid. Luckily it warmed up for a few days so I could harvest the rest last week,

I forgot to post the carrot harvest picture.

I just finsihed eating some with my lunch.

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Oh, Jack, I like the yellow ones. I grew some yellow ones, Amarillo, I think, and also Purple Dragon, which the kids called "zombie carrots" and they loved them because they turned their teeth all purple. I thought the yellow ones were sweeter than the traditional orange carrots Last year the deer actually dug them out of the ground and ate them before I got any and this year they just didn't do well, so maybe I'm "carrot cursed". Michigan ranks second in the nation for carrot production, and I can buy a 50 pound bag of carrots meant for deer bait, which I give to the cows as treats, usually 3 or 4 bags for $10. So, you'd think I'd be able to grow them, wouldn't you? Actually, I've only had trouble growing them this year, and it was a bad garden year for a lot of things, so maybe next year...

Annie

Annie - the yellow ones on the left are called Yellow Bunch and the orange are Bolero. Both were from Johnny's pelleted seeds. I didn't notice a difference in taste between the two. The yellow bunch were more uniformly shaped but some were pretty thin.

I grew Purple Haze last year which have purple skins but are orange inside. They didn't produce very well so I didn't plant any this year. I'm out of pelleted seed so I might have to pick out a couple new varieties to try next year.

I had to smile at you trying new varieties of carrots. I'm actually old enough to remember when carrots were orange, no other colors/varieties were available. Now they come in red and yellow, purple and white, long and thin, short and round, endless combinations of shapes and colors. They're a lot more fun than plain orange carrots too!

As for those darned deer, well, at least I'm eating some of those. It's the farmer mentality, you know. If I feed it, I get to eat it, it's a symbiotic relationship. I feed them and they feed me!

Annie

Annie - I hope you're not eating the Groundhogs!! lol

I'm looking forward to getting the venison back from the butcher. We took a few does and one buck on our hunt down in the Ozarks and they are processing most of it into Jerky, venison sticks, and summer sausage. It should be ready in a couple more weeks.

I went out and checked on carrots at Johnny's seeds yesterday after I made the last post. I decided to try this Rainbow variety. It has natural color variation from orange to almost white. It is a cross between Nantes and Imperator types. I'm going to order 1000 of the pelleted seeds so I'll be growing it for a few years to come.

Jack, I’ve actually heard of specific deceased family members that were memorable for the fact they they loved to eat coons and other garden varmints. Doesn’t sound like great meat, but I guess you never know.

That is a good looking bunch of carrots Jack! Got a really good buy on mushrooms yesterday so today is canning 1/2 pints of mushroom day. So handy to have around - if one likes mushrooms.

Dave

PS: ate plenty of squirrel and rabbit, quail too, as a kid. No raccoons tho.

Dave, I also grew up eating squirrel, rabbit, quail, pheasant, partridge. My brother liked to hunt small game and we were poor, so many times supper was whatever my brother could shoot. Heck, I didn't even know deer season wasn't year round until I was in high school, when a freezer was empty, someone shot a deer! I've also eaten snapping turtle, rattlesnake (not bad), muskrat (completely disgusting) and porcupine (tastes like dark meat turkey). I've eaten coon and possum but I'm not really a fan of either. Funny how it is when you're poor and you're hungry, you just eat it.

Oh, and Jack, I had a calf born yesterday. 12F. (sigh) He's fine, up and playing in the snow, but I like it a lot better when I have calves in the spring....

Annie

Thanks Dave! I've never heard of home canning mushrooms before but I guess it makes sense that you can. I've dehydrated Morels a few times when I stumble across a mother lode. They reconstitute pretty well. I found a couple good sized Hen of the Woods around large Oak trees during deer season but they weren't in very good condition because of the single digit lows a week earlier. I took GPS coordinates of the location so I can find the same trees next year.

Jacob - I've eaten most everything that can be considered a game animal but I draw the line on varmints!

Annie - Congrats on the new healthy calf! It's good to know that they can survive their first hours in frigid conditions. We are starting to doubt that our third cow is pregnant but if not she sure is fat! I think we are going to get our cows knocked up again around May of next year so they will calf in early spring 2020.

Jack, that Mama is an experienced one. She pulled hay down from the hay feeder for him to lie onand I found the little guy nearly buried in loose hay, with a 1,000 pound round bale acting as a windbreak on his right side and Mama lying on the left, radiating body heat. He was just snuggled right in there, happy as can be, with a full tummy and a warm, soft bed. Based on the timing, we processed that bull on February 28 of last year, so that calf must have been just about the last thing he did! I think the other two cows are bred, but I'm looking for spring calves, hopefully no more of this timing! April is good here, May is better.....

And, by the time this one is grown, I should have freezer room!

Annie

Annie

Id bet that wild game Is a whole lot healthier than pen-ed up animals....Im no vegetarian but that sounds like a whole lot of meat to eat. LOL Im rethinking eating much meat as I age. plus gotten close to say chicken girls and no way could I take their lives unless starving to death They were my "babies" and I still miss them....they provided me with much entertainment and realized they wanna be loved too...

I now visit the gals down the road and take them fresh just picked weeds . as they are penned in a mud. hole and sometimes owner does have them even water....

Plus I keep remembering the old Twilight Zone episode "to serve Man" LOL

Blessings

Jean, right now I have 18 young pullets that are laying daily, but they fought like crazy with my "old girls", pulling out feathers and ganging up on the oldsters. So, I have 6 old hens in a space of their own. They don't lay any more, but they don't eat much and the grandkids made pets out of them, so they just stay to keep me company. They do have water, though, and a nicely insulated coop, and a Flock Block to keep them occupied, so they are warm and happy.

As for the beef, well, the fact that that little bull charged me more than once and threatened the grandkids and generally made himself a nuisance makes it a whole lot easier to eat him. It IS a lot of beef, but with my two girls and their kids and their husbands, plus my elderly mother and my disabled brother, AND my husband's 4 kids and their families, well, the beef gets eaten.

I also remember that Twilight Zone. "It's a Cookbook!!!" (grin)

Annie

Will try for the 4th time. to reply.....my reply keeps disappearing

Well LOVE and Blessings to alI esp fellow gardeners...LIKE MR RODGERS used to say. "won't you be my neighbor" for all y'all knowledge and kindness and generosity

I wish....

I lied about being finished putting stuff up. Saturday I sliced up a couple dozen garlic bulbs and put them in the dehydrator. Yesterday afternoon I ground the garlic chips up into powder using a electric coffee grinder. It's much more potent than store bought powder.

I finally got around to it this weekend given I am finally out of syrup and the weather was appropriate to stay indoors so I canned a bunch of frozen blackberries that I and a friend who is moving soon had accumulated over the years giving a gallon a juice to the friend in return for their portion of the stash in addition to yielding 46 pints of syrup. De-seeding and processing enough more than 100lbs of blackberries enough to fill a bathtub ended up taking 18 hours and was a 2 day affair.

Lakelifer - Blackberry juice...sounds wonderful!

Jack - Does dehydrating garlic leave a lingering garlic smell in the dehydrator? I am hoping for a better garlic crop next year.

I am not 'putting up' any more...just "taking down". :-) A big pot of spaghetti sauce on the weekend used all the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce that I have on hand. Yikes...the winter is just beginning. Maybe the leftover spaghetti will hold for the winter. I need to get it vacuum sealed and in the freezer.

Itsmce - I don't notice any lingering garlic smell. You do get a pretty good smell of garlic for the first few hours while it is dehydrating but them it pretty much goes away after most of the moisture is removed.

Spent Christmas Eve and Day with the stockpot going. Boiled 10 stewing hens I'd purchased this fall - used the meat to make 2 pans of enchiladas and there's a lot more left. Just over 5 gallons of chicken stock and 2 gallons of pork stock from the Christmas ham bone (using carrots/celery/onions/garlic/herbs from the garden). Thank goodness we have a "walk-in fridge" (AKA the 3-season porch) for the stock to cool so I can skim the fat and then decide whether to can or freeze.

Liz, I have a ham bone, but it's going to be split pea soup! I also have chicken wings, backs and necks in the freezer that need to become stock, but I'm afraid it won't happen yet this year. I still have one family Christmas gathering to attend, and still have cookies to bake and decorate, rolls to make, a homegrown and grassfed tenderloin is thawing in the sink so it can "age" in the fridge a couple of days before roasting. The Grandkids are spending New Year's Eve with me while their parents go out, so no canning then either. I also have a "walk in fridge", we call it the garage, LOL.

But....I only have 3 quarts of chicken stock left on the shelf and so I have to get busy right after the first of the year.

Happy Canning!

Annie

Since I knew that Santa would be bringing me a dehydrator, I had purchased a couple pineapples. I have already sliced up the pineapple and dehydrated it. I then sealed the dried pineapple pieces in pint mason jars using my FoodSaver vacuum sealer. The pineapples were the itty bitty ones that the grocery has for $0.99 from time to time. They dehydrated to the point that I could get each pineapple in a pint jar. It was store bought, but does that still count?

I am already dreaming of what I can dehydrate next summer! Come on...peach crop!

Oh I did cranberries back in 2012 too. I should do them again.

As I buy lots of them. organic ones from grocery around Thanksgiving... I just mix them (baked)with my bought G.Smith baked apples. Not real sweet. But Im used to less sweet

......hey. itsmce

what did you do to prep the pineapple? Hubby finally cut my two pineapples but time I got all the stuff together everything not as "firM" etc pumpkins( stored in garage) going south cause in the 20s sev nites.... and got my right size canning rack here... I guess I could still make that autumn glory compote but won't be able to can it, Boo hoo

I should have written pineapple on my shopping list for him while he was in the city...

Prepping pineapple to dehydrate? ... Cut off the peel and cut out the core then slice 1/4” - 3/8”. Arrange on racks, set dehydrator to 135 for 8-9 hours.

itmce, congratulations on the dehydrator, you're going to have a lot of fun playing with that toy!

weddingjean, thanks for reminding me that I should be looking for the "after Christmas" mark downs on cranberries.

Merry Christmas.

Annie

Itsmce - I expanded my vegetable dehydrating boundaries last year from mainly just garlic and onions and added cherry tomatoes and zucchini chips. So far I've only used some of the tomatoes in a batch of soup but we mowed through all of zucchini chips by Halloween. I'll probably try some larger tomatoes next season and spice them up a bit for healthy snacking. I want to try leeks too. I also want to do more dried herbs. I only did a little parsley at the end of last season.

Lone Jack. I'm jealous . haven't ever had zuke chips.. wish you were my neighbor...id work for food....LOL ID work for food with y'all successful gardeners. yummy veggies.

heck I still have jars of dehydrated cherry toms from 2011. MY marathon continuous canning year. thank y'all Blessings to all...

oh anybody got high tunnel for winter stuff/? I'd def work for veggies then, luv them veggies.yum yum. I guess I'm making up for the lack of not eating many veggies as a child...I don't think I ever ate homegrown. {NOT canned} veggies till an adult and esp my own grown little garden... NOW I can't keep my hands clean as I luv touching the earth with my hands,

Still trying to find a white tarp for My old Shelter Logic

LoneJack, I dehydrated zucchini slices and just toss a handful into vegetable soup, and one year I sprinkled them with seasoned salt, but never got more adventurous than that. You remind me that I need to experiment.

Annie

Annie - here is the zucchini chip recipe that I used last year. They have a very nice flavor with just a little heat from the pepper. They sure do loose a lot of the volume during dehydrating. One batch of 6 or 7 full racks only fills a quart jar! I did them at 135F for about 30 hours.

Low-carb crispy Zucchini Chips.

Thanks, Jack, I'm going to save that and although I'm getting old, maybe I'll remember on time for zucchini season next year...

Annie