Here some food, there some food

I have this long list of to-do's.  Some of the things are longer term, or a larger project that will need to be done here and there.  Others are a one time event.  But when faced with a long list I try to punch out a couple of things just so I can cross off something!!  Ha, ha!  Anyone else do that?  Hey, I've even been known to complete something that wasn't on my long to do list that wasn't written down.  And to feel even more accomplished I actually write it on my list and immediately cross it off.  Yup.

My freezers were getting full and totally out of control.  I knew I had enough frozen veggies back there to dehydrate.  Just what and how much was the question.  So I had a few helpers, four to be exact, pull out all of the frozen veggies and plop them on the table.  Saoirse took it upon herself to put them in like piles and write how many bags there were on a slip of paper.  By the time I took some pictures I had found a few more bags tucked away to add to the piles.

Some veggies I didn't have enough to dehydrate.  I only have 7 pounds of broccoli for instance.  I have 8 trays for my dehydrator, each tray able to hold one pound of veggies.  My dehydrator actually has 9 trays, but I'm missing one of my mesh liners.  Where in the world could it have gone?  I've been looking for it for months now.  I guess I need to purchase another one.  When all was tallied I have enough to dehydrate 40 pounds of veggies.  That still leaves bags left over, just not enough to do 8 trays of all one kind after the 40 pounds.

My dehydrator trays side by side.  The Excalibur on the right, the one I love :-)  My Nesco on the left, not so much in love.  You can see the huge difference in the size of the tray's holes.

Here are some peas on each of the trays for a better look.  These peas are frozen, but when they are dried they will have shrunk greatly in size.  As you can see the peas on the Nesco hardly stay on top as it is.  As a matter of fact a few minutes later when I went to put the Nesco tray away a few of the peas had already fallen through the holes since they started to thaw.

Saoirse having a handful of peas.  A little snacky snack, eh?

When I was talking to the girls about my to do list Isabella asked if she could do the dehydrating.  Like I would say, "No"?  Here she is pouring the peas onto the tray.

Spreading them out.

What one pound of peas looks like on one tray.

A little helper.  Or, maybe not :-)  This reminds me of why I have very, very, very few bags of dried fruit saved up.  I just recently had help with drying 3 trays of nectarines and 5 trays of apples.  You want to know how many trays of dried fruit I was able to bag up?  None.  Zilch.  Zero.  Little sneaks.

 

Who, me?  I'm totally innocent.  At least I look it, don't I?

All eight trays in the dehydrator. They'll spend all evening and night in there.  By morning they should be dried.  Then they need to 'cure'.  I can't remember the term used for the next step.  But the idea is to give them time to settle.  You put them in a bag where any ones with a bit of moisture left over will be absorbed (the moisture that is) by the ones that are completely dried.  Then you can bag them for future use.  I'll have to get shots of that when we hit that stage.

Here is a shot of my canned meats, and beans.  I can't remember if I've put this photo up on my blog already.  From the right I have stew meat, ground beef and chicken.  On the shelf below are my canned beans.  I need to get a lot more of those done.  I am forever forgetting to soak my beans overnight. 

My canner resting from it's hard work :-)