Latest Contraption

People who know us well know that we love food (good, healthy food, that is), and we own LOTS of kitchen gadgets and appliances. We just added a new one to our collection -- a food dehydrator. Dehydrating is one of the best ways to preserve food for long term storage because it retains most of the nutrients and does not introduce chemical preservatives.

Our primary purpose for getting a dehydrator is that we grow a variety of herbs, and we wanted to be able to dry what we couldn't use fresh during the season. For example, we have tons of basil this year. I have made quite a lot of pesto and frozen it, but now I am also able to dry some basil for use during the winter as well. Basil does not like cold weather, so I will need to harvest as much as I can and dry it before the first frost. We also have sage, oregano, parsley, marjoram, rosemary, garlic and cayenne peppers that we hope to dry before winter. We are also excited about the many other uses we will have for our new dehydrator. We will be able to make our own beef jerky from grass fed beef and dry organic fruit.