Comments on: Dehydrating Greens for Easy Nutrition All Winter Long

By: Real Food on a Real Budget

Real Food on a Real Budget — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 18:33:24 +0000

[…] can be frozen, greens and herbs can be dehydrated, and tomatoes and other fruits can be canned. While the initial cost is […]

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 21:43:25 +0000

This is the first time I really dehydrated anything. Just last week I pulled over 30 bell peppers out of the garden. Apparently, the pepper plants in PA didn’t realize it was fall this year. Yay! I just got a dehydrator, so I dried a bunch of them. I’ve thrown out WAY too much Kale this season (okay, it was mostly composted or fed to a friend’s chickens, but it wasn’t eaten by humans). So when I got Kale in my CSA this past week, I had to try out your approach here. I’ll probably put both the dried peppers and some of the kale into chili. Thanks for the tip!

By: Kristen

Kristen — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 01:36:54 +0000

Yes! This is so easy and frugal!
I am a bit jealous to hear how well your kale did. The groundhog mentioned above is destroying mine! But there’s still plenty of chard!

By: Jaime @ Slightly Steady

Jaime @ Slightly Steady — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:45:54 +0000

This is sheer brilliance! The crops that grow the best are always the ones wasted here – like kale. It grows so well that I can’t keep up with it – but *everything* else died without bearing hardly a thing! Green superfood powders are soooo expensive, too. This is two birds with one stone! Love it!

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:44:38 +0000

Neat, Joy! I haven’t tried dehydrated broccoli yet, but I’ve been wondering how they’d taste.

My broccoli is definitely finished for the year. The worms were there in a few places, but a groundhog just finished it all off! Rascal. We need a dog!

I’ll have to try the broccoli next year!

By: Joy

Joy — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 01:25:44 +0000

I’m still dehydrating broccoli. I remember long ago I used to dig up the broccoli plants after the main head was harvested. Little did I know then that the plants are very willing to send out a lot of smaller side shoots… until the plant is either dug up or winter sets in and the garden is tilled.

A person can’t be too squeamish after the initial harvest, though. Once you start seeing the white “butterflies” (they may be moths) it’s pretty much a given that there will be worms. First I soak in a sink of salt water to get rid of all I can. Otherwise –I do believe it is such a blessing that– when blanched, the broccoli is a nice rich green and any tan is… protein I choose to throw away.

I may put the blanched broccoli on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once I have enough built up I transfer to the dehydrator.
The little dehydrated heads are very tasty just to pop into my mouth — I’m definitely taking some for a snack on a road trip — or they’re ready to pop into a dish or add to a veggie powder.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 19:09:27 +0000

Hmm… you know, I’m not sure! On a very low setting, I would try checking them after a few hours and see how they are coming along, and then just checking every hour or so once they are starting to dry. My oven goes down to 170, and I dry them in the dehydrator at about 120 or so. In my dehydrator it took about 8 hours, I think? Since the air doesn’t circulate in an oven, I’m not sure how that would impact drying time, too.

These are just my best guesses, but I think that as long as your oven temp can stay on the low side, you can easily make it work by keeping an eye on them! If you try it, I’d love to hear how it worked for you!

By: Bonny

Bonny — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 18:59:12 +0000

how long would it take in the oven? would like to do this but don’t have a dehydrator!!