8 Food Processing Tips

When the first zucchini is ready, I realize that Food Preservation Season has begun.

Bob is the gardener around here.

I have the attention span of a gnat, and have relinquished the garden chores with great enthusiasm.

I am the food processer person in our home.

I can, dehydrate, freeze, and, when all else fails, serve it for dinner.

Here are 8 tips to help you “put food by” for Winter:

1. You can dehydrate potatoes.

New potatoes are available in the stores by early Fall. You can put them into long term storage without a root cellar. Using your dehydrator, the potatoes will turn out a lot like the ones on a box – selling as Au gratin or scalloped potatoes, but without the preservatives.

Waxy potatoes like Yukon Gold, Red Adirondack or fingerlings potatoes are best.

Avoid the starchy Russet-like potatoes. Those make very good mashed potatoes, but don’t reconstitute well after being dried.

To dehydrate:

a. Scrub the potato well. No need to peel. Remove any blemishes.

b. Slice into uniform thickness, about 1/4”. They don’t need to be the same diameter.

c. Put in boiling water until they are barely beginning to soften. You don’t want them fork-tender. They should still be firm in the middle.

d. Drain and rinse under cold water until cooled off.

e. Put on a paper towel or clean, non-fuzzy towel to dry off.

f. Place them in the dehydrator in single layers, evenly spaced. Give them lots of room so air can circulate well.

g. Set the dehydrator temperature about 125°F and dry for 6 – 8 hours until hard. No soft spots.

h. You can also cut them into ½” cubes for soups, stews and roasts. Treat them the same, boil, cool, dry off, dehydrate. They will take longer to completely dehydrate because they are thicker in the middle.

i. Store in an air-tight container. I use ½ gallon mason jars.

To use the potatoes, boil gently until beginning to soften again. Drain well and use in your casserole. Add a little extra liquid to be absorbed by the potatoes.

I don’t do the reconstituting par-boil if I am putting them into a soup or stew which will be brought to a sustained simmer. I just add the dehydrated potato to the soup.

2. Canning lids are available in bulk.

a. When you are canning most of your family’s fruit, vegetables, and meat, buying canning lids in packs of 10 or 12 can be expensive. Ball regular lids (no rings) are $6.30/doz. That’s $0.52 each. Wide mouth lids are $8.18/doz. ($0.68 each)

I was able to buy 14 dozen regular size lids for $0.15 each and wide mouth lids for $0.14 each when I bought a ‘sleeve’ of 36 doz lids.

b. I store the lids inside large glass jars to keep them dry and rust free. The jars are in a darkened room so the rubber ring doesn’t break down from light.

c. I buy the lids in Holmes County, Ohio at a house goods store. When I was having some trouble tracking them down, the gal at the store knew where to send me.

d. Amazon is selling bulk lids now. I’m not sure of the quality. The reviews are pretty good. I would order a small lot of them before investing in a big order. Try them out in both a water bath and a pressure canner. I bought some special jars with lids to do asparagus a few years ago. The lids buckled under the heat and the asparagus was ruined when the boiling water got into the jars. 

Both regular and wide-mouth size lids are available at local houseware stores.

3. You can preserve entire meals.

Stuffed green peppers are ready for the freezer.

After they are frozen solid, I'll put them into gallon-size freezer bags.

When I want them for dinner, I'll thaw them, add pasta sauce and some cheese topping, baking until peppers are soft and everything is cooked.

If your garden isn’t producing enough tomatoes to make pasta sauce or homemade ketchup – don’t despair! Even if you don’t have a garden, stop at your local farm market and pick up locally grown produce. You can put together meals and freeze them.

a. For example….You have 3- 4 pounds of fresh tomatoes, 2 large green peppers and a few onions. You have the makings of Stuffed Pepper Soup or even Unstuffed Pepper Casserole:

i. Saute the tomatoes, peppers (reserve ½ of a fresh pepper), and chopped onions until soft and wet. There should be at least a cup of juice. You can add some spaghetti sauce if you don’t have enough liquid.

ii. Brown a ½ - 1 pound of ground beef.

iii. Take 2 cups of cooked rice. It’s best if it is under-cooked slightly. You want it to absorb some of the juice of the tomatoes.

iv. Season to taste. I use bulk Italian herb blend, but use what you have. Chop the remaining ½ fresh pepper into small pieces and add to the casserole.

v. Mix it all together in a casserole dish that can be frozen. Top with Parmesan cheese and freeze it.

vi. Pull it out of the freezer when you need a no-prep meal. I usually add more pasta sauce on top before cooking it.

vii. Thaw for a few hours and then bake. YUM!

4. Use it up!

Tired of finding a baggie of slimy onion that you forgot you had saved?

You can store cut onions in the refrigerator for days and they will be as fresh as the day you cut them up.

a. After cutting your onion, put it into a small glass canning jar and put the lid on tightly.

b. Store it in the frig to use later. I have had them in the frig for a week or more without any problem. No more wasted food.

c. This works with other fruits and vegetables, too.

5. Don’t know what to do with those cans of Mixed Vegetables?

How I ended up with 4 cans of Mixed Vegetables is beyond me, but I did. Yuck. I still had my dehydrator out after doing a batch of potatoes and thought – “You knucklehead! Dehydrate them, store them in mason jars, and use the vegetables when you make vegetable soup for Bob.”

That’s what I did.

a. Drained them well.

b. Placed them on the trays after I added the plastic insert provided for small items.

c. Dried them overnight at 115°F.

d. Allowed them to cool and then put them in the jars. Put a lid on snuggly and Bam! Ready for soup.

e. You will need to cook your soup long enough to allow the vegetables to reconstitute.

It takes 2 or 3 cans of mixed vegetables to fill a pint mason jar. Cover tightly and store in cool, dark place.

I used some of the vegetables today in a pot of vegetable soup and they turned out perfectly.

6. Invest in food processing appliances.

If you really want to preserve a lot of the food your family will be eating, invest in the appliances to make it easier. (At the very least, have a set of good paring knives. Keep them sharp.)

We buy one item each year for our homestead. It might be a new chainsaw, a ram pump, a stainless-steel water bath canner, an ice cream maker, a yogurt maker, battery powered construction tools, etc.

a. One of the best purchases has been a steam juicer. No pitting the fruit. Easy-Peasy.

i. Wash the fruit, removing stems, leaves, etc., Put it in the top of the juicer.

ii. The middle section will collect the juice.

iii. The bottom section holds the water which will boil to extract the juice from the fruit.

iv. Turn on the stove. Read a book.

b. When all the juice is extracted you have cooked fruit-mush for the chickens and the juice is ready to sweeten, if needed, and can.

7. Freeze your surplus eggs.

It’s either feast or famine in the chicken house.

One of our daughters gave us a heads-up about a simple solution. The only extra equipment we needed were some silicone muffin pans.

a. Break an egg into each well of the muffin pan.

b. Place in the freezer.

c. When frozen solid, pop the egg out and put it into a freezer bag. The silicone pan makes this much easier.

d. Put back into freezer until you need them.

e. Take out the number of eggs you need for your recipe and thaw.

f. Use as usual.

I don’t know if they will be good for scrambling, yet, but will try it this Winter.

8. Make apple scrap vinegar when you are doing applesauce.

a. Save all the scraps from your apples, especially peels and cores.

b. Put into a large jar.

c. Cover the scraps with water

d. Add a tablespoon of sugar

e. You can add a ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar (one with a ‘mother’ is best) or even whey from cheesemaking or yogurt. This will kickstart the process.

f. Cover the jar with cheese cloth or a large coffee filter to allow air in

g. Stir it a few times each day

h. It should start to get bubbly and smelling vinegar-y after a week or so.

i. Wait no more bubbles are being produced.

j. Strain it and use it as you would any vinegar.

k. Store it covered in a glass container. I use empty wine bottles with a twist-on lid.

l. It will get stronger as it ages.

m. Zero Waste Chef has more detailed info:

https://zerowastechef.com/2014/10/30/apple-scrap-vinegar/

Honestly, I just let mine sit on the counter until I got tired of looking at it. Strained it and use it for cleaning. It works great!

I only use unsprayed apples to make the vinegar.