Dehydrating Herbs, Forbs, and Flowers
The dehydrating season has officially started here. I run the dehydrators whenever the daily temps are in the 70’s or lower. It was a cold rainy day on Sunday so I had them both going.
Plantain
I first filled the big bowl full of plantain.
Plantain dehydrated
That was enough to fill 1 dehydrator. It will be for the layers in the winter. I finished loading the first dehydrator pretty quickly, so I headed out for something for the second one.
Sage
I had a good amount of sage out there.
It had gotten some of the amendments on it when I put them down earlier in the week, so I would have to wash that off.
Dehydrated sage
I got 4 trays of leaves. Most was for us for the year, and the rest for the layers.
Rugosa rose
As I still had several trays left and had noticed the rugosa rose had started to bloom, I went out and picked all that had opened. I got 3½ trays of petals.
When I dehydrate light weight things I often put a cover over them to keep them from blowing around in the Excalibur dehydrator.
I usually start things at 145F as that temperature is high enough to dry the outsides and prevent bacteria growth, but not high enough to damage nutrients and enzymes in the foods or material. I leave it at 145F for an hour then turn it down to 125F until everything is bone dry. You are seeking a 5% moisture content, not higher.
Jar attachment for regular mouth jars, quart jar shown
Once the material is dry at 5%, here in New England with the high humidity levels, it should be sealed up to prevent it from re-absorbing the moisture from the air and possibly growing mold or bacteria.
Jar attachment for wide mouth jars, ½ gallon jar shown
I use a FoodSaver vacuum sealer with the jar attachments for this. I mostly dehydrate herbs, forbs, and flowers.
I do dehydrate the Sweet Walla Walla onions as they will not store. I then grind them up for onion powder. I also dehydrate peppers and paprika for powder for cooking.
I don’t do a lot of vegetables because of the extra work rehydrating them. We are usually too tired at night for the extra steps and to remember to allow time for it.
I don’t do any fruit as the sugar content is far too high for me.
One thing I do like to make is kale chips with tahini sauce. Those things are addictive!
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Fabulous work!!! I really need to get a dehydrator - thanks for the reminder!! I've been reminded so many times, I really need to get on it!!
I am most intrigued by your food saver thingy! Are you able to actually can with it? Like tomato sauce and such?
I never thought about the plantain for the chickens! We have lots and I have a dehydrator. Why not? Right? Haha! Thanks so much!
You absolutely CAN NOT CAN with it. It merely vacuum seals jars. That's why the material in the jar MUST be at 5% moisture or less, to prevent molds or botulism.
Darn! Just dash all my hopes and dreams then! Haha! ;)
Awesome, I love the dried plantian idea! Might haul the dehydrator out this week just for that. I was going to do dandelions too!
Dandelions was what I headed out to get, but then I saw all the lovely plantain so I did that instead. Still must do dandelions, I need a 1/2 gallon jar of those.
We do a lot of dehydrating here, but never seen the jar attachments. Interesting. Is that to dehydrate completely, or is it the vacume sealer machine, or used to finish off and keep moisture out as sealing? Think you are a bit more scientific than I. Which probably means less spoilage in the end. Though it's not usually a huge problem.
Thanks for a look at your process, and dry away...
The vacuum sealer is solely used to keep the material from re-absorbing the moisture from the air. It does nothing else. (well, it will also seal vacuum bags, but....)
Here in New England it is often so humid during the summer, that if I do not get the stuff into jars and sealed it starts to go limp within minutes.
Oh, I so love seeing the pictures of your dried roses! That is my task for tomorrow, to go pick wild rose petals to dry.
I also love your Walla Walla drying idea, I love those onions, and there are no shortage of them here in the Pacific Northwest, I love drying onions and green peppers and grinding them into a little seasoning mix that I put onto almost everything!
Thank you so much for sharing all of your drying activities:)!
I had thought I'd do more roses today, but was informed it's to be 87F with the humidity thro the roof. That took care of that idea.