Pantry Reflections

When it comes to out pantry, I don't stock for doomsday or any great disasters, but instead, I do it for convenience, taste, and knowing what is in the food we eat. I prefer to grow what we need and use, but there are things I can't grow, crop failures, etc. Then I buy from the Farmer's market or from people I know, and sometimes I find great sales at the grocery store that are too irresistible to pass up.

This year was a learning curve for me in many aspects of putting things up. First, there's the issue of age and slowing down. I used to stock up during the canning season - summer and autumn. It was intense and many hours in the kitchen. Notice, I said used to. I followed my mother's example of how and when to can and that model was productive, but exhausting. Now, I work on my pantry all year. Sure, there will be things I won't be able to put up, but many that I can.

One of the things Mom did was freeze and can a LOT. I can't really freeze things because of the lack of freezer space. We have the fridge freezer, and that's it. I've been concentrating more on canning and dehydrating. That's been another learning curve, because freezing was what I thought was the best way to go and the taste was close to fresh. With freezing, there is a downside... freezer burn. That will not only leave your food tasting nasty, but will ruin all your hard work in just a few month's time. A FoodSaver or other method of vacuum packing will fix that, but there's still the issue of storage and the cost of keeping a freezer running. Then there's the issue of a power outage - you can lose everything depending on how long the power is out and what time of year it happens.

So, I've been concentrating on other methods of storage. Dehydrating is one that I find fun and quite amazing. I can dehydrate green beans and they get so much smaller, store for a long time in a vacuum sealed jar, and taste darn near like fresh when re-hydrated. I've been experimenting with drying and cooking quite a few veggies this year and have been quite pleased with the result. So far, I've done:

Potatoes - both sliced and shredded

Green Beans

Mixed Vegetables

Corn
Cabbage
Carrots

Mushrooms

Onions

Bell Peppers - all colors

Celery

Celery Leaves

Peas

Squash

Chives

Spearmint
Apples - both sliced and diced

Bananas

Grapes - red and white seedless

Pineapple
Clementine slices

One of the things that I like doing is buying frozen vegetables on sale. I don't have freezer space for them, but that's ok. I bring them home, open the bag and pour them onto my dehydrator trays, give them a good rinse, drain and then put in the dehydrator. They have already been blanched and cut up, so there's really no work to doing them this way. When done, just put in jars and vacuum seal. They will last for a LONG time on the shelf as long as they stay vacuum sealed.

The list will certainly get longer as I try my hand at more items. I dehydrate all year long and continuously use from my pantry as well. I'm always rotating. Like I said - it's not for stocking for a disaster, but for using and having better quality ingredients.

Smoked Chicken Bone Broth

4 smoked chickens covered and resting.

My husband loves to smoke all kinds of meats and anything else he can think of. I gave him a barrel type pellet smoker a few years ago and just this summer I bought him a Pit Boss, which was a larger upright one, for his birthday. He was excited and has used it quite a bit, but not as much as he'd like.

While shopping at the grocery store, I came across 4 chickens that had been marked down to half price. They just magically hopped into my cart and whispered in my ear that they were excellent smoking material. It appears hubby thought so, too, because they ended up in the smoker with a nice coating of a new rub recipe that hubby wanted to try. The chickens were good, but the rub needs a bit a tweaking. I wasn't so fond of all the cayenne pepper that was in it, and hubby had even cut the amount in half.

Cooking with veggies

Now, my turn for excitement. I took the meat off the bones and froze it and put all the bones and skin in the crock pot and covered them with water and added a tiny bit of vinegar to draw out the calcium. I let them cook over night. In the morning, I took out my 20 quart stockpot and transferred the carcasses and stock from the crock pot into the pot. I added onion, celery, garlic, broth and carrots and brought it to a boil, then simmered it for a good 24 hours - making the total simmering time about 36 hours.

Straining through cheese cloth

I then strained out the bones and veggies and then transferred that back to the pot, giving it a second straining - this time through cheese cloth. As chilly as are temps have been, when the pot cooled down some, I took it out to the garage to chill overnight.

The next day, the broth was brought back in the house and I peeled the solidified fat off the top. The broth was heated, brought to a boil then put in hot jars to pressure can.Since this broth was cooked with vegetables, I processed it for the vegetable broth time. 

It always amazes me when I do this. Why? I ended up with a total of 13-1/2 quarts of broth from something I might have thrown out! The onions that were added were parts of onions that I might have thrown out. I save the tip end and root end (I remove most of the brown wrap from the tip and the roots from the end since they are not very clean, and keep the white part). I also keep the tough outer part of the onion that lies beneath the brown protective covering. All of this goes in a freezer bag and kept in the freezer. I will also keep the leaves and tougher stalks from the celery and freeze them as well. Then when I do a broth, I take all the frozen veggies and add them to the water with the carcass. My only cost may be the carrots, garlic and any seasonings I may use plus the cost of electricity to cook it.

13.5 quarts of broth from 4 smoked chicken carcasses.
Dehydrated veggies in background.

If I figured correctly, it cost under $2 for lids and veggies for 13 and a half quarts of delicious and healthy broth. (I did not factor in the cost of the electricity.)

Roasted Dandelion Root Coffee

Finally! After a long, dreary winter, spring has arrived! My favorite part about the spring is gathering up the fresh greens and flowers that are packed full of vitamins and minerals and are super tasty. This year I have dried my dandelion leaves, flowers and made the roots into a wonderful roasted "coffee".

The "coffee" is a not actually coffee but makes a wonderful substitute. It has a nice flavor - a somewhat coffee, caramel and chocolate flavor combination. It's hard to describe, but with a little bit of cream and a touch of honey - it's pretty much heaven! The spring crop of roots are much more mild than the fall crop. The fall is more robust and bitter and packed with more vitamins and minerals because the roots are storing all the nutrition required to make a strong plant in the spring. Fall is the best time to harvest for drying roots for their medicinal value and for the most robust coffee, but I love the spring harvest as well! 

I dig up my dandelions whole and try to get as much as the root as possible. They are long and do easily break off. I found it best to try to run a long screwdriver or a dandelion removing down next to the root as closely as possible and break the ground around it by wiggling it back and forth. If difficult to remove, I will do this around the plant. A shovel works, too, but it leaves a lot more mess to deal with and depending where you harvest your plants, you may not want to leave holes behind.

After digging the dandelions, I pre-rinse with a hose to get rid of as much dirt as possible. Then I put the whole plant in a 5 gallon bucket and rinse, drain, rinse, drain, rinse, drain.... until the water looks quite clean. Next, I cut off the top part of the plant and put in two separate piles.

I then put the roots in a bowl and soak for a little bit. Then I rinse a few more times and try to swish off as much of the remaining dirt as possible.

I then use a scrub brush to take off the remaining dirt. I like putting a small cutting board in the bottom of the sink to have something to scrub on. If the roots have a lot of off-shoots, I'll break them apart to get in between them.

Then I put them in my food processor and chop until the pieces resemble brown rice.

Next I pour them on a cookie sheet and put them in a 225 degree oven and let them dry. This can take about an hour. 

I then check to see how they are drying by stirring every 10 to 20 minutes or so. Drying times will depend on the day, your oven, how large the pieces are, etc.

After the pieces are dry, I increase the oven temperature to 325 and continue to bake. Now the roasting process has started. I kept a close eye on it and mixed every 10 minutes. I love this part because when the root is almost ready to remove from the oven, it has the most amazing aroma of baking a chocolate cake or brownies! 

Some people will remove the root as soon as they see small wisps of smoke coming from the root. I put mine back in a bit longer. I like a darker roast. I find it to have a bit more of a robust flavor. 

After removing from the oven, I let it cool and then put it in a jar. The contents in the jar are much more true in color to the actual end product. 

To use:

Put water in a pan and bring to a boil. Add the dandelion root, stir well and boil for 1 minute. Make sure it doesn't boil over because it will produce foam on top. You will need 1 tsp. of Roasted Dandelion Root Coffee per 8 oz of water (adjust to taste). Serve with a little cream and honey if desired.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a qualified/licensed instructor or certified to teach wildcrafting, using herbs or explaining how to identify any plant I use or speak of in these posts. This is only describing what I did and how I use the item described in MY home with MY family. I am not to be held responsible for any misinformation or any mishaps if anyone decides to try this at home. If you decide to try this method - it is at your own risk. Please research and study any plants, methods and side effects of the plant describe in this post.