I got 6 of the 10 rows of garlic planted, mulched and covered this week…
I cut 9 pumpkins off the vines today and have 3 more to cut in my neighbors field tomorrow. I take a photo when I get them in one place...
Posted on 10/17/2014 12:32:51 PM PDT by greeneyes
Hi greeneyes and everyone!
Things are quiet here on the gardening front! I am still harvesting last gasp okra and green beans, and wouldn’t you know it, there are those funny last gasp T-Squash still forming! What’s up with that??? LOL! It’s a race now to see how much they can grow before our first freeze! (I’m betting on the freeze!)
QUESTION TO ALL!!
I have a question for all of you. I am seriously looking into purchasing a new dehydrator, and I recall that several of you had some good comments on your preferences and the features that you liked to look for in this type of unit. I was hoping that some of you might be willing to update me on some of that kind of info! BIG THANKS AHEAD OF TIME!
What I would hope to find is something that is fairly compact and does not take up a lot of space. The unit we have now is quite large and takes up the better part of our small card table!
I saw a small round unit in our hardware store today for between $50-$60 bucks. I’m willing to spend a little more, but only if the features justify the extra expense. On the box it say that this unit has “400 watts”, “Takes hours instead of days to dry.” Not sure if it has a heating unit on it, or if it is just circulated air. If it does heat, I could not find at what temp range it operates, or any other specifics other than it has 4 trays and can accept 3 more and the trays are dish-washable. Thanks again!
Have you checked out the Planthaus in NB's? My Mom and Pop store is Planthaus2..same owners?
Go there often but never any luck there with endive.
One of us is always out back with her. What happened was an anomaly - as in, we didn't know she was outside AND the gate was loose so she could slip through, which she did.
I was just nuts as I thought she was gone for good. I was trying not to panic but I was in a panic anyway. I think that lovely young woman was an angel. We tried to give her $50 and she would not take it. She said she knew the dog's owners loved her and took care of her because she was so sweet.
After we went to the vet to make the appt. for the next day, we went to the city animal place who gave the woman our address and phone number, and I took Prissy in so they could see her and I gave a donation to their animal cause. The woman said it would be used to care for animals they found. They told me Prissy was so cute (they played with her), that we were lucky to get her back.
I have to get over this but every time she is in the backyard, I have to see where she is, at all times.
Well, her new tag with her name and this phone number and address came today, so am now waiting for the new collar. I was beating myself up a lot, my fault, when she was gone and had no collar on.
I play the slot machines so I'm pretty much by myself, not close to other people. We went to an Oklahoma one this past week and he won $1,200 playing machine poker. We'll likely go back to that casino this coming Tuesday. We also carry hand sanitizer and use that when we go back to the car when we are coming back. Then, we wash hands when we get home. In fact, whenever we go to a store, we wash hands when we get back.
A happy ending. I am going to get our second cat a microchip after reading about what happened to you. Our dog has had one since he was a puppy, our 14 year old cat has had one for many years, and we have a 2 year old female cat who does roam a bit. She has a collar with the phone number on it but I am going to get her chipped next week. She has come home twice now without her collar. She’s a stinker.
I’m so glad you got her back. That is a frightening thing to you and to your puppy to.
Happy Birthday and have a great ride.
The person I bought the sunflower seed from must have gotten their varieties mixed up. I ordered Mammoth Gray Stripe, which has a single head and striped seeds. Half of the ones that grew have a single head and pure white seeds. The other half branch like christmas trees, with a small head (sometimes several) on each branch, and pure black seeds. Not a single one has striped seeds. Oh well, hopefully they'll all taste good. I'll set some seeds aside as a breeding experiment and pick another place to order from next year.
Speaking of breeding experiments, my pumpkin project is getting interesting. I cut up some of the damaged ones to taste and to get seeds from. So far, all the ones I've cut open have had the naked seeds I'm looking for, but the flesh on each one tastes different. One was mildly sweet but tasted uniquely fruity when mixed with ice cream. The other had a distinctly starchy taste. I know squash and pumpkins are supposed to be bred for sweetness, but this starchkin has me intrigued. It tasted like an unsalted cracker, very floury. I'm thinking it could open up a whole new range of recipes, with pumpkin being used instead of rice or potatoes in a savory dish.
Or, it might turn sweeter in storage. I kind of doubt it'll last that long, this plant had such soft stems that it will affect their storage life. But I'm saving a few seeds anyway in case I decide to experiment.
The winter melons are disappointing already. Several have fur on the outside. Now, granted, they weren't stored properly for a week while we were out of town. But still, I expect them to do better than that. I'll be cutting those up and doing something with them, along with dehydrating some of the damaged squash tomorrow.
Oh, and, good news: I found some elderberry leaves!!! All the ones around here have gone dormant already, except apparently some select branches on the bushes on my land didn't get the message! There were not only a few branches with leaves, there was even a sprig of fresh-ripened berries on one bush! I picked enough for a small batch of antiviral elixir. I need to get some Everclear tomorrow and get the tinctures brewing.
Don’t be beating up on yourself. Stuff happens. Just be happy that she’s home and feeling fine. Remember everyday if a gift-enjoy the present!
You sure have some interesting produce. Glad you found what you needed with the elderberry.
Well, I just have a Walmart special that I bought on sale, just to see how stuff would turn out. It has zero bells and whistles, and only an on and off switch. Works good enough for me.
I have even used my oven for dried beef jerky, but I do feel it’s better with the dehydrator.
We have one of each.
The round ones lose a LOT of tray space in the center; the circulation pattern is hit & miss; there is no temperature control. This boils down to having to shuffle the trays from top to bottom several times; and getting a lot less onto a tray.
The round tray, about 12 or 14 inches in diameter has the same basic footprint on a table as a tray 12 or 14 inches square, but has a lot less surface: 12” gives 144 sq in vs only 114; and you lose the space of the center hole, ~2-2.5” or another 4 or 5 square inches.
Also, the round trays make it awkward to load them many times, since you can’t use straight rows, and each row is a different length. That also makes it tricky to know how much to prep to fit the trays for a load.
OTOH, the round can be useful for a small amount of something that it isn’t worth it to run the larger unit for, if you have time to fiddle with it during the process. One problem, if not, is ‘case hardening’, especially on the bottom tray(s), when the outside dries too fast, and won’t let interior moisture out.
Our larger one is a 5-tray Excalibur, without a timer. After using the round one for years, it is a dream, but much larger; I can get about 3 round try loads onto a single (over 15” square) tray. That works out to about 3 round dryer loads per Excalibur load.
ALL Excaliburs (except their one small model) use the same size trays; the primary difference in models is color; 5 or 9 trays; and with or without a timer.
I got 6 of the 10 rows of garlic planted, mulched and covered this week…
I cut 9 pumpkins off the vines today and have 3 more to cut in my neighbors field tomorrow. I take a photo when I get them in one place...
Those are beautiful cukes. Wish I could grow them better.
That’s a lot of garlic. We don’t use that much for just the two of us.
Thanks greeneyes! Your comment is very encouraging to me to consider trying an el cheepo to just do a few things just to get started learning.
Thanks ApplegateRanch for the VERY good specific info on Excaliber and the challenges the little round units can pose. I truly appreciate both of your replies!
You are welcome.
Thanks!
(((HUGS))))
I bought the Excalibur because my son plans on making venison jerky, and the Excalibur is known for uniform temps on all tray levels,larger size, and higher heat.
Yeah , it blew my budget for quite a while but he plans on making jerkey for co-workers and friends as well, now that he has found a decent recipie for jerky.
He uses a home/commercial style slicer to keep the meat strips in uniform thickness .
Since he has it at his house , I get to visit it on holidays and during jerky season. :p
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the cheapo will need you to rotate the trays every so often.
So nice that you get to visit the dehydrator, I hope that you also get some repayment in the form of dried jerky?
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