Are you a total newb when it comes to drying foods for storage? Fear not; you’re not alone. The following have been a couple of ongoing experiments with preserving stuff grown on the farm here.
Drying foods makes perfect sense when we study Krishna's natural arrangements. First there’s wet and sunny weather, ideal for growing the crops, which is usually followed by hot, drier weather which is excellent for drying foods for storage. There’s a saying “make hay while the sun shines” which must have been originally said for that reason.
For starters, some carrots tops and celery leaves were dried. So far they’ve been shelved since early summer and still give a very nice boost of flavor reconstituted in soups, especially pea soup.
We got convinced to try this after successfully drying fresh coriander, ginger root and turmeric root and even grapes turning into raisins, all just on a sunny window sill.
Feeling braver, okra seemed like the next thing to play with, since we have an abundance here in the Deep South.. First we did a small batch for testing that dried in just a few days on a sunny window and then got cooked in moong dahl. While eating the dahl, we totally forgot it had been dried because it was so nice and tender again reconstituted.
Next we went for a larger bunch of freshly picked okra.
These were first sliced into quarter inch slices that took only two days of direct sunlight to make them hard and crunchy.
And just in case there’s any more moisture trapped inside the okra by storing them in jars, they are instead being stored in absorbent cloth bags for long term storage . We’ll see how that goes by checking them some time this winter!
Also, with the desire to eventually go off grid without electricity, sun drying is the preferred drying method versus using electric dryers or a stove. Krishna provides everything we need for homemade independence!
To be continued