Juices

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Alpinejs

Not sure what the point of the thread is, but it surely brought tears to my eyes just
thinking of my favorite pie....gooseberry pie...which I can't seem to find at any pie shops
anymore.

You have 50 pounds of berries!. How do you utilize them in the off season. Eat to live not live to eat.

[Durgan]

The little bit of residue is not worth the effort to utilize in the big picture. It is mostly cellulose and seeds.

[loeb]

I had no idea that blueberries could be turn in fruit leather! fruit leather is great, I discovered it last year and made some with kale and bananas.. But I had a problem with strawberry one, it kinda fermented before it dried:/ I like to roll that sheets and cut it then into a small pieces, like a candies. They keep well in glass jars with good metal lid on.

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by loeb

I had no idea that blueberries could be turn in fruit leather! fruit leather is great, I discovered it last year and made some with kale and bananas.. But I had a problem with strawberry one, it kinda fermented before it dried:/ I like to roll that sheets and cut it then into a small pieces, like a candies. They keep well in glass jars with good metal lid on.

I found anything with sugar makes fine leather. Blueberries are about the best, but dreadfully expensive. The leather must be absolutely dry if keeping long term at room temperature. It can be made more soft if stored in the freezer or for a shorter period if simply stored in the refrigerator. If some produce wont leather then it can be powdered. Excellent for travel and/or camping.

Vegetables as powder are absolutely wonderful. I will make several batches of vegetables this year.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?JBAOD 22 July 2012.Preserving Garden Vegetables by Dehydrating.
All produce currently available in the garden was chosen. Carrots,basil,purslane,green beans,green peppers,parsnips,turnip,tomato,cabbage,egg plant,beets,cucumber,Walla Walla onion,Black Russian potatoes,and okra.Processing was almost identical for all produce, which is, cut into small pieces and blend in a tall cyclinder to a fine mash,then place in the mixing pot. A five gallon pail about twenty litre capacity,was used for the mixing pot. The quantity of material processed was about nine litres. The sample of the chopping, depicts the process for the cucumber. Preliminary preparation done outside on the picnic table, since processing can be messy. No water was added,all the produce was reduced in its own juices. This is possible with the hand blender, but impossible in a container blender.About a litre of material was placed on teflon pans, smoothed evenly, and placed in the Excalibur dehydrator set at 135F\57C initially for ten hours. Time was increased as necessary to get the material dry enough to move to the open mesh for complete dying. Always move to open mesh as soon as the materiel can be handled conveniently. The dried mixture is vacuum packed for storage and is reconstituted by adding boiling water.This particular batch has a most pleasant flavour.Apparently this method of preserving is the most nutrition retentive of all the current conventional methods. The process is relatively simple and straightforward.

[loeb]

Those banana and kale rolls were dry enough but still elastic, so it was easy to cut the roll, it stored just fine in room temperature I don't like american type blueberries very much,taste is ok, but just sweet thats all. But I love polish wild blueberries [they are smaller, and purple inside, and more aromatic], and I have few bushes of jagoda kamczacka = kamtschatic berry [Lonicera caerulea L. var. kamtschatica], quite popular here, similar to american type blueberries. It's completly non problematic bush Mine are small but I think in few years they will produce lots of berries. People are making jams from this, especially with strawberries, or just eat raw, so I think skin leather would be good..

All mentioned vegetables were blended into one mass, right? I have powdered vegetables but never a mix of them, usually single herbs, or mushrooms. Interesting idea

[loeb]

Impressive. And I see that you are boiling almond milk after mixing almonds with water, I have never done it, just drank it like it was.. This is needed to canning? I ca see that collard juice is made that way too.. Do you boil all those jars to sterilize the juices? I have made some nettle juice few days ago, but just frozed it or preserved it with alcohol.. What is pilot bread? is it kind of a raw, dried "bread" or baked bread?

[kurt]

We have a similar process down here with our mangoes.We just made up about 10 pounds.It does freeze well.You can add some good rum after the oven part of it for some "flavor"

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by loeb

Impressive. And I see that you are boiling almond milk after mixing almonds with water, I have never done it, just drank it like it was.. This is needed to canning? I ca see that collard juice is made that way too.. Do you boil all those jars to sterilize the juices? I have made some nettle juice few days ago, but just frozed it or preserved it with alcohol.. What is pilot bread? is it kind of a raw, dried "bread" or baked bread?

Pilot bread is unleavened bread with various ingredients. I make my own flour.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?IFDZK 16 March 2013 Pilot Bread. Whole grain wheat flour, quinoa, flax, sunflower,poppy.

Forty biscuits of pilot bread was made using whole grain wheat flour, quinoa, flax, poppy seeds and sunflower seeds. Quinoa seeds were cooked in the rice cooker. Flax, poppy and sunflower were beat with water in the blender, then cooked for an hour in a water bath double boiler.This prevents sticking to the pot. The ingredients were them mixed with whole grain wheat flour and kneaded into a ball.The dough was then made into a roll and cut into biscuits and shaped. The biscuits were baked at 375F on one side for 30 minutes,then flipped over and baked again for 30 minutes.The biscuits are softened by microwaving for about a minute. They are stored in the refrigerator and freezer as required.

I make a gruel based on cooked almonds. I use to eat the almonds raw but feel they digest better cooked.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?VQQXX 22 March 2013 Breakfast Seeds (Gruel).
A bowl of prepared seeds are cooked beforehand and consumed for breakfast daily. The variety may vary slightly due to what is currently available. This batch consists of quinoa, almonds. flax and sunflower.
Method: Beat the seeds in the blender to a fine consistency adding water as necessary. Quinoa is cooked in the rice cooker. One to two cups of each is the quantity chosen. After being broken up by the blending the seeds are mixed in a pot. The pot full is then cooked for about an hour in a water bath. This prevents sticking to the pot. The cooked product is then stored in litre jars in the refrigerator. One litre produces about five typical breakfasts. It is tasty and nourishing. Pictures depict the process.

[loeb]

You have very interesting ways of processing seeds and grains. I like the idea of that gruel.. never thought about canning grains.. corn can be canned so I should think of it but it never came into my mind.. I like that gruel concept, is this a tradicional dish somewhere? We have few tradicional soups based on grain, one "ritual" one - made from almost whole wheat or barley with poppy seeds, honey, nuts and dried frut - usually raisins now. I'm writing ritual because this is probably from pre-christian times, but now is tradicionally made on a Christmas. I loved it as a child, and still like it so gruel could be nice. i have never planted quinoa, but I have some seeds this year, so maybe i will have some home-grown seeds.I wondered how to use it, now I have at least one good idea, thank you for sharing It's like you could write a book on that subject.. how to turn homegrown veggies into homemade ..everything

[Durgan]

Don't underestimate what we eat is tradition and habit. There is no reason why we should favour bacon and eggs and white toast for breakfast. It is convenient, quick but probably not particularly nourishing compared to what is available. I eat soy beans daily also for breakfast and have been doing so for years.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?PUFKP 7 May 2012 Breakfast
My standard breakfast soy beans and oats with skim milk. Simple, quick, nourishing, and palatable. I now also use a tablespoon of black-strap molasses.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QIUDU 22 November 2011 Cooking Soy Beans

[loeb]

It was more about name "gruel" because it reminds me some french friends.. there were many vegetable dishes that were in use for ages and then dissapeared with growth of commercial foods or became less popular. But some of them still exists and they are usually considered "tradicional" in some way, because of an old ege of that dish in meaning of recipe. Like what you would probably called "sauerkraft soup". Before all that commercial packed foods people knew more about nutrition of vegetables, and they used what was available.. and knew how to preserve it.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?GPTFT 3 June 2013 Rhubarb
The rhubarb from six plants was pulled and made into juice, mixing with one pineapple to ameliorate the sour flavour somewhat.The stalks were cut into short pieces, about two litres of water added to the pot containing one pineapple and cooked for about 15 minutes. The cooked mixture was blended using the hand tool to make the mixture homogeneous.Rhubarb is very sour and the pineapple helps modify the sour flavour.I don’t use crystal sugar or its substitutes.The cooked mixture was put through a food mill to separate out the rough cellulose. The output of the food mill was put through a Champion Juicer to extract all the nutrients.Seven litres was pressure canned at 15 minutes at 15 PSI, my typical procedure for long term storage. About two litres was stored in the refrigerator for immediate use. The total rhubarb used was 15 pounds and the pineapple was four pounds. Each litre of juice contains about 1.5 pounds of rhubarb.

[Sharpcheddar]

Wow, I've never thought to mix pineapple and rhubarb but that sounds like an amazing combination!

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Sharpcheddar

Wow, I've never thought to mix pineapple and rhubarb but that sounds like an amazing combination!

The combination is still sour but the effect is modified slightly. To overwhelm takes a lot of sugar to which I object.

[Tormato]

How about rhubarb/stevia or rhubarb/honey?