Juices

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?IJANT 19 July 2012 Blueberry Fruit Leather
Three litres, about three pounds, of blueberries were made into fruit leather.The selected berries were hand blended into a slurry. The hand blender allows one to beat into a fine slurry, whereas a typical canister blender will not allow this unless water is added, which complicates the dehydration process. After experimenting with the various sold sheets sold by the dehydrator companies, I determined that they were relatively useless and not required since a teflon sheet is far more convenient. It is necessary to get the product onto open screen mesh for efficient dehydration. This is impossible with a slurry until sufficiently dry so the liquid does not run into the mesh. About ten hour at 125F dries the underside so it can be flipped over to complete the dehydration on the open mesh. Also the tefon pans enclose the thick slurry and make for a nice shaped leather.After the fruit sheet is on the open mesh dehydration is rapid and must be checked regularly to determine when the process is complete and the desired result is obtained.
Note. The end product was perfect after a further three hours of dehydration on the open sheets. The end product is a bit soft (desirable) and was vacuum packed and will be kept in the refrigerator or frozen for longer storage. To store at room temperature the product must be as hard a shoe leather.The commercial fruit leather and dried fruit if soft as is the usual case, has to be packed with bacterial inhibitors, since it cannot be soft and kept on the open shelves of supermarkets without some inhibiting chemicals. I never buy the stuff.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?KSWVC 20 July 2012 Blueberry Fruit Leather(Logistics)
Fruit leather in general is not a cheap item to produce.Each large sheet in the photographs requires about two pound of berries, which presently cost 3.00 per pound. If the sheet is cut into typical serving size of 20 from a sheet. The cost per piece is about thirty cents just for the ingredients. Other issues are storage and softness of the finished product.To store at room temperature the product must be thoroughly dehydrated until hard, which is not conducive to casual eating.But is ideal for camping and the like lifestyles.For casual eating the product must be relatively soft and palatable. This means moisture is present and the product must be refrigerated or it will mold in a few days.Vacuum packing extends shelf life at room temperature considerably and is ideal for freezing. I envision this product along with other dehydrated fruits as a healthy, nutritional snack food replacing the typical supermarket junk food.The product presented is only blueberries with nothing added.Annotated photographs depict the process.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?RHIND 25 July 2012. Blueberry Fruit Leather.
Eleven litres or about ten quarts of blueberries were dehydrated into fruit leather.The procedure is simple and the end product makes a quality, nourishing snack, or child treat. Each sheet contains about 1.7 litres of berries.I make it slightly pliable with some moisture present and store in the refrigerator or freezer. To store at room temperature it must be dried to a very hard texture, with no moisture present.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?DIZER 19 July 2012 Blueberry Juice
Twenty three pounds of blueberries were picked ($2.60\lb) at a commercial farm (Kent Kreek, Norfolk County, ON). The berries were as perfect as they can be. About fifteen pounds were made into ten litres of juice. Each litre of juice contains about 1.5 pounds of berries.Blueberries contain no roughage, so straining was not necessary. Some were set aside for fresh use, and about four pounds are being dehydrated into fruit leather. Annotated photographs depict the effort.
Note: 20 July 2012. Another 15 pounds of blueberries was made into nine litres of juice. That is enough for this season.

[Durgan]

Cranberry are touted to be beneficial so this is my method of utilizing.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?KYQUO 9 October 2012 Cranberry.
Twelve pounds of cranberries was processed into 10 litres of juice. About five litres of water was added to make drinkable.Cranberries are in season in several places throughout the country. A few apples were added to reduce the sourness of the cranberries. The product was pressure canned at 15 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?RLTDZ 5 September 2012 Cranberry Juice
Eight litres of Cranberry juice was made from frozen 4800 grams of frozen berries. There is little juice in the cranberries, therefore they must be processed with about one litre of water per 454 grams of berries.Cranberries are sales hyped as to health benefits. Annotated pictures depict the juicing process.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QHYJU 28 November 2011 Cranberry Juice
Cranberries are not local to my area, so I have to use purchased berries from the supermarket. The fresh cranberry berries are not in the stores yet, so I decided to do a dry run on frozen berries.When the fresh berries become available in December,I will make more juice. Cranberries are usually used as a garnish in jelly or whole cooked form with sugar for turkey on festive occasions. The juice is touted as having beneficial effects.The juice is tart to some degree, but acceptable.

Method is typical. Wash,add water to thin as required, boil, beat into a mash, remove all air, strain, Pressure can at 15 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?BXFRZ 17 July 2012 Goja Berry and Blueberry Juice.
Five pounds of Goja berries and ten pounds of Blueberries were made into juice. Both berries were freshly picked. Goja berries cost $30.00 per pound and the five pounds came to $150.00.The blueberries cost 3.40 per pound for a total of $34.00 for ten pounds. Twelve litres of juice was obtained for a cost of $13.80 per litre.The berries were purchasd near Langton, ON http://www.gojiontario.com/index.php
Processing was normal,berries added to pot, and water added to cover the berries, boiling until soft (15 minutes), blending into a slurry (three minutes), straining using a food mill. There was almost no residue, but what was present was put through the Champion Juicer to extract any nutrients.The extracted juice was then pressure canned at 15 PSI. Annotated photographs depict the process.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?KEDKH 15 July 2012 Blueberry and Gooseberry Juice.
Seventeen pound of fruit was made into juice. Seven pounds of gooseberry and ten pounds of blueberry were picked from the garden. Twelve litres of juice was obtained. Each litre of juice contains about 1.4 pounds of the mixed fruit. The juice is natural with only water added to thin for drinking and to insure enough liquid for cooking.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?KRKOL 4 July 2011 Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum)

The one blackcurrant bush in the garden furnished four pounds of perfect berries. All the berries were black, every single one,almost of uniform size, and about one in 100 was ripe enough to fall when touched. My new criteria for deciding when to pick. Juice was made by covering with water (two litres), boiling for about 15 minutes and beating into a mash using the portable blender. I did not strain since there was little roughage in the berries. The three litres of juice obtained was pressure canned for long term storage at room temperature. I used 15 PSI for 15 minutes. The end product is rather thick, a bit tart, so half a glass is probably a reasonable amount for a serving.

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?VENWO 2 July 2012 Current Garden Vegetable Juice. All the current garden vegetables were made into juice and pressured canned for use in the off season.Seven litres of juice was obtained.Annotated photographs depict the procedure.

[Redbaron]

Ah yes! Veggie juice! One of my favorites!

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

Ah yes! Veggie juice! One of my favorites!

How do you preserve your garden produce? I see a lot of people growing plants, but little information on serious preserving.

[Alfredo]

Wow that looks good and healthy. ~Alfredo

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Durgan

How do you preserve your garden produce?

I freeze or can it. But mostly I eat it! During peak production I can go days eating nothing else but what my garden supplies. If there is too much to eat and my freezer full, and all the shelves in the pantry full, I sell or give away the rest.

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

I freeze or can it. But mostly I eat it! During peak production I can go days eating nothing else but what my garden supplies. If there is too much to eat and my freezer full, and all the shelves in the pantry full, I sell or give away the rest.

I am still living on my produce preserved during the season of growth. There are only 113 litres of produce left from about 450 canned. I ingest two or three litres per day, often mixing in the drinking glass.

[Gavriil]

why do you discard the residue from your juicer, wouldn't it be good for burying in the garden.
That's what I do with mine or is that what you meant by discard it.

[TightenUp]

Originally Posted by Gavriil

why do you discard the residue from your juicer, wouldn't it be good for burying in the garden.
That's what I do with mine or is that what you meant by discard it.

check captions. food for the horses

[FarmerShawn]

We can about 80 quarts of tomatoes, and a few jars of pickles, though we don't really eat that many pickles; we just like to experiment. Mostly we freeze stuff, but last year I got an Excalibur dehydrator, and had it going almost full time at the end of summer. Best luck came from dried tomatoes - all kinds - and peppers, hot and sweet. And of course apples. Sweet corn dries nicely, and makes a nice crunchy snack, but grind some up and add it to your favorite corn bread or muffin recipe, and the result is eye-poppingly good. Of course we root cellar what we are able to. Carrots I leave in the ground, mulch heavily with leaves late in the fall, and dig all winter, after shoveling the snow off, despite twenty below temps. They get sweeter than ever.
We somehow just have not yet got into drinking our vegetables, though.
Shawn

[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.