Onions!

Our first serious foray into dehydrating last year was onions. We had gathered all we could from our garden, but we certainly couldnt eat them all, and they didn't have enough top that we could braid them. Mom had given us some onion choppers, so I cleaned, and chopped, then dried them in the dehydrator. It took about 12 hours. Then we put them into seasoning jars and closed them up tightly. We really like to use dried chopped onions in alot of our food. What wonderful taste! But before long, we had used them all up.

This year on April 24th, I bought about 5 really BIG onions from JAMS, and later that day, we were gifted with two bags of onions for a total of about 13 pounds. Again, there were no tops to braid. I may not be one to mince words, but I needed to mince these onions quickly. I trotted out the food processor (no, we didn't get a book when we bought it) and tried every single blade until I discovered that the chopping blade that sits down inside the container would work the best.

I cleaned the onions, cut them into eighths, and piled them in until the container was full, then pulsed the blade until the pieces were the size that we like for in our food. I had to reapeat this about 10 times to get all the onion chopped.

I put the mesh screens in the trays and spread the onions on the screen about 1/4 inch deep. I filled 26 trays total. One of the great things about this dehydrator is that you do not need to rotate trays, so once you start, you can walk away until they are done.

We started the drying in the mid afternoon, so we used a lower temperature, about 110, and ran the dryer all night. In the morning, once the boys were off to school and VARC, I unloaded the trays. Then I got the food processor out again and broke the onions into large sections and put them in the container. I used the plastic blending blade and pulsed it to break the pieces apart. This worked really well and was quick. It took about two hours to finish this and pour the pieces into containers

The negatives of the project were:

• The house smelled of onions for two solid days (even after we were done)


• The dehydrator occupies a fair amount of counter space


• I cried A LOT

The benefits of the project were:

• Our total yield was about 20 ounces. I priced chopped onions at the local store, and 2 ounces of the store brand was $4.00. So our first PFB project this year saved us $40.00!


• We have plenty of chopped onion of the size we like, and don't have to be so conservative in using it

We plan to repeat this when our own onions are ready to harvest.

Equipment

Over time we have become increasingly convinced that food we grow ourselves is healthier for our family. And if we don't/can't grow it ourselves, then buying from local producers is the next best option. So, in 2006 we did our first canning. Tomatoes and apples. And in order to get started we had to buy some equipment. We read every garage sale add, and went to every sale that had any mention of equipment that we needed. In the end, most of what we have for equipment was purchased second-hand, and only a few items were bought new. Here is our list of equipment:

• Pressure cooker/canner - we actually have four, 3 are Mirro-Matic (8, 10 and 16 quart) and one is a National (now Presto) 18 quart canner, but you only really need one large one. Please note that the size of the canner does not equal the number of quarts you can process at the same time. We can only do 7 quarts in our 18 quart canner. If you get your canner from a garage sale, you may need to replace parts. Make sure that you can still get parts for that model before you buy it. It took us about 18 months to finally find a gasket for our National canner. Our National canner was a gift from a friend. One of the small Mirro canners was my mother's, and the other two cost $25 at a garage sale.
• Steam canner/water bath canner - we have a 7 quart steam canner, Back to Basics brand. It uses less water, and takes less time to process each batch because there is less water to bring to a boil. As a bonus, we can prep our jars by putting them upside down in the canner while we bring the water to a boil. We bought this new at Farm and Fleet for $29.95.
• Dryer - we found a Harvest Maid Preserver at an estate sale. It is now called the FD-1010 Garden Master Pro by Nesco. It's awesome. It can handle 30 trays (we have 31 trays, 25 mesh screens and 5 leather sheets). We actually bought the whole set for $100. If you buy this new, it is $149.95 for the base unit, 4 trays, 1 screen and 1 leather sheet. Additional parts cost $24.95 for 2 trays, $7.95 for two screens and $9.95 for two leather sheets. Wow! Our set up would have cost $590.20 new.
• Roma food strainer - great for apples and tomatoes. You can also buy additional screens for salsa, berries and pumpkin. $49.95 new at Farm and Fleet.
• Apple peeler - ours was a gift. You can buy one new for around $20.
• Apple slicer/corer - we've had ours forever. New for about $8.
• Canning accessories - We bought a Back to Basics home canning kit which includes a canning funnel, a magnetic lid lifter, a cushioned coated jar lifter, a sure grip wrench, and tongs. $8.99 at Farm and Fleet.
• Jars, lids and rings - Buy new lids! Old lids may look OK, but if the seal isn't perfect, your food will spoil. We buy jars at garage sales, and get all that we can find.
• Food processor - another garage sale find. We have a Sunbeam heavy duty food processor.