Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Dehydrating and Tincturing...

I know this is a long post, but time limits me to making it all one big post! I decided to make my own vanilla extract and it was so easy! I split 6 fresh vanilla beans that I bought at Mountain Rose Herbs and added two cups of brandy. Stuck a label on it, and that was that! It just needs to be shook daily for the first week, then every few days for weeks 2-8. You can start using it as soon as 4 weeks, but 8 weeks will be a stronger extract.
I LOVE, LOVE my new Excalibur dehydrator. After much research, I am very happy with my purchase. The ambient noise is a little loud, thus it sitting in our dining room when I dehydrated. I save money, I bought one that had "cosmetic" dings, but honestly, I didn't see any when it arrived. I bought the 9 tray one with a timer. Ones with the timer are only available directly from the Excalibur company, but I think it's worth the extra $$ for a timer that will turn off the dehydrator when you want...otherwise, you are getting up at night to turn it off. No thank you!
I did a massive batch of soaked nuts and then used my dehydrator to dry them. I've soaked nuts before, but never dried then due to space limitations in my oven.
Using my dehydrator was awesome and the nuts came out amazing! Walnuts can have a sharp bitter taste to them if you don't soak them (besides all the anti-nutrients), but that taste is gone with soaking. Sure, it's work, but well worth it, as your body will digest them much better and their nutrients are more bio-available. In years past, this is how other cultures at nuts...soaked, then sundried.

Lastly, I did some tincturing. This is a HUGE money saver. It was very easy to do and tinctures will last years. We will have enough echinacea tincture to last us a long, long time!
For recipes, leave a comment. Equipment you need are the herbs, vegetable glycerin or vodka (at least 40 proof), a digital scale, measure cups, funnel, and glass bottles.
Make sure your labels have the date and what is in the bottle...
Lastly, I dried some extra parsley and dill from my coop - can't wait to have this to use over the next year.