12 Pounds of Corn

 Dehydrated veggies from the garden or frozen veggies on sale at the grocery can save you a whole heck of a lot of money. Another way to cut down on cost is to recycle glass jars. We like and use this brand of spaghetti sauce. The empty jars along with small canning lids and rings work perfect for storing dehydrated foods. NEVER EVER use this sort of jar to water bath or pressure can !!!!

 You should NEVER reuse lids to can with!!!!! But.......they are just fine to use on dehydrated food jars. I put a big X in permanent maker on used lids. I don't trust myself to remember whats used and whats new. Seems silly to throw away the lids that can be used for lots of other things

 Here is one of the cool things about the Excalibur dehydrator. The screens that sit on the trays can be removed and are flexible. Just roll it up, use a funnel and pour right into the jar. No need to use food grade gloves, (more money saved)

 TA DA, Here is what 12 pounds of corn looks like dehydrated. Pretty cool right?

 I dehydrate lots and lots of veggies and herbs.  Most of the time its from the garden but this year I will have to use frozen when I can find a good sale.

 There is lots of chopping, dicing, slicing and blanching when using fresh from the garden food. Frozen food is ready to pop right on the trays, all the work has already been done for you, so easy.

12 pounds of Lima/butter beans are in the dehydrator today/night. Not sure how long this batch will take as I overloaded a few trays, my bad.

So what do you think about my 12 pounds of sweet white corn? If I figured right were are talking a cost of  $7.20. I will see if I can dig up the info on price per pound for frozen(now dehydrated) verses store bought canned veggies. I do know with canned foods the weight includes water that the veggies are packed in. You are also paying extra for the can itself, added salt, sugar, and in some cases preservatives.

 For the most part I store dehydrated things in recycled glass jars but if I have an over abundance of things from the garden I will use the Food Saver bags then restock the jars from those bags. Seeing as how we won't be getting anything extra from the garden this year the food saver won't be needed!

Let me see if I can answer some of the questions that have come up from comments and e-mails regarding dehydrating.

I use the Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator. This gal is a whole lot more costly than anything you will see in the big box or department stores but it is worth every penny. I know its sold on lots of different sites and/or blogs but I figured I would just refer you to the company site. Remember I AM IN NO way affiliated with this company!!!! I have never tried making jerky or dehydrated meat yet, nor do I think I ever will so I can't share any experience with that sort of thing. I have done lots of different fruits with OK success however, I don't care for the texture of most dehydrated fruits. Maybe I am just doing it wrong.

The very best site I have seen on How To dehydrate is "Dehydrate2store" This lady rocks her dehydrator. The recipes I have tried are really good, her video's are wonderful, lots and lots of great information on her site. I am crazy over the top picky about food safety. Tammy the host of dehydrate 2 store is right on track with food safety. AGAIN I AM NOT affiliated with Tammy's site in any way!!!

As we have a glass top stove I can not pressure can anything, dehydrating has solved that problem when putting up low acid foods. I do water bath can on our glass top stove (when the garden doesn't drown) and have had no problems at all. I use the Ball flat bottom stainless steel canner I purchased from "Lehman's". She is a beauty to look at and a real work horse!!! I am being lazy tonight, in order to take a photo of my canner I would have to drag it in from the garage and dust it off. It's too stinkin hot for that (remember no central AC) The Lehman's link will take you right to the one we have. As with many of my kitchen appliances I try and buy the good stuff. Nothing aggravates me more (other than being hot) than paying money for something that only last a year or two. If you have never seen a Lehman's catalog or visited their site you are in for a treat if your into old fashion kitchen gadgets, home remedies, garden stuff, and lots of non electric items.

Well by golly I do believe I have hooked you up with lots of cool sites that will keep you up late tonight!! Ha Before I got into preserving food I spent tons of hours searching sites, books, blogs, any information I could find. While my sister and I grew up around gardens, canning, and preserving food there is a heck of a difference when you are doing the real work and not just hanging on your grandmothers apron strings. I hope you find the sites I have included full of good safe information on food preservation. If your lucky enough to have a garden that is alive and well give preserving a little something for the winter a whirl., Be forewarned it is addicting!!!

JUST so we are very CLEAR, I am in no way connected to any of the sites/products I have linked to this post. The only sponsor I have is my hard working man!