It All Started With Celery

 Want to see some magic with four bunches of celery?

 Once it was chopped up I loaded it in the dehydrator

 Now to use up the leftover tops and ends

 Part went into this pot along with chicken bones to make stock for the freezer. It's soon to be chicken and dumplin days!!

 The rest I threw in a freezer bag to use for more stock another day.

 The bottom of the stalk I put in cups of water to give growing our own celery a try. So far its working!! I will be planting it in a pot today.

Ta Da, here is the four bunches of celery after it has been dehydrated, amazing don't you think? BTW this is a pint jar.

Way back when.....leftover celery was the food item that drove me to hit the add to cart button for our dehydrator. Celery will always have a soft spot in my heart as it changed my world when it comes to preserving food and getting a home cooked meal on the table a whole heck of a lot faster.

I had been looking for alternatives in preserving veggies from the garden since I couldn't use a pressure canner and frozen veggies just don't float my boat. After some research in books and the Internet I was thinking long and hard over purchasing a dehydrator. Dehydrate2store, was and still is my favorite go to site on all things dehydrated.

I was putting together a pot of soup that morning. You know the drill, standing at the counter chopping away at all of the ingredients to put in the soup pot thinking of all the other things on my to do list once I got everything chopped up and on the stove. When I got to the bunch of celery. I only needed 3 stalks, what the heck am I going to do with the leftover celery? I knew as I returned that celery to the refrigerator more than likely it would be a wilted mess only to be thrown out in a week or so :( All of those video's from dehydrate2store came rushing into my head. Just about every single thing in that pot of soup we grow in our garden but I couldn't put up due to the pressure canner problem. I bet it could all be dehydrated, I would also never have to throw celery away again.

SOLD!!!!

I LOVE our dehydrator, having four bunches of celery already chopped up in the pantry to throw in a soup, casserole, dressing (think Thanksgiving), and whatever else is a great feeling. And just think of all the money I am saving, I would guess at least $10.00 a year, that is on celery alone! Ha Over the years I can't even begin to think of how much money it has saved us and the hours I use to spend chopping up whatever was needed to add to the pot is over. Now I do a big chopping morning, load it in the dehydrator and walk away. TOO COOL!!

I just checked the temperature outside, its 54 degrees!!! You might know after we got the  new heat pumps in the weather would turn off cool, right! I LOVE it, Fall is my favorite time of the year. The sights, sounds and smells, nothing could be better. I am in the mood for some fall kitchen playtime. I have a million and one things on my "To Do" list but I am going to take some time away from all that today to throw open the windows, slip on an apron and play house. The cabinets and pantry could use a good clean out. I am sure there is something lurking around that needs to move on to the goodwill store. The grands have rearranged the lower pantry cabinets a whole lot here lately, they could use some tidy up time. I have HIGH hopes the painter will come by this week to give me an estimate on refinishing the kitchen cabinets. I don't want to be embarrassed by what he might find as he takes a peek around! Ha.

Has anybody else been bitten by the fall bug? Are you taking stock and stocking up? Maybe decorating for fall already? I am holding off on the decorating for now as we still have more workmen in and out of the house, that is if and when they show up. This morning I don't even care, it feels like fall and I am loving it.