Is anyone else getting the "Something went wrong..." error when they try to start a new post? It's been happening to me for days, on and off.

This is the result of dehydrating one good-size zucchini. If I shake the jar It tinkles nicely. :) Does it look right?

Your humidity is counting against you. And I think the Nesco folks only test the dehydrators in a controlled lab, lol. I live in a higher humidity area. I run the Nesco at 140-145 on the regular for most things. More delicate stuff like greens and citrus slices are more around 130. I don't dehydrate herbs anymore, I dry them or freeze them.

Yes, they should be crispy dry. Things with a higher sugar content can tend to stay a bit chewier or softer after dehydrating, but things like catnip and zuc slices should come out crispy dry.

Not everyone swaps around trays, but I tend to if there are more than three trays. I have run the Nesco with a dozen trays stacked on it, but I prefer to max out around 6-7. I also tend to use an empty tray on the top of the stack because I feel it allows more topside circulation down. Sometimes really wet things like zucs and tomatoes need to be flipped halfway through the dehydrating.

Put a different cap on that jar. The white ones aren't leak/air tight. Yes, that little amount of air allowed by the white caps is enough to soften your dehydrated things back up. Use a regular canning lid and ring instead.

Thank you so much, beesneeds!!! I've put the zucchini back in the dehydrator and set it to 140F and will check it in about an hour. Thanks for info on organizing the trays too... I've been loading mine from the top to the bottom and usually leaving the bottom tray empty. I'll switch that. Re the cap, it does have a rubber ring inside the lid for a tight fit, but I will switch to a regular canning lid, as you say. Thank you so much!

I know the plastic lids with the rings are supposed to work well... I just don't trust them like I do the lid and ring set. But then, I also tend to have it in the jar for conditioning, but vacuum seal it into bags for storage. And back into a jar with lid and ring for the open one on the shelf.

Actually, it occurred to me that the ring is probably silicone or a really soft plastic, because it's clear. :) I don't have a vacuum sealer... I just thought it would be nice to dehydrate some extra things from the garden to have to add to soups in the winter. If I ever do get this zucchini crispy, then I will try to dehydrate some kale. Should the temp be more like 130F for kale?

You don't have to have a vacuum sealer. I happen to have one and I know sealing them up helps keep anything else out. I've used dessicant packets in the past too, but didn't really think they were necessary- and some folks very much like those.

I tend to 130 for greens like kale. Do be sure to really devein them- kale veins turn into sticks and I don't find them good eats. And they take a lot longer to go dry than the green parts.

Will do! Thank you for all the help, beesneeds!

5 pints of peach butter and 9 pints of white peaches today/Friday. Probably a repeat Sat. along with round four? of tomatoes.

PM, my zucchini is crispy, I agree with beesneeds. I don't have a Nesco dehydrator, I have an Excaliber, but I have also found that it's humid and wet here and I up the temperature to get results. Some things just don't work well for me, I've never dehydrated a tomato, sliced or cubed, that got dry enough to make tomato powder, I finally just gave up on it.

I finally have one yellow flower on a dahlia and one white one with a kind of coral center. My daughter's yellow dahlia is about 4 feet tall and covered with blooms, I guess mine must not like where I put it. I'll move it somewhere else next year.

It's still bean harvesting here, I've dehydrated a quart of Cherokee Trail of Tears and one of Good Mother Stallard and canned 10 pint jars of crowder peas. I canned another 7 quarts of stewed tomatoes yesterday. My grandson helped me dig potatoes and there are 3 five gallon buckets of those in the garage for storage along with a bushel of Red Delicious apples that I picked to relieve some of the weight on the branches, which are hanging nearly to the ground. I think I'll be canning applesauce and drying some apple slices this week!

PM, I like homemade catsup better than the store bought kind. I made just "plain old catsup" this time but I'll be making a batch of KatieC's Chipotle Catsup before the tomatoes are gone.

Okie, I'm just thankful it doesn't get into the 100s here, it hits 90F and I'm miserable, ugh! I've been working on fall gardens too, I have lettuce and green onions and some spinach in one of the hoop houses so I can close them up when frost threatens, which is usually the end of September but last year it was nearly Halloween.

Annie

Annie, thanks for the further info on dehydrating. I know now not to bother to try to make tomato powder, but I do like the sound of a Chipotle Catsup recipe and I'll try to find that. I'm glad you finally have blooms on the dahlias -- a white with coral center sounds very pretty! but something is amiss if you've hardly had any blooms and your daughter's is growing like a monster! I don't think they're supposed to be anywhere near 4 feet tall. lol!

Hers is a monster, it's crazy! I'll have to take a picture tomorrow if I remember, you won't believe the thing! She did plant it right in a big pile of composted cow manure while mine has to make do down by the pond, but really? (grin)

Annie

did ten pints of white peach jam today.

Fermented hot pepper sauce! The two on the left are Sugar Rush Peach with garlic and lime. The others are Cayenne with garlic and apple cider vinegar.

Martha

yikes, Annie, I think hers had an advantage by growing in the pile of manure.... I wonder how big her tubers are! My dahlias from seed are growing in a fairly sandy spot that gets a good amount of sun, with some shade thrown in both early and late in the day.

bragu, every time I read "peach jam" I remember the year we got bad lids. I had made a perfect batch of peach jam -- all the seals failed in storage. I remember my sister being miserable because nearly all of the seals on everything she had canned that summer failed, and it was a year when she had canned a ton of things. sigh.

Docmom, yum!

Last five pint jars of tomato sauce... I'm right tired of tomatoes, lol. Started the apples yesterday, couple gallons of sauce. Only a gallon of it in half pint jars. Discovered while I have tons of wide lids, I'm out of regular ones.

Bees, I'm a bit tired of tomatoes myself, but I need to pick again tomorrow and my back yard looks like this:

So, I canned 9 quarts and a pint of a nice thick tomato sauce made with a mix of those tomatoes, 7 pints of tomatillos, put 2 gallon bags of sweet pepper strips in the freezer. Tonight more of the sweet peppers are going into the dehydrator and I have chicken stock sitting so the fat can congeal and I can skim it off, then I'll can that too. I also have some poblanos that I should do something with...

Annie

Hope you get it all canned up while the getting's good.

Winter's a coming soon enough.

okie HU

Okie, when I was still working I used to take vacation days to can, my secretaries used to tease me incessantly about my choice of "down time", LOL. Now I'm retired and can't take a vacation day!

I got 5 1/2 bushels of apples picked today and a lot of temporary fence put up so I can put the cattle out on fresh pasture. There are a LOT more apples on the trees, my cider press will be busy soon, the grandkids love to press cider almost as much as they love to drink it.

I managed to get a tray full of poblanos charred/peeled/seeded and into the freezer, and the chicken stock canned, 6 quarts. Tomorrow I'll be picking and shelling more of the Good Mother Stallard beans and picking more apples.

Annie

Hope you get it all done.

At least you get a break when the snow's 3 ft high and minus temps....don't you?

Oh , about cattle . I know about tending to cattle ( and calving) during the winter.

Okie HU

Yum, Annie, that all sounds fantastic and I'll bet your cider is awesome! I dehydrated more zucchini yesterday and had better success... it took 10 hours at 140F so next time I'll try 145F. Otherwise, yesterday the grass was dry enough for me to mow, weed-whack, and trim the blackberries... and we had stuffed poblanos for dinner last night! :)

Wondering if Kate has been around?? She hasn't posted here since last month.

Annie, you making my butt tired reading you, lol. I'm only doing a bushel and a half of apples this year, sauce and butter. And I'm giving a stink eye to the last half bushel, just thankful apples can sit longer than the tomatoes can. I really should take some time to figure out how to make a cider press before next fall. Need to dig out my folks old books on it.

Did get a gallon of corn and a gallon of corn stock into the freezer though.

Okie, if you have had cows you know the drill. I do try to have calves in the spring, and usually succeed but a couple of years ago we had calves in January and two of the three did not survive, even in the (unheated) barn. (sigh) When we have 3 feet of snow and it's 20 below zero I'm still breaking ice on water tanks and moving hay. No breaks from cattle, so we'll probably get out of that in the next couple of years. The older I get the more work it is, and I'm not even raising dairy cattle!

Today I canned 10 quarts of crushed tomatoes, yesterday it was 13 pints of apple sauce and 17 pints of cinnamon pears. Before that it was 11 quarts of sauerkraut and 9 quarts of tomato sauce, Before that it was another 7 pints of crowder peas and 6 quarts of Readinglady's Basil Tomato sauce. There are apples in the dehydrator right now and I pulled nearly 100 pounds of onions yesterday so they'll need to take their spot in the dehydator when it's free. We're pressing cider on Saturday, the grandkids are coming to "help". I still want to can some apple pie filling too, and I'm sure I have enough apples, my barn looks like this:

Today's tomatoes were really pretty too, a combination of Great White, Golden Jubilee, Garden Peach, Barnes Mountain Pink, Green Zebra and good old Rutgers. It looks sort of tie-dyed!

Bees, I saw a homemade apple press for small amounts, they ground the apples up in a food processor, put them into a pillow case, put the pillowcase on top of a tall narrow bucket in a tub, put another larger bucket over top the tall bucket and stood on the large bucket. Their weight pressed out the juice, but I just kept thinking I'd fall off the blasted bucket and hurt myself, LOL.

Annie

Annie , I grew up on a dairy farm . My Dad worked a small dairy (60 some Holstein cows ) for somebody else for 34 years. That was pretty much his whole working career. ( he later died from " farmer's lung" )

7 days a week , milking twice a day , starting at around 4 am every morning.

and again at around 4 pm every evening. Xmas , Thanksgiving ,... didn't matter , had to milk.

It was my child hood job to clean the lot ( scooping cow sh**) every morning before going to school.

I know ALL about it ( the manure, cutting ice with an axe in the winter , haying , feeding , grinding feed , ..,.in between milkings...... etc)..

It's not one of my favorite things to do.

I'd rather be gardening.

Okie HU

Annie - we've had calves born in December twice before but luckily haven't lost any of them since our winters are much milder than yours. Our next batch of calves should be born in March or April,

We sold 3 steer and 1 heifer (all about 6 months old) at the auction a few months ago and got $2.35/lb hoof weight...$5,800 total! We didn't think we could buy enough hay to feed 10 thru the winter. We thought we might have to sell or process a couple of the 6 breeders this fall as well but we managed to find 25 bales of hay for $60 per to get them thru the winter.

Okie, we milked when I was a kid, I learned quickly that I did not want to do that, LOL.

Jack, I'm lucky to have about 30 acres of hay and since I grew up on this farm, know all the neighbors. The pasture is trash already and we're feeding hay and I had to buy an additional 10 bales at $50 a bale. Makes the beef a bit more expensive, but right now I have 9. Three cows, three yearlings and 3 calves born in June. The yearlings will go to slaughter November 7 but we'll still be wintering 6.

That's an exceptional beef price! I only sell to neighbors and keep the rest for family and I charged this year's customers (both of them, LOL) $2.50 a pound hanging weight, they pay their own packaging. It's the most I've ever charged, but hay is more expensive to produce. They are both very happy with that, it's still a lot cheaper than buying grass fed beef at the store and they both want the lean grass fed stuff.

Since I'm the last poster, I'm just going to edit this to add that we pressed over 20 gallons of cider. Everyone took some home and still left me enough to can 20 quarts of cider and 13 half pints of apple cider jelly. The jelly failed to "jell" and I had to redo it, but the second time around it turned out well. Yesterday I canned 5 quarts and a pint of peach pie filling and there are sweet peppers in the dehydrator, nearly dry.

Annie

Am I the only one still canning? Yesterday I reduced a half bushel of apples down into 10 half pints of apple butter and put 9 quart bags of peach slices into the freezer. Today I sliced hot peppers into a lime solution, they'll be canned tomorrow and then took a break to bake some bread for tomorrow's breakfast toast. The dehydrator is full of New Mexico Cave Beans, which seem very similar to Jacob's Cattle, except they are pole beans instead of bush beans. Those got picked and shelled today, there are still more out on the cattle panel trellis along with the Christmas Limas. I still need to dehydrate onions and more sweet peppers.

Annie

I've been canning, mostly tomatoes, although there was a clean out of saved chicken parts for stock. I did 6 or 7 half pints of tomato sauce and I dehydrated tomatoes and made tomato powder. That stuff is useful when we're at our summer place in the BC bush. And I made 17 pts and a half pint of salsa, good for more than just chips! Also 12 pts and 2 half pts of Peach Twist salsa.

I always credit the salsa to Annie. Those six tomatoes weighed 8 lbs.

Peach Twist salsa, the tomato on the right weighed over 2 lbs.

Long time, not being on here, glad to see you are still here Annie! I have been busy

Lizzy, I'm so glad to see you here again! You HAVE been busy, nice pantry you have going there! I Congratulations on the Fair ribbons too, good for you.

Wow, lea, now that's some tomato, my biggest one never made 2 pounds, it topped out at 1.6 pounds and I thought it was pretty darned big. That one, though, beats it all ways! The salsa looks delicious, and it wouldn't take too many of those tomatoes to make a batch or two.

I'm still hard at work, 6 pints and 11 half pints of limed hot peppers pickled, a dehydrator full of onions dried and I think I might can one last batch of stewed tomatoes, I'm going to pick tomorrow and see what I have. I used several today in a batch of chili but I still have some and they were just so nice this year.

I still have a few peaches ripening too, but I'm kind of leaning toward cobbler instead of putting more in the freezer, and I need to make another batch of chicken stock with the last of those "parts" before beef goes to slaughter in November.

Annie

I've become selective about canning since the kids have moved far and away. I have a few favorites though like Zucchini Relish, Anne's Salsa, pickled Asparagus.. Still eating on the variety of relishes I canned last few years. Keep up the good canning works. Nothing like home made/fresh made food for the table and pantry.

Annie , looks like your peak season in the fall is about like my peak season in the summer.

I guess canning season migrates from south to north , like the birds.

My canning is has wound down now but I've been getting a fall garden going.

I have to start my fall plantings in the August heat.

Here's what I got going now:

Left : green beans and green English shelling peas with some brassicas in between.

Right : an assortment of greens and roots , collards , kale ,spinach , swiss chard , mustard, lettuce , carrots ,beets , turnips , rutabaga , kohlrabi , onions.

Green beans and green peas closer up.

I had shade cloth on the hoops earlier on while it was brazing hot in Aug/Sept.

But now just had to lay a row cover over the beans for a light frost..

I don't can much in the fall.

I just try to get some greens (collards ,kale ,spinach ,mustard..) and roots like turnips , beets , carrots and onions... going (brocolli , cabbage too). to have fresh through the fall , winter or overwinter for early spring , however way it works out.

Okie HU

Okie, I'm winding down here, but I do have lettuce happily growing in the hoop houses. The garden still has 6 red cabbages, brussels sprouts, leeks, collards and kale and some golden beets that "got away from me" and are now about as big as my head, LOL. That's OK, the cows still like them!

I've been dehydrating the hot peppers. I dried a jar of the balloon peppers I grew from the seed from PartyMusic, I'm going to use those as "flakes". I also dried a quart of the "super hots", Dragon's Breath and Death Spiral. Much sneezing, coughing and crying, LOL. I don't even try to eat those but there are specific family members who like them dried and powdered. My Granddaughter calls it "Dust of Death". So, finally tally on peppers is two more quarts of red and green sweet peppers dehydrated, two quarts of Sugar Rush Peach and a quart each of the Super Hots and Balloon Peppers. Next up, onions.

Weather report says it will be in the 30s and snow next week, so I guess gardening is nearly over here until next spring except the salad in the hoop houses and the horseradish which I neglected to dig last year and this year it's BIG...

I planted 250 cloves of garlic yesterday and 50 cloves of elephant garlic, that's all the fall planting I do here.

Annie

Ahhh , you do the superhots.

I do too. Last year I tried Dragon's Breath

I didn't find it to be any hotter than a Reaper. It makes a shorter pod too.

Heard lately that Pepper X officially beat out Carolina Reaper for hotness.

Guess I'll try that one when I get a chance , might have to put a gas mask on.

My interest in superhots comes from being (((TOLD))) about that "ol hot place" when I was a boy.

Haven't even heard of "Death Spiral" . Sounds interesting

About my fall plantings, I try to do the low tunnel thing over the greens and brassicas

for winter gardening or over wintering.

I don't ever quit gardening unless the weather forces me to.

Okie HU

Annie , does anybody up there do the low tunnel thing on a large scale during the winter ?

I've seen pictures of them ;

Okie HU

Okie, some of the bigger growers use those low tunnels, but I was told by one of them that they can't grow anything in February . Not because of the cold but because of the lack of light. IT's not unusual to get 0% sunshine every day in February, so too gloomy I guess. I haven't tried either because by the time we get our average 80 inches or so of snow, I'm tired of shoveling my way out to the mailbox, let alone to the garden, LOL.

Today I've been dehydrating onions, I have lots left to go..

Annie

put up 5 qt of shredded chicken over the weekend ... now back to the easy stuff, have 6 bushels of english walnuts to husk so I can dry them ...

I finished my last bottle of hot pepper sauce last weekend, with my Fatalii peppers. It might have been the last of my life. I just can't see fumigating my garage and neighborhood with my leftover peppers, when there are experts who have perfected the process and flavors over years. I'll just invest in a variety of hot sauces from outside sources.

Martha

Martha, I agree. I have to park the car outside when I dehydrate those hot peppers and then everyone buys Elery hot sauce as a gift at Christmas anyway...

I'm cleaning the freezer. Still. I just canned 10 pints of strawberry sauce and dehydrated a 2 quart jar of red onions and one of white onions. I still have at least two bushels of red onions left. I also cut sweet peppers into strips and froze them for later use. So, take something out of the freezer, put something else in the freezer, repeat.

Dave, I used to help Dad shell black walnuts, put me off the process so badly that I don't even buy peanuts in the shell now! Good luck to you...

Annie

I just got done roasting and peeling the skins off about 6 dozen Poblano peppers. I freze them and use them to make Chili Relleno casserole which is much easier than making actual Chili Rellenos. I'm going to make some tomorrow to take to a Chiefs game watch party.

I had to harvest all of the remaining peppers this week before we got our first frost.

This is the recipe I use if anyone is interested in making it.

Chile Relleno casserole.

Everybody's canning is impressive! I did Annie's salsa,green beans,1 batch habanero gold, roasted plain tomato sauce, a tomato and basil sauce and a garlic and tomato sauce that is so yummy on pizza. Froze a bunch of corn and pepper strips,roasted peppers. I'm fermenting some peppers,and fermenting some ginger beer. I also did a crock of kraut, but had to dump it as some fruit flies found it,and I just couldn't find a away not to get some creepy crawlers in it.

I don't have a crock lid,

guess the cover I used was a hair to small. I was sad, but a lesson learned. I might go get some cabbages and try again now that the frost is coming.It was a bad season for fruit flies here. With the rainy weather. We had a lot of foliage damage( we think from the Canadian fires.) Mostly effected the cucumbers and peppers.

I also made tomato powder and garlic powder. I did a habanero, pineapple, mango salsa,and hot pepper relish. Some fridge hot peppers in ketchup. One small batch of cowboy candy,and small batch of bread and butter pickles.

I will more haberero gold at some point. I also want to make the habanero gold a jalapeno pineapple jelly switching out the habanero for jalapeno and the apricot for pineapple. Wasn't sure if that is safe. I will use dyhraded pineapple. I also did a green tomato hot pepper pickle. And a pickled escbeche.

I'm harvesting the last of the veg gardens and bringing in the last few houseplants today in anticipation of our first frost sometime very soon. Over the weekend, I roasted and froze a couple batches of tomatillos, made another batch of green salsa, and got my garlic all planted between rains. Something keeps digging out the garlic cloves and leaving them laying atop the soil. The soil looks completely undisturbed and only one or two cloves look like anything tried to eat them. Who or what is doing it? :p

PM, I finally dug that dahlia root, it frosted here a couple of nights ago and it's supposed to be a low of 23F tomorrow night, just on time for the trick or treaters. Those balloon peppers were amazingly prolific, I have a bunch of them pickled, so thanks for those seeds! I planted my garlic a couple of weeks ago, thankfully, it's been raining here a lot too.

I just canned 10 pints of strawberry sauce from frozen strawberries in the freezer that have been there over a year, and 6 quarts of brussels sprouts newly picked, blanched and frozen. I finished off the dill, also in the freezer on a sheet tray, I'll package that tomorrow. Beef is scheduled for slaughter next week, and I think that will be just about the end of this year's preserving. Good thing, I'm running out of jars, space and energy, LOL!

Annie

Annie, did you reseed to have dill now? Mine matured ages ago -- and the swallowtail caterpillars didn't even bother it or the parsley this year, which really sort of bothered me. I've been waiting for a frost before I dig my dahlias. I've saved a ton of seed, especially from that wildly prolific yellow one, so let me know if you need more!

eta: I still have one tough harvest ahead of me, and that's to harvest my willow plants -- but they haven't dropped all their leaves yet. Hopefully I can get the harvest done before winter sets in. And I'm glad about the balloon peppers. Pretty, aren't they? And I do love how crunchy they are.

Yes, I seeded dill in one of my raised beds after the green onions were done, about a month ago. So, no seeds, but nice fronds. I saw one monarch caterpillar on my milkweed in front of the house this year, and I saw only two or three swallowtail caterpillars, in spite of my planting things specifically for them. That does worry me, but I had lots of bumblebees.

We've already gotten frost here, my view out the front window right now is this:

Annie

Omg, Annie! It’s beautiful, but I really don’t like seeing snow so early. I always reseed my cilantro but never my dill — I’ll have to do that next year. I don’t know why I didn’t have swallowtail caterpillars this year… my herbs were especially nice and abundant. Only my basil was different, but they’ve never gone for the basil anyway.

It was wet and heavy and took down the last of the fall leaves, but it IS pretty. I think it will be gone by tomorrow, it's supposed to be near 40. My herbs were nice this year too, as were the flowers and the garden, but I just didn't see many butterflies of any type this year.

Jack, thanks for that recipe, the poblanos did amazingly well this year and I roasted and peeled several dozen and put them in the freezer for rellenos later. This is a LOT easier, I could use them in place of the green chilies.

Annie

working on cranberry jelly, plus i have 5 bu of english walnuts to deal with, but no hurry on those. Dijon mustard is next, as i have 3 new bags of mustard seed. Love those things ....

You are welcome Annie! The Casserole was the hit of the Chiefs watch party. To bad the Chiefs played so poorly and lost.

Yes, I replace the green chilies with roasted poblanos. I also use enchilada sauce instead of tomato sauce.

Well, you can always watch Taylor Swift instead, LOL.

Keep plugging away, DAve, you'll have those walnuts all finished just about time for the next harvest! (grin)

Here I canned absolutely nothing...

Annie

Annie, the poblano seeds you sent did great for me and I will definitely grow them again. They started to mature much earlier than I expected and they were delicious. I still have a quart bag packed with split poblanos in the freezer. :)

And I have my willow harvest complete!!! It was amazing this year... we had 3 days of warm weather last week and I was able to get in the time I needed each day to harvest it all. It's the warmest I've ever been during harvesting! And the ground was dry enough that I didn't even need to wear my mucks -- no mud at all. :) Here it is, only sorted by variety. We had a lot of weather extremes this summer, and I think that shows in the willow this year... it's very heavy this year and has more branching than usual. I'll clean this up after it's dried a while.