Yields about 1 cup.
Pepper Fiesta
• 3 cups rough chopped red bell peppers
• 3 cups rough chopped green bell peppers
• 1 cup rough chopped chile or jalapeño peppers, seeded if you want to remove the heat
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon salt
1. Combine all the peppers in a large mixing bowl, and toss with the lemon juice and salt.
2. Spread mixture on your dehydrator trays in single layers. Dry at 140 degrees F for 3 to 5 hours or until the peppers are crunchy crisp.
Yields about 1 cup.
Candied Zucchini Cubes
This may sound a bit odd, but these are actually delicious as well as nutritious. They’re great in zucchini bread or even cupcakes or muffins. Add them to your yogurt, or dry can or vacuum seal it for survival stash.
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1½ cups water
• 1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 8 medium zucchini, peeled and cubed into ½-inch cubes
1. Bring the sugars, water, and lemon juice to a simmer with a large saucepan until the sugars are dissolved. Add the zucchini and simmer for about 5 minutes, until it starts to become soft. Remove from the heat and place in a glass container. Refrigerate overnight.
2. Drain the zucchini cubes and pat dry. Layer them in a single layer with breathing room on the dehydrator trays. Dehydrate at 130 degrees F for 8 to 10 hours or until there’s no moisture left and they’re rubbery. The cubes will firm up as they cool.
3. Do the bag or jar test to make sure that they’re completely dehydrated before dry canning or vacuum sealing.
Yields about 1½ cups.
Home-Dried Fresh Herbs
Dried herbs and spices are a great way to help you avoid food fatigue in an emergency situation. With just a handful of basic herbs, you can make dozens of different flavor profiles. When you combine that with different cooking methods, your diet will remain diverse, nutritious, and creative with just a few different ingredients.
Quality herbs in the store are atrociously expensive and rarely as rewarding as using fresh herbs. Plus, drying your own homegrown herbs is very easy and a great way to preserve your herbs if you’re not planning to grow them year round. They also make a great homestead gift.
Drying herbs is a slightly different process than for fruits and vegetables, but not by much. Mainly the cooking temperature and times change. You can use any of the three drying techniques mentioned earlier to dry herbs, too, but oftentimes, applying any heat to the herbs tends to rob them of their natural oils, which in turn, diminishes the flavor.
Air-drying herbs is not only the easiest and least-expensive way to dry fresh herbs, but this slow-drying process also doesn’t leach the herbs of their oils. This process works best with dryer herbs like bay leaf, dill, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, savory, and thyme. Moisture-rich herbs such as basil, chives, mint, and tarragon fare better in a dehydrator or by freezing.
If you are harvesting the herbs from your own garden, here are some tips:
• Pick them before flowering occurs (if you pick them often, flowering won’t occur).
• Picking is best done in the morning after the dew has dried, but before the sun wilts the herbs.
• Cut hydrated, healthy-looking branches from your herb plants. Remove any dry or possibly diseased leaves.
• Shake to remove any bugs.
• If necessary, rinse with cold water and dry with paper towels. Make sure to dry them well because wet herbs will mold and rot.
• Remove the lower leaves along the very bottom of the branch. Group four to six branches together and tie them with a rubber band. The groups will shrink as they dry, so they need to be tightened throughout the drying process or you will end up with a mess on the floor. Small groups are best for herbs with high moisture content.
• Punch or cut several holes in a paper bag, and label the bag with the name of the herb you are drying. Put the correct herb group upside down into the bag.
• Wrap the ends of the bag around the bundle, and tie it closed. Make sure the herbs are not too cramped inside the bag.
• Hang the bag upside down in a warm, well-circulated room.
Check in after about two weeks to see how things are progressing, but do not forget to tighten the bands every so often. After the initial check-in, keep checking weekly until the herbs are dry and ready to store.
Here are some tips on storing the dried herbs:
• Use small jars (baby food jars work great)
• Freeze them in a resealable bag or freezer jar with an airtight seal.
• Leaves are best left whole; crush when you are ready to use (for better flavor preservation).
• Keep a close eye, and discard any moldy leaves.
• Store the herbs in a dry, dark place away from sunlight.
• Use within a year for best results.
• A teaspoon of dried herbs is equal to a tablespoon of fresh herbs.
Although it’s outside the scope of this particular book, many different herbs can be used for healing and preventive medicine. Some are easy to grow and dry and may make the difference between life and death in a survival situation.
Even though you’ll need to collect a stockpile of any life-sustaining medications that you or a family member needs, there’s never a guarantee that something catastrophic won’t happen to eliminate your ability to obtain more. In preparation for that, you may want to learn about alternative natural treatments for any conditions that you may have. Maybe that sounds alarmist, but it never hurts to be prepared.
You can find many interesting and easy-to-read books on medicinal herbs on the Internet or at your local bookstore, and it’s recommended that you pick one of these up in paperback so that you have it in your bug-out bag or emergency kit.
Drying Meats
Three factors have caused a sharp increase in home-drying meat in recent years. First and foremost, more and more people have become conscious of what’s in commercially prepared foods. They’re typically high in sodium, dyes, and chemical preservatives, making them nonviable as a healthy protein source. Rising grocery costs are another factor, and finally, people are beginning to worry about storing food for emergency situations.
Dehydrating meat is a wonderful way to preserve a nutritious, delicious, and portable source of quality protein. There are some guidelines that you need to follow, however, to dehydrate your meat safely:
As with any food product, there are pathogens present in meat that can be harmful or even lethal if consumed. The big ones you have to worry about in meat products include Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus. If you’ve ever suffered from food poisoning, you know that even a mild dose of these pathogens is extremely unpleasant, to say the least. At worst, it can kill you, so make sure that you follow safety guidelines above carefully when drying meat.