Beautiful Farmer's Market Peaches
I have been a bit squirrel-esque recently. I am getting ready for winter by storing food.
The farmers market has been overflowing with gorgeous produce that I want to be able to eat during the winter. In preparation I have been freezing my blueberries and peaches and dehydrating my tomatoes.
To freeze the blueberries and peaches, I place them on parchment paper on cookie trays and put them in the freezer. Once they are frozen I transfer them to bags. If you freeze them directly in bags they end up as blocks of fruit ice.
Peaches ready for freezing
Wild blueberries ready for freezing
Frozen bags of wild blueberries
I use frozen fruit for so many delicious recipes. raw fruit pie, smoothies, pancakes. Just today I used the frozen blueberries to make a raw pudding and wheat free blueberry muffins for the kids today.
I put blueberries in the dehydrator for a special treat. They end up like tasty jewels. They are dazzling in a trail mix or anywhere you would put a raisin – they are just better.
Wild blueberries on the dehydrator tray
- Dehydrated wild blueberries
I have also gone wild with tomatoes. Each of the last few weeks I have bought 20 lbs of tomatoes. I have been making my own salsa for the first time. (I don’t know what took me so long, it is soooooo easy! I will write about it another day.) And, I love dehydrating tomatoes. I use them in making raw lasagna, cooked lasagna, raw or cooked tomato sauce and I eat them plain. They are like a sweet and tangy fruit leather. Mmmm
Tomatoes at the Farmer's Market
Tomatoes ready for the dehydrator
Dehydrated tomatoes
Don’t let this harvest go by without putting something away for the winter. When you bite into your beautiful summer produce in the chill of January, it brings back the sun deep inside your cells.
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Nina Manolson, MA, CHC, LMT is the Smokin’ Hot Mom Mentor and Family Wellness Expert. She’s the founder of SmokinHotMom.com and HealthyYummyKids.com. She helps busy moms look and feel their best, and helps them feed their kids well in a world that doesn’t. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her healthy recipes and wellness tips click here.
Nina Manolson, MA, is the founder of Body-Peace®.She helps women end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their body—as it is.
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My daughter has been eating less and less veggies lately, and I’ve been contemplating using my dehydrator to dehydrate veggies, powder them, and then add them to soups, homemade pasta, etc to increase her intake. How do you think the vitamin content holds up for veggies treated this way?
Thanks, I love your blog, it’s nourishing on many levels!
Joelle
Hi Joelle,
I am so glad that you are being nourished by my blog!!! So, while I don’t have the scientific answer to how the vitamin content of veggies will hold up after they are dehydrated, powdered and added to foods, (which by the way, is quite brilliant!) I do know it will necessarily be more of a health benefit than no veggies at all! Will she eat red/marinara pasta sauce? I have blended many veggies into pasta sauce and then served it as “plain” sauce. Might that work?
My sources assure me that more nutrients are preserved by dehydrating than by freezing – but keep the temperature low and slow! Canning of course is at the bottom of the list – but better than eating NO produce.
Thanks so much for adding your comments!
Thank you both, off to dehydrate!
I just made the tastiest zucchini chips in the dehydrator. So easy. Slice the zuc long ways, toss with olive oil sea salt and Italian herbs. Into the dehydrator for 20 hours or so and yum!