A new project and a useful link
So I'm due 4.5 weeks and starting to pack my hospital bag. I was looking for msg free instant foods (just add hot water) that i'd be able to use during my hospital stay.
I came up with the bright idea of making my own mixes, of making my own instant foods out of dehydrated veggies and potatoes, etc.
While doing some research on how to dehydrate these veggies, I came across a website that seems like it will be an amazing resource.
www.Homesteadingtoday.com
This website is a forum with lots of different subsections that I find very interesting, useful, and relevant to myself. Sections on food preservation, on making different things around the home from scratch, on raising animals, on homeschooling, on alternative medicine, and loads more. I'm really excited about this website and I hope it can be a valuable tool to my readers as well.
Well, I have to say, looking at that website made me a bit jealous of all the tools and equipment people have that I would like to have, like a dehydrator, but just cost too much money to be worth my while.
Until I got an epiphany. (Ok, it wasnt really an epiphany- it was suggested on the website, but I decided to take it as my own.)
I don't have to buy a dehydrator. I can make my own! (Or rather, handyman hubby can.)
Equipment necessary:
1) Some large closed container with a lid/door. Either can be a decent sized cardboard box, or pieces of wood to make a wooden box, or a metal box, or a large thick plastic box.
My husband is a very good scavenger so he will keep an eye out for these things; we're likely to not need to buy, but just find these things either in or near the communal garbage cans.
2) Wire mesh and some frame to tack it on to, to make trays. I mentioned to my husband to keep an eye out for these things, and he said he already has wire mesh. I'd completely forgotten about the two broken window screens currently living in our backyard. For the frames for trays, we need to keep an eye out for thinnish wooden pieces to nail together, or some wire hangers to retwist and make a frame. My husband thinks we can use refrigerator or oven grates- thats definitely an idea. We'll have to see. We do have some refrigerator grates- lets see if they're too big or the right size.
3) 2 light fixtures, and 100 watt light bulbs. This is what makes the dehydtator hot and hence, dehydrate the food.
4) Some wiring to get it to work.
5) A small fan to blow the hot air around. Not necessary, but would make it work better.
Of all these, the only things we might need to buy are the lights and the fixtures. Perhaps the fixtures arent even necessary- light bulbs work even with just wires wrapped around them. Oh, and wires.
So this is our project.
I can't wait.
Would love to have the dehydrator before baby comes.
Home dehydration, here we come.
(PS- You can dehydrate in an oven, but it doesnt work as well, and it costs more money to run an oven for all the hours than it does to keep a lightbulb or two plugged in.)
I came up with the bright idea of making my own mixes, of making my own instant foods out of dehydrated veggies and potatoes, etc.
While doing some research on how to dehydrate these veggies, I came across a website that seems like it will be an amazing resource.
www.Homesteadingtoday.com
This website is a forum with lots of different subsections that I find very interesting, useful, and relevant to myself. Sections on food preservation, on making different things around the home from scratch, on raising animals, on homeschooling, on alternative medicine, and loads more. I'm really excited about this website and I hope it can be a valuable tool to my readers as well.
Well, I have to say, looking at that website made me a bit jealous of all the tools and equipment people have that I would like to have, like a dehydrator, but just cost too much money to be worth my while.
Until I got an epiphany. (Ok, it wasnt really an epiphany- it was suggested on the website, but I decided to take it as my own.)
I don't have to buy a dehydrator. I can make my own! (Or rather, handyman hubby can.)
Equipment necessary:
1) Some large closed container with a lid/door. Either can be a decent sized cardboard box, or pieces of wood to make a wooden box, or a metal box, or a large thick plastic box.
My husband is a very good scavenger so he will keep an eye out for these things; we're likely to not need to buy, but just find these things either in or near the communal garbage cans.
2) Wire mesh and some frame to tack it on to, to make trays. I mentioned to my husband to keep an eye out for these things, and he said he already has wire mesh. I'd completely forgotten about the two broken window screens currently living in our backyard. For the frames for trays, we need to keep an eye out for thinnish wooden pieces to nail together, or some wire hangers to retwist and make a frame. My husband thinks we can use refrigerator or oven grates- thats definitely an idea. We'll have to see. We do have some refrigerator grates- lets see if they're too big or the right size.
3) 2 light fixtures, and 100 watt light bulbs. This is what makes the dehydtator hot and hence, dehydrate the food.
4) Some wiring to get it to work.
5) A small fan to blow the hot air around. Not necessary, but would make it work better.
Of all these, the only things we might need to buy are the lights and the fixtures. Perhaps the fixtures arent even necessary- light bulbs work even with just wires wrapped around them. Oh, and wires.
So this is our project.
I can't wait.
Would love to have the dehydrator before baby comes.
Home dehydration, here we come.
(PS- You can dehydrate in an oven, but it doesnt work as well, and it costs more money to run an oven for all the hours than it does to keep a lightbulb or two plugged in.)