vigilant20

Trying a burrito casserole over here http://www.food.com/recipe/creamy-burrito-casserole-33919

Tomato and rice soup, fresh from the garden

Just finished some dill. Woke up early to pick chamomile and calendula and got them drying.

Well, heck... I just noticed that you're in West Allis. I'm up in Menomonee Falls. We aren't allowed chickens, but I think they do allow bees. Perhaps we'll have to get together and trade eggs for honey. (Soon as I get me a hive set up, at least...)

Hi neighbor! My office building actually moved next to the zoo from a spot in the Falls, so all my co-workers are from up that way. Good luck with your hive! Have you thought of taking the beekeeping course from the extension? It sounded pretty comprehensive and they give you the option to care for one of their hives over the summer. I was already taking the master gardener training this spring or I would have gone for it.

My city is still a bit behind the times unfortunately. It's okay to keep bees here according to the ordinances, but I felt out the health department and was glad I did. They are vehemently against beekeeping and flat out told me they'd shut me down as a nuisance if I tried. I'm hoping they start learning and softening as time goes on. They've already done a 180 on backyard chickens since I first talked to them about it, now I just have to work on my alderman so we can fix the ordinance to allow them

Yay for bumps!

Tofurky

Dressing

Roasted Veggies

Green Bean Casserole

Mashed Potatoes

Candied Yams

Rolls

pumpkin pie

One of my friends just made this veggie oil lamp tutorial =)

http://frugalhomesteads.blogspot.com/2010/...an-theatre.html

More green onions! I planted the bulbs from the last batch indoors in pots and they were harvestable within 2 weeks We'll see if it keeps up the quick pace.

Doing a dozen kiwi right now. Have another mixing bowl full of tomatoes waiting to go next.

I think I would much rather invest in a cheap oil lamp with a glass chimney instead of having an open flame around children and/or pets. Open flames can be *so* tempting, and in an emergency situation, we may have other things to attend to and not watch closely enough.

I was just thinking about oil lamps. I think I'm going to order a hanging ones from lehmans rather than get a table one. Even with just a cat I'm worried about a glass one on a table. Plus my house has at least 4 hooks in the ceiling in every room...lol...the previous owner really loved hooks.

Great to see you here, Lynn!!

Oh yay! I didn't realize you were here too. Now I have two FV friends identified

That youtube link is dangerous, I tell ya! That's how I got hooked too. I'm trying to get my mum interested now. My parents spend their weekends at their cottage and I'm convinced dehydrated foods is the best option for them there...lol.

I think theres a few of us from the " Village" I can't remember who posted the link to here, but I'm sure glad they did! Thank You whoever you are!

I had actually found it searching for "dehydrating forums". There aren't any...lol. But I did manage to end up here because of all the dehydrator talk. If someone posted a link, I missed it. I'm glad I'm at both now...the topics are pretty closely related and each forum goes further in depth into different ones. They compliment each other nicely.

This is great. I've never done an actual inventory, but now I'm seeing how useful it would be. I'm not a packrat, so there's not a lot of "stuff" to get rid of. But I have always done some stocking up on things I use regularly because I hate the thought of running out and special trips, so I'm sure I have a lot more to start with than I realize.

Phew I just read through the whole thread.

For bananas, I've tried a couple things already but spraying with lemon juice has helped them keep the color best. A spray bottle top screws right on the lemon juice bottle and I can just go to town when they are sitting on the trays (remembering to pick the tray up and spray from below).

I haven't had good luck with potatoes either. Mine went brown and I've only been using them in blended soups because they'd ugly up any other dish. I'm told if you cook them all the way through instead of just blanching they should turn out fine. I'm going to try later this week.

Right now I have spaghetti sauce going in mine. I just poured the bottles onto oiled fruit leather sheets. They are sure going to take up a lot less cabinet space this way. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to leave them as leathers or dehydrate until hard so I can turn it into a powder. I'd think powder would keep longer?