Anniesantiago13: This Year's Garden and Freeze Dried Pasta

Not my photo but mine looks just like this.

Well, this has been a real learning curve.

My Spaghetti and Meatballs took a total of 42 hours! I later learned I could have cut off a few hours (maybe 5?) by pre-freezing the trays. However, that's a problem because they don't fit in my freezer.

I've been harvesting strawberries and freezing them then putting them in a bag so hopefully that method will work for my berries.

Back to the Spaghetti/Meatballs. It turned out great. Rehydration only took about 2 minutes and it was just like fresh.

We had done it in 10 portions per tray. But when we rehydrated one portion to test it, though it tasted great, it really wasn't enough for a serving. So we ended up putting two portions in each MRE bag.

The MRE bags are small and I doubt I'll use them again. I think it would be better just to FD everything on the tray then put it all into quart bags or jars so that's my plan.

Sealing the bags presented another problem. The sealer we got from Harvest Right won't seal the Harvest Right mylar bags, believe it or not. When I called to see about getting a new sealer, I was told we only could do that the first year and since my son has had the FD for two years, they would have charged me $130 for a new sealer.

Piece of junk!

So I got on YouTube and discovered those bags can be sealed easily with a simple iron or hair straightener. I'm going to try the iron with this next batch since I don't use it on clothing anyway. The mylar bags don't need to be vacuum sealed since I will use an Oxygen Eater in each one.

So... we ended up with 18 Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) of Spaghetti/Meatballs. Each portion is generous. With a salad and bread it should be plenty. And these will be great in the van or for camping as they are so lightweight and all you do is add water to the bag - no bowl needed.

Today, I decided to clean out my food storage and make more room. So I brought in cans of mixed vegetables, which we rarely used, and put them on a tray. I also brought in canned beets and will make chips out of them (2 trays). Joe bought a #10 can of hominy and I seasoned it and put it on 2 trays to make a snack like corn nuts that won't break his teeth.

I weighed each tray and put them in the FD.

We'll see how they turn out.

Tomorrow my plan is to do as much white rice as I can get on the 5 trays. This will make "instant rice" so it will not require cooking. Joe eats a lot of rice, so I'm excited to see how it turns out.

The Garden

We didn't get home from Spain until the last week of May so the garden is late getting in. Here is what we have so far this year:

I harvested all of my walking onions except for this patch.

Tomatoes and one pepper plant

Chives, a giant kale, golden raspberries,
and the damage caused by the flood in the yard
while we were in Spain
which led to a $189 and a $298 water bill!

This is a little canteloupe melon with some volunteer tomatoes
In the bed are some yukon gold volunteer potatoes
and chives.

Just planted beans today. Rhubarb in background. The canteloupe in the foreground isn't happy. Not sure why but a new one is coming up next to it and it looks healthier, so it may take over.

This fig tree is 3 years old.
It only has one fig on it!
I have a tree that I had Joe transplant in the side yard
and it is loaded with figs this year.

My golden raspberries are starting to put on.

Purple potatoes and kale under the cloches
to protect the baby plants
from the danged cabbage butterflies.

The only thing not happy in my garden is my asparagus.
After 3 years, it just isn't producing much.
I may have to move it to a different bed this autumn.