Remember last year when we joined the CSA? We loved it, but ended up quitting last winter because we felt like we were wasting a lot of food. Well, I saw a living social deal yesterday and snapped it up. We’re signing up again and I’m so excited. I really missed it!
What’s going to be different this time around? Well, for one thing we got a food dehydrator. I’m thinking that if we get enough okra to feed a family of 12 one week, we can make okra chips with some of it. Now, I can see you over there rolling your eyes at the thought of okra chips, but Kate seriously loves them. I’ve never made them, but we buy them at Sprouts all the time.
We’re also going to take advantage of their swap box. So, a metric ton of jalapenos? Think we’ll swap that out for something else since Kate isn’t a huge fan of the spicy.
Now, for those of you who don’t know what living social is… You buy something (in this case you pay $26 for your first CSA box and the set up fee) and then they give you a referral link. Now, if you can convince 3 people to buy it through your link you get it for free. Exciting, no? All this to say that if you were thinking about buying it anyway (and you should!) then use my link por favor. 🙂
Now that I’m done whoring myself out, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled post about the food dehydrator. 🙂 It’s pretty dang awesome. Michael’s has been talking about getting one for a long time. We decided it was time when we went to the strawberry farm. Their strawberries are seriously among the best things I have ever eaten, but they go bad within a day or two because they are so ripe.
But sliced up and dried they have a much longer shelf life. It’s super easy too, you literally slice them and lay them on the food dehydrator shelves. Then you wait a day and you have yumminess. Now, Kate *loves* dried fruit anyway so this was a big hit. I love that there’s no added sugar (or added anything!).
We also tried drying some mushrooms and peppers. They were a bit meh. Our other huge hits were pineapple, banana and zucchini. That’s right, zucchini. I have no pics of these because they are gone pretty much as soon as they come out of the dehydrator. 🙂
And of course we made jerky. Michael made some traditional jerky that it apparently quite good. He also made me some salmon jerky which turned out awesome! Now I know what you’re thinking, salmon jerky?!? What?!? But, it’s super tasty. And a great high protein snack.
I’ll keep you posted on our CSA/ food dehydrating adventures.