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Less Waste – More Pet Treats

Doreen — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:00:59 +0000

What to do with leftover homemade chicken noodle soup, beef stew or deli meat that is one or two days past expiration? Do you throw away organ meats bagged inside whole turkeys or chickens? Instead, you might put 2-3 cups in the blender/food processor and add applesauce, canned pumpkin or sweet potato until it purees into a batter texture. If a handful of parsley, greens, spinach or mint is added to freshen breath and improve dental health, even better. Keep some bacon grease in the refrigerator, add a tablespoon or two to poultry based purees for texture and added taste.

Pour the batter onto sheets and put in the dehydrator for several hours until dry and crisp. You’ll have meaty pet treats that don’t require refrigeration and last for months. Compare ingredients to commercial products and you will feel much better about homemade healthy treats. For example, a PetSmart dog cookie lists wheat flour, corn syrup, palm oil, honey, yogurt and 5 artificial colors. The above sample lists organic turkey, applesauce, sweet potato and parsley. Quite a difference. And I deprived the garbage disposal/septic system of a daily meal grinding up my food dollars.

Exercise CAUTION using only slightly outdated food, whole foods rather than processed food or general table scraps and very little dairy for dog treats. Use little or no baked goods, refined flour snacks, bones, raw eggs or dessert foods. Don’t think of it as the “kitchen sink” but rather an extended use for whole food entrees that would otherwise be discarded. And set the dehydrator on the highest temp (around 160 degrees) so the meat content is completely dried like jerky and will not spoil.

If you process leftovers throughout the year, you will have extras for creative pet treat gift packages for the holidays or hostess gifts. Your pet friends will sincerely thank you for economical healthy snack treats.

Mau Piailug | Master Navigator of Micronesia, Obit

Dale Dougherty — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:53:31 +0000

Sailing from Hawaii to Tahiti in a double-hulled canoe:

On that month-long trip he carried no compass, sextant or charts. He was not against modern instruments on principle. A compass could occasionally be useful in daylight; and, at least in old age, he wore a chunky watch. But Mau did not operate on latitude, longitude, angles, or mathematical calculations of any kind. He walked, and sailed, under an arching web of stars moving slowly east to west from their rising to their setting points, and knew them so well—more than 100 of them by name, and their associated stars by colour, light and habit—that he seemed to hold a whole cosmos in his head, with himself, determined, stocky and unassuming, at the nub of the celestial action.

via economist.com

Posted via email from dalepd | Dale Dougherty

Pegboard magazine for tool organization

Dale Dougherty — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:08:43 +0000

via blog.makezine.com

My son Ben is working on setting up a shop in our garage. I like these hanging tool racks from Bill Gurstelle.

Posted via email from dalepd | Dale Dougherty

Greek Yogurt to the Dehydrator

Doreen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:49:46 +0000

Creamy yogurt with berries, finger food

How can yogurt be finger food without refrigeration for up to 5 days? First make Greek yogurt from organic, whole milk then take the next step to make berry yogurt bites.

Did you know Greek yogurt is made with any kind of milk and simply drained of whey liquid after it sets? I thought Greek meant goats milk yogurt like feta cheese. I learned to make yogurt last Fall to organically penny pinch and found it was surprisingly easy. I am a reluctant culinary adventurer. The result cannot be matched by supermarket brands in my biased opinion.

Thanks to detailed instructions and cultures obtained from Steve at thecheesemaker.com, it takes no time to heat milk, let it cool and add culture. I add 1 tsp of flavor in extract form and 1/4 cup of xylitol for sweetness at this point. You need to incubate the yogurt for 6-12 hours at about 110 degrees. More about an incubator/dehydrator later. You will love the creamy thick yogurt from whole or 2% milk, even chocolate milk if you prefer. Like sourdough you can make future batches using the same culture reserved from the initial batch. Very economical.

Yogurt Going Greek

As gently as possible, transfer the finished yogurt into cheesecloth while the whey drains for 15-20 minutes. Help it along by hanging the bag tied to a dowel over a pot. Chill and you are ready to eat with berries, nuts or dehydrated persimmons as gathered at Pillow Road. If you fail to devour it all, you may go on to the dehydration phase and make yogurt bites.

Below you can see 2″ tart rings (or silicone cupcake liners) hold pureed fruit with yogurt spread on top. Don’t puree fruit to liquid or it will run when you remove the ring. You may use frozen berries in a chopper and they’ll be firm enough not to run.

Berry yogurt bites, ready for dehydrator

The Excalibur brand small dehydrator shown below incubates yogurt, makes jerky, dries herbs, tomatoes, fruits and makes fruit leathers. These foods provide optimum nutrition as warm air drying preserves probiotics, vitamins and enzymes usually lost to traditional cooking.

This dehydrator costs around $120 shipped via internet. I use it much more than I thought I would. You might think about adding this handy, healthful item to your kitchen. Caution: round ones can’t make yogurt because the containers won’t fit inside. My inventive friend set the container wrapped in a towel on a heating pad set on medium-high. This works just fine in lieu of contraptions. Monitor with a food thermometer the first few times to determine a setting that yields the 110 degree target range since a high temperature will kill your culture before it can make the yogurt.

Shelves of yogurt bites inside dehydrator

4-8 hours later you have mini-cheesecake (like) treats that are refined-sugar free registering LOW on the glycemic index. Although rich tasting they are low in calories, high in probiotics, anti-oxidants and vitamins. They are appealing chilled but like all dehydrated food, no longer require refrigeration. Plastic wrap separately as they will stick together. Yogurt bites are mess-free finger food providing nutritious snacks and dessert.

A great advantage of dehydration is preventing spoilage of pricey organic produce. By dropping extras or leftovers in the blender, resulting purees store much longer sealed in jars and refrigerated or frozen. When I get time I can pour the purees for dehydrating and 8-12 hours later have fruit leathers. The leathers last 4-5 days at room temp, up to a month refrigerated and one year frozen. I can post some ideas for making fruit leathers another day. First you can get started on homemade yogurt whether Greek, plain, chocolate, lemon or vanilla – it’s great.

WellFarm in Pursuit of Persimmon

Doreen — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:43:09 +0000

After sampling Pillow Road dried persimmon and apple slices, we are ordering stock from Trees of Antiquity. We have planted only evergreens from Tennessee up to this point. So we compared notes with Parker Mountain and together ordered apple, peach, almond, walnut and Izu persimmon trees to arrive mid-March. We also ordered blackberry and red raspberry vines from Indiana Berry Company to include in an orchard area. Now we are wondering how to keep the deer from getting our bounty. Will climb that fence when we come to it!

What’s in the Hardware Store Window?

Dale Dougherty — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:05:55 +0000

In Brooklyn recently, I stopped by the storefront window of a hardware store and I wondered why it caught my eye. Its rather random collection of items and the absence of brand-name advertising were a refreshing combination. I knew this display was created by an amateur, a local business owner who featured things s/he was selling, without a lot of concern for merchandising or messaging. It was quite simply a window saying plainly: here are some things. It allowed the things themselves do the talking.

Strawberries Forever

Dale Dougherty — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:35:09 +0000

We’re still picking strawberries. The warmer it is the juicier they are. It’s been a good year for berries, including raspberries and boysenberries, but strawberries are the best. We’ve been freezing them in batches for use later on.

Bees Among the Lavender

Dale Dougherty — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:43:23 +0000

I took this short video with my iPhone. It doesn’t quite capture the sound of so many bees buzzing in the lavendar but it does give a ground-level sense of what’s happening among the lavender this time of year.

Walking Iris

Dale Dougherty — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:21:28 +0000

This beautiful flower is known as a walking Iris. It blooms for one day only and I happened to be walking through a friend’s West County garden on this one day. It’s called a walking iris, supposedly, because the blossom is followed by the growth of a shoot that spreads out.

In other words, this beauty develops into a potential tripping hazard.

: Walking Iris

Dreams of Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Dale Dougherty — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Nancy made this pie from fresh strawberries and rhubarb from the garden. It was everything you want in a pie — tart and sweet but blended together. The homemade crust was perfect; the top had a nice bumpy, browned texture, reminding me of moguls.

A dream pie, really.

Nancy made the pie for a dinner we enjoyed just before I left for Maker Faire.