Alchemical Blog
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Community farming downstate
I've been pretty busy during the last month and now have the opportunity to share some info about what I've been up to, so check it out. A few weeks ago I visited the Hudson Valley and was able to get a glimpse of some awesome urban farming and community gardening efforts. Seeing these in action inspired me to think of the possibilities for what we could be doing in Syracuse and elsewhere. First is Ashe Urban Farm in Newburgh, NY, then Gardens for Nutrition in New Paltz.Ashe Urban Farm is Orange County's only youth run urban farm. The group that tends the farm was formed through an afterschool program at Newburgh Free Academy. I was inspired to see the youth initiative and the way that they are intentionally seeing their efforts as more than just gardening: they're trying to change the way their community relates to food by bringing the farm back to the city. They've got a great variety of vegetables, including beans, squash, beets, radishes, and much more, grown right in the city of Newburgh. Check out the images:
Ashe Urban Farm tends their space in the larger "People's Garden of Newburgh."
Weeding bright and early on a Sunday morning. Second from the left is my good friend Kim, ESF alumn and one of the program's facilitators.
This is why growing food is so awesome. I'm pretty sure this was his first day weeding ever.
A broader view of the rest of some more of the community gardens.
"Garden's for Nutrition" in New Paltz inspired me for its sheer size. Granted, New Paltz is a pretty small town, so they have a lot of space to work with very close to the center of town. Check it out:
Approaching the gardens...
My friend Dan, another ESF alumn, rents this spot for soemthing like $30/season if I remember correctly. Not bad, eh?
This image merely begins to get at the scope of this place. Imagine this about 2.5 times bigger.
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Solar Dehydration - Basil and Parsley
Alright, my first solar food dehydration experiment has been completed. I dehydrated some store-bought basil and parsley with the homemade solar dehydrator I blogged about last week. I detailed the process and outcome below, with photos. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions, as I'm completely new to this.
In total, the herbs were outside in the dehydrator for roughly 11 hours, with a temperature range between 100 and 115. All told, the process took 4 days. From what I can gather from a little internet research, air drying basil, in comparison, could take a few weeks. Sun drying basil could have it done in a comparable time, although some people argue that exposing herbs directly to the sun can cause a loss in nutrients and flavor.
On Wednesday, June 10, at 3:00pm I put the herbs out in the dehydrator which was at a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. I left it outside for about four hours, after which the temperature dropped below 100. The herbs appeared to be beginning to dry, but had a long way to go.
So, I left them in the dehydrator inside overnight, and unfortunately the next two days were cloudy with periodic rain. I left the unit inside during that time, and on Saturday it was a little drier outside for a bit, so I left it out from about 11:30-2:30, during which the temperature reached 100. After that, there was, again a risk of rain.
By Sunday the herbs were pretty dry, but not quite as brittle and crumbly as I thought they should be. It seems that though during the humid, cool days inside they were getting drier, if not that fast. The day was quite sunny, so I put them out to finish around 1:30. The temperature was at 115 when I checked a couple hours later, and around 5:00 I determined the herbs were as done as they needed to be.
So, through this little experiment I learned that I should take a little better account of the weather forecast. Next time, I'll try to maximize efficiency by starting the process when there are a couple days of sun forecast, and I'll start in the morning. Another thing I'll mention is that it's possible that in this experiment the parsley got a little moldy - there are a few miniscule white-ish dots on some of the pieces. I'm not too worried, but if someone knows how to identify mold on herbs, please let me know.
Here are some photos of the finished products:
Here are the herbs on the dehydrator trays. Notice that the herbs have shrunk quite a bit - when I put them on there was not nearly as much open space on the trays.
Here's a basil close-up. I was expecting the herbs to become a little more brown, but turns out the color was preserved pretty well.
The basil crumbles quite easily.
I'm storing the herbs whole to preserve the flavor. When I'm ready to add them to my food, then I'll crumble them right in.
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Experimenting with Solar Food Preservation
Hello everyone, I would like to share with any interested readers a project that I'm working on as part of an internship I'm doing at the
Alchemical Nursery Project. I've become very interested in food preservation as a means of allowing us Central New Yorkers to eat locally all year 'round. I'm particularly interested in food dehydration as the cheapest, most energy efficient, most space efficient method I know of, which is also comparably great for preserving nutrients and flavor. Best of all, I've learned that you don't even need to purchase equipment to dehydrate food - we can dehydrate food simply by harnessing the sun's rays! Solar dehydration is an ancient food preservation method that in many climates requires nothing more than laying food out in the sun. In CNY, however, our temperature and humidity may mean a little more work. In doing a little research, I found a design for a solar dehydrator that can be built almost for free. Here's the design, which can be found at http://www.ehow.com/how_4901341_build-own-dried-fruits-vegetables.html :
So, I decided to try making one of these contraptions to see how it can really work. In roughly 6 hours I put together a solar dehydrator with the following materials: 2 cardboard boxes, duct tape, plastic wrap, cheese cloth, a black garbage bag, a milk crate, drying racks from an electric dehydrator, and a magic eight ball.
Today at about 3:00 I put the dehydrator out on my roof. The outside temperature was about 75 degrees, and the sky was clear and bright. Within an hour, the temperature in the dehydrator reached about 120 degrees, the minimum temperature necessary for efficient dehydration. Given adequate sun, I'm going to test it out with some fruit this week. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, here are some pictures:
This is the dehydrator set out on the roof above the porch. This spot gets perfect sun after about noon, and is conveniently very close to the kitchen. Notice My design is slightly different than the model. I'm going to test this out with the lid closed but not sealed, hopefully to keep the heat in, but to still let heat ventilate out. The magic eightball is simply a weight to keep the lid closed.
The hot air chamber is lined with a black trash bag to absorb heat, and is covered with plastic wrap to trap the heat. It has three holes on the bottom and three on top, covered with cheesecloth, which allow air to flow up into the dehydration chamber. Air flow is one of the key aspects of successful dehydration.
Here you can see the electric dehydrator trays set in the dehydration chamber. Since I had these, I figured it be easiest to use them, however, it's quite possible to make trays from scrap objects as well.
Here's the inside without the trays. Notice that the cardboard will prop up the trays and direct the air so that it flows directly under the lowermost tray and up through the rest. Also notice the oven thermometer for monitoring the temperature.
And here's a close-up of the stacked trays.
