Folks! I hate feeling like I have to explain that Load #2 is ready to go into the freeze dryer. I sat, with my feet propped up and chopped the celery. Vince brought the trays out to the freezer. Vince will bring the trays down to the freeze dryer. I stood maybe 10 minutes and washed the celery. Once Load #1 was done, I sat at the table and filled the jars. I’m not so dumb that I don’t understand staying off my feet. When I’m normally on my feet canning, working outside, cooking, baking bread, for literally 10 – 12 hours per day, and then I may be on them 20 minutes to get a meal prepared or 20 minutes to choose ceiling fans and light fixtures that I either have to trust Vince or the electrician to choose otherwise, I’m not concerned with that little bit of standing hurting my foot. Since we’re out, we’ll eat out and that means I won’t be cooking anything at all. It’s a trade. Maybe not exactly what the doctor had in mind but .. life goes on and so long as my foot is feeling better and I don’t feel like it’s hurting more today than yesterday, I think I’m doing ok.
When I mentioned that Monday the freezer repair man was here, Tuesday the electrician was here, Wednesday the freezer gets delivered . . that means staying near the phone, making sure Vince is around to deal with the people. I never saw the freezer repair man because I did not go into the garage. I saw the electrician only because he came inside to look at the stair lighting. I never saw the guys delivering the freezer. I heard them and Oscar heard them so the entire neighborhood probably heard Oscar barking!
I’m really doing ok. My doctor probably wouldn’t be 100% happy with my activities but I think he’d be about 95% happy.
So . . back to the celery. It finished up this morning about 7 so I got it packed into 4 quarts and 1 pint. That’s three bags of celery. I have three more bags prepped and ready to go into the freeze dryer. I can let it defrost itself, which uses more electricity and produces more heat, or I can leave it to defrost itself, which will probably take about three – five hours. I almost always let it manually defrost.
Freeze dried foods are supposed to last “up to 25 years”. I don’t plan on keeping any of what I’ve freeze dried that long but, celery is one of those things that I seem to use either a ton of or not much and it goes bad. As soon as I’m able to stand for long periods, I’m going to can more red beans and sausage. Since I’ll use 1-1/2 bags of celery for that big project, I’ll buy fresh celery. I’ll use the freeze dried when I need a stalk or two and don’t have fresh in the house.
Some freeze dryers will store their products in mylar bags. I prefer the vacuum sealed jars because I can open those, take out what I need and re-seal them easily.
Here’s how I think about how much I need to keep on hand. Six bags of celery should give me 9 quarts. I would think if I freeze dry 12 bags, that would be 18 quarts and considering that if I’m using a lot of celery, I’ll hopefully have fresh celery, 18 quarts should be at least three years worth of celery. I like freeze drying enough to have for a while so that I’m not having to think about whether I need to freeze dry more of it. If I need more, I can freeze dry more and if I don’t need more, I don’t need to freeze dry more after three years. The jar I have now is the last jar I opened earlier this week was from the previous time I freeze dried it and that was in 2019. I just went back and looked at my log and I had freeze dried 12 bags then too.
Donna in KS says
OK, none of us, especially me, think you’re dumb! We care about you. We know it’s hard to be still, especially for you, with legs up! Forgive me. I only know you have more energy and accomplish more in a day than anyone else I know. Slowing down is difficult! Take care!
Liz says
…Do you have any of those cushy gel floor mats that help with reducing leg stress? They really help and I have them in front of sinks, the washer/dryer, and a few other places where I stand a lot. I think I got my first one at Aldi’s to test the idea out. Since then, I’ve found some prettier ones for certain areas.
Jill McCaughey says
Judy, if you were a man and the doctor said to keep off the foot, you’d do it!! My husband had surgery to repair a hammer toe, and steadfastly stayed IN A CHAIR WITH HHIS FOOT UP for 6 weeks. Of course, he wasn’t the type to help anyway, but at the end of that time, he had the foot ready to golf again, and was very pleased with himself that he had “followed doctor’s orders”. Vince could probably learn to do a bit more to help you, and you could relax your meals a bit, too. You have only one body, you know, and it’s not a sign of weakness when it gives you a nudge to slow down a bit. (I understand all this, as I, too, am one to overdo things until I am forced to slow down. It’s a female thing, you know!!). Stay off that foot, get healthy, keep writing blogs and doing wonderful things with your cross-stitching. Any chance you’ll ever get back to quilting? Jill in Calgary/Phoenix
Cilla says
I just snorted wine thru my nose at “So then all the neighbours heard him barking”. Yep, he’s a Dachshund. You should hear this security team here. I’m down to only 5 but there isn’t much difference between 5 and 9. Only the vet bills. When I broke my foot I was put into a cast and was told STAY OFF IT. It was June in NH. It was gardening season. It was pool season. Bathing with a 300 lb cast on was a feat in itself. Went back 4 weeks later. “I thought I told you to stay off it” I did! The scowl I received. He took the cast off to give me a boot. Moral: break bones in cold weather……So I totally get doing the best you can. Carry on! lol
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I can see how it would be so much easier in the winter but I’m going to do my best to never go through this again.
Angie says
I’m not a canner or freeze dry person, but I have a dumb question, after you put everything in a jar, how do you store the jars?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Ideally on shelves that get no direct light and in a room that stays cool. We have three rooms in the basement that have three concrete sides (because the safe room is one of them and it’s in between the other two) and two of them have a concrete ceiling. One has an a/c vent and it stays about 62 degrees in that room year round so long as I close the vent during the winter when the heat is going. Those rooms are perfect for food storage.
In Texas I had an 8 x 16 closet and an 8 x 8 closet in the sewing room. They had no windows and the sewing room was a building within a building so it stayed cool enough with the a/c going but the setup is much better here.
Pat/SC says
When you rehydrate the celery, can you use it in salad like tuna or chicken?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I don’t even rehydrate it. When I put it in tuna salad or chicken salad, the moisture from the mayo or lemon juice is enough to rehydrate it and if it is a bit crunchy, which it never is because it’s sliced so thin, that wouldn’t be a bad thing in those salads.
I actually don’t rehydrate celery, onions, bell pepper, etc. If I put them in dishes, they absorb the liquid and it doesn’t take much at all.