When freeze drying eggs, I can get anywhere from 7 to 8 dozen eggs in one load, depending on the size of the eggs. I’m currently getting eggs from a friend whose chickens are young layers and the eggs are large but most are not what I would call extra large. I was able to get 8 dozen in the current freeze dryer load.
I will bake them at about 275 for 15 minutes, leave them out to cool, then run them through the blender to get them close to powdered. When I had chickens, I would blend them til they are in small pieces, but not as fine as what I like for the garden.
Each jar has the shells from about 8 dozen eggs.
We’re going to grow our tomatoes and potatoes in mineral tubs this year so we’re starting with new soil that we have not had tested. We got one load of “rich garden soil”, though I have my doubts that it’s THAT rich or that it’s the best for gardens but getting good soil around here has not been easy. We got one load of mushroom compost and we’ll add “raised bed soil” that we purchased in bags from the garden center. Throughout the year, I will add kitchen waste to our raised beds. There are two that do not have anything growing in them during the winter so all our kitchen veggie scraps went in those two throughout the winter. I will borrow some soil from those for the mineral tubs, then replace it with mushroom compost. I will add a bit of straw to the soil for the potatoes. They should be done early enough that I can plant zucchini in the tubs where the potatoes were.
I will still grow some things in grow bags – probably peppers because they don’t get so big, but I will keep a couple of the big mineral tubs and not plant anything in them. I will mix up fertilizer/water and give all the peppers a good, long soak in those each week and see how that goes.
I do miss my 100′ x 100′ garden in Texas but I know it’s time for me to slow down a bit. Mostly I miss planning the big garden and harvesting – the weeds and bugs and grass burrs .. I don’t miss those at all. I’ll probably always have a few veggies growing and by August when the bugs are terrible and the heat is killing me and the plants and I’m having to water every single day . . I’ll be thankful for my small garden.
Paula Nordt says
I just have had no luck with a garden. I live twenty minutes southwest of Houston, Texas. Our soil is gumbo clay. Concrete when dry, slippery dense clay when wet. I tried raised beds with purchased by the truckload “enriched garden soil with compost”. It was horrible. I did manage to grow tomatoes. The fruit was attacked by mockingbirds and the plants devastated by hornworms. Tried zucchini, but that was a wash. Did manage to grow enough jalapeños to pickle a few jars of them. Gardening is not for wimps.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Don’t feel bad. We all have off years. Last year wasn’t my greatest garden except for tomatoes and sweet potatoes. We had the same type soil in areas of Lake Charles so I understand.
Teri says
What are mineral tubs and where do you get them? Are you thinking you’ll have better success growing potatoes in them rather than grow bags?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Folks who raise cattle get minerals in them for the cows. If you google “mineral tubs”, you should get pictures of them. Hopefully by this time next week I’ll have potatoes planted in a few of them and will show pictures.
I had good success growing potatoes in bags but last fall, we had a massive invasion of mice (and maybe rats) in the back yard. I think they loved the sweet potato vines. The mice will eat right through the grow bags and last summer was so hot and so dry, I could not keep up with watering the grow bags. I was able to pick up the smaller bags with peppers and put them in tubs to soak up water but the potato bags were too big and too heavy to move into a tub for a good soaking.
The mice are burrowing into my raised beds so I’m not going to be able to plant any root veggies in my raised beds til we can get rid of the mice. I hear mice have been a big problem in our area for a while but this is the first time we’ve had a problem with them. Thankfully, we caught one in the downstairs garage and haven’t seen others or evidence they’ve been inside.
Teri says
Thank you for explaining. Hope the mice decide to move on
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Me too. They’re causing me to have nightmares!! I have tried peppermint oil, making “cookies” with flour, baking soda, and cornmeal. I’ve tried spraying with vinegar. We have traps (which have been somewhat successful but we may catch 1 a week). They totally ruined the compost bin, dug holes underneath it so huge that it’s about to topple over. We can’t do anything that might harm our dogs or the neighbors’ dogs so until they decide to move on, I guess they’re here.
Rebecca L says
I’ve also heard of cinnamon to keep mice out of the house. If nothing else, it’s a pleasant smell. I didn’t realize you had such a population!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I think they all came to live under the sweet potato vines last summer. We had never had a problem with them before. I’ve tried cinnamon, cayenne pepper and peppermint oil. I can’t say that it didn’t help at all but, from I see, it didn’t do much.
RuthW in MD says
Couldn’t figure out why you needed to freeze-dry eggs and then bake them and run them through a blender to make them into a powder. Then realized that eggs for eating were in the 1st paragraph, and the shells baked and powdered for the garden were in the second paragraph. Good Luck with your garden this year!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Unfortunately, I write like I talk and I jump from one thing to another without clarifying what I’m talking about. I do sometimes put the eggs through the blender to make them into a powder because it takes up way less room in the jars than it does if I crumble them with my hands. The end result is pretty much exactly the same and I still like freeze dried eggs better than fresh.
I’m glad you figured out what I knew in my head but didn’t convey very well.