Re: preserving veggies

**"* S* <m*@gmail.com>**

You can dehydrate in a small electric unit--they do a good job. You can also
make fruit leathers in them.

I tested solar dehydrators for Brace Institute in Quebec a loooong time ago
and learned that while they might be great in Arizona or Israel, they were
the pits in Quebec. Everything rotted before it was adequately dry. I expect
that would be true in any humid climate with moderate, as opposed to high,
light levels.

It's important to remind people to can non-acid veggies in a pressure
canner.

As for freezing: maybe I'm not picky, but I've been able to freeze just
about anything I grew with results that pleased me. I "french" thick beans
such as Contender. Mostly, I freeze the "filet vert" cultivars because they
have so much less fiber. For peas, it's important to shell them right into
the bags--you don't need to blanch or steam them first. The same with corn
and green peppers. I sometimes remove the skin from the peppers before I
freeze them--but that's only with cultivars with extremely thick skins. If
you are going to use the peppers whole, for stuffed peppers, for example,
you can simply remove the lid, scoop out the seeds, and freeze them in
plastic bags.

Miranda
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