Can Mustard/Collard Greens be Dehydrated or Canned?

[mollypup]

I was wondering what I should do with the left-over greens from the garden. Though we haven't even harvested the 1st bunch of the yet I'm being terribly over-optimistic by assuming I will have a lot to store but they seem to be growing fairly well. I don't want to freeze them because I'm trying to stay away from using anything that requires electricity. I tried looking on the web for answers but didn't find anything particularly useful. Does anyone have experience drying or canning greens?

Thanks!

[JustAPrepper]

Too Funny! I just looked these up in Mary Bell's book the other day because we have some Collards that are ready to be harvested. According to her, cut the ribs out of the greens and give them a quick blanch to help reduce some bitterness then dehydrate until dry. I'll be doing ours as soon as our tomatoes are done...IF they ever get done. Tomatoes always give me fits!!!

ETA: I've also canned Collards. It was quite the ordeal. I'll post about it you want the info.

[mollypup]

Too Funny! I just looked these up in Mary Bell's book the other day because we have some Collards that are ready to be harvested. According to her, cut the ribs out of the greens and give them a quick blanch to help reduce some bitterness then dehydrate until dry. I'll be doing ours as soon as our tomatoes are done...IF they ever get done. Tomatoes always give me fits!!!

ETA: I've also canned Collards. It was quite the ordeal. I'll post about it you want the info.

I went ahead and bought Mary Bell's book. I can't wait until it gets here! Thanks for recommending it

[Sniper-T]

What are your issues with drying tomatoes? I do them all the time, and they are the ultimate slice and ignore food.

[JustAPrepper]

What are your issues with drying tomatoes? I do them all the time, and they are the ultimate slice and ignore food.

Thanks Sniper. I can't seem to get them dry enough to run through the grinder to make powder with. They are always "sticky". I've tried doing them on a high setting but they definitely hard-cased (dry on the outside but wet on the inside). This is probably the fifth time I've tried and I've been doing them really low (95*-100*) and letting them go all day and night. I'm wondering if I let them get too ripe and they're building up a really high sugar content??

[Sniper-T]

How thick did you slice/chunk them? and did you peel them first?

[ravensgrove]

Tomatoes: salt first to help in the drying process.
Greens: I put all of our greens together including spinach and chop up in food processor then can and/or freeze. Those pics of pizza we posted had greens on them. The thing to remember with spinach or greens is the sheer volume of greens you need to produce any amount of canned/frozen anything. Once you blanch they really reduce down to maybe 15% of the preblanch volume.

Greens are like grains and legumes in that way. You buy a can of spinach at the store not thinking much about it, or one bag of flour etc...but the sheer volume of spinach that went into making that one can, or grain into that one bag of flour....or plants for one bag of beans...I don't think people get that.

[Sparrow]

See, I wondered about canning dandelion. My idea was pickle with curry spices to make like a chutney. I get dandelion the size of baseball bats out here! And dandelion is a super food as well ... and free.

[JustAPrepper]

See, I wondered about canning dandelion. My idea was pickle with curry spices to make like a chutney. I get dandelion the size of baseball bats out here! And dandelion is a super food as well ... and free.

Sparrow, I go by this...if I can't find it in a can in the store then I probably can't can it myself. Do you have canned Dandelions in Canada? I don't think I've ever seen them here so I'm thinking they might not come out so good.

[Sparrow]

Sparrow, I go by this...if I can't find it in a can in the store then I probably can't can it myself. Do you have canned Dandelions in Canada? I don't think I've ever seen them here so I'm thinking they might not come out so good.

I think it is a law of demand and supply, and who would want to eat canned dandelions? LOL! I thought of it more as a way to eat them ... because they are so healthy and dry, they make a very bitter unpleasant tea-infusion, ... in summer I eat them all the time in salad and poached.

East indian pickles are made out of everything under the sun ... including spinach. The high amount of spices, cayenne, chillies and oil ... I think would make them really tasty as a side dish when doing an indian meal.

{ researches ...}

Wow, ok here is dandelion jelly! Made from the flowers and tastes like honey! Dandelion Jelly, Learn to can jelly from these pretty yet pesky weeds.

I found this talk about canning dandelions, and it is jsut like canning spinach. I remember Raven told me this as well as I have wondered about this before over the summer.