Deshidratar frutas y verduras

Buenos dias!

Hoy os propongo un post breve con las instrucciones que podeis seguir para deshidratar frutas y verduras correctamente y sin necesidad de tener deshidratadores electricos. Nuestro deshidratador solar se ha roto y estamos a la espera de tener un poco de tiempo para construir uno nuevo y mejor planteado una vez visto el funcionamiento del primero.

Pero como ya estamos empezando a recolectar hortalizas del huerto y además están empezando a madurar los higos, hoy os proponemos deshidratarlos por el metodo más simple, colgados al sol.

Necesitamos:

- Higos.
- Agua.
- Harina.
- Cuerda firme (evitar metal o plasticos)
- Un lugar soleado
- Malla mosquitera

¿Que hacer?

- Primero lavamos los higos con abundante agua para eliminar restos que puedan tener en el exterior.

- Secar bien al aire.
- Con una aguja ir pinchando los higos en la cuerda o hilo. Como tope yo he usado un tapon de una botella para evitar que se deslicen y apoyen sobre algo firme.

- Colgamos al sol en un lugar aireado y cubrimos con una mosquitera para evitar que las moscas y otros insectos hagan de las suyas.

- Cuando observemos que estan bien deshidratados, los enharinamos bien para evitar que si hay algo de humedad los estropee y los metemos en tarros de cristal, donde se conservaran a la perfección un monton de meses.

Muy ricos para postres, tartas y una fuente de energia para deportistas.

A disfrutar!

Aviso: tras algunos meses puede que alguno se estropee y desarrolle larvas, es algo normal puesto que el higo es polinizado por una avispa que entra por la parte de abajo del fruto y pone sus huevos en el, por lo que si no los eliminas con un correcto deshidratado al sol algún higo puede estropearse, aunque a mi aún no me ha pasado nunca.

Lavender lemonade

Here I gave you a fresh recipe for this hot summer. An original lemonade with the taste and smell of lavender.

What you need?

- 2 tablespoons of lavender

- 3 lemons juice

- 1/2 cup of sugar or honey

- 4 cups of water.

How to?

- Heat the water with the sugar until it starts boiling.
- When ready, add the rest of the ingredients.
- Boil 5 minutes and let it cold.
- Enjoy!

Limonada de Lavanda

Hoy os dejo una receta facil y rapida para refrescarnos en estas calurosas tardes de verano. Es una limonada con un toque de lavanda, que queda con un color muy bonito y un toque aromático diferente.

¿Que necesitamos?

- El zumo de 3 limones.

- 2 cucharadas de flores de lavanda.

- 1/2 taza de azucar o miel al gusto.

- 4 tazas de agua.

¿Como se hace?
- Ponemos a hervir el agua con el azucar.
- Cuando comience a hervir añadimos el zumo de limon y las flores de lavanda.
- Dejamos cocer 5 minutos y apartamos.
- Colamos y servimos en un vaso decorado con una ramita de lavanda.

¡A disfrutar!

¿Que hacer en Junio en el huerto?

30 minutes cheese, easy & tasty.

Today I would like to share with you an easy recipe of home made cheese. It's called "acid precipitation system" and you don't need any special substances or machines to do it at home.

What we need?
- 1.5 liters of fresh milk (the one that it's refrigerated on the markets, the other one that comes on tetrabricks has an UHT treatment that destroys so many proteins so it doesn't work).
- 1 cup of lemon juice (it acts as the coagulant that gives this method it's name).
- Salt and herbs.

How to?

We leave here as always, a link to our youtube video with the how to procedure. We encourage you to wacht it and suscribe to our channel for more news. But as always we leave you also some written instructions, so it makes it easy to follow the video.

https://youtu.be/QRgljnHuZ40

- First of all we need to heat up the milk with low medium heat.
- Stir it so it doesn't burn, beacuse that could give our cheese a bad taste.
- When you see some small bubbles on the edges and some smoke, turn down the heat and let it cold for about 3 minutes.
- Touch the pot, and when it doesn't burn your hand, it's the moment to add the lemon juice.
- Add it slowly and continuosly stiring so it mixes well.
- When you see that it starts coagulating, stop stiring and let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Use a colander to discard the liquid.

I used a metallic one because I wanted a fresh cheese that can be served spread on bread slices, but if you want a harder one that can be used in salads, I recommend you to use a fabric colander so you can squeeze it more.

- Add some salt and herbs before squeezen the cheese. And then squeeze until it is tight as you like.
- Let it rest on the fridge to cold and dry for at least 2 hours.

If you have no patience for that, you can eat the cheese when it's completely cold without waiting that time, but it would be softer.

Hope you like this tutorial, and if you have some comments, doubts, sugestions let us know!
Write us here or in our youtube channel or facebook. Suscribe, like & share!.

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Cheers,
V.

Cold-preventive brew

Hi everybody!

Today I would like to share a recipe that can make us feel better when we have a cold, of course it doesn't heal us completely but can help on calming throat irritation or reducing mucus to breathe way better.

What do we need?

- Thyme twigs.
- Lemon juice.
- Raw honey, if it's possible rosmary one.
- 1 cup of water.

How-to:

- We need to boil thyme twigs for 2 minutes in 1 cup of water, after that time, let it rest and cold for 10 minutes.
- Add 1/2 lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of honey.
- Drink it slowly.

You can also use this recipe to gargle and to reduce throat pain.

In our next chapter of tips and tricks we are going to explain a homemade recipe of cough syrup.

*This recipe is from Mariano's Bueno book.

Winter is coming! Preparing our crops

So, summer is almost dead and it's time to plant the winter crops, some lettuce, chards, lombards, cabbage, cauliflower, and some more.

By this time, after planting them it's easy that cabbage worms (Pieris rapae) appears, beacuse plants are soft and tender for them. We have to be aware of that and kill them manually. If they become a problem you can use macerate cabbage leaves (4 leaves cutted in small pieces for every 5 litters).
You have to macerate it for one day, after that take off the leaves  and aply the water to the plants, with that what you get it's that the leaves have a bad smell, that the worms hate it.

What are you planning to plant this winter?
Cheers.
V.

How to build a solar dryer

Hi! As you saw in our video "how-to, sun dried tomatoes" we use a home made solar dryer.

You can built your own or purchase a electric one, it depends on where you live, solar ones are good for hot climates but not recommended for those with high humidity (because of the fungus grow).

Our solar "machine" is so simple, but it could be classified as a direct one, because the sun directly acts in the tomatoes. Here you have a scheme:

Grey areas are holes covered with mosquitoe net to prevent the entrance of bugs, ants, flyes and mosquitoes. They are positioned this way to make easy the airflow.
Brown areas are wood strips fixed to the laterals and front of the box. They are used to support our removable plate.
Orange one is a polycarbonate, to concentrate the effect of sun and high the temperature inside.
And the purple lines are a removable plate made out od wood sticks and a net of stainless steel that can be washed. Here is where you put the vegetables you want to dry.