We've been using our new food dehydrator to make leaf hay for our rabbits. The leaf part is kale, chard, arugula, joi choi and maruba santo – basically any kind of garden green – and the hay part is drying it and storing it in big old lard tins or food-safe buckets for winter. The garden is bursting with all kinds of greens right now, and the six angora rabbits get a three- or four-gallon bucket full of fresh stuff every day. And at least that much goes into the driers.
I'm sure the sheep and goats would relish dried greens, too, but that would take a whole lot more drying, and we're not sure we want to go there.
We have a row of rinky-dink round, plastic, electric food dehydrators, but the new model is bigger, and costs nothing to run. It's a 1996 Subaru. Yep.
On sunny, 80-degree weekends when we won't be using the car we lower all the windows an inch or two (for air movement and to keep temps down) and lay a big piece cardboard or a clean sheet (to catch any stray bits) in the back of the station wagon. Wire racks – old fridge racks, I think – are propped up on pipes and milk crates. (Don't use galvanized fencing, window screen or other materials that aren't food-safe for your racks.) The greens are laid out on the racks, and by Sunday night they are dry but not too brittle, and are packed away.
It's important to keep temps under 150 degrees, which might be a problem this coming weekend with forecast highs of 100. (I guess we could park in the shade.) An oven thermometer would be helpful to monitor this.
Just think – that dead car in the yard might finally turn out to be an asset.
The grandson would call this whole setup tacky, and would prefer we buy an expensive gadget that does the same job and matches the kitchen. (We pat him on the head and urge him to have another cookie.)
The hay is pretty brittle when served, and will shatter if handled roughly. The rabbits go crazy for it.
Su
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