Paprika & Cayenne Pepper
1. Harvest & wash peppers from the garden
2. String them up and hang them out of direct sunlight (You can hang them when they green and they will usually turn red)
3. When the peppers are dry, this may take awhile, I break them up and remove the seeds and top. ( If you don't want to wait for them to dry hanging. They could be dried in the oven on very low heat),
4. Next I put them in my Mini-Cuisinart Grinder and grind them into a fine powder. You could also use a food processor or blender to grind them. Note: you may want to cover the grinder when grinding, the pepper gets in the air and can make you cough
5. Store in jars out of light
Garlic Powder & Minced Garlic
This year in the spring I took the garlic that was starting to dry up in storage and made garlic powder out of it. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the one variety of garlic from this year wasn't storing well...so, I decided to make it into minced garlic.
1. Slice or chop garlic and place on a baking sheet.
2. Put the baking sheet in the oven on low heat (150-200) on convection or bake setting.
3. Check them about every 20-30 minutes. They may take 1-2 hours to dry completely in the oven.
4. Remove from oven and cool.
5. For garlic powder, grind as directed in step 4 for making paprika & cayenne pepper
6. Store in jars out of light
Freezing
The only herbs that I freeze are Rosemary, Basil & Sage. I basically just harvest nice herbs, clean them, place them in freezer bags and put them in the freezer. I don't have a vaccuum sealer, so I put a straw in the bag and suck out as much air as I can.
If you would like to read a more detailed post on freezing herbs, Kelly at How My Garden Grows did a very nice post on this in September.
I never thought to make garlic powder. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteGarli poder is a great idea. Usually i buy it. Next time i will try to dry some
ReplyDeleteSorry, there are some spelling mistakes , i am writing on a touch screen.
ReplyDeleteThe Mom, I didn't want to waste the garlic. So, I gave it a try. The flavor is really strong.
ReplyDeleteMojVrt, Don't worry about your spelling. I can't spell on a regular keyboard! I was thinking that about making onion powder the same way. Maybe next year, my onion crop was a complete failure this year.
The peppers really look nice hanging on the strings! Very colorful! It looks like it takes a lot of peppers to accumulate that much ground pepper. The garlic powder sounds like a great idea! We love garlic! It's good on or in everything... almost.
ReplyDeleteI like the straw idea. Very clever!
VP, The garlic powder is very strong....but good!! I think that I will try making onion powder next year.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought to make garlic powder from our garlic before. Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post, I may have to try making more dried spices next year. I dried basil, and froze sage, thyme, rosemary, and chives. The freezing has worked out amazingly well.
ReplyDelete