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Forum DIET & CARE When life gives you lemons…

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    • Gina.Jenny
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        … you make lemonade

        So when life gives you a week of sun, showers and humidity, and the dandelion leaves are growing faster than even four bunnies and two piggies can get through them, you make dried dandelions 

        Never tried this before, and I don’t have space for drying racks, so that means oven drying. Only my oven needed repairs last October that were eye wateringly expensive, and made weighing up replacing the whole oven worth considering. In the end, I decided to buy a halogen oven instead, as it was cheaper than repairing the fan oven, and so far, we have managed OK with just a halogen oven and the trusty microwave. So today, its a new test for the halogen oven.

        Second batch is nearly done

        And I think it will take all day to dry the rest. (treat ball in to give a scale)

        And there are still more in the garden unpicked than there are in dried, drying, and waiting to be dried 


      • Bam
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          They will love this come winter! I have been industrious this spring and dried lots of ground elder and dandelion already, to the point that my stupid silly herniated lumbar disk has returned with a vengeance. (It’s not the drying that kills your back, of course, it’s the foraging.) And the buns just go “So what, slave? You’re our slave. Shut up and slave, slave!”


        • Gina.Jenny
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            Well this batch is now all dry, but with six mouths, they will all agree on one thing, mum needed to pick much more! 

            But it beats buying ready dried ones, they are so pricey  one good thing about halogen ovens is they cook quicker than fan ovens, and use half the electricity.

            Like you, bam, the foraging is the worst part…


          • Q8bunny
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              Those look so delicious! Lots of happy nomnomming this winter…

              My poor dad also threw out his wonky back picking and sundrying herbs for Chewie, only to have my mom come home from her business trip and point out that there’s no way Kuwaiti customs would let them through. Poor grandpa…


            • Bam
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                Aww, how incredibly sweet of your dad, Q8! But dried leaves can be stored a long time in ziplock bags in a dark place like a closet. Silly Kuwait customs.

                They do look yummy, GJ. Now I want a halogen oven. Not to dry stuff in, I have 3 mushroom driers but because my “normal” owen is seriously unwell.


              • Gina.Jenny
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                  I decided it was worth trying a halogen oven as an oven replacement as the parts to repair my fan oven cost what a halogen oven does, and that’s before call out costs and labour. Plus the part that went wrong had already been replaced once, thankfully under warranty so I thought the second replacement had a high chance of not lasting long enough to justify its cost. Our oven is mostly its used to cook/reheat pizza, not roast dinners, so a halogen works fine. The only draw back is it holds less dandelions, so I had to do numerous small batches, but each batch only took around 8 minutes, I’ll keep them in a box for a few days, to ensure they are 100% dry, then bag then up for winter.


                • Crashley
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                    I feel like Winnie would really enjoy this! I see dandolion greens in my yard all the time. Are those safe? I definitely dont use fertilizers in my yard either.


                  • Gina.Jenny
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                      If they are in your yard, and you can be sure they haven’t had anything sprayed on, then go for it.

                      Sadly all the ones in my front garden can’t be used, fresh or dried, as I have neighbours who insist on sharing their ‘weed and feed’


                    • LittlePuffyTail
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                        Neat! Any idea how I would do this in a regular oven? Would like to try drying dandelions and carrot tops. I can get tons of carrot tops free at the farmers market.


                      • Crashley
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                          I am also curious! i have a gas oven


                        • Gina.Jenny
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                            Spread them in a thin layer on some kind of tray, cooling trays sat over baking trays might be best, so the air can circulate? I ‘cooked’ mine at 160 degrees C, which is equivalent 170-180 C in a normal oven, not sure what that is in gas marks though? I ‘stirred’ them around with my hand half way through. A batch took around 8 minutes, but halogens cook faster than conventional ovens, so allow longer, but the batches will be much larger?

                            Main thing is not to have the layers too thick, in the hope it will speed things up. I ended up with soggy ones underneath, trying that out, so kept to thin layers after that!


                          • Gina.Jenny
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                              Loads of long grass came into the house along with this mornings dandelions, so I decided to separate as much out as possible, and see if anybun or piggy fancied some, when they came in. Choco and Latte tucked straight in, and finished their shares before a single bun came in!

                              Gina took a few mouthfuls, while Podge periscoped, pic is blurred as he was on the way down at the time.

                              Gina then hopped out so Podge could hop in

                              For those who think a video of Podge is over due

                                 

                              Pippi and Jenny enjoyed some more grass too

                              They are as bad for having hollow legs as my teen age sons! 

                              Given I’ve plenty of long grass, and no drying racks, and grass takes a lot longer than dandelions to dry in the halogen oven, I’ve spread some out in the garage, on the lids of the hayboxes, and also collected some dandelion seeds to see if I can grow fresh ones in the porch over the winter?


                            • Q8bunny
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                                Half a dozen sweetpeas!


                              • Gina.Jenny
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                                  I’ve loads of giant daisies growing under my front window, does anyone think they would be safe dried? They came from a seed pack of wild flowers, aimed at attracting bees and butterflies, but if I remove them once the flowers are past the best, they just grow more, so I would be able to pick and dry quite a good amount over the summer…

                                  I think they might be something along the lines of shasta or oxeye daises, as these are common in mixed wild flower seeds.


                                • Crashley
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                                    Gina.jenny, i have done some research and i cannot find anywhere where it says daisies are safe for rabbits. Though some people say certain varieties are and other varieties are not. In the list of safe plants/flowers for rabbits to eat daises were not in that list. Hope this helps


                                  • Gina.Jenny
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                                      Both shasta daisies and oxeye daisies are listed as edible for people, e.g. safe to use flowers and leaves on salad.

                                      Bunnyhugga lists daisies, marguerites, and michaelmas daisies as safe for rabbits, however for every site that says daisies are bunny safe, another says they aren’t? I don’t want to feed them if not safe, but I don’t want to waste them if they are fine to use, esp over the winter, when buying veg enough for 6 can get pricey.


                                    • Bam
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                                        My bunnies eat daisies and marguerites, the greens, not the flowers (my buns are for some reason not big on any flowers, not even roses or clover). My mother’s garden is full of “wild” marguerites, there are more of them than grass.

                                        I did an online seach, the Swedish Veterinary Institute says marguerites (Leucanthemum vulgare, older name Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) are considered non-toxic to grazing animals (horses, cows, sheep) but but the flowers can cause skin irritation on contact. They are so very, very common here (they’re even the symbol for my province) so they practically can’t be avoided in pastures. I think the greens are ok for a bunny mix, I’ve used them as such. I’ve never tried feeding large quantities (like I have with dandelion and ground elder (aegopodium podagraria)).


                                      • Gina.Jenny
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                                          That’s good to know, bam, thanks. be a shame to waste so much edible greenness! have you ever tried drying them?


                                        • Azerane
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                                            Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 5/20/2016 9:49 AM

                                            Neat! Any idea how I would do this in a regular oven? Would like to try drying dandelions and carrot tops. I can get tons of carrot tops free at the farmers market.

                                            From everything I’ve read about drying herbs in an oven, it always suggests the lowest temperature setting possible for a longer period of time to avoid burning.


                                          • Gina.Jenny
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                                              Piggies tried one small daisy leaf each this am and gobbled them down, it was damp, and forecast to rain, so no getting out for them.

                                              Buns came in three hours ago, and have been taking their afternoon siesta. Just offered them one leaf each. Pippi took his and chomped it straight down, Podge sniffed a couple of times, then ate it, but slowly. Jenny couldn’t decide whether to take hers or not, making it tricky to stop Pippi snaffing it, but after 3 rounds of sniffing, backing off, and coming back, she took it into the kitten tree house, and ate it in there. Gina refused hers.

                                              I’ll see how they are with one leaf for now, the leaves are around 10 cm long, so that’s plenty for a new food. If they are OK with small amounts over the next couple of weeks, then I’ll think about drying some for winter, given I have a lot more daisy leaves than dandelion leaves.


                                            • Bam
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                                                The only plant I can think of now that isn’t good for drying is yarrow leaves. They just crumble into dust. But fresh they’re a big favorite.
                                                The problem with drying in a regular oven is moisture, but you can dry stuff next-to-dry in normal room temp, then finish the process in the oven. Use the lowest setting and DON’T leave the oven slightly open, it gets rid of moisture but it ruins the oven. That’s how mine got ruined, I made hay-cookies for the buns :/


                                              • Gina.Jenny
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                                                  The lid has to be shut for a halogen oven to switch on, and all the moisture goes to the base of the glass bowl.

                                                  This meant when I put too much in, the leaves at the bottom ended up super soggy A thin layer of dandelions on each of the two racks worked fine though.

                                                  Decided to do a small batch of the daisy leaves, to see how they dry, and if anybun or pig would eat them.

                                                  They were full of eggs, so needed a thorough wash first, which meant even with a towel dry, they were wet going in the oven. Took longer than dandelions, which didn’t surprise me, as they are more substantial leaves.

                                                  Podge volunteered for quality control duties  

                                                  The paws were up on the bars when that leaf was finished, clearly asking for more, but I think that’s enough of a new food for one day


                                                • Gina.Jenny
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                                                    With the sun finally breaking through, after several overcast days, I decided to come up with an impromptu drying rack 

                                                    Pippi was curious about the new sunshade, everybun else kept chomping what was beneath them, instead of wasting grass time looking up to see what weird human stuff mum was up to. If the sun stays out all day, these should be well on the way to dry by this evening, and its a lot less work than small batches in the oven.

                                                    Although it looks a lot, shared out between six, over the whole winter, they will only be an occasional treat  still, if I keep this up, there should be a decent stock pile, between dandelions and daisies. Did four more rackfuls of dandelions in the halogen oven, but all the big juicy ones have been picked and dried now. The sun should get the little leaves growing, especially as they now have lots of space to grow into, with the big leaves out of their way 


                                                  • Q8bunny
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                                                      Podge is so generous with his time.

                                                      That last picture looks like Pippi’s built a little Robinson Crusoe hut. Wonder who’ll get voted off the island? lol

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                                                  Forum DIET & CARE When life gives you lemons…