- 2 days ago
- #nodig
- #bouillon
- #growyourownfood
Make amazing bouillon with leaves of celery | Onion and Carrot | Charles Dowding
How you can preserve the beautiful green of summer vegetable leaves. Just the leaves in this case. Harvest, dehydrate, blitz and add flavourings.
The celery is Greensleeves and I sowed it late February, transplanted 1st April with fleece over. It's been giving great harvests since June and was much improved by a lot of rain this summer. The stalks became more tender.
Nantes carrots were sown early April by Ellie from Atlanta, and not thinned.
The perennial onion is from a plant sometimes called Welsh onion.
All vegetables here are no dig, growing quickly and easily. Little time is needed for weeding thanks to the soil being undisturbed. Soil health and fertility is from an annual dose of 3 cm/an inch of home-made compost.
Filmed and edited by Edward Dowding at Homeacres, Somerset UK, August 2023.
Heidi's song is in her stage name of Jacqui Vincent https://jacquivincent.bandcamp.com/track/homeacres costs £1 to download
00:00 Intro and how to prep for drying
00:50 Onion leaves
02:02 Prepping carrot leaves
04:10 Celery leaves, destalking
05:36 Drying options, dehydrator vs oven, or sunshine
06:37 Four hours later
07:44 Weighing the result
08:23 Credit to Heidi and her Homeacres song
08:46 Extra ingredients
10:01 Blitzing in the kitchen processor
11:40 Finished bouillon and I last it
12:12 Recipe discussion
15:05 Ideas for using and storing
You can join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg/join
#nodig #bouillon #growyourownfood
How you can preserve the beautiful green of summer vegetable leaves. Just the leaves in this case. Harvest, dehydrate, blitz and add flavourings.
The celery is Greensleeves and I sowed it late February, transplanted 1st April with fleece over. It's been giving great harvests since June and was much improved by a lot of rain this summer. The stalks became more tender.
Nantes carrots were sown early April by Ellie from Atlanta, and not thinned.
The perennial onion is from a plant sometimes called Welsh onion.
All vegetables here are no dig, growing quickly and easily. Little time is needed for weeding thanks to the soil being undisturbed. Soil health and fertility is from an annual dose of 3 cm/an inch of home-made compost.
Filmed and edited by Edward Dowding at Homeacres, Somerset UK, August 2023.
Heidi's song is in her stage name of Jacqui Vincent https://jacquivincent.bandcamp.com/track/homeacres costs £1 to download
00:00 Intro and how to prep for drying
00:50 Onion leaves
02:02 Prepping carrot leaves
04:10 Celery leaves, destalking
05:36 Drying options, dehydrator vs oven, or sunshine
06:37 Four hours later
07:44 Weighing the result
08:23 Credit to Heidi and her Homeacres song
08:46 Extra ingredients
10:01 Blitzing in the kitchen processor
11:40 Finished bouillon and I last it
12:12 Recipe discussion
15:05 Ideas for using and storing
You can join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg/join
#nodig #bouillon #growyourownfood
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Oh, what a difference.
00:02Hmm, amazing.
00:04That's why people put salt in things.
00:15Turning some abundance into something really tasty
00:18and nutritious for winter.
00:21So I've made three harvests from my garden
00:24that I'm gonna do this with.
00:26You could probably find more or different ones
00:29from your garden is to show you some possibilities
00:32and how I'm processing them to turn basically green leaves
00:38with all the goodness of green
00:41into something super storable for winter.
00:48So we're making bouillon, which is green powder.
00:51I'm just taking off the little bits of yellow
00:53from the onion leaf here.
00:55And I'm going to then actually cut these
00:58into shorter lengths, because that will help
01:01the dehydration process.
01:05And there's an example of do the rest in stages.
01:08I'm just giving you some ideas here.
01:10And then you put them on.
01:12In this case, I'm using racks for a from a dehydrator,
01:18electric dehydrator, which I'm going to run at 52 centigrade,
01:23825 Fahrenheit.
01:25So the idea with this is to have them reasonably well spread out,
01:28but they don't need to be single layer because these are all green.
01:32And the important thing is here that you're using literally the green leaves.
01:38And what I won't put in, in the case of the onions, is that bit of stem.
01:43So in this case, I'm composting that.
01:45But this is what's going in the dehydration.
01:49The idea is to be, if you, what I found is you just use everything of the same texture
01:55or thickness, and that way they're all going to dehydrate pretty quickly.
02:00It's the stems take quite a bit longer.
02:02So these carrot tops, for example, already I have taken off or cut off the top bit.
02:09And again, I'm pulling out some little yellow bits, which are always there.
02:15But you see, these are pretty nice.
02:16These carrots actually were sown, oh, way back in early April.
02:21And we're now middle of August.
02:23So that's quite old for a carrot, but we've had unusual weather this year.
02:27It's very dry.
02:28We didn't water them.
02:29They kind of survived.
02:30Then it's rained in the last seven weeks of summer and they put on this beautiful growth.
02:35And I haven't protected them.
02:37They haven't got a carrot roof like either, so it's amazing.
02:39So I'm just taking advantage of that.
02:41This is, this is pretty much waste.
02:44I mean, there's so much of this abundance now, I don't mind composting a bit.
02:47In order to get, even now, I'm just going to take out a few of the stalky bits if there
02:54are.
02:55There's always going to be, this is no perfect way of getting pure leaf, but you can see
03:00the stalky bits now are actually pretty thin and slender and they will dehydrate okay.
03:06So this is all edible.
03:08It's amazing how, you know, I've been doing this as much as anybody and through not knowing
03:13partly early in my life, how much of the bits we discard, tops, celery tops, that kind
03:21of thing, not only usable, but delicious.
03:24So much flavor in these.
03:25We, we sometimes make a pesto actually, out of carrot tops.
03:29That's another great use for them.
03:31So again, I'm not spreading that too much.
03:34Just enough, the dehydrator has very thin level layers, not much space between each tray.
03:40It's a nine tray model.
03:43And as soon as these start to dry, they shrink a lot.
03:46So don't be afraid to sort of pack them in a bit at the beginning.
03:49I'll need to do a bit of pruning on this, but you get the idea.
03:52And the onions, by the way, they're from a patch of perennial onions, which I've got growing
03:57near the small garden.
04:00And I cut them because they get a bit sort of overgrown and stemmy, and I cut them to the
04:04ground
04:05about two months ago.
04:06And that was all the regrowth from them.
04:08So really handy.
04:09And then the celery.
04:11So this was fascinating because I hadn't tried it before, but cutting...
04:17There's a bit of an old one, actually, I have to take that off.
04:19But basically what I did, as you saw, I cut not too low.
04:23So you're left with a bit of stalk.
04:25And then that's regrown in, again, about two months.
04:28Everything you see here is new growth of celery from the same plant.
04:33So this is the second harvest.
04:35And because we're mid-August, I reckon they're going to do another one.
04:39So again, I'm doing this by hand just to have less stalk.
04:44And just to emphasize, there's nothing wrong with the stalk.
04:46This is just about the dehydration process working at a good speed by having only leaf to dry.
04:54And these stalks, I could use them if I had a juicer.
04:58I want to get a juicer, actually.
05:01And, you know, I'll find a use for them for sure.
05:03So, you know, celery.
05:04If you can grow nice celery, it is one of the most useful vegetables for the dual purpose.
05:09And then the repeat cutting.
05:12And just water.
05:13It needs so much water.
05:15So, I'm going to carry on doing this.
05:17And then you'll see me loading up the dehydrator with nine trays packed as full as I can.
05:24But I will turn it on for about three hours.
05:28And that will take out all of the moisture.
05:31I want it to be pretty much 100% dry so I can turn it into a powder.
05:37And if you don't have a dehydrator, you can use an oven.
05:41It's not quite so straightforward because ovens are not really designed to do this.
05:47And you'd have to leave the door open to let the moisture out.
05:50The dehydrator is designed to do all that in one seamless process.
05:53But you can be ingenious.
05:55It's a sunny day.
05:56Why not use the sun?
05:57Well, I have tried that, but it takes a lot longer.
06:01And it certainly wouldn't, in our climate 51 north, it wouldn't happen in one day.
06:06And then you'd need to bring it in at night so it doesn't catch the dew and start again the
06:10next day.
06:11Worth a try though, if you've got a bit of sunny weather coming up.
06:15So, I'll see you when we've got some dry powder or dry leaves.
06:36So, this is now four hours later.
06:39It's taken longer than I thought because the onions took longer to dry.
06:44And the celery actually probably would have taken less time.
06:49And let's just have a look.
06:51I'm really hoping that I took the celery earlier and spread them out.
06:56Yeah, these are now feeling crisp and you can possibly hear them.
07:02Crispy.
07:04I would say they could be just a tad dry, but because everything else is so dry,
07:08I'm confident that this is going to work.
07:11So, I'm going to weigh the total once these are in here.
07:17So, onions is not a huge proportion of the mix, but enough to be interesting flavor-wise.
07:26The flavor is very much based on Umbelifer vegetables.
07:29We have celery and carrot as most of it.
07:34And not a lot else really.
07:36And I could have put in parsley.
07:38You hear that lovely crackling.
07:41The celery is just bone dry.
07:44So, let's check the weight.
07:47It was 140 before.
07:50It's now gone up another 16.
07:52So, that's 156 grams dry weight.
07:59It's not a lot.
08:02That's, in old money, that's six ounces.
08:06That's crazy.
08:08Yeah, really, not a lot of weight.
08:11So, that's why the guys who do this commercially
08:15add a lot of salt and other things too.
08:20And this is what got me into it, partly.
08:23Firstly, it was a friend coming around on a picking morning.
08:27And we were picking lots of celery and spring onions and carrots.
08:31Heidi Thicker, actually, is her name.
08:33And she wrote this lovely song about homemakers.
08:36You can download it from Bandcamp.
08:39She's a musician.
08:40She's really into eating well too.
08:42And she said, she'd been making this bouillon.
08:44I said, why don't you make it?
08:44So, yeah, great.
08:46So, then, to get ideas for ingredients to put in it,
08:49I had to look at this one.
08:51Swiss vegetable vegan bouillon powder.
08:54You know, sounds really like the real deal.
08:57But you look at the list of ingredients.
08:59And the first ingredient is sea salt.
09:01So, it's 44%.
09:03Then the next ingredient is maltodextrin.
09:06Well, that's a sweetener.
09:08You know, quite a lot of this is basically sweetener.
09:11Then, after that, we have rice flour.
09:13So, a lot of fillers here.
09:16And then we finally get to vegetables,
09:18which is onion, carrot, and parsnip.
09:217.2%.
09:22That's all it is.
09:247.2% vegetable by weight.
09:27And then you've got little other extras like yeast extract,
09:30sunflower oil, parsley, and turmeric.
09:33So, anyway, that just gave me a few ideas,
09:36but I'm not going to put in all of that salt and sweetener and flour.
09:40What I'm going to do is grind this up.
09:41But with some salt, turmeric, and I've got some yeast flakes here.
09:47So, I'm actually going to put these in here.
09:51It's going to be a little bit randomness, actually.
09:53You know, there are many ways you could do this.
09:55So, you could grind everything up and then add these ingredients.
10:00Or you could add the ingredients now.
10:02So, let's load this up here.
10:07And then it's going to make a noise.
10:11And yeah, this is way more than I made last time.
10:14This is good, actually, because it shows, you know,
10:17you can really pack it in the dehydrator.
10:19And it's going to be about 50 grams per load by the look of it.
10:23And this may not be the most effective tool for,
10:28no, maybe not, grinding it down.
10:34But it's what I've got here.
10:44So, that's pretty fine.
10:47There's no, wow, one-size-fits-all for how fine it should be.
10:53It's your call.
10:57And I did make a bouillon before, which had carrots in.
11:03And the carrots took a long time to dry.
11:06So, that's what slightly put me off doing it again.
11:09And also, this grinder did not work well with carrots.
11:15Carrots, when they're dehydrated, actually go quite leathery and hard.
11:20So, I need to get this in there first.
11:24So, I'm going to carry on grinding this.
11:26And then we'll pick it up when I've got my other ingredients ready to add.
11:33And then we'll have a little tasting.
11:35Here we go then.
11:36So, two lots in the Magimix.
11:40And we have this beautiful green powder.
11:44And I'm going to taste just a small amount.
11:49Because it's a really strong flavour.
11:52It's kind of pure celery.
11:53That's slightly metallic and very tart.
11:56It's certainly not sweet.
11:58Which is maybe why these people, you know, you probably wouldn't want to drink that on its own.
12:05And they're adding quite a bit of the sugar.
12:08I called maltodextrin.
12:10Well, we're not going to do that.
12:11At least I'm not.
12:12I'm going to add some of these yeast flakes, though.
12:15I've worked out proportions roughly of what I think.
12:17So, I've got 155 grams of powder.
12:20I'm going to put about 10 grams.
12:22So, that's about 7 or 8% of the yeast flakes.
12:26I need to get my scales working again.
12:30I'm thinking to put in about 20 grams of salt, which is about 12%.
12:36And, you know, this is very much your call and what you'd like to do.
12:41But, I'm going to put in,
12:44So, 10 grams of yeast flakes.
12:46This stuff is made by culturing on molasses.
12:50It's basically yeast.
12:55But, with actually really nice flavour.
12:59581.
12:59That's good.
13:01So, that's 10 grams of that.
13:036 grams of turmeric, which I pre-weighed.
13:06That's in here.
13:07So, this is turmeric powder.
13:12That will give it really quite a kick.
13:15And, beautiful colour as well.
13:19And, now, finally, the salt.
13:21So, 20 grams.
13:23We're up to 587.
13:26So, 20 grams is going to go to 607 on there.
13:30Blimey, that's nearly there.
13:34That is 20 grams of salt.
13:35Doesn't look much, does it?
13:38I've got a spoon in here.
13:43So, yeah.
13:44This will, this will make something that you probably wouldn't want to use for just a hot drink in the
13:51winter.
13:52Or, you might.
13:53I mean, this is, for me, is about capturing the, not only the flavour, or more than the flavour.
13:59The, the, the goodness, the, the, the vitamins, the, the essence of summer.
14:07In a way that dehydration doesn't take away the, uh, enzymes, the, the life.
14:15You know, I would say this is still full of life.
14:17As well as, I'm gonna, don't need the scales anymore.
14:22So, just taste a bit to finish.
14:24And, I hope you, you've got enough from this video to give you some ideas about how to proceed.
14:29The, if I made a mistake, it was putting the, not cutting the onion fine enough.
14:34The onion clearly takes a little bit longer to dehydrate compared to, say, celery, parsley, carrot.
14:41That went pretty quickly.
14:45Oh, what a difference.
14:47Hmm.
14:48Amazing.
14:49That's why people put salt in things.
14:51I can really taste the salt.
14:53I can really taste the turmeric.
14:55Actually, the salt is really strong.
14:58That was plenty enough salt.
15:00So, that was 12% salt.
15:02That's made a huge difference to the flavour.
15:05But, obviously, you're using it in small proportions and things.
15:08But, yeah, I would say a level teaspoon of that in a,
15:12a mug of hot water will give you quite a kick in the winter.
15:15And, this does not cost much.
15:17If you're growing your own vegetables, do give it a go.
15:22And, you can adapt from what I've done according to where you are,
15:26what equipment you have, and get it really fine like this.
15:31I'm going to now simply put this in a jar.
15:33And, it will keep, it keeps for months, you know, even a year and more.
15:40And, you know, I don't see why the goodness should go out of it.
15:43So, happy bouillon making.
15:51Edward神
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