"Excalibur" is also the name of a fabulously sexy love song by the singer-songwriter-artist Danya River.
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Anyway...
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I was first introduced to food dehydrating in my hippie-house in Portland. A guy we lived with owned both a food dehydrator and a juicer, which I thought was very grown-up and resourceful. I had so much fun drying all kinds of things: cherry tomatoes from our garden (which I later soaked in olive oil and kept in the fridge), apples, bananas, carrots, grapes, etc. I juiced lots of stuff that I picked from the yards of friends and neighbors. Delicious and nutritious!
So I always planned that, once I grew up and stopped volunteering for a living, I would get a food dehydrator and juicer of my very own. And now I'm half-way to my goal!
At my Minnesota wedding shower, hosted by Jennifer, several of the women came together and gifted me with the ultimate fighting champion of food dehydrators: the Excalibur! (And what a great name! Seriously.) The gift was a total surprise:
What is it?
Oooooo! I went berry-picking here in Minnesota and gathered some lovely stuff:
Strawberries (The strawberries were perfectly ripe last weekend, and I had a wonderful time picking these jewels in the sunshine.)
Black Currants (I think they're kindof gross tasting, actually. First they taste really tart and exciting, but then this strange beefy-taste comes up and I have to spit it out. Nick says I'm a crazy vegetarian, and it doesn't taste like beef at all. Needless to say, I didn't get many of the black currants, but they are pretty.)
Red Currants (These are so delicious and easy to pick and very very pretty in salads! Nutritionally, red currants are a good source of Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C and Vitamin K.
Gooseberries (These little globes look something like red grapes, and taste something like blueberries or tart grapes. Gooseberries are my favorite new berry discovery! They were really difficult to pick off the spiny branches, but totally worth the effort. Next time I'll bring gloves. I hear that they are an excellent source of antioxidants, and also nutritionally they are a good source of Vitamin A, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber and Vitamin C.)
Tonight I had the pleasure of getting some of those berries into the Excalibur. Hooray!
1 comment:
So so so so glad you like the Excalibur! Drying berries looks really yummy. I always loooved the dried pears my mom would make.
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