Today we finished the third round of dehydrating the zucchini for animal feed. So far is going beautifully!
We are adjusting the recipe by including various fresh greens with the zucchini. Available is kale, chard, dandelion greens, and arugula.
First we did a mix of about 75% zucchini and the rest a blend of chard and dandelion. The mix cane out beautiful, but the chard didn't work well in the chipper. Kept plugging the exit screen from the soft fibers. The dandelions worked OK though! We only harvested the plants that had talk hard stalks, so they chipped up much like twigs.
Then we did a batch of about 50% zucchini and the rest dandelion, arugula, and kale. Unfortunately the kale plugged the screen almost as bad chard. The heavy green mix made a very different final product, more like balls of fiber. Hopefully it will dry ok.
All in all, the 75%mix seems the best. But... Let's wait a few days and see how it dries.
This is the setup, I had to block the exit flap open to get enough flow. You can see the 50/50 harvest ready to chip on both sides of the machine.
This is a look at the 75/25 mix.
This is the 50/50 mix right out of the chipper. Notice the heavy fibers dominating.
A close-up of the 50/50 mix shows mostly balls of fiber with pockets of zucchini chips.
And here it is on the tray ready for sunshine
We are adjusting the recipe by including various fresh greens with the zucchini. Available is kale, chard, dandelion greens, and arugula.
First we did a mix of about 75% zucchini and the rest a blend of chard and dandelion. The mix cane out beautiful, but the chard didn't work well in the chipper. Kept plugging the exit screen from the soft fibers. The dandelions worked OK though! We only harvested the plants that had talk hard stalks, so they chipped up much like twigs.
Then we did a batch of about 50% zucchini and the rest dandelion, arugula, and kale. Unfortunately the kale plugged the screen almost as bad chard. The heavy green mix made a very different final product, more like balls of fiber. Hopefully it will dry ok.
All in all, the 75%mix seems the best. But... Let's wait a few days and see how it dries.
This is the setup, I had to block the exit flap open to get enough flow. You can see the 50/50 harvest ready to chip on both sides of the machine.
This is a look at the 75/25 mix.
This is the 50/50 mix right out of the chipper. Notice the heavy fibers dominating.
A close-up of the 50/50 mix shows mostly balls of fiber with pockets of zucchini chips.
And here it is on the tray ready for sunshine
No comments:
Post a Comment