Making Greens Powder
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It’s no secret that most people don’t eat enough vegetables. Greens powders are concentrated form of vitamins and minerals dietary designed to help you reach your daily recommended vegetable intake. They can be added to soups, stews, smoothies, salads and scrambled eggs or water to increase the nutritional value. Did you know you can make your own super greens powder at home?
You can make this with surplus greens you are growing in your garden and parts of the plant most tend to throw away. You can add seaweeds, herbs and even use weeds. Yes, weeds. So what can you dehydrate to add to your greens powder? There are several options but it's best to use a wide variety of greens to get the most nutritional diversity.
What can you dehydrate?
Garden Greens
kale, turnip greens, collard greens, carrot tops, beet tops, salad mix, broccoli and cauliflower picked at the peak of freshness and dehydrated in your dehydrator to preserve for the winter when greens are not readily available add
Leave out the stronger tasting vegetables like cabbage, radishes, mustards, peppers, onions, and garlic. Also leave out any vegetables that are potentially poisonous raw, such as potatoes.
Weeds
nettles, chickweed, purslane, plantain, and dandelion are excellent sources of vitamins and can be found in early spring. Some rules on foraging are to only pick what you need and some behind so they continue to produce. Be sure you know what you are picking. Pick from places that you know has not been sprayed with pesticides or chemicals.
Herbs and leaves
parsley, mint, strawberry, raspberry and blueberry leaves can also be taken from your garden, dehydrated and added to your greens mix. The ratio of herbs to greens should be about 20/80.
You can also include seaweed for iodine from a trusted source like Mountain Rose Herbs http://aspireiq.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=24&aff_id=3242 or mushrooms, rose hips for vitamin C. Fruit and vegetable pulp left over from making juice is another option to dry and use but I prefer to make a separate fruit powder.
How to make the powder Step by Step
Pick your greens and dehydrate at the peak of freshness. The best time to pick in in the morning on a sunny day.
wash them
Evenly lay them out on your dehydrator trays so they are not overlapping. I use the Excalibur dehydrator https://excaliburdehydrator.com/ but there are other on the market that will work just fine.
Set your dehydrator to 125 and dehydrate for 5-12 hours. The times will vary depending on how much moisture is in your plant. They should be crunchy to the touch when fully dry.
Blend greens in a high speed blender or coffee grinder.
Store in an airtight container. The powder should roll around the jar and not clump. If your powder is clumping in spots just lay it on a silicone drying https://excaliburdehydrator.com/collections/drying-sheets sheet and dehydrate longer.
If you would like to watch a video on how to do this click here. https://youtu.be/p-zT0Pelf8c
One of the benefits of making greens powder is that it preserves the foods for longer term. Another benefit is that it is highly concentrated so adding just one tablespoon to your food packs a nutritional punch and helps fill in the gaps helping to get more vegetables in our diet. So, what are some ways to use it? Many people like to add a spoonful to a smoothie or just mix with water and drink. I love to use in in scrambled eggs. It will turn your eggs green so toss in a side of Canadian bacon and serve your kids up green eggs and ham for breakfast. You can also sprinkle some on top of a salad, in vegetable dip, homemade salad dressing or add to your favorite soup recipe.
I hope this information is helpful to you and you can find ways to preserve the harvest in a new way. Blessings.