Gratitude on Friday, Health Research Pitfalls, and Kale Bounty: Freeze or Dehydrate?

It's time to harvest those colors and appreciate the glimmerings of sun, as the days shorten here...

I want to talk soon (not today) about the pitfalls of doing one's own health/medical research and experimentation when dealing with one's self. Yes, we each know our own body best, in theory--but sometimes our demons bias our research capacities and sometimes we don't know the whole internal picture of a problem. When we take matters into our own hands, we can cause more harm than good.

It's been a scary few days. Today, I simply want to express gratitude. For the beautiful view pictured above. For my Naturopath, who saw the state I was in this morning and made time for a full consultation, rather than the adjustment I was scheduled for, and sent me home with some things that should help rein in the crazy chemistry. For the month of writing preceding yesterday that allowed me to send in my "First Packet" of the year's MFA program work. For the creative thoughts that have me excited to work on my "Second Packet" starting today.

For the abundance of the garden and the beauty of the harvest...

We definitely raised far more kale than we can eat immediately (even giving bunches of it away to appreciative friends). Some dear friends of ours who spend their summers in the Far North also put in a huge kale patch before they left.

So, I harvested a bushel of their kale and tried to preserve it for their return. I tried freezing some...

 ...and dehydrating some into kale chips: just simple lemon/olive oil/sea salt chips that they can eat straight or put in their winter soups.

Making kale chips is a somewhat time-consuming process, between shredding up the kale, massaging it, spreading it on the dehydrator trays... But freezing kale was a crazed, manic process (and not just because of the state of the girl who was doing it).

You get the kettle boiling with the steamer in it for blanching the kale. You destem and chop a mountain of kale, more waiting in the fridge. You have the ice-bath ready in the sink. You blanch the chopped kale for precisely two minutes, plunge it into the ice-bath.

You plunge the steamer back into the boiling water (not too fast, or you'll splash boiling water into your eye (don't ask me how I know)). You dump in more kale, then chop chop chop madly for two minutes to have more ready when you've dumped that load in the ice-bath. Ice-bath's getting warm: did you make enough more ice?

You dance over to the freezer, pull out the just-barely ice, dump it in the tepid ice-bath. Water's still boiling furiously on the stove, have you chopped enough kale to throw in the steamer? Repeat da capo.

Meanwhile, poor Phil has agreed to take the blanched kale and vacuum-seal it. Thankfully, at this point you're still dog-sitting up at that beautiful house, so you're not trying to do the fire-bath and ice-bath dance and vacuum-sealing all on one four-foot counter.

You almost chop through your fingernail, you burn your thumb. You spill water and kale everywhere.
When the flurry finally passes, you shake, shake, shake the kale in the steamer and discover that maybe Phil didn't shake so much, as you follow the water trail to the vacuum sealer.

He's thumping and cursing: not as easy as it looked. It's taking at least eight tries to seal each small bag. The vacuum sucks, and all the liquid comes up into the sealing area. A wet vacuum seal is like a unicorn: in your dreams. You relieve Phil and assume the frustration for yourself.

And once you've blanched kale, a lot of the good stuff is in the liquid! So, if it's not going to seal for the freezer without having the last drop of liquid removed, is it really any good at that point or is it just green decoration?

No, I haven't repeated the performance, although it definitely deserved an audience. For me, the dehydrator wins hands-down. Easier to store the finished product also.

Would you prefer your kale harvest dehydrated or frozen for storage?
Have you ever had your 'health research' and self-experimentation backfire on you?
What are you glad for this Friday?