Make your Own Green Herbal Powder
Years ago I used to frequent health food stores where I would often buy powdered greens to boost my nutritional intake.
I'd toss a few spoons of this powder into my smoothie and hit the road. I quite enjoyed the convenience of this powder, especially in the winter but it was very expensive. Now that I have my own garden I make my own homegrown version of it. It's easy!
When I look around the garden, there is always an abundance of greens. To make a green powder all you need is a combination of leafy greens, herbs and other nutritional food ingredients that can be dried and ground up into a powder.
We like to use wild greens such as dandelions and chickweed, cultivated leafy greens like chard and kale, and the leafy tops and stems of root vegetables such as carrots, turnips, and beets. We have all sorts of herbs and other edible and nutritious greens that go into the mix as well.
We can eat everything around us because our land is pure and natural - absolutely no chemicals allowed.
We love to preserve food in a variety of ways and raw nutrition through dehydration is one of my favorites.
We've come up with an easy way to pack loads of nutrition into jars by powdering some of the greens that we dehydrate. Once the jar is full we make sure to stir it up really well to combine all the nutrients and with just a bit of effort we've got a versatile, nutrient-dense green powder!
- This powder keeps for a long time
- Green powders are a great survival/emergency food
- They are an easy way to sneak more nutrients into picky family members plates
How to use green powder
You can use the green powder in smoothies, soups, stews, pasta sauces or as a seasoning. You can also keep the individual ingredients in separate jars if you don't want to mix them all together. This can help you formulate a seasoning or powder that you enjoy the flavor of and be more creative with your recipes.
How to Dry Greens
If you have an electric or solar dehydrator this is your best option when drying greens in abundance. It saves a lot of time and ensures that thicker wetter leaves dry without getting moldy.
The general rule is to dehydrate at 115-125 C degrees depending on what you are drying.
Tip: When using a food dehydrator always get your dried material packed away because if you leave it sitting out for too long it can soak up some moisture from the air.
You might also be able to use an oven (if your oven has a low enough temperature). I have not tried this myself but if you want to know more I found this guide with instructions.
What's going into our green powder?
Our green powder is a work in progress and some of the greens we'll include in this year's jar include:
kale (leaf and stem)
carrot tops
swiss chard (leaf and stem)
tarragon
dandelion leaf
chick weed
basil
thyme
oregano
celery leaves
Of course, this is likely to change so I have a note taped to the jar where we can record the ingredients as we add them.
Food As Medicine
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This is a neat idea. I want to add kelp and seaweeds.
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absolutely! Those would both be wonderful things to add. I wish we had access to some organic seaweed, I'd really love to cook with it more often.
The only caveat to using an oven, if it goes above 145F, it will destroy many of the nutrients and necessary enzymes in the plants. That's why a dehydrator is best, at the temps you mentioned. Ditto cooking with the powder...
I never thought of making this, as I never used the store stuff.... It's much like what I make for the layers in winter...
Somehow all this working with greens has me craving some kale chips - I bet you could do them with any greens - a little salt and oil - yum! :) (I think I might be the only person who thinks they are cool still).
So glad to have a dehydrator, it never stops going in the summer - powered by the sun which makes it even better! You have multiple dehydrators right?
Yes, 2 Excalibur 9 trays.
I love kale chips, especially with homemade tahini dried on them! SO addictive!
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That sounds kinda yum! Lots of good stuff in there. I bet it'd taste good in potato soup. I'm just learning about chickweed. Wish I'd known more about it when it was blanketing my property lol but that can wait til next spring I guess. It's only half a year away.
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mmmm, potato soup. I could handle a bowl of that right now. I ALWAYS feel the same about some plant that I just discovered or missed the window on doing a harvest but there is always next year (and more plants to discover). We have St Johns Wort growing all over the place and I am just stunned that I've been here all this time and never realized it.
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this is really interesting and even more with the fact I was thinking about herbal powder just YESTERDAY !!!
Is 100 C and more not too high to preserve all the precious nutriments and elements in those vegetables and others... I personally prefer a longer drying period with the dehydrator at 40/50 maximum !
thanks for sharing those true technics with us !
Keep the good work up !