It’s that time of year in my neck of the woods where neighbors might sneak bags of zucchini or tomatoes onto your porch at night. They’re easy and popular garden vegetables, so there’s often a superabundance in mid-season. They grow so fast! You’ve got to check every day or a two inch baby zucchini will turn into a log of more than a foot long — literally. One great way to deal with this embarrassment of riches is by dehydrating zucchini and tomatoes into chips.
If you want an example of a good dehydrator, here’s what I use. (We have no connections with this company other than we bought one of their products years ago.) If you’d like to listen to this story, here’s a podcast:
I grew just two zucchini plants… and have eaten piles, put multiple quarts of chips in storage, and given some away. Zucchini Produce.
Why zucchini at all?
Doesn’t something that produces more vegetables than a family can easily eat from just a plant or two sound like a Prepper Gold Star plant? It’s nutritious, filling, and doesn’t need refrigeration to stay good for several days. It is one of the easiest vegetables to dehydrate and very useful once dried into chips. If you live in zucchini country as we do, it’s also either free or virtually free this time of year.
Zucchini plants are also very accepting of less-than stellar growing conditions. In fact, I’ve planted a few each of the last two years out at The Place as guerrilla plantings. A guerrilla planting is what it’s called when you stick a plant into basically unprepared ground, give it almost no care, and hope for the best.
The Place has poor soil and it’s been a drought year with a couple other varieties of bad weather thrown in (such as late frost followed quickly by very hot). I had a tree die over the winter, so I stuck a few zucchini at its base, since the four plants cost only $1 and it was too late to replant a tree. Most vegetable plants would have just died under that abuse, but I’ve been picking zucchini most trips out there.
People give zukes away a lot because they think they’re not popular as a canned vegetable. Making chips is a great option; easy to prepare and welcome when the time comes to eat them.
Why tomatoes?
Doesn’t every garden grow tomatoes? Most of us grow them because home-grown varieties are a thousand times better than the pale imitations found in grocery stores. They’re also very easy to can, since they’re acidic enough that you can use water-bath canning safely. Canning them is a topic for another day, though.
There’s a another method to preserve your tomatoes that’s very much quicker and easier: make chips. They also are very easy to fit into meal plans. No emergency required; I go through many quarts of these chips every winter just because I want them.
Protecting the crop
Zucchini has just one real Achilles heel in this part of the country: The Squash Bug. This insect is easily controlled by the commonly used pesticide for home gardens (Sevin). I try to keep my garden organic though, so I don’t use that, and it often costs me the zucchini… which doesn’t bother me as it’s so easy to get around here by July.
This year I finally found a control method that doesn’t use manufactured pesticides and has been really helping: Self-rising flour. I sprinkle it on the bases of the stems every couple of days since I saw the first bug. It’s been almost a month, and most of the plants survived it. That is unheard of in untreated plants. The upside is that self-rising flour is cheaper, less toxic, and easier to acquire than the pesticides.
Tomatoes have a reputation for being more prone to pests. There’s a wide variety of bugs and funguses that can mess with your tomatoes. I’ve had good success with organic growing by combining two methods: Tie them up well, because slugs and bugs destroy any left touching the ground when ripe. Also mulch under them, because water hitting the soil and splashing it up onto the leaves spreads tomato fungus.
Why chips?
I make zucchini and tomato chips because 1) they’re cheap and easy to make, and 2) I actually like eating them afterward.
My favorite use is to use flavored chips as snacks, pairing them up with a number of different dips. Do you think you’ll not want crunchy snacks just because the grocery stores aren’t open? Are veggie chips quite as delicious as potato or corn chips? No, not alone, in my opinion; but they’re way cheaper, *way* healthier (real veggies as opposed to junk food), almost as good, and dead easy to make.
I also use unflavored chips as additives in various tomato sauces, soups and stews. They add particularly well to ‘pasta with sauce’ dishes and soups. Do you know any prepper who stocks pasta dishes and soups in their pantry? Yeah, me too.
Crunched up zucchini chips added to sauces and soups do little to the flavor. They do add nutrition and bulk, making the meal much more satisfying. If you crunch them up small, they don’t change texture notably either. This makes them a good way to get vegetable servings into people who aren’t prone to willingly eat those. I don’t use the tomato chips as additives as often, since canned tomatoes are often the base of the sauce to start with.
How do you make chips?
Dehydrating zucchini to chips is one of the easiest ways to store garden harvest I know of. Just cut the large squashes in half or quarters longwise so the pieces aren’t more than an inch and a half or so across. Slice them about a quarter of an inch thick. Lay them out on the dehydrating trays with a small amount of space between pieces.
This was a big zucchini, so I quartered it lengthwise before slicing it into 1/4 inch slices.
Run the dehydrator at about 135 F until they’re dry and crispy. Dry them plain to add to other dishes, or sprinkle with seasonings of your choice to make snacking chips. I favor cinnamon to dip into greek yogurt, or chili & garlic powders to dip in hummus, or parmesan & garlic popcorn seasoning to scoop up chili or bean dip, but experiment away.
Pack them into pint or quart jars with a canning lid on top. Use a vacuum sealer if you want them to last for up to five years. I add an oxygen absorber most of the time but that’s just insurance. If opened jars lose their snap before you eat them all (a problem in humid weather, less so in winter here), just toss them back on the dehydrator for a bit.
Even the Dreaded Zuke Log makes good chips
If a zucchini hides for a couple of days, it grows into a massive log of a squash. The skin thickens and the seeds mature. Wow, pounds of nutritious food, so easy! Too bad it’s no longer tasty in most recipes. Many gardeners just compost them, in fact.
But I had one get away from me and tried to chip it. I peeled it (easy with a vegetable peeler), halved it, and scooped out the seeds. It would’ve made a dugout canoe for a small dog! Other than that, I sliced, seasoned, and dried as usual. Worked great; the chips are an odd shape but that’s harmless.
Zuke Logs can often be bought for very cheap at farmer’s markets. Look Under the tables; they’re in the ‘low-value’ section.
Tomato chips are faster and easier than canning
The same process and reasoning works for making tomato chips. This is a much faster way of preserving excess tomato crop than canning. Crunched up tomato chips make good additions to winter salads too (much more flavorful than those poor sad winter grocery store tomatoes).
So good they’re my go-to potluck addition
Since these zucchini and tomato chips are healthy, and tasty, and unique, I like to take them as my contribution to potluck dinners. I pair them with hummus and salsa, and usually put a sign on them so people know what they are (since not everyone makes these). They are very popular! I’ve had several co-workers ask highly specific questions about how to make them, and a couple have later told me they got their own dehydrators to make their own.
These zucchini chips may end up at a potluck with some greek yogurt as a dip. Cinnamon flavoring before drying is great for this use.
It’s like spreading prepping by stealth!
We’ve posted about dehydrating food before, such as this one from last year. We wanted to revisit it because now is the perfect time. Excellent drying candidates such as zucchini and tomatoes are abundant and cheap now. Apples, another great candidate, will get cheap and abundant soon. Why not try some now? You’ll reduce winter grocery bills while eating better; and learn both skills and what your family likes. Gorge on those healthy chips and dips; it’s eating your veggies!