preserving kale and blueberries for morning smoothies

Chris Kott

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Location: Marmora, Ontario

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posted 12 years ago

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So here's the situation: I am drinking two mostly raw shakes of kale, chard, spinach and blueberries with some milk every day, and so I've started planting kale. I might just be able to keep growing in pots indoors over winter, but I'd love to know if there's a good way to ferment the greens and blueberries so they could just be dumped into a blender with fresh additions and still do well as a fruit/veggie smoothie.

I was also wondering if it would be feasible to pick up bags of wild organic blueberries, make blueberry wine, then blueberry jack, each time putting the ice back with the solids, then preserving the solids in cubes for freezing/freezedrying for the same purpose. I also am looking for maps of regional wild harvesting hotspots for blueberries and other berries, but that might be for another thread.

-CK

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Dayna Williams

Posts: 83

Location: Zone 8, Western Oregon

posted 12 years ago

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I imagine you've already thought of just dehydrating the blueberries, then letting them sit in your milk for a few minutes to rehydrate when you're ready to make your smoothie? That seems simpler than fermenting, though you might lose some of the nutrients. If you dehydrate below 118 degrees, it's still technically raw, right?

Sorry, I don't even know what blueberry jack is, so no help there.

Just curious if you've looked into raw kale/spinach and oxalic acid? I've heard horror stories about too many raw greens causing kidney stones, but haven't seen any definitive research on the subject. What's your take on that?

Chris Kott

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Location: Marmora, Ontario

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posted 12 years ago

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Jack, or Jacking (the process of making Jack) is just freezing alcohol so that the water ice can be removed. My reason for fermenting the blueberries is to reduce the sugar content.

Spinach, as far as I know, is the only green with high enough levels of oxalic acid to cause concern, as it binds calcium and certain vitamins. Kale has much lower levels. But I'll look into the stones issue.

I was really hoping I could simply make yogurt with kale and blueberries and have the sugars go that way.

-CK

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