- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,173
- Location (City and/or State)
- South of Southern California, but not Mexico
Hi,
I'm just thinking maybe someone has already invented this wheel?
I have stayed pretty much with a Romaine centric diet in that it is inexpensive and readily available year round. Romain makes up, about 50% (by volume) of the wet basis diet fed out.
To that I still use much escarole, radicchio and chicory (Santa Barbara Mix), which brings us us to 100% in terms of volume. I them ad other things that do not change the volume, but fill in the space between the pieces of Romain and SBM.
When the mulberry angel can help, I feed mulberry exclusively for a few days, then jump back to the above mentioned mix. That mix also gets cut cactus pad (now instead of aloe), some dried chopped grass and the Layena chicken food or Mazuri LS for rounding out the nutrients, amongst many other seasonal and abundant things to ad variety.
So the interest for the discussion is what about preserving these things that come in an overabundance and then scarcity like cactus pad, mulberry leaves etc. I have read about freezing, but that does not work well for me for many reasons.
I have now dried several pounds of mulberry and when mixed back into the diet of wet greens (romaine and SBM) it is eaten no problem, much like the dried grass.
Does anyone have a good practice for drying opuntia cactus pads? I am trying a couple of things now - thin slices, mashed and spread out (like fruit leather) and small cubes. The bits that are mostly dry are eaten no problem. I'm just thinking maybe someone has already invented this wheel? What do you do?
I'm just thinking maybe someone has already invented this wheel?
I have stayed pretty much with a Romaine centric diet in that it is inexpensive and readily available year round. Romain makes up, about 50% (by volume) of the wet basis diet fed out.
To that I still use much escarole, radicchio and chicory (Santa Barbara Mix), which brings us us to 100% in terms of volume. I them ad other things that do not change the volume, but fill in the space between the pieces of Romain and SBM.
When the mulberry angel can help, I feed mulberry exclusively for a few days, then jump back to the above mentioned mix. That mix also gets cut cactus pad (now instead of aloe), some dried chopped grass and the Layena chicken food or Mazuri LS for rounding out the nutrients, amongst many other seasonal and abundant things to ad variety.
So the interest for the discussion is what about preserving these things that come in an overabundance and then scarcity like cactus pad, mulberry leaves etc. I have read about freezing, but that does not work well for me for many reasons.
I have now dried several pounds of mulberry and when mixed back into the diet of wet greens (romaine and SBM) it is eaten no problem, much like the dried grass.
Does anyone have a good practice for drying opuntia cactus pads? I am trying a couple of things now - thin slices, mashed and spread out (like fruit leather) and small cubes. The bits that are mostly dry are eaten no problem. I'm just thinking maybe someone has already invented this wheel? What do you do?