By the skin...

 Venturing into new territory...making my own spices and seasonings. Last year I tried it with basil and was pleasantly surprised with the results. Ok, we can do this. 

One thing that's always bothered me is how much food gets tossed in the garbage, like onion skins. Over and over, we hear that valuable nutrients are contained in the skin of many vegetables and yet, with onions, we toss those skins into the garbage. Curious, I did some research and found a way to make my own onion powder using these skins. Check out The Green Goddess page for details.

First, since store bought produce is generally sprayed with pesticides, be sure to use only organically grown onions, or onions from your own garden. 

Next time your cutting onions, get a container and toss the outer skins that you normally throw away into the container; don't close it or cover it. 

In about two weeks, it's time to get those skins dried out enough to be ground up. I used our dehydrator, but you can also use your oven as noted on The Green Goddess website. Before going into the dehydrator, I checked the skins for any dirt, stickers, or mold and removed those from the batch. I also cut up a red onion and diced it, then placed half of it into a freezer bag and froze it. This is a time saver step when I need diced onions for sauce or to sauté with meat in the future. I also had a couple of green onions that were on the verge of going bad, so I added those to the dehydrator.

Ready to start my first batch of onion powder.

Into the dehydrator.

I have a coffee grinder designated for spices only.

Ground up.

Using a fine mesh screen to separate the powder from the flakes.

We have onion powder!

Reusing empty spice jars for my home-made spices. :)

The bits that didn't get fine ground go into another container.

I now have onion powder and onion flakes on hand for meal prep and cooking. The powder will come in handy next time I'm making my own chicken stock or vegetable stock. :)

Last fall I planted four varieties of garlic, and I'm about two weeks away from harvesting that garlic. I'm giddy with excitement, and I already ordered four new varieties to plant this fall! Once this years crop is harvested and cured, I'll try making my own garlic powder too.