- Both pressure cookers and pressure canners use the same concept of building pressure within the pot in order to create a high, moist heat.
- Although pressure cookers and pressure canners look somewhat alike, canners are typically larger and come with racks that sit inside the canner to hold jars during the process of preserving food. Canners are also designed to maintain heat and pressure, unlike pressure cookers.
- A pressure cooker enables one to cook a roast that would normally take three hours in as little as 30 minutes. A pressure canner allows preservation of home-grown food. While a pressure cooker is a time saver when preparing meals, both are economical for their given purpose.
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Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry 21 half-quart Pressure Canner
A Pressure Cooker saves time and energy
Comparison of Giant Blenders: Vita Mix, Waring,
Make your own dried fruits and vegetables for up to 90% less than store prices. Learn how to dry seasonal produce from your garden or orchard with a dehydrator, and you'll be able to stock up for year-round savings. Unlike canning or freezing, food dehydration is a great option, as dried fruits/vegetables require less space, need no electricity, and have a long shelf life.
Selecting a Food Dehydrator
There are many things to consider before making your final selection when purchasing a Food Dehydrator .
Most food dehydrators will do the job it's intended to do. However, some are better suited for certain applications much better than others.
There are two main types of food dehydrators. One type of food dehydrator has vertical air flow. The other type of food dehydrator has horizontal air flow. Of the vertical air flow food dehyrators, there are also two types - one with the fan on the top, and the other with the fan on the bottom. Horizontal food dehyrators are preferred by some due to the fact that you don't get as much flavor mixing between the trays when dehydrating different types of foods at the same time, and you also get pretty even heating between trays. Of the vertical types, the food dehydrator with fan on the bottom probably provides the best heat distribution between trays of all kinds of food dehydrators, including horizontal, as heat rises. However, the drawback to this type of food dehydrator is the fact that you can get drippings on the fan making it harder to clean. The vertical food dehydrator with fan on top eliminates drippings from going down onto the fan, but doesn't provide quite as even heat distribution as heat rises, and when the heat is coming from the top, the top tray will dry more quickly.
Size is also important depending on how much you will be drying at a time. Some types of dehydrators have outside walls with trays that slip in and out. These types are perfect if you are going to be drying about the same amount of food each time you dry. However, some food dehydrators offer stackable trays. The nice thing about these food dehydrators is you can usually purchase additional trays if you want to expand your size, or, when you are only needing to dry a few trays at a time, you can remove the unused trays for a more compact fit on your countertop.
Food Dehydrator Reviews
The Excalibur Dehydrators are very well made and quite popular. They offer horizontal air flow, and up to 15 square feet of drying space, depending on the model purchased. The largest Excalibur Food Dehydrator model offered is bigger than just about any home unit on the market. There are food dehydrators that we carry that can be expanded with additional trays to be larger, but this is the largest food dehydrator we carry without spending additional money for extra trays.The Excalibur Food Dehydrator can not be expanded. These are qreat for the person with plenty of room on their counter or garage, who wants a quality unit with horizontal air flow to prevent drippings from landing on the fan.
The American Harvest / Nesco Food Dehydrators come in many types. The American Harvest FD1018P Dehydrator has the most expansion capabilities of any of our food dehydrators. It comes with 8 trays/8 square feet of drying space, but can be expanded to 30 trays/30 square feet of drying space by purchasing additional trays. You can add trays or subtract trays, depending on your use for the day and store the trays not in use at the time. American Harvest also offers many much smaller units for the user who doesn't need as much space. They offer some of our best starter food dehydrators for the person just starting out in dehydrating for very reasonable prices, offering a selection of vertical air flow food dehydrators with options for dehydrators with fans either on the top or bottom - your choice according to model.
The L'Equip Food Dehydrator comes with the best warranty with a 12 year manufacturer's warranty. It has vertical air flow, and 6 trays, but is expandable to 12. This food dehydrator has stackable trays like the American Harvest Dehydrators. One things about the L'Equip Dehydrator that some people prefer is the square tray shape. The square shape can make your space on the tray more usable, depending on what you are dehydrating at the time.
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Easy, delicious raw food soup.
Raw Veggie Bisque
Ingredients:
- 2 cups almond or other milk
- 2 carrots
- 1 tomato
- Piece of summer or other squash (to equal the size of the tomato)
- 1 rib of celery (optional)
- 1 baked potato
- 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup of ketchup (very important)
- Several shakes of chili powder
- Couple shakes of garlic powder
- Good pinch of salt
Preparation
Put all ingredients into a strong blender. Blend on high for 4 minutes if the potato is hot or 8 minutes if it isn’t. That’s it. Pour into bowls and serve. We sometimes enjoy this served over tortilla chips too. This healthy recipe serves 3.
Raw Veggie Bisque
Why Mill Your Own Flours?
So, why is it that so many people are grinding their own grains? Are these people just looking for something to do? If that’s the case count most of us out. Alas there are better reasons for this simple earthy endeavor.
Freshly milled grains are highly nutritious. The statement, “Man does not live by bread alone” is not addressing the nutritional lacking of traditional freshly milled bread. In fact the esteemed author (the tempted Christ) is making the point that a human being has needs that go beyond his physical body. And bread “the staff of life” was the perfect choice of foods to make that point because bread has been for many peoples, their mainstay. They have lived physically, pretty much “by bread alone.”
But, not just any bread. There is a big nutritional difference in purchased bread made of “enriched wheat” or even store bought “100% whole wheat” and freshly milled homemade bread.
Whole grains contain almost 90% of all the vitamins, minerals, and protein you’ll ever need. However, commercially milled products don’t offer you those nutrients. Why? Once milled, the oils found in the bran and germ oxidize and turn rancid within 72 hours. So for commercial purposes, both the bran and germ—and all the nutrients contained within them—must be removed in order to give products a shelf life.
The endosperm is all that’s left of the original grain. So you’re basically eating gluten and starch when you eat products off the shelf. For PR purposes, you’ll see breads and cereals claiming to be “enriched with vitamins and minerals!” Don’t be fooled. The fact that a product needs enriching is a sign of how much of its health value has been diminished. Usually only 2-4 of the missing vitamins and minerals can be replaced anyway, and nothing can be done to replace the fiber and protein. If that much of the nutrition is lost, a comparable amount of the flavor of the fresh grains must be lost as well.
Today there’s no reason to fill your family with a substitute that’s had all the blessing processed out. It’s so fast and easy to mill your own fresh nutrient-rich flours with a modern grain mill. And a bread machine can make the bread while you sleep. One of the pleasures of homemaking on the homestead is drawing the family to the morning table with the smell of fresh, warm homemade bread.
Extras
1. The flour must be ground at cool temperatures. With some mills during the grinding process the flour can heat up effecting both nutrition and taste.
2. Once it is ground, keep it in a dark place at a cool temperature or even the freezer if you won’t be using it in recipes that day. This will ensure the freshest taste and the most nutrition.
3. Try not to grind more than you will need for a day. Remember the longer it has been ground the more nutrition it loses.
4. Expect to pay about $300.00 for a good grinder.
5. There are other things that you can grind with a mill. Certain beans, rye, oats, and many other grains make it possible for you to have a wide variety of nutritional flours available at a moment's notice for breads, muffins, pancakes, scones, sauces and gravies.
