Prickle

5 pts of dilly beans (is it better to wait the 6 weeks or can we try some at 4?)

I can never wait longer than 2.

4 qts applesauce and 6 half-pints peach jam.

I've known people who have a basement dug and set their mobile on top. You might look into that if you think you may be in one permanently. That is if you want a basement.

4 pts bread and butter pickles

6 pts spiced pickled peaches. Yum!

Three 1/2 pints of cherry jam. Oh my word, this jam is good. I'm gonna have to reevulated my favorite jams now. I have more cherries that I was going to dehydrate but now I don't know...

3 pts pineapple

I've made yogurt in a thermos preheated with boiling water then wrapped in a towel.

Traditional peoples who consumed large animals did not ignore the marrow hidden away in the bones; in fact, they valued the marrow as an extremely nutritious food.

When I was little my Grandmother would make a pot roast from an O-bone roast. My grandfather and I would fight over the "ganoush" bone, that little round marrow bone from the roast. We even had tiny little spoons that were made for scooping marrow from bones.

Last night I opened a can of peas to go with dinner and neither one of us was much interested in eating them so I threw them in the dehydrator to see what would happen.

Oddly enough this morning when I lifted the lid I had dried peas.

Mushrooms and whole baby carrots.

So I have a stupid question. How do you vaccum seal a jar?

If you have a vacuum sealer some of them have jar attachments or you can also use one of the canisters. You put the canning jar inside the canister and let the sealer do it's thing.

If you don't have a vacuum sealer you can use oxygen absorbers. I believe it's a 100cc absorber per quart jar.

Does anyone know how long it takes for sage to dry out? I put it on yesterday afternoon and it still isn't ready. I guess I should have thought about it before tackling it first. LOL!

According to my handy dandy instruction booklet that happens to be sitting right here, Sage takes 20 to 24 hours. Drying temps should not exceed 90* to 100*.

(Don't tell anyone . . . I dry my herbs in the microwave. it takes about 3 mins

Put them on a couple paper towels and nuke at 30 sec intervals stirring between bursts until crispy. )

Well, I found it.

It wasn't in the instruction booklet which would make too much sense, I guess. It was on a single page leaflet.

4 trays is recommended.

Alrighty, I have read and re-read the manual and unless it's hiding in some obscure place (like right under my nose) in there it doesn't say anything about how many trays should be used for optimal performance.

I have a 700w Nesco for fyi purposes.

I dry my onions until "crisp". As for the trays, mine requires a minimum numbers of trays to operate properly. The trays don't have to have anything on them, but they need to be there for the fan element to work correctly. Do you have the manual? (I have the one that Wal-Mart sells - American Harvester, maybe?)

I'll put them back in for awhile then.

lol, ya, I have the manual. Trying to use logic on me

I didn't remember seeing anything about trays.

Another question:

Does it make any difference if you leave the empty trays on or take them off the dehydrator while it's running?

I dehydrated onions yesterday.

After 12 hours in the machine they are still a little bendy but definitely leathery. Is this OK or should they be crispy?

Look for one that says it comes with an accessory hose. The jar accessory is pretty cheap.

If the foodsaver can be used with the canisters it can be used to seal canning jars. You can either buy a canning jar attachment or you can put the canning jar inside one of the canisters and seal it that way. You can even reseal store jars (for dry stuff).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSKglOqP5xA

I had a stevia plant too and found it to be yucky.

The only way I find it acceptable is in the processed stuff like Truvia.

It does still have that non-sugar after taste though, but not as strong as other forms. I don't care for it in my coffee but it's fine in cereal and smoothies.

I've never baked with it.

I think my nomination is a bread maker. I borrowed my mom's once, for about 6 months. I HATED that thing. It made a tiny loaf, which was hard to get out, and it was hard to clean the dang thing. It was just a space waster as far as I'm concerned.

I find kneading my bread by hand to be very relaxing.

I love my bread machine. I let it do all the grunt work then take the dough out and bake it in the oven. It makes a regular sized loaf.

My hand kneaded bread used to resembled a nicely browned brick. But now that I know what good dough is supposed to feel like I think I could manage a decent loaf by hand if I had to.

I used to think the silliest appliance I ever heard of was an Electric Kettle. I had a British boyfriend and one day he was telling me how upset he was that his electric kettle had died.

I didn't know what an electric kettle was, I thought he was talking about something like a crock pot. As he went on it sounded like he was talking about something used to make hot water.

I busted out laughing and said "Are you saying all it does is boil water?!? When I want hot water I just put a pan on the stove." I teased him about it mercilessly.

Years later I had a roommate who had an electric kettle and left it when they moved out. I still have it and I must say it really *is* a handy thing to have. I shouldn't have been so hard on the guy.

I have milk kefir and dill pickles going.

I read this whole thread, after the fact. I went with my theme song "If its good, walmart would be selling it". I bought their Presto 16 Qt, the one with the weight thingies. It looks all strange to me, i've water bathed foods, but never pressured them. I'm like a few others here, anything pressurized scares the heck out of me. I do this squinty eyed face that the thought. But I'll be strong and as soon as my tomatoes start turning, you can bet i'll have this puppy set and ready.

I just did my very first pressure canning a couple weeks ago. I sat on a chair and watched it the whole time waiting for the explosion...it never happened, lol

Once you get through the first time you'll relax a lot.

I have a Presto 16 quart with a gauge and a weight. It comes with a one piece 15 lb weight so I bought a 3 piece weight set too.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?...uct_id=10771204