[nw_arizona_granny]

FoodSaver v2830 for $61 shipped, list $170<<<

I bought mine 30 or more years ago.

It is messy to use and not as simple as it sounds.

The bags are expensive.

So it is never used, better to use the containers that you are throwing in the trash and I buy the cheapest gallon size plastic bags that they make, “the old twist tie style” and use those in a margarine container.

I laugh at my sister, she wants to throw out my margarine containers and go buy plastic containers at the store...same thing and free to me.

If you want a good investment, make it a pressure cooker, a food dryer and a 4 gallon stainless stock pot for soups that go in the freezer.

My 3 or 4 gallon stainless steel bowls, are priceless now, were bought to make my 12 loaves of bread dough in, and have used them for a bath on camping trips, for dishes and any number of other projects.

If you can’t afford the 4 gallon steel pan, find a 4 gallon blue enamel hot water bath canner, if the enamel is not chipped, it works for a soup pot.

I once made 4 gallons of good soup, by putting my stock pan on the back burner with water and throwing scraps in it all day as I spent a day cooking for the brother and for the freezer, fat, bones, tough part of the vegetables, this and that and almost none of it ‘new’, it was mainly the stuff that would have gone to the animals and trash.

It even surprised me, that I could do it in one day, I have often saved it frozen, for soup later.

And my bread machine, the rest of the stuff I don’t really use, or maybe once a year I use it.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

My husband was asking or thinking out loud about "our garden" and what we can grow that we spend $$ on at Whole Foods. Since tomatoes there are $3 a pound at the lowest, and peppers are out of sight (and hard to get organic), we agree that those are obvious choices. I am sure I can get him to agree on strawberries (springtime gives Fresno a bumper crop of them, and what we don't eat we can dehydrate). He also wants basil, and I want dill and oregano as well as rosemary, so we agree so far. I'd like to grow lettuce like his mom did, too. So now I have the brawn I needed to do the heavy work. I'm sooo excited!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

If you can’t afford the 4 gallon steel pan, find a 4 gallon blue enamel hot water bath canner, if the enamel is not chipped, it works for a soup pot.

My husband is partial to tubs, he especially likes the galvanized ones about shin-high. They are very useful, from bathing dogs, chilling drinks for a party, carrying dirt, storing laundry etc., etc. Me being a city girl, I am always amused and amazed at the stuff he likes to have. One minute he's got a mason jar to drink water, the next he grabs a crystal wine glass for some merlot. He's an interesting fellow with dozens of great stories.

[CindyDawg]

My goal this month is to learn to bake bread. I don’t want another “gadget” though and want to do it the hard way:’)