I got a dehydrator last year that I absolutely love. Best purchase I made for my kitchen. Nothing special. It’s just a Nesco, but boy does it do a nice job and I can’t imagine going back.
What are your must haves for the fruit you guys rake in for the orchard?
I just used one of our small electric coffee grinders. You can put maybe a cup of broken pieces in it. I was worried about it stinking like peppers, but a good wiping with soap and water helped. I don’t grind much of anything with it anyways, so it’s not a big deal if it even smells a bit after cleaning. I’ve had it over ten years, it was pretty cheap then.
I forget the brand name, but it looks something like this one.
A salad spinner. I like dry lettuce, not drippy lettuce, and there’s really no good way to wash lettuce well and get it to dry quickly, except for a salad spinner.
I love the Nutribullet. Great for smoothies. Don’t have much fruit from my orchard to run through it but it doesn’t have any problems withstore bought fruit.
I use a 5 gallon spinner that I rigged to be drill powered for a small scale market, but if doing a pound or less it is much easier to toss it in a mesh laundry bag and spin it around outside. One key to getting it really dry with any spinning method is to mix the lettuce around a little between spins, water gets trapped in concave portions of the leaves.
I’d love to have a Vitamix but then I keep thinking I could have a new stove or new dishwasher. lol They must be good for the price they are going for.
Electric: Dehydrator, salad shooter (old, simple, irreplaceable for making veggie sauté to freeze for winter ), blender, meat grinder(can also grind other staff).
Manual: Weston Roma Tomato Strainer, Onion chopper( for garlic actually, not for onion)
Day Dream: Induction stove
Same here! …Less clutter in the kitchen. But I use a flour sack towel - there’s always a clean one in the kitchen drawer, and the water goes right through it as you stand out on the back porch step, spinning away. As a bonus, outdoor spinning has some entertainment value when having guests. A friend who showed me this years ago, when over to my house for dinner, called it a “French salad spinner”.