Useful Kitchen Equipment for when you grow

....... your own veggies and then process said vegetables. The commonest ways of preserving by the various forms of preserving known to us i.e. chutneys, pickles, Pressure canned in a professional Canner (not a pressure cooker) there is a distinct difference, dehydrated/dried, made into wines, frozen, etc. etc. and then [put up on the pantry shelf or into the deep freeze] for sustaining your family during the winter months.

I have been preserving by different methods for over 40 years.  We have grown our own veg over the years, but sadly after OH sustained a back injury that kind of went by the wayside.  However this is something I am keen to redress. However, I do make up for it as I have a good local veg shop and I am always looking for bargains to squirrel away in one form or another.

During our gardening years I invested in some specialist equipment.  The first piece I bought was a Victorio Tomato/passata press which was hand cranked and took all the pips out of the sauce. You can process the tomatoes from fresh without having to take the peels off, resulting in a much fresher pasta sauce and I believe although I have not tried that preserves can also be made out some of the skins.

About five years ago, i was watching a You Tube video of an Italian Grandmother doing her yearly batch of canning her tomatoes.  It was quite informative in that it showed how she dealt with a large quantity of tomatoes and bought in bulk, prepared and then processed all on her own.

The reference code is here as well: 

https://youtu.be/4RwuSZDl_do

There are also a load of other recipes that she has covered.  I am always interested in food and although sometimes she is a little hard to understand you do get the general drift of what she  needs you to do.

When you have pounds and pounds of an ingredient to process like, tomatoes and apples, plums, pears, cooking apples as well as mixed fruits of different types you have to have some tricks up your sleeve to deal with the processing as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

The machine I bought four to five years ago is this:

I bought this at a time when this was not available in this country and it cost me £250 with import charges.  A very considered purchase but it is a lot cheaper now.  Let me clarify though, as I bought the basic hand cranked model 250, I also bought the extra screens which are not part or were not then part of the basic pack.  These are a berry screen, a grape spiral, pumpkin screen, and salsa screen.  The apple/tomato screen comes with the basic hand cranked model.  

However you can get an electric motor to go with this.  Please note that this motor is for the 250 model only.

If you want to read more then this is just one post I picked up on Amazon.  

Victorio Tomato Press

The company is called Victorio, but has recently had a name change to VKP Products.  Searching for either should bring up suitable results.

However I have found a couple of You Tube Videos that show how the machine is used in its basic format.  I|f you purchase the motor, it works pretty much the same although you have to follow the directions.

and

Just to give you some idea of what it can do.

By the way this is not an advertisement for a company at all and I have not received any kind of incentive to talk about this product.  I just think it is really good and it has certainly helped me an awful lot over the years.

I also have the Victorio Steam Canner as well which I have spoken about before which I really do like. 

I do hope that this article helps, especially if you grow a lot of your own food, or like me buy in from local shops or take advantage of reduced items to feed your family and to make sure that there is always something interesting to eat either in the freezer or in the pantry.  There is always something to be preserved somewhere.

I am all about making work lighter or the load lighter as it were.  If something helps then it is worth the investment.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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