Linda’s Manual Equipment

12/04/07

Linda’s "Granny" Station

One of the important things about prepping is to always keep in mind that you should not be dependent on electricity, if at all possible.  Where I lived in Alabama, we often had power failure that lasted anywhere from a few hours to several days. Sometimes we were without for a couple of weeks.

Even without some disaster in which:

• The economy is so bad you can’t afford electricity
• The grid collapses either temporarily or permanently
• Temporary power failure due to storm, regional disaster, downed lines

You have two choices:

• Do without electricity, causing you to pay higher prices for feeding your family, possibly having to move to town or a motel
• Be prepared, pull out your hand-crankers, and let life go on with little disruption to your routine

A few years ago, I began seriously hunting for and collecting manual tools and kitchen equipment.  The food mill was my really big-ticket item.  But most of it I scrounged in thrift stores.

Some of you have asked about my kitchen set-up.  I have two kitchen islands in the kitchen on castors.  (Actually, I have four kitchen islands - all purchased either used or as floor models when several stores closed them out.) I keep two in the front bedroom which serves as my pantry.  they are great for mobility and storage. Plus and but the one in this picture have expanding shelving. 
One of them keeps my hand-crank gadgets on it.  It stays against the wall until I need something, then I bring the whole island into the middle of the kitchen where I have room to work.  My machines are bolted or screwed to the counter and do not move.

On the left is my Country Living Food Mill.  It has a huge wheel to reduce the torque when grinding the grains. Notice it has a groove on the outer edge. That's so you can add a belt and attach it to a small motor for electric power. Although I have lupus and fibromyalgai, I can grind wheat, corn, and even beans with it.  We make most of our own flour and some corn meal with it.  works great for Ezekiel meal, too.  Apparently, the machine has an optional auger for beans, but I was grinding beans long  before I was aware of such a gadget.  Just open the grinding plates wide and gradually reduce for a finer grind.

The silver machine on the back is my meat grinder. Don’t use it much because we rarely get meats to grind.  But it’s nice to have when I need it.  the main thing I’ve used it for was in grinding slabs of dehydrated ham and turkey into a powder for use in soups and such.

You can see my handy-dandy apple peeler/corer on the front. It’s that red gadget.  Just did a series of pics explaining how to use the thing.  Watch for the post on it.

Dehydrating Station

Most of my dehydrating cutting, slicing, and processing happens on the right cabinet. It's the one you see in most of the pictures.

The kitchen island on the right is where I store my vacuum pack bags, vacuum packer, slicers, puree machine and other assorted gadgets.It has a large pull-out cutting board just under the counter top. Comes in pretty handy when I need a little extra counter top.

Underneath the "Granny" station are smaller containers of beans and grains awaiting grinding, plus my food processor and Magic bullet.  It has a handy drawer for storing measuring cups and spoons, portion scoopers, and other small misc. gadgets. When I'm not using my hand-crank machines, I keep them covered with cloth toaster covers and such.