Excaliber Dehydrators and Pressure canning

[MedicHerbalist]

I have found (and bought) a 15 litre pressure cooker that will do very nicely for canning. It is new on Ebay for £40.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15-LITRE-PRES ... 2865475%26

(If this link does not work or changes, search eBay on "15 litre pressure cooker")

A more "normal" pressure cooker is about 5 or 6 litre capacity. This is therefore a BIGGY. I may be able to process three or four litre Mason Jars at a time. The next issue is to find good supplies of cheap nutritious food to process. This may not be the same as I eat on a day to day basis. It needs to meet the following criteria:
1 Capable of canning
2 Highly nutritious
3 Cheap or free (with only so much money to spend, quantity per pound spent matters)
4 Plentiful supply
5 Reasonably tasty (but remembering that this is a survival stock).

I did a degree in Herbal Medicine and a decent slug of that was in dietetics. I will therefore put together a nutritional strategy so that storage will balance a good nutritional profile. It would be a rotten outcome if we survived the S hitting the F if we then became nutritionally deficient through an unbalanced diet and got very sick when we needed to be in full energy. I will see if I can start a new thread on post SHTF diet and maintaining a healthy diet.

[MedicHerbalist]

I have found (and bought) a 15 litre pressure cooker that will do very nicely for canning. It is new on Ebay for £40.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15-LITRE-PRES ... 2865475%26

(If this link does not work or changes, search eBay on "15 litre pressure cooker")

A more "normal" pressure cooker is about 5 or 6 litre capacity. This is therefore a BIGGY. I may be able to process three or four litre Mason Jars at a time. The next issue is to find good supplies of cheap nutritious food to process. This may not be the same as I eat on a day to day basis. It needs to meet the following criteria:
1 Capable of canning
2 Highly nutritious
3 Cheap or free (with only so much money to spend, quantity per pound spent matters)
4 Plentiful supply
5 Reasonably tasty (but remembering that this is a survival stock).

I did a degree in Herbal Medicine and a decent slug of that was in dietetics. I will therefore put together a nutritional strategy so that storage will balance a good nutritional profile. It would be a rotten outcome if we survived the S hitting the F if we then became nutritionally deficient through an unbalanced diet and got very sick when we needed to be in full energy. I will see if I can start a new thread on post SHTF diet and maintaining a healthy diet.

[rik_uk3]

I run two of these

http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/househo ... drator.htm

Work well. I plug them into a timer switch. After a while you get to 'know' how long to dry so the timer is useful.

Canning is popular in the States where the big pressure cookers are common. Nothing to stop you using something like a Prestige Hi Dome pot, you can't get as many jars in but they will work as they go up to 15lb canning pressure.