Fruits of the Midwest - A Cookbook and Guide from Harvest to Table Review

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(More customer reviews)I have spent New Years Day happily reading this wonderful book cover to cover. It was a true delight to imagine a summer day with the vivid colors and heady scents of the freshest fruit while pure white snow was just outside my window. I love this book!
Debbie has practical, clear tips for selecting, handling and storing fruit. There is such a variety of recipes with simple and direct instructions. With the addition of fresh apples, frozen or canned fruit, most of the ingredients are already in my pantry. I am able to have summer tastes on my table tonight!
The book is thoughtfully laid out with special hints and tips on the same page where needed. Debbie tells you the differences in varieties of the same fruit, and then writes what works best for her. She tells you what her family prefers as well as valid reasons why others may prefer a different texture or sweetness or way of preserving the fruit. Convenient tabs mark the beginning of each new section. She has valuable lists of substitutions and equivalents.
The photo of Debbie's grandmother on the cover of her book could be my own grandmother or great grandmother and evokes warm, sweet memories for me. It is a "feel-good" book. There is something in here for everyone!
Tonight's dessert will be Debbie's "Hurry-up Apple Dumplings".
Thank you, Debbie, for sharing your wisdom and wealth of information. This will be a treasured and well-used cook book!


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Many consumers are rediscovering the superior flavor, nutritional quality, and wholesome goodness of fresh locally grown fruit from their own garden, a Farmer's Market, or picked fresh from a local U-pick farm. "Fruits of the Midwest - A Cookbook and Guide from Harvest to Table" has been written to answer the questions many people have about how to harvest, handle, store, and preserve fresh fruits commonly grown in the Midwest.Written in an easy to use format, with individual sections devoted to apples, blackberries, blueberries, cherries (sour), peaches, pears, raspberries, strawberries, and more, it provides help, information, and over 250 kitchen-tested fruit recipes.Additional sections address canning and freezing basics, jam and jelly making, and information on ingredient substitutions/equivalents and pan size/volume comparisons. The author operates a U-pick berry farm in Missouri where her customers frequently ask for the types ofinformation and recipes provided in this book.

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Keeping the Harvest: Preserving Your Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs (Down-to-Earth Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought three books on canning and this book was the best. It is simple to understand, has pictures of the way things should look, such as the canning jars in a not water bath. I was canning tomatos and this book was so easy to follow. It listed the different methods for canning, as stating the best method.
I bought a pressure cooker and could not understand the manufactures directions, this book explained in simple terms, everything I needed to know, to use the pressure cooker. It has pictures on how to can tomatos from start to finish, which I really appreciated. To me a picture is worth a thousand words.
I think if you are a first time canner or even experienced, that this easy to use book is for you. I know I will be using it for years to come. Thank you to the authors.

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Homesteading: A Back to Basics Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More (Back to Basics Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are looking for real information on homesteading, this is NOT the book. At best the information is very general and almost worthless.
The author has information on buying food from CSAs, Co-ops,and farmers markets. How about more info on growing your own food. There's nothing on raising beef or pork.
In the section on dairy goats, she speaks about the breed La Mancha, yet the photo is NOT a LaMancha. The goat in the photo has ears, La Manchas don't have ears. Also although goats will eat some grass, they are poor grazers.
In the section of llamas there is a least one photo of alpacas.
In the sheep section, the author tells the reader to milk a sheep you must pull the sheep up to the fence so it can't get away, then she has you milking the animal from the front. What? I have all these animals, plus more.That's not even close to how milking is done.
I don't need a homesteading book to tell me how to hang wallpaper, or how to use Feng Shui to decorate my home.
The photos used for growing in a greenhouse are greenhouses that none of us can afford to buy. The same with the chapter on energy and the photos for solar panels and wind turbines.
Where's the info on building with recycled material?
This is a book for yuppies with lots of money who want to play "homestead."

This author does not know what she is writing about. There are many more worthwhile books out there.

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The companion to the bestseller Back to Basics for country, urban, and suburban folks.
Who doesn't want to shrink their carbon footprint, save money, and eat homegrown food whenever possible? Even readers who are very much on the grid will embrace this large, fully-illustrated guide on the basics of living the good, clean life. It's written with country lovers in mind-even those who currently live in the city.Whether you live in the city, the suburbs, or even the wilderness, there is plenty you can do to improve your life from a green perspective. Got sunlight? Start container gardening. With a few plants, fresh tomatoes, which then become canned tomato sauce, are a real option. Reduce electricity use by eating dinner by candlelight (using homemade candles, of course). Learn to use rainwater to augment water supplies. Make your own soap and hand lotion. Consider keeping chickens for the eggs. From what to eat to supporting sustainable restaurants to avoiding dry cleaning, this book offers information on anything a homesteader needs-and more. 1000 color illustrations

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The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves: 200 Classic and Contemporary Recipes Showcasing the Fabulous Flavors of Fresh Fruits Review

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(More customer reviews)I am giving this cookbook 5 stars for originality and information, and only 3 stars for ease of use.
If you are a beginner, I recommend Ball Blue Canning Book #21400 for your first tries. While these recipes require pectin, they do not require the more extensive methods required in this book, and the information is a little less intimidating. Most of my first tries came from this book.
If you have a little experience under your belt, this is an AWESOME book.
It begins with the history of canning and preserving and a great deal of information on why it all works. This information is expanded at the beginning of the chapter on each fruit. That information is necessary, since all of these recipes are designed to avoid the use of pectin except what is naturally occurring in the fruit. As a result, most of the recipes require additional steps to ensure success.
Ms. Ziedrich is an experienced cook and incorporates many advanced techniques and equipment that the "newbie" probably does not have in his or her kitchen, including a food mill and steam juicer, however, she offers simple alternatives that you can use instead.
While the title calls this book "sweet preserves," there are a number of vegetables included: carrots, pumpkin & winter squash, and even a method for preserving zucchini. It also includes items you won't find in normal preservation books - I didn't even know bananas, kumquats, or cantaloupe COULD be canned! The recipe for Coconut Caramel Jam starts with instructions on opening a coconut!
AND this is not simply a "canning" recipe book. It includes recipes for fruit leather (you need a dehydrator for these), cherry flavored brandy, methods for preserving nuts, and many other original ideas.
Our county fair just ended (I got 3 blue ribbons this year), but I have found several recipes here that I WILL be using in next year's fair! I am grateful that I had the chance to try this through the Amazon Vine program, and I have a couple of friends I will be buying this for come Christmas.

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Homemade preserves are the perfect way to enjoy a favorite fruit all year long. They're also inexpensive and, in this book, are made without commercial pectin or other artificial ingredients. For novices, a thorough guide to equipment, techniques, and safety is followed by essential recipes such as Raspberry Jam, Apple Butter, and Concord Grape Jelly. More experienced preservers will be delighted at innovative offerings including Blackberry Vinegar, Red Grapefruit Marmalade, and Brandied Peaches with Vanilla.

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The Everything Canning and Preserving Book: All you need to know to enjoy natural, healthy foods year round (Everything (Cooking)) Review

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(More customer reviews)A lot of times when you pick up a canning book it seems to have all the same, worn out recipes. This one is completely different! I am so inspired to go into my kitchen and start making gifts for friends, let alone canned goods for my family.
Sure there are a few takes on the classics (like bread and butter pickles) but then you find recipes like:
- Chrysanthemum soup (and other edible petal recipes)
- caramelized red onion relish
- Asian vinaigrette
- Bourbon mustard
- Watermelon pickles
and even homemade salami! There's so much more that this list hardly does the book justice.
For people who want to know what's truly IN their food, and who want to save money by buying in bulk this book is an incredibly useful resource. I had gone looking for something that could teach me what my grandmother knew, but also give me safe guidelines and great inspiration -- this book does all three!
I've already made many blends and find the directions easy to follow and the results very successful.

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More and more people are beginning to can and preserve, whether for health benefits or to save money. Complete with step-by-step instructions, recipes, and tips, this book is a must for beginning and experienced canners alike. With this book you will learn to:
Preserve fresh foods by drying, freezing, canning, and pickling
Find and use the tools needed to can and preserve foods at home
Take safety precautions to prevent food contamination
Can all-natural broths, soups, and stews
Dry herbs and spices from the garden for year-round use
Make festive food gifts?from jams and jellies to dressings and sauces
In addition to a wealth of information and 100 great recipes, you will find a glossary of terms they can reference and an appendix of resources, including lists of products, books, and websites, to help you find everything you need to begin canning today!

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How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency Review

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(More customer reviews)Piers Warren starts off with basic instructions for storage methods: clamping (storing large quantities of roots outside) and other methods of dry storage, freezing, drying (from oven to dehydrator), vacuum-packing, salting, bottling/canning, pickling, relishes & sauces, jams & jellies, and fermenting. This volume isn't meant as a full-blown wine-making or jam-making resource, so these are only the most basic instructions.
The rest of the book covers individual types of produce in alphabetical order. Since the focus of this book is supporting yourself on your own produce, Warren discusses some topics you might not expect. For instance, how best to harvest a vegetable so as to encourage further harvest throughout the season. He discusses varieties that will have longer harvest times, or that will produce during different times of the year. He talks about how some plants can be started at different times so as to result in a longer harvest period as well.
One potentially useful feature is the section of recommended varieties. For example, the apples section lists out two good varieties of cooking apples, a crab apple, and a handful of eating apples, noting which ones keep particularly well or work best for wine-making or the like. However, in some cases this won't be as useful outside of Britain (the book was written & published in Britain but is also being distributed in other countries). For instance, I don't recognize many of the apple or tomato varieties. However, I do recognize a number of the carrot and chard varieties. It just depends on whether a particular type is available & grows well where you are.
The one other small potential snag is a couple of terminology issues. Most of them aren't a big deal (what US readers call canning, Brits call bottling, but the author notes this). One or two types of produce might be listed under a name unfamiliar to you (plenty of people have heard eggplants called aubergines, but not everyone in the US knows them by that term). Don't let this deter you from buying this book if you're in the US, however---the information is incredibly useful, and in most cases there are enough informative notes included that you can substitute varieties as appropriate or easily figure out the terminology differences. Also, all measurements for recipes and such are given in both metric and English measurements.
If you want to become more self-sufficient, or you just want to make better and less wasteful use of your garden produce, I definitely recommend this book.

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How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency has been completely revised and is the modern guide to storing and preserving your garden produce, enabling you to eat home-grown goodness all year round. The easy-to-use reference section provides applicable storage and preservation techniques for the majority of plant produce grown commonly in home gardens. Why is storing your garden produce the key to self-sufficiency? Because with less than an acre of garden you can grow enough produce to feed a family of four for a year. But without proper storage, most of it will go to waste since much of the produce ripens simultaneously in the summer. Learn simple and enjoyable techniques for storing your produce and embrace the wonderful world of self-sufficiency. In the A-Z list of produce, each entry includes recommended varieties, suggested methods of storage, and a number of recipes. Everything from how to make your own cider and pickled gherkins to how to string onions and dry your own apple rings. You will know where your food has come from, you will save money, there will be no packaging, and you'll be eating tasty local food while feeling very good about it!

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Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow Review

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(More customer reviews)This book covers everything you need to know about freezing, canning, preserving, pickling, drying, juicing, & root cellaring. Step-by-step instructions make it easy for even a beginner to follow.
The book starts out with a harvesting guide that includes all methods that can be used to preserve each crop. Next, freezing is covered including a crop-by-crop guide & blanching methods.
Then both bath & pressure canning are demonstrated in detail. A processing timetable for each crop is included as well. Instructions for making fruit butters as well as cooked, pectin, & refrigerator jams & jellies follows.
The drying section includes shelf life for dried food & instructions for making your own dryer. There are also over 250 delicious recipes you can freeze, can or preserve and a resource guide for modern & heirloom seeds.

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Preserving Summer's BountySurefire techniques and great recipes for keeping the harvest!

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Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation Review

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(More customer reviews)Independence Days is a book about food security. Like Sharon Astyk's two previous books (Depletion and Abundance; A Nation of Farmers), this one focuses on the need to assume personal responsibility for food self-sufficiency and for shortening the supply chain from farm/garden to table. Unlike Asktyk's previous books, this one is also a how-to, as well as a why-we-should, complete with helpful instructions for creating and managing a food storage pantry, preserving fresh foods, and cultivating a frugal and self-reliant life style.
Astyk's arguments for the importance of personal food security ("one of the central issues of our time") are compelling. A looming energy crisis, soil and water depletion, and the threat of global warming--these are all reasons to be concerned about the reliability of our food supply and the need to take personal control, as far as possible, over the food we put on our family's table. "Independence days" (a concept Astyk borrows from Carla Emery) are days when we're eating food we grow ourselves or obtain locally. For Astyk, true independence is freedom from the industrial food system that feeds most Americans.
Hence this book, which recommends various methods for food preservation (canning, pickling, dehydrating, fermenting); for purchasing, stocking, and storing food in pantry, root cellar, and freezer; for acquiring tools and equipment, in addition to adequate supplies of water, medicine, and other necessities; and for creating and using community resources. All of this advice is sound, helpful, and inspiring. It is also very credible, for Astyk practices what she preaches, and it's good to know that she has tried the methods that she advocates. The various sections are also illustrated with recipes, more or less effectively. Some of the recipes contain non-local foods--coconut milk, quinoa, salmon--which I found distracting in a book about shortening the supply chain, and not all of them illustrate the principle she'd like to teach: baked apples and cranberries are good comfort food but the recipe doesn't fit very comfortably in a section on medicines. Recipes/formulas for home-grown herbal remedies would have been a better choice.
But these are minor quibbles. I like Sharon Astyk because she always tells me why I should do something, before she tells me how, and this book continues that practice. "This isn't just about the rice or the garden or the canning jars," she says. "This is a small but important step in making a better way of life." Yes, truly. I learned from Independence Days, and it strengthened my desire to be as independent as possible. If you're concerned about food security, this is a good book to read and use. If you're not, read it anyway. You'll learn why the American food supply should be at the top of your list of things to think about.
by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

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Hard times aren't just coming, they are here already. The recent economic collapse has seen millions of North Americans move from the middle class to being poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the idea of eating locally is shifting from being a fringe activity for those who can afford it to an essential element of getting by. But aside from the locavores and slow foodies, who really knows how to eat outside of the supermarket and out of season? And who knows how to eat a diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods?
Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, as well as the host of broader issues tied to the creation of local diets. It includes:

How to buy in bulk and store food on the cheap
Techniques, from canning to dehydrating
Tools—what you need and what you don't
In addition, it focuses on how to live on a pantry diet year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating vibrant local economies.
Better food, plentiful food, at a lower cost and with less energy expended: Independence Days is for all who want to build a sustainable food system and keep eating—even in hard times.
Sharon Astyk is a former academic who farms in upstate New York with her family. She is the author of Depletion and Abundance, the co-author of A Nation of Farmers, and she blogs at www.sharonastyk.com.

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The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food: Easy Step-by-Step Instructions for Freezing, Drying, and Canning Review

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(More customer reviews)I used to feel intimidated about preserving fresh vegetables. I thought all sorts of expensive equipment and a vast knowledge of preserving were needed in order to successfully preserve food. Then I purchased a copy of The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food and was delighted to find that I could almost effortlessly preserve many of the fresh vegetables I grew and still have good results with the finished product. Now, I look forward to a healthy crop of green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, and tomatoes and no longer wonder what I'll do with all of the produce.

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Today's Homestead: Volume I Review

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(More customer reviews)Great beginning book that is helpful and informative not just for those who are interested in a homestead, but simply want to be more self-reliant and prepared. This opening volume contains many specific ideas and how-to's that can be turned into practical and useful skills that for most of us have been lost to history. Soap making, candle making, homemade bread making, food freezing, dehydration & canning, food storage basics, natural remedies and other basic subjects are presented in easy to understand language. Hopefully, future volumes will be as wonderful as this one!

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With skyrocketing food prices, lower product availability, and an increasing amount of food-born illnesses associated with mass produced foods, wouldn't it be great to produce your own safe, wholesome foods for your family? Would you like to offset rising fuel prices by safely and securely burning wood to heat your home and cook your meals? "Today's Homestead" will teach you how! Within these volumes you'll learn how to raise your own beef, extract your own honey, and manage your own orchard. If you've ever wanted to know how to braid your own rugs, or make your own yeast, how to pick a healthy calf at the sale barn, or incubate your own turkey eggs, it's all included in these books. Whether you have one acre or one hundred acres, "Today's Homestead" can help you be more self-sufficient. Volume 1 of "Today's Homestead" has all the basics, from home food preservation to proper food storage, as well as basic cheese making, soap making, and candle making, including how to make a cheese press, or candle dipping frame."Today's Homestead" is the complete guide to homesteading for a more secure future in these increasingly insecure times.

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The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home: Easy Techniques for the Freshest Flavors in Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Relishes, Salsas, Sauces, and Frozen and Dried Fruits and Vegetables Review

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(More customer reviews)In today's economy, one of family budget items that is getting more and more expensive are the expenditures for food. Therefore, one of the best ways to economize for a family's food budget is something our grandparents and great-grandparents knew well -- the home canning of fruits and vegetables in season for later consumption. For all too many modern homemakers, home canning is a lost art. That's what makes this newly updated, revised, and expanded third edition of Janet Chadwick's classic instructional manual, "The Beginner's Guide To Preserving Food At Home" is such a critically important and highly recommended addition to both family and community library collections. Here are 231-pages packed with solid and 'user friendly' instructions for canning, freezing, drying, brining, root cellaring vegetables, fruits and herbs for home consumption. Comprehensive, up-to-date, informed and informative, "The Beginner's Guide To Preserving Food At Home" will prove to be one of the most valuable additions any homemaker can acquire and one of the most popular acquisitions any librarian can add as a community resource.

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A wonderful thing is happening in home kitchens. People are rediscovering the joys of locally produced foods and reducing the amount of the grocery budget that's spent on packaged items, out-of-season produce, and heavily processed foods. But fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables don't stay fresh and delicious forever - they must be eaten now . . . or preserved for later.For all the vegetable gardeners facing baskets overflowing with bright tomatoes, and for all the dedicated farmers' market fans and CSA members, The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home has the simple solutions that turn overwhelming bounty into neatly canned tomatoes, jars of jams and jellies, and crispy-tart relishes and pickles. Organized in a friendly, food-by-food format, readers will find freezing, drying, canning, and storing instructions for each vegetable, fruit, and herb. In many cases, several ways to freeze or can a food are described, and there are often other preserving suggestions as well, such as making juice or fruit leather. Everything is written with busy people in mind: these are the quickest, most efficient methods for preserving summer's bounty. Up-to-date information and clear, step-by-step instructions show even absolute beginners the way to a fully stocked pantry.

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Canning and Preserving For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)I've read this cookbook cover to cover, sampled some recipes, and I'm impressed! Karen Ward took all the guess work and concerns I had out of both canning and preserving. The balance of taste in her recipes is extraordinary. Her Pear Chutney's the best I've ever had (and I've had plenty). My husband adores her bread and Butter Pickles! A great cookbook to have on hand to make holiday food gifts, too.

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Everything you need to know to can and preserve your own food

With the cost of living continuing to rise, more and more people are saving money and eating healthier by canning and preserving food at home. This easy-to-follow guide is perfect for you if you want to learn how to can and preserve your own food, as well as if you're an experienced canner and preserver looking to expand your repertoire with the great new and updated recipes contained in this book.
Inside you'll find clear, hands-on instruction in the basic techniques for everything from freezing and pickling to drying and juicing. There's plenty of information on the latest equipment for creating and storing your own healthy foods. Plus, you'll see how you can cut your food costs while controlling the quality of the food your family eats.
Everything you need to know about freezing, canning, preserving, pickling, drying, juicing, and root cellaring
Explains the many great benefits of canning and preserving, including eating healthier and developing self-reliance
Features new recipes that include preparation, cooking, and processing times
Amy Jeanroy is the Herb Garden Guide for About.com and Karen Ward is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals

If you want to save money on your grocery bill, get back to basics, and eat healthier, Canning & Preserving For Dummies, 2nd Edition is your ideal resource!

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Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything Review

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(More customer reviews)This is by the same publisher as Simply in Season, which I am cooking my way through on my blog. Unlike the other books in "the Mennonite trilogy" (Simply in Season , More-With-Less , and Extending the Table), though, Saving the Seasons doesn't include little anecdotes and essays about living simply and how eating is impacted by our faith.
What is does have is lots and lots of beautiful photos, which are inspiring and also show step by step instructions, which are great for those just learning how to preserve food.
Like most preserving books, this one covers more ground than just canning. Topics include
* A guide to the harvest (various fruits and vegetables, when they're in season, and best methods for preserving)
* Canning (individual fruits and vegetables as well as vegetables, meats, and soups; herbed vinegars; pickles and relishes; jams, jellies and spreads)
* Freezing (vegetables and herbs; fruits; meats, poultry, and fish; baby food)
* Drying
* and an appendix which covers canning troubleshooting and helpful and inspirational resources.
The herbed vinegars and introduction to baby food caught my attention, as I haven't seen these in some of the other books.
The verdict: If you already have a boatload of canning and food preservation books, you might want to pass as none of the recipes are super unique (unless you're a cookbook junkie like me and want to get it just for the photos and light reading). But if you're just starting out, Saving the Seasons will inspire you and provide enough guidance to give you confidence to start a lifetime of preserving.

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Many people today are buying and cooking local food, including the over 94,000 who have bought Simply in Season. But one of the challenges of cooking and eating locally is how to find the items you need when they are out of season. That is where Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything comes in; cooks can find ways to preserve their favorite seasonal items for use in different parts of the year. This colorful book, full of photographs and clear pictures, shows how to can, freeze or dry various kinds of food. Colorful page borders divide the book into easy-to-find sections. Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything is edited by the mother-daughter team of Mary Clemens Meyer and Susanna Meyer, both of whom are involved in sustainable and organic agriculture.

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Making & Using Dried Foods Review

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(More customer reviews)This has more methods of drying (including sun-drying), it has information on pretreating foods.
How to Dry Foods on the other hand has metric to american conversion, and it tells how long specific foods last while dry.
If you want methods buy this book, if you want specific facts, buy How to Dry Foods. Personally, I'm buying this one.

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Step-by-step instructions for drying almost everything with or without a commercial dehydrator. Includes more than 200 delicious recipes using dried foods.

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Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)I've had my dehydrator for 5 years and thought I'd dried everything in every conceivable way but Mary Bell has some fantastic ideas. Easy read and easier recipes. Especially liked the section on backpacker food. My dehydrator has been running 24hrs/day since I got this book. Thank you, Mary Bell, for this great book.

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Far from being a fad, food dyhydrating is one of the most ancient, effective, and nutritous ways of preserving food. Now, at last, there is a book that teaches absolutely everything there is to know about using an electric food dyhydrator to dry foods at home -- and gives more than 100 foolproof recipes for scrumptious snacks and meals made from dried foods.

With this extraordinary book, you can learn how to cross junk food and expensive store-bought snacks off your family's shopping list -- and add to your cupboard homemade, preservative-free fruit leathers, candied apricots, beef (and fish) jerkies, "sun" dried tomotoes, corn chips, banana chips, and so much more!

Mary Bell gives specific techniques and instructions for preparing every kind of fruit (from apples to watermelon) and vegetable (from asparagus to zucchini). She also provides important shopping tips for buying an electric food dehydrator. The recipes for cooked meals (including mushroom soup, sloppy joes, pesto, and moist banana bread) will make this book a kitchen classic. And recipes for lightweight, filling trail snacks mean that the book will travel, too.

Additional chapters explain to how make herb seasonings, granolas, celery powder, cosmetics, dried fruit sugars, potpourri -- and even pet treats!

Food drying is an excellent way for gardeners to preserve their produce. It is a great way to make healthful snacks for the kids. It's perfect for the new wave of thrifty consumers who can't bear to spend dollars at health food stores for treats they cold make for pennies themselves. And food drying doesn't use chemicals or preservatives-so it's great for you and for the planet, too!

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