I know that there are Amish stores in upstate New York - I grew up there.
I know that there are Amish stores in upstate New York - I grew up there.
I use to have a link to a page that listed stores state by state. Found this link "Amish State Guide" which lists Amish communities in each state & Canada. Find a large community should find a store.
About once a year bbf & I take a ride out of Queen City to Warsaw, New York to visit a Mennonite store. It's more of a road trip then to acquire unique hard to find items. I have the internet for that.
I should clarify that for me unique items are ones that I can't barter, grow, or make. For us when we say we bake from scratch we mean we grind our grain so take what I write with a grain of sea salt. I'm Ghetto Amish.
That said I've already earmarked extra rows in the garden as my hiking grub to be dehydrated then packaged up into diabetic friendly meals using instant brown rice. Still have to give a go @ dehydrating cooked Dreamfields Pasta so I can make up my own mad & cheese.
I discovered a way to cut down on the electricity needed to dehydrate my veggies. I cut them up, put them on the racks and put them in my car with the windows rolled-up on a hot day. The veggies get a really good head start on drying and then I don't need to run them in the dehydrator as long.
Trader Joe's dehydrated Wasabi mustard Peas added to any dish liven it up a bit....great on their own too!
Make/ cook all your meals. Dehydrate them and do mail drops. I eat all organic, vegan healthy meals on the trail. I make fruit smmothies and green smoothies for breakfast to which I add almonds or cashews. Oat meal or quinoa flakes. Don't dehydrate " veggies". Dehydrate your whole meal. No the components.
As a gardener, I get overwhelmed with produce that I have to process quickly and efficiently. I can, dry and freeze and I am always looking for ways to cut down on energy use when I do this. Anyone have experience with a solar dehydrator? Any recommendations?
Agree. My TSM 5 tray dehydrator is humming along as we speak. Right now I have 5 trays of a smoothie drying to be rolled up and eaten like . . . . fruit leather. The smoothie is pineapple/coconut juice(organic store bought) with a handful of raw almonds and raw cashews with spinach and some grapes and 2 ripe bananas.
Later today I'm making another smoothie with pineapple/coconut juice and a couple cups of goat yogurt with almonds/cashews and bananas and this time several tablespoons of organic peanut butter all blended up thoroughly and dried. This will be my Mega Boost Zap Protein Shake except it'll be fruit leather.
None of this crap is eaten at home and it's only used on backpacking trips. Otherwise why not just drink the smoothies fresh?
Good luck with that......Hiked it last year & I don,t remember daily road crossings or supermarkets along the trail? About once a week you will reach a town to buy veggies. Remember each time you go to town it's gonna cost U another $100. Your gonna want a shower, wash cloths & eat. It's also gonna cost you 2 days ....
The trail doesn't go thru upstate NY. Bear mountain bridge is only about 30 miles north of the city....
There's nothing better than pulling in to the shelter and everyone is cooking their Ramen, pull out a freezer bag with hamburger helper, or tuna helper, and packets of solar dehydrated veggies from my garden, (onions, tomato, broccoli, shaved carrots, etc.). The aroma alone is worth it. Dehydrated hamburg or tuna packs, doesn't matter, just throw it all together, add 2 cups of boiling water, stuff it in a cozy, and 10 minutes later you have a meal like at home. Not only good, but very light weight. I can carry about 5 days worth of food and still be less than 5 pounds. Try it, you'll like it.
Gypsy 04
Solar dehydrators, properly built, are excellent. I have been using the same one for 5 years and still eating food that was done 5 years ago. Properly vacuum packed food will almost last forever. just look up solar dehydrators online and you can get some very good info.
Gypsy 04