Someone recently asked to see the most used items we have in our off grid kitchen. Well here you go!
Pressure Cooker
Our pressure canner is the All American brand canner that is widely known as being one of the best made on the market. It's solid heavy aluminum and made in America. These are the Cadillacs in the pressure canning world and we certainly have gotten a lot of use out of the two we own. The downside to these pressure canners is the expense. There are far cheaper options out there but from what we can tell, they will not last a lifetime of use. So we felt the All American canners were worth the expense.
One of the big questions for us when we started out was could this canner still operate in a SHTF scenario? When doing research for a pressure canner, we noticed that many people just use propane or outside stoves for canning their meat and veggies. But what if you could no longer purchase propane or other fuel for heating and operating your pressure canner? Not many but a few folks out there actually pressure can their garden items and meat using a wood fire. So we developed a system to can most of our garden produce each year over a wood fire in our outdoor kitchen area.
The smaller canner pictured is used inside on propane but it was helpful knowing that the canner could be used safely over a wood fire if closely monitored and do well.
Propane Stove
The propane stove that we have in the kitchen was a special order as it does not have any of the electrical features and accessories that many stoves have today on the market. It's just a bare bones stove that spark fires the propane with a simple 9 volt battery. We've been using the same 9 volt battery for the past 5 years since we got the stove. Electric stoves were out of the question do to our limited solar power. Heating elements are huge draws on power. So we knew we would have to get a stove made for propane.
Kitchen Pump
We have gone through a number of kitchen pumps before we finally found one that we liked. There are not a lot of well made kitchen pumps out there and many are simply made for decoration or maybe for minimal use in an outside garden area. We use our pump every day and when winter temperatures drop enough so that it can't be in use, we mourn the loss. LOL!
Water access is so important and the invention of indoor pumping is something that many people take for granted. The kitchen pump we have is fed by our outdoor 1500 gallon water tank that sits slightly up hill. When the tank is full, it creates sort of a siphon effect and that is why you see a ball joint shutoff on our model.
Truth be told, you may just need to go through a few different models before you find one that works well for you.
Lantern Light
The lighting in our kitchen for the past 5 years have been from our Dietz lanterns. We bought the Blizzard model and they have held up great! We use them all over the house and not just the kitchen. If you are used to modern electrical lighting, you won't like swapping that out for lanterns. We we like them and have gotten use to them over the years. Yes you have to fill them up with fuel (Kerosene) once a week usually but the bonus is I haven't had an electric bill since we moved off grid.
Jaimie is fine working by lantern light in her kitchen and these lanterns do put out a decent amount of light but we realize that not everyone is going to give up their modern lighting in the kitchen and that is totally ok. This works well for us and we enjoy the lighting. Get the kids to bed and you may find that lantern lighting is actually kind of romantic as well.
Everyone ask about the kerosene smell. It's not that bad and we don't even notice it. Kerosene was a huge hit when it replaced whale oil as a lighting oil 2 centuries ago. Whale oil smelled horrible and left black residue over everything. The invention and history of kerosene is an amazing research topic if you find yourself bored and have the time.
CAST IRON
Of course Jaimie's cast iron is something that gets used daily in the kitchen. Any kitchen could benefit to having a couple good cast iron skillets laying around. They are used here for everything. We have a couple of stainless steel pots but everything else is pretty much cast iron.
We've done lots of posts before on our cast iron and even how to hang it. Click the link below to learn more!
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@mericanhomestead/homestead-cast-iron-storage-and-display-off-grid-kitchen-photos
The BERKEY
Probably the most important kitchen item to be used in our home is the Berkey water filter. We drink from this everyday and it gives us clean water. We upgraded this past year to the biggest Berkey they make (as far as I can tell), as with two growing boys keeps our water consumption on the rise. If you have ever wondered, YES, these are worth the investment and should last quite a long time. The filters will last you probably for years when you consider the amount of use they are rated for.
Our only advice is to clean the filters on a regular basis and be sure to prime them the first time you use them. We don't have pressurized running water here but our main 1500 gallon water tank gives plenty of pressure for a proper prime.
So that is it! These are the top used items in our kitchen. Our kitchen is a busy place in our small home.
Please leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you!
Visit Us Online: http://AnAmericanHomestead.com
JOIN US ON SOLA (TWITTER REPLACEMENT) FOR MORE HOMESTEAD CONTENT
https://sola.ai/americanhomestead
Great post. Please keep posting more about life "off-grid". Deep down in the soul, we all have the will to take a course of these.
We have some doozy posts coming up. Stay tuned!
All very interesting and useful knowledge. Jaimie clearly has it all together and knows exactly where she left it. My Grandmother used to say it in German and it is better in the original but, everything has a place and everything is in it's place.
Actually, Jaimie has that written in her bullet journal.
What I used to hear from my Grandmother was "as my Father would say Ein Platz für alles und alles an seinem Platz."
Is your kitchen always that clean?? Lol. And how do you clean your water filter? We use ours everyday, but I didn’t know you had to/could clean the filter.
Jaimie is strict on keeping the house and kitchen clean. You can just pull the filters out and scrub them a bit and put them back in. Good to go.
I LOVE my cast iron. I cook almost everything in it!
We do to! Thanks for commenting!
From the beginning I have loved all the items you kids have used in your home to make it work so well and Thank You for sharing it with everyone!
Thanks for sharing!
Wow You're Kitchen Is Clean!! Lol. Good Post!
Yeah Jaimie is strict about a clean house. :)
Reminescent of our kitchen when I was growing up (except for the handpump)
Mom had a BIG stainless steel pressure cooker. She used it for canning. It was big enough to hold several jars (dunno if they were pints or quarts..it's been a while)
I wonder what ever happened to it?
That water filter is very interesting...wonder how well it would work with lake water?
We used our Berkey when camping on a lake with no issues. Stay away from the algae limiting the need to clean the filters.
Lake water should be fine!
Oh my heavens, this was such a fun and informative read. I recently watched a docu about the switch from whale oil to kerosene and the 'birth' of Standard oil, it was really eye opening on many levels. Love the kitchen pump, had not considered that part of off grid homesteading!!!
I have to admit, that Berkey...please forgive me, but when I saw it, I had a moment of Berkey envy~~giggle :) <3
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Beep!Beep! @shadow3scalpel & listkeeper @chairborne have your six new veterans, retirees and military members on STEEM. We’ll be patrolling by to upvote your posts (because you are on the list) and we'll answer any questions you leave us. Comment by @shadowspub. This is a opt-in bot.
Love your posts - great service!
Thanks for the post! We have a foot pump for our kitchen sink and we love it. It isn't as "steem punk" :) as yours though.
Loved this post! Lot of real good info. I envy your All American canner! And your photos were wonderful. Looking forward to reading more of your posts.
This is great. Love seeing these older style items put to use. I have been wanting to put a hand pump on my electric well for when we have hurricanes and power outages. Hard to go without water with the amount of livestock we have. We are homesteading but your setup seems a lot more off the grid when we are at this point. Will be following these for more great information.