This is the beginning of a brand new segment at Granny’s Parlour. From this day forward, over time, I will transfer much of the contents of the booklet that accompanies the Squeezo Strainer to this blog. This will include several recipes, for surely it makes no sense at all to talk about this ingenious and versatile appliance without describing in detail the many ways in which it can transform the harvest.

If you do not own a Squeezo, there is something for you here as well (until you do… Oops, could not help say that!). You will see that you can adapt the recipes to other methods available to you at this time. Everybody wins.

We do not invest in kitchen appliances lightly and when we choose a tool or appliance we do so with purpose. A small apple orchard that produced enough to make a pie here and there suddenly grows exponentially, offering more possibilities than the current kitchen arsenal can handle.

Having been in this gardening business for a long time, we have come up with a few basic thoughts on the subject of gardens and what they produce. Take the tomato, for example. Tomato juice is an easy answer when you are faced with bushels of ripe tomatoes, but what are you going to do with it next winter besides drinking it? It helps to have alternatives, such as spicy cream of tomato soup, tomato bouillon with clam juice and white wine or a frozen tomato salad with Roquefort dressing, to name a few.

The same is true for applesauce. It is great with pork chops and sausages, but there must be something else. With a little imagination and a lot of experimentation, we’ve come up with some new notions for that same old applesauce and, while we’re at it, we’ll give you some new combinations to throw into the hopper!

We want you to use your harvest and Squeezo or other sauce maker for everything you can think of, everything we can think of and a few things neither of us has thought of yet.

You may find it interesting to learn that, based on a small sampling of our customers, we have found that it is most often the man in the family who has purchased and uses a Squeezo Strainer. There seems to be something about this machine that appeals to the preserving instinct in the male of the species! We like to think that those who choose to bring this unique appliance into their kitchen do so because they can fully appreciate the way it is put together, the way the parts mesh and the solidity of its construction. This is a machine, not a toy.

Whether it comes from your garden and farmers’ market or the grocery store, transforming the harvest into a meal is one of the greatest pleasures of life. People who love cooking may use words like, “It is so much fun!” but we do take cooking seriously. It is part of the romance of living.

To be continued…