Hi All, I'm just getting in to food preserving. I'd love to cover some of the go-to resources with you guys and get your top recommendations for setups. I know there are a lot of Master Food Preservers here, and probably some beginners and intermediates others with great input.

It seems like the most common preservation methods are: freezing, canning, dehydrating, pickling and fermenting -- did I miss anything?

PROCESSING BEFORE PRESERVING (SETUP): I've gotten myself strainer attachment (FPPA) for my Kitchenaid mixer, for removing seeds, making sauce etc. Hopefully it's functional enough to replace a food mill. The shredder attachment is great for shredding big blocks of cheese before freezing.

VACUUM SEAL/FREEZER SETUP: I just got (hooray!) a manual defrost chest freezer setup: I got a Danby chest freezer, because they are supposed to have the best compressors by far (Consumer Reports, chat boards). I also got one of the manual vacuum sealer machines, because I read on here that people don't like the more expensive automated ones. Mine is the small black one from Foodsaver. I'm learning how useful it can be to "harden" foods for an hour before vacuum -sealing them and deep freezing them. I've been reading about how to avoid freezer burn, so I turned my freezer below O zero degrees and need to get some citric acid.

CANNING SETUP: I haven't researched or gotten a canning setup yet -- are there similar recommendations there?

DEHYDRATION SETUP, ETC: Same as above --?

Here's the most important question:

GO-TO RESOURCES - Is there one website that is the arbiter of all things in safe food preservation? (Or a few.) Another well-written site for smart techniques? It's always important to know your resources :)

Thanks!