No advice, really, but I've got an older model with the square, stainless steel vessel, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It will chop/grind stuff that NOTHING else will (various nuts/seed pods, herbs that would destroy my good Cuisinart food processor)
I will admit I don't see any advantage in using the thing for "cooking" soups, etc as advertised (although it surely will heat stuff up if you run it for long), but as essentially a mini hammer-mill, you just can't beat it.
Aside from grinding various herb roots, etc, we use ours to grind coffee, grind up "too old and dry" beans for bean flour, grind fresh cornmeal (if you've never tried cornmeal from well dried sweetcorn- left on the stalk to mature completely and dry down, not "dehydrated" at the eating stage- it's a treat not to be missed) and I have ground whole wheat flour in it, although that's a small batch deal, so I usually use my Whisper Mill.
It's also great for pureeing fruit for jams and preserves (we're not great fans of large chunks of fruit in our jam) and it will make butter, although I usually use my Cuisinart because of the much larger capacity vessel.
I haven't ever heard of/seen the cider press attachment. Sounds interesting, but we usually just haul 15 bushels or so of wild apples to a neighbor with a big commercial press and bring home 30 gallons of cider. Still, being able to make a small batch of fresh cider as long as the apples last in the root cellar would be nice...
Only "drawback"- the thing is LOUD. Easily rivals the "whisper mill", or beats it! If I was planning on using it for more than a couple minutes at a time, I'd seriously consider using hearing protection; I've got enough low-frequency hearing loss due to multiple ear infections as a kid... I don't need it to get any worse!
Summerthyme
