As the weather begins to change in fall gardeners need to begin thinking of ways to preserve and store their produce. Since the industrial revolution though preserving and storing produce is becoming a bit of a lost art. It’s a shame because our local harvests provide such nutrient rich and delicious food.
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- What do you do when you come across a great deal at the grocery store or the farmers market?
- What do you do when you’re offered a deal on a bushel of produce that you can’t pass up?
- What do you do when you have a bumper crop of green beans, squash or tomatoes?
There’s only so much of any one food you can eat before you get sick and tired of it. But if you know how to preserve it, you can put it up and use it throughout the year.
Freeze Produce
A great place to start is by freezing food. You can cook up your harvest in some of your favorite freezer friendly foods, or clean and precook them and toss them in the freezer.
This is also a great way to store fruits like berries and peaches that don’t last long once they are ripe. A tip for easy use is to freeze fruits on a cookie sheet so they don’t stick together, then put them in a bag for long term storage.
The only disadvantage to freezing food is that you’re limited by the amount of room you have in your freezer. Be sure to get in the habit of labelling and dating frozen food well so you know what it is before you pull it out to thaw and how long it’s been sitting in the freezer.
Can
Canning is one of the most versatile ways to preserve food. You can make and can anything from jelly and pie filling to chili and green beans.
Canning has the added advantage of not taking up any space in your fridge and freezer. You can store your canned goods in the pantry, on a shelf in the kitchen, or anywhere in the basement. Heck, I’ve been known to keep canned goods stuck under the spare bed if I’m running out of room. Properly canned food also stores a lot longer than any other method.
Dehydrate Produce
If you don’t have a lot of space, consider dehydrating food. You can start by using your oven on the lowest setting. Try dehydrating some apple slices, or any type of food to use in baking and cereal throughout the year. Then explore further and come up with fun snacks like kale chips, banana chips and even dried veggies that you can use in soup. One of my son’s favorite snacks is kale chips, they rarely make it from the dehydrator tray to storage.
Pickle
Another favorite old-fashioned way to preserve food is to pickle it. Pickling involves submerging the produce in a brine made of salt, sugar, water, and various pickling spices. The most common pickled item is of course pickles and it’s a great place to start. But don’t stop there. You can pickle peppers, okra, cauliflower and a wide variety of other veggies and even fruits. Play with it and see what you like. Pickled veggies make a great addition to sandwiches and salads throughout the year.
Cold Store
Last but not least, let’s talk about the simplest way to store food. Things like root vegetables, apples, and cabbages store well in a dry, cool, and dark place. This used to the reason any house had a root cellar. Today your pantry might be a good place to store this type of food. If you’re lucky enough to have a basement, you can set up some shelves to keep a lot of produce for months to come.
