The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home - Janet Chadwick [11]
Sewing for harvest time. Make little muslin herb and spice bags, food straining bags, heavy potholders, and cover-all aprons. Aprons save on laundry and can be made easily from old shirts. Just remove the collars and sleeves and finish off the rough edges with binding tape. For the little ones, make large bibs out of old flannel-backed plastic table cloths and some bias tape.
Recycled strainers. Old stockings and panty hose make handy food strainers. Cut the crotch and feet out of clean, old panty hose, tie or sew one end of the leg, and use them for extra straining bags.
Examine canning jars. Check your canning jars for nicks and cracks; discard those unsafe for food storage.
Locate markets. To save time in late summer, locate farmers’ markets or truck gardens in your area in the late spring or early summer. Vegetables and fruits from these sources can supplement your own garden produce.
Spring cleaning. As your root cellar empties in the spring, clean the shelves well to avoid insect and bacteria problems during the warmer months.
Defrost the freezer. Defrost and clean your freezer late in the spring. (Use a hair dryer to hasten the defrosting if necessary.) Remove all frozen foods from plastic containers and refreeze the food in marked plastic bags. The foods will come out of the plastic containers easily if you run a little hot water over the bottom and sides. Wash containers in warm, sudsy water containing baking soda to get rid of unwanted odors. Throw away all foods that are past their prime, or use them as soon as possible in soups, stews, or casseroles. Those that must be discarded should go out to the compost pile.
Prepare temporary cold storage. Scrub out any extra garbage cans you have, or buy a new one. In the height of the harvest season, you can fill these cans with ice and produce to keep your vegetables fresh and chilled.
Cut freezer costs. To save on the cost of running your freezer, fill it with ice packs (see page 31) or milk cartons of water as it empties. A full freezer costs less to run, and the ice will come in handy to cool blanched vegetables.
Preseason workshops. Get together with a group of friends and encourage local stores and Cooperative Extension Services to give food preservation classes in the late spring prior to the harvest season, rather than during harvest season when you are too busy to attend.
CHAPTER 3
Basic Techniques for Preserving Food
THE EASIEST, FASTEST, OLDEST METHOD of food preservation is root cellaring, or cold storage. However, many fruits and vegetables do not adapt well to cold storage, many homes do not have root cellars, and root cellars are best suited for climates where average winter temperatures are 30°F or lower.
Freezing is also fast and easy, but not all produce freezes well and many people don’t own large freezers.
Dehydrating, or drying, foods is an ancient preservation method that comes with its own pros and cons. It requires little in the way of preparation, compared to freezing and canning. And although the process is time-consuming, you are free to be elsewhere while the dehydrator, the oven, or the sun does the work. Dried foods also are easy to store and have a long shelf life.
DRYING DOES INTENSIFY THE FLAVORS OF FOODS, which can be good or bad, depending on your point of view. Not all foods are good candidates for drying.
Canning is probably the most time-consuming method of food preservation, but sometimes it results in the very best product. So, instead of ignoring canning altogether, I will show you ways of saving time when doing it — so that you can have the very best home-preserved foods.
The key to saving time when you process food is to be very organized. Make sure your equipment is ready and your tasks are sorted out. Ideally, you can share these tasks with other members of the family. Here is a step-by-step method for each food preservation technique. Take the time to study the methods carefully; then turn to the sections on the individual