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By Root 386 0

can already hear nutritionists raising their voices in a collective uproar over this last remark, I think I’d better explain myself. Many commercially sold fresh vegetables and fruits are treated with chemicals to preserve their look of freshness; they can be from two days to two weeks old when they appear in your market. You have no way of knowing how many times frozen foods have been defrosted and refrozen (losing nutrients and flavor) before they show up in the frozen food cases of your market. Nor is there any way to judge the hours or days that lapsed between the harvest and processing of canned foods. You will never know what chemicals were sprayed on these foods while they were growing.

Taking those factors into consideration, preserving homegrown foods lets you start out ahead of the game. Even though the best way to preserve all the nutrients and fresh flavor of foods is to pick them at their peak and process them immediately, you can be sure that waiting even two days between harvest and processing will not cost you much more than minimal loss of either nutrients or flavor if you follow my instructions on storing. Therefore, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by preserving your food by my methods.

In addition to step-by-step, illustrated instructions for processing commonly grown vegetables and fruits, I’ve included recipes for ketchup, salsa, pickles, jams, jellies, and herbal vinegars. I’ve also shared ideas for delicious meals that can be prepared ahead of harvest time to make busy days much easier. Some of these dishes incorporate the vegetables being preserved. Finally, I’ve included a list of suppliers to help you equip your kitchen.

Before we get into serious food preservation, I’d like to share three important pieces of advice. First, make an effort to involve the whole family whenever practical so that everybody becomes excited about what you are accomplishing and the independence it can afford you. Second, stay flexible. This is important mostly from a psychological standpoint. If you become too rigid in your expectations, you will waste tremendous amounts of emotional energy trying to keep up, or being disappointed at failures. This approach can ruin the best of goals. Finally, know yourself. If you work best at night, plan your work for the evening hours; but if you are a morning person, get up an hour or so earlier in the morning to accomplish extra tasks.

The following pages are packed with information to help you make the best use of your time and resources during the harvest season. Good luck and have fun!

CHAPTER 1

Choosing Equipment

PEA SHELLERS, APPLE PEELERS, cherry pitters, food mills, food processors, microwave ovens: Are they really time-savers in the harvest kitchen?

If you are serious about making food preservation as quick and easy as possible, you will want to invest in some time-saving equipment. The right equipment not only makes work easier and more enjoyable, but the end results are usually better, so the feeling of satisfaction is greater.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO PURCHASE the most expensive equipment on the market; some very good and reliable products are sold at reasonable prices. A good food processor is just about the best helping hand a busy person can have at harvest time. Prices range from as low as $45 to around $200 for one of the best Cuisinart models with all the attachments. Once you realize what a help this type of appliance will be throughout the year, you will probably see it as a good investment.

On the other hand, not every new gadget advertised will be worth the money. In this chapter, I will concentrate on the food-processing items that I have tested and found useful in my kitchen.

Determine Your Needs First

BEFORE YOU STEP INTO A STORE or look through a catalog, you should have a good idea of just what equipment you need. This decision, of course, will depend on the foods you will prepare and the methods of preservation you will use. Will you freeze? Can? Pickle? Store in a root cellar? Dry? Will you need to chop? Slice? Dice? Grind?