Food in Season – Preserving

A great example of using food in season to eat free later!

 

grow your onions from rootsHaving talked about the money-saving benefits of eating food in season, today I have an example of how a family successfully manages to either grow or buy food in season while it’s abundant and well-priced, and then preserve it, so they are well-stocked for later.

Now they go further than most people do today – further than I go, and I grow a fair amount of my own produce.  But I found it interesting to read what they do, and I hope you find it interesting too!

The whole culture of eating food in season and laying by the surplus for later use is such a part of my family life that it’s difficult to explain to people whose umbilical cords are tied to the supermarket. But let me describe what’s routine in my family — and also was for most people until a couple of decades ago.

First, we have a couple of chest freezers. These are primarily for meat and poultry, and because I can’t live without ice cream. We also freeze quarts of blackberries and strawberries, which keeps them from getting mushy. When corn is in season, we cut it off the cob and freeze it on cookie sheets, then crumple it into plastic bags. When we need some, we just open the bag in the freezer and scoop out what we want.

We also have a pantry. We can about 600 to 800 quarts of food per year — with modern pressure canners it doesn’t take that long and, once sealed, storing this food requires no energy. When tomatoes are rolling in from the garden, we make juice and can tomatoes. We also make salsa, ketchup and tomato paste. Each year, we buy bushels of apples from an orchard and make our own apple sauce. When the grapes ripen in late September, we pull out the juicer and begin canning our juice concentrate. We cut it with half water to drink. The elderberries along the river are great for making jelly, so we reserve grape juice for drinking.

When cabbages are ready, we have a couple of 10-gallon crocks for making sauerkraut. Later in the season, when cucumbers are pouring in, we reuse the crocks for making pickles.

basket of fresh vegetablesOur basement serves as a root cellar for fall vegetables and root crops. In November, the basement is full of butternut squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes and cushaw squash. We lay mulch over late carrots in the garden and they become sweeter and sweeter as winter progresses. Whenever we want some, we get a handful fresh out of the ground.

Laying hens are only really productive for two years. At the end of that time, we dress them and cook them in a huge roasting pan. We pick the meat off, cut it up into bite-size chunks, and either can it or freeze it. Then, when it’s 5 p.m. and supper panic sets in, Chicken a la King is only a few minutes away. That precooked, ready-to-go canned or frozen meat is about as handy as it gets.

This laying by behavior is considered so normal in my family that, I confess, we find it somewhat odd when customers who buy our meat and poultry say they don’t have a freezer. And even more so when we talk to people who have never canned or eaten home-canned food.

We all choose our routines. Ours is to lay food by, and enjoy eating out of the larder all winter.

 

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Excerpted from from Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide to Farm Friendly Food by Joel Salatin.  Salatin has written several books on the topics of local food and raising happy, healthy animals.


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  • I remember my grandparents root celler and the rows of canned foods on the shelves in the basement. I have canned tomatoes, peaches, bing cherries and made pickles. Once you do it, there is a sense of accomplishment and also a feeling of being connected to your past.
    Sonya Lenzo

  • Hi Clare,

    When I was growing up we always had a big garden as well as my grandparents did too. We started canning in July and continued until late fall. We had tomatoes, 3 different kinds of pickles, okra, greeen beans, my grandmother even made perserves from the watermelon rinds. Hardly anything went to waste. We eventually built up such a surplus that we would have a year to year and a half of home canned food on hand at any given time.

    I do a little of that that still today but I don’t have near the garden as we did when I was young.

    And for those who haven’t had home caned vegetables in mid winter – you don’t know what you are misssing.

  • Hi Green Goddess,

    What a helpful way to remember to stay healthier, more green and closer to nature. What about the limited storage space realities for apartment dwellers?

    Happy Dating and Relationships,

    April Braswell

  • I didn’t know you could freeze fresh berries. I love them so that’s a lock. I make my own stock from bones and shells so I try to use everything more than once. We’re a scratch kitchen at my house.

  • “Umbilical cords are tied to the supermarket” … I LOVE it! Not only is it a truth, but the graphic in my imagination couldn’t be more clear! Thank you for sharing this story … I think I’m going to have to get my paws on that book!

    Stay Amazing and Do Great Things, Neil

  • Preserving is becoming a lost art . I remember Mum preserving foods in the 60’s . Hard to buy the bottles etc nowadays .

  • Wow … would love to “raid” their pantry & root cellar! They are so inspiring!! It took me a long time to preserve food. I was a bit afraid of “canning” so just put it out of my head. But then, I kept reading about how people were preserving food for the winter … and I felt frustrated in the cold months with not being able to get produce (well, any that had any taste, that is). So I tried canning. And wow … it really wasn’t that difficult (or scary). Now I’m preserving tomatoes and peaches … and dehydrating herbs and apples. When cabbages show up, we’re going to try our hand at sauerkraut. Thanks for another great post!

    • Wouldn’t it be great? They really are an inspiration! I’m still fairly early on in the preserving stages but enjoying and appreciating what I am doing. You’re doing great!

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