FOOD PRESERVATION

[silverseeds]

Okay all you experienced people in here help me out. What ways have you sucessfully preserved foods? how easy was it? Can I do it w/o electricity?

Okay so far next year I am going to try out these long keeping tomatoes from BC. They claim to last until january, if picked underripe, and left to ripen slowly. I also am going to try a winter water melon, and a melon BC says can last for four months into the winter. If it all works out I may need to build a root celler to store it all. I know I can dry some foods and can some. I dont have to much freezer space, but I do plan on geting a big one at some point, but do not want to rely on electricity. So what has worked for you, and whats failed......

[thegreatgarden]

buy a copy of the ball canning book.

[gardencrazy]

You may want to check out this link
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

It's the National Center for Food Preservation. It has the most up to date information on food preservation. Also, I'd invest in a Ball Blue Book. They should be readily available at Walmart this time of year. They usually sell for $7-$9. They have great info & recipes. You can can with out electricity. If you have a turkey fryer set up, using a propane heater and a canning pot (canner), you should be good to go.

http://www.homecanning.com/can/ALEquipment.asp?P=1274 Boiling Water Canner

[lorna-organic]

I dried arugula last year. It dried okay in a natural drying device (no electricity). However, the arugula did not rehydrate nicely. Rehydrating takes several hours of soaking, overnight is good. The arugula flavor was not good, reminded me something of seaweed, and it was mushy. I have one more batch of dried arugula. I will try rehydrating it for less time to see if that makes a good difference.

A few years ago I chopped up a batch of shallots and dried them in the non-electric device. That worked out well.

[kyaggie]

Definitely invest in a Ball Canning Book. They make it pretty easy. Your local extension office probably has some additional pamphlets that may be of help.

You asked about preserving without electric. We do our traditional canning on a gas stove. Of course stringing peppers and green beans (not together) requires no electric. I don't have a solar dehydrator (it's on the "to do" list)..but mom used to just spread white sheets out in the back of the pickup and dry apples on them...maybe with some kind of light covering to keep the bugs off. Lorna is way more up on solar dehydration than me. (In KY we are saying "Sun? What sun? It's all Kentucky Rain! LOL) I have an electric dehydrator.

Now just general observations:

Tomatoes are not that hard to do, just hot and messy. They are my favorite to put up by canning whole, sauces, salsas, and juice. That's a water bath method, and not too complicated. I also dehyrdrate my plum tomatoes (Roma this year but Camo says to try Opelka sp?) Use the dehyrdrated tomatoes on homemade pizza and artisian style breads. YUM! (You can rehydrate for soups and stews...I've never tried that)

Cukes I usually pickle and relish. I have never done the "brine method" where it sits in the crock for a period of time, but my grams and mil used to. Going to give it a try this year. Usually make saurkraut as well a tradition mountain way that is "all wrong" by extension standards. Will try to be more proper this year!

We have always put up beans in water canning, which is now an extension "no-no." (DH's aunts used to can beans outside on an open fire in a wash tub...HORRORS!) Anyway, I hate the idea of pressure canners but did go out and buy one this year as I planted way too many beans...and pressure canning for beans is quicker. (Hopefully safer...but I have visions of beans exploding and attaching themselves to my ceiling...LOL)

I freeze shredded zukes for bread, chopped peppers for chili/pizza etc, and cole crops (cabbage,brocolli, cauliflower) plus snow peas for stir fry. I freeze a few beans...mostly enough to add that "shock" of vibrant green to soups.

I have not tried to do fruit leathers, but am making an attempt this fall.

Haven't done much with fruit preservation, other than canning apples and peaches. Usually do a few jars of jelly and of course yellow tomato preserves.

Best advice I can give, is stay cool...coz it's hot to can. Watch out for steam burns, oddly enough hot steam hurts. LOL Don't set hot jars in a direct path of
cool breeze..they will burst. And for pitys sake, wear an apron to help guard your bod from heat splatters and shoes so if you drop a jar you don't get sliced to smitherines. OH! And if you are doing hot peppers...do wear gloves and don't touch your eyes! Hot peppers "burnt" my hands up one year...I'll never do that again! OUCH!

Best wishes to ya!

[Emerald]

If you look in the "tool shed " you will find the social groups section of this site and there is a whole group that is about food preservation, and if you don't mind reading, a lot of reading :D, you can find many good things to help with saving your harvest. Plus, there are quite a few threads on specific veggies too.

[Colojd]

Good suggestions from everyone and good links.
I would also suggest you check to see if your local Extension Service is offering canning or food preserving classes. You can google Extension service and your county and state name and it should bring you to that website. These classes are usually very affordable and often focus on your local produce and conditions.
Joyce

[silverseeds]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I appreciate it. Any of you have any long keeping tomatoes, or melons youve tried?

[silverseeds]

ok wait if you all come back to this thread, what kind of canner do you use? I always read you shouldnt use aluminum to cook but he only canner that look solid to me is heavy aluminum. All the rest need replacement parts. Id rather have something I could use with a fire if need be. Not that I ever would unless I had too. hmmm I forget the name americn heritage maybe. american something. thanks for the ideas though.

[Emerald]

ok wait if you all come back to this thread, what kind of canner do you use? I always read you shouldn't use aluminum to cook but the only canner that look solid to me is heavy aluminum. All the rest need replacement parts. Id rather have something I could use with a fire if need be. Not that I ever would unless I had too. hmmm I forget the name American heritage maybe. American something. thanks for the ideas though.


I know that we have have this conversation before but now I can't find that thread-- the thing is, you will not be cooking in the aluminum pressure canner- all your food to be canned should already be cooked and in the glass jars with the lids on- since the pressure will be forcing the air out of the jars you don't have to worry about the aluminum contaminating the foods.
__ While I don't use a pressure canner that much and only can high acid foods in a water bath- I do own a pressure canner that is aluminum, and will probably try some meat canning later this year.

[silverseeds]

yeah that makes sense lol someone moved this thread, somehow I missed the recipes a food preservation section, and had it somewhere else. lol.

[Emerald]

yeah that makes sense lol someone moved this thread, somehow I missed the recipes a food preservation section, and had it somewhere else. lol.

This forum wasn't here when you first posted your thread!:D It's a newby forum! lol

[RozieDozie]

Okay all you experienced people in here help me out. What ways have you sucessfully preserved foods? how easy was it? Can I do it w/o electricity?

Okay so far next year I am going to try out these long keeping tomatoes from BC. They claim to last until january, if picked underripe, and left to ripen slowly. I also am going to try a winter water melon, and a melon BC says can last for four months into the winter. If it all works out I may need to build a root celler to store it all. I know I can dry some foods and can some. I dont have to much freezer space, but I do plan on geting a big one at some point, but do not want to rely on electricity. So what has worked for you, and whats failed......

I've preserved food lots of different ways and as long as you follow the directions, most everything works pretty well. I want to try lactofermentation but haven't yet.

Rozie

[reavilh]

yeah that makes sense lol someone moved this thread, somehow I missed the recipes a food preservation section, and had it somewhere else. lol.

Silver, About the only thing we freeze anymore is fruits, and corn on the cob. Not that it can't be done, I just save the space for meat from the pigs we butcher. Most everything else is canned, pickled, or eaten fresh.

[ovenbird]

Last year I grew a lot of small tomatoes, yellow jelly bean, black cherry, green grape, principe borghese, and halved and dried these. I love using a handful of these in a pasta dish or as a snack.

[older than dirt]

About 5 years ago we air/ sun dryed a lot of wormy apples for horse treats. I made a screen wire drying rack 8' long & 34''wide cut the apples worms & all in 1/4 inch thick slices scatered them on the screen in full sun turned them over couple times. When they felt a little dryer than the ones in the stores we started filling gal glass jars with them .
We used them as horse treats for a year or more & I thought we had used them all , but a month or so ago I found a lost gal jar full of them . They seem just as good now as they were the first year . The horses still like them & I tryed one that didnt seem to wormy :cool: Its as good as ever so even wormy apples can keep 5 years .

[silverseeds]

wow this is all good to know. I do plan touse drying technics so thats promising.
thanks everyone,

have any of you tried the long keeping melon, water melons and tomatoes BC sells seeds to? Im going to be trying them next year. They say the tomatoes can last until january, the melons can be good four months and I got the winter melon somewhere else, it just says keeps well into the winter. anyone have experience with these? or other similar crops you can alert me to with similar keeping qualities?

[older than dirt]

We had a KEFFER pear tree that we would pick good pears , wrap them in news papper put them in a box under a bed . They stayed goods a long time that way as fresh pears . we allso canned a lot of them as its about the only fruit that needs no spraying to get good fruit. But I do recomend KEFFER trees from the MO. OK. line east as its highly resistant to pears disease .

[RozieDozie]

We have a longer growing season than most, but I've found paste tomatoes to be excellent keepers. I usually have lots left in the garden by frost time, so I pull them up (plants and all) and hang them in the garage to keep ripening on the vine.

Rozie