Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 10:01 am
Food preservation just follows growing a garden. We always have much more than we can eat right away and besides canning and freezing give lots away. Here is how we preserve some things:
Pressure can Green beans, tomatoes, other low acid foods. (tomatoes is a low acid food and can be canned in a waterbath canner, but the recommended times were increased considerably a few years ago because the popular varieties of tomatoes were not acid enough or very borderline. So we just do them in the pressure canner.
Water bath can apples, grape juice, peaches, plums, any fruits.
Freeze strawberries, corn (cut off the cob), peppers.
Dry herbs. Sage, Oregano, chives. onions. Sometimes make fruit leather from plums. We use an electric dehydrator.
Onions and garlic are dried and stored in mesh bags in the basement.
Winter squash are stored in the basement. Butternut seems to be the best keeper. We have a dry climate here in Utah so this works quite well. If you are in a humid area, you may not be able to keep squash or onions as long.
I have one caution about home canning. Always use an approved recipe for canning any food and follow the recipe exactly. You can find these recipes in the Ball Blue Book and at your Extension Service. We do this to avoid boutlism poisoning which is a real killer. Most people who get poisoned with botulism will die. By using proven and tested recipes and following directions we can be assureed that our home canned products are safe for us and our families.
Are you interested in a pictorial of how we do our corn, cut off the cob for the freezer? Let me know.
Pressure can Green beans, tomatoes, other low acid foods. (tomatoes is a low acid food and can be canned in a waterbath canner, but the recommended times were increased considerably a few years ago because the popular varieties of tomatoes were not acid enough or very borderline. So we just do them in the pressure canner.
Water bath can apples, grape juice, peaches, plums, any fruits.
Freeze strawberries, corn (cut off the cob), peppers.
Dry herbs. Sage, Oregano, chives. onions. Sometimes make fruit leather from plums. We use an electric dehydrator.
Onions and garlic are dried and stored in mesh bags in the basement.
Winter squash are stored in the basement. Butternut seems to be the best keeper. We have a dry climate here in Utah so this works quite well. If you are in a humid area, you may not be able to keep squash or onions as long.
I have one caution about home canning. Always use an approved recipe for canning any food and follow the recipe exactly. You can find these recipes in the Ball Blue Book and at your Extension Service. We do this to avoid boutlism poisoning which is a real killer. Most people who get poisoned with botulism will die. By using proven and tested recipes and following directions we can be assureed that our home canned products are safe for us and our families.
Are you interested in a pictorial of how we do our corn, cut off the cob for the freezer? Let me know.