CHAPTER 2
Planning for Success
Getting started in home food preservation is really easy, but it does require some forethought and organization. In this chapter, we’ll look into what types of food are suitable for home food preservation, the best and most sustainable way to get them, and how to choose a preservation method that fits your needs, all topped off with a short word about food safety and tips to help you plan successfully.
WHAT CAN YOU PRESERVE?
The short and easy answer is “just about everything,” from seasonal fruits and vegetables to meats and seafoods, breads, dairy products, and entire meals. Scan the fruits and vegetables listed in the appendix to get a hint of the possibilities. But keep in mind that some things preserve better than others, so while you can can them, you might not want to.
WHERE TO START
Where can you find fresh produce for preserving? Obvious canning candidates are surplus vegetables from the garden. I always grow more tomatoes than I can possibly eat—and we eat lots of tomatoes when they are in season. Those wonderful tomatoes that don’t get consumed in the summer months can be found in Mason jars in my basement as plain tomatoes or pasta sauce. Many are dried and stored with a bit of olive oil. If I don’t have time to can them, I’ve been known to simply wash them and store them whole in the freezer.
Create memories that you can cherish by picking fruit at a local orchard with your family and then preserving it together—in jellies and butters, for pies, and so on.
Of course, don’t forget about your local orchards and fruit farms during the season. My part of the country has incredible orchards and berry farms. I don’t grow my own apples (yet), but my family and I love to go picking and return with a bushel of the apple du jour. You have myriad options for that bushel of apples (including many of the methods of food preservation that we’ll cover in later chapters): canned applesauce; canned apple rings and apple pie filling; apple chutney; apple butter; and baked apple pies tucked away in the freezer for unexpected company. You can even turn those apples into a simple, wholesome baby food (see “Ava’s Applesauce” on page 88).
Choose foods that your family enjoys most and then select a preservation method that suits your needs and the food’s qualities. I adore my apples, but maybe you prefer peaches? The great thing about preserving food is that you have your own personal favorites on hand whenever you want them.
WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T
If you’re going to get into preserving, you’ll need to learn which vegetables and fruits respond better to which preservation styles. For example, blueberries freeze very well and make delicious jams, syrups, or pies. At the other end of the berry spectrum are those fragile, voluptuous red raspberries. They are decadent when freshly picked and make exceptional jams, sauces, and flavored vinegar, but they turn to red mush when frozen. As you explore the different preservation methods and recipes in the chapters that follow, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t. If you’re a novice, start simple and build your technical skills.
Meats, seafood, and meat/vegetable-based sauces are all candidates for home preservation using various methods. The quickest, easiest, and safest one is freezing, but canning can offer a flexible and convenient alternative. If your family enjoys meats, contact a local farm and get a fresh side or quarter of beef (preferably grass fed), pork, or some free-range chickens. While you can preserve meat that you get from your local butcher or grocer, buying a local side of beef is generally less expensive and the meat is fresher.
Don’t have a garden of your own to harvest? Look for local farms where you can pay a small price and pick as much fruit or as many veggies as you need for your home preservation project.
CHOOSING THE METHOD THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU
You know your goal: to preserve food in season to enjoy out of season. That’s simple. But within that overarching goal—and sometimes tangled in a sticky mess—are a number of other factors. Issues such as availability of a freezer or other storage space, dietary and/or nutritional preferences, and amount of time available—to name a few—have an impact on your choice of preservation method.
CONSIDER THE SOURCE
You can find lots of good information about food preservation and interesting recipes on the Web, but do be careful. Anyone can post anything to a website, but that doesn’t ensure accuracy or safety. For example, I found an online jam recipe that called for sealing jam by turning over the newly filled jars for five minutes to kill the bacteria on the lid. This is an old-style method that’s not approved by the US Department of Agriculture—the folks who help ensure food safety. Every method and recipe you’ll read about in this book is written with your safety in mind.
Another point to remember as you review the various methods and their pros and cons is that these methods are all different tools in your preservation toolkit. The fact that they each have benefits and drawbacks does not make one inherently better than another. Each method simply serves a different need. Think about the appliances in your kitchen. There are times when a toaster oven is just perfect and others when your conventional oven makes more sense. The toaster oven draws less electricity per hour, but that doesn’t mean that it’s always the better tool to use. The same is true with preservation methods. The more options you have at your disposal, the more flexibility you’ll have in developing your methods of preservation. Following are the various preservation types I’ll cover, their pros and cons, and the foods most suitable for each method.
FREEZING AND FLASH FREEZING
Storing food in the freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit prevents microorganisms from growing and slowing down enzyme activity. Flash freezing is used to initially freeze food by rapidly lowering the temperature to -10 degrees Fahrenheit. This helps ensure the highest-quality frozen product. Once flash frozen, food can be stored at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Freezing and flash freezing are best used for a range of foods, including fruits, vegetables, meats, jellies and jams, breads, and whole meals.
Who hasn’t experienced frozen peas—whether with
