The summer starts with putting in: putting in the garden, putting in the time and energy to ensure it produces well. And now it’s time start thinking of putting by. This is what your grandmother called it: preserving all the surplus from the garden and putting it by for future use.
As much as I love gardening, I almost like the preserving and putting by part even better. It’s the culmination of several month’s work and the result is beautiful: Jars filled with garden goodness, freezers full of frozen fruits and vegetables, shelves loaded with enough food to see us through to the next year.
September Scramble
As September begins, the scramble to find time and space for all the food heats up. There’s only 24 hours in a day and within a couple days the food will start spoiling. You want to stay ahead of all that.
So right now, think about of how and where you want to store all this food. Canning has been a popular preservation method for 200 years, but it can be a little labor intensive. Drying is one of the easiest methods of preserving food, but it’s not ideal for all foods.
You have choices
Here are some of the ways you can preserve your food:
Drying
This method has been used for thousands of years, so it’s even older than canning. It’s one of the least expensive and simplest ways to preserve food. I’ve written more about it here.
While drying is very versatile, it’s not good for everything. Some foods don’t reconstitute well. Except for kale (and its cousin, collards) chips, leafy vegetables aren’t that great when dried. Some foods, like potatoes, carrots and celery, need to be blanched before drying.
But it is perfect for herbs, onions and garlic. It’s super quick and easy to dry peppers and they make the most heavenly
chili powder. Dried fruit and fruit leather is almost like candy. All you need to do to prep mushrooms is slice them. They dry in just a few hours and I love using them in an instant cream of mushroom soup.
Drying is also a good way to use all the veggie scraps that might otherwise get tossed or don’t preserve well. Asparagus and broccoli stems, green onions stems and eggplant can all go into a jar to make veggie powder.
Freezing
Although freezing does change the texture of food a bit, it’s still one of the best ways to preserve the food’s color and flavor. Most vegetables need to be blanched before freezing to keep flavors fresh. Blanching stops sugars from converting into something that tastes off. Fruit doesn’t need blanching.
The biggest downside to freezing is you are limited to what freezer space you have and you are depending on electricity. If the power goes out, especially during the summer, you risk losing a lot of food.
Canning
There are two types of canning: water bath and pressure canning. I discuss the difference here. With a few exceptions, just about any food can be canned. (See the chart below.) That makes it a very versatile way to preserve food.
The shelf life of home-canned food is 1-2 years. It needs to be stored in a cool, dry room on sturdy shelves. If you live in an area prone to earthquakes, you will want to add guards to the shelves to keep jars from falling during an earthquake.
The biggest drawback to canning is the time that it takes. Prepping the food is about the same as freezing and drying: clean, peel (if needed), slice and put it into jars. But a batch of tomatoes takes about an hour to process (including the time it takes for the water to come to a boil.) A batch of green beans in pint jars also takes about an hour:
15 minutes to come to a boil and vent, 8-10 minutes to get to pressure, 20 minutes to process and 10-15 minutes to cool down enough that you can remove the jars.
But the results are wonderful. You will not find any brand of tomato sauce or green beans in the store that tastes as fresh and vibrant as your home-canned.
Canning is perfect for meats, most vegetables and tree fruits, salsa, tomato sauce, pickles, jam and juice.
The chart below gives a brief overview of water bath and pressure canning.
If you’ve never canned before, to read Canning FAQs.
Brining and fermenting
Fermentation is another food preservation technique that’s been around for thousands of years. Most fermentation begins with brine, the notable exception being vinegar. Just about any vegetable can be preserved with fermentation, but we are most familiar with sauerkraut and kimchi.
Everyone is familiar with apple cider vinegar. It’s a good way to make use of all the pulp and scraps leftover after making
apple cider. But you’re not limited to just apples. You can make vinegar from plums, apricots, sweet cherries, just about any tree fruit. The many varieties of vinegar are a delightful addition to your food storage.
Root cellar
This is another age-old method of preserving food. It’s inexpensive and super easy. I say root cellar, but it doesn’t need really to be a cellar. A non-functioning fridge or freezer buried in the ground works well as a root cellar. So does an unfinished basement room. All you need is for it to stay around 40° during the winter months.
The cost for storing in a root cellar is minimal and prepping the food for storage just takes a few minutes. The only downside is that it really is only good for, well, root crops: Potatoes, carrots, radishes and beets. Long-storing winter squash and kohlrabi are also good in a root cellar.
The great thing about root cellars is how easy it is to do. It takes almost zero prep time. Harvest your roots, put them bins or baskets and layer with sand or sawdust and you’re done. Onion and garlic are even easier: put them in a mesh bag or braid the stems together and hang from a hook. After curing pumpkins in the sun for 3-4 days, just put them into the root cellar.
I also like it because, more than any other preservation method, root cellaring preserves more of the nutrition, flavor and texture of the food.
Freeze drying
I’ve saved this for last because it is the newest preservation method to enter the scene. We’ve had commercial freeze drying ever since the Apollo moon missions. But it’s only recently that the technology has been made available for home use.
Freeze dried food keeps most of its color and flavor. Just about any food can be freeze-dried and reconstituted for later use. If properly stored, freeze-dried food lasts
10-20 years, making it perfect for long-term food storage plans.
In fact. it’s almost so perfect that it’s a wonder everyone’s not rushing to buy a freeze dryer today.
Well, that’s because there are a couple significant drawbacks to freeze dryers: the processing time and the cost. Each batch of freeze dried food takesbetween 24-48 hours to process. So if you’re in a rush, you’ll need to plan accordingly.
The second drawback is the cost. A large freeze-dryer will hold about 18-27 pounds of food in each batch but the machine can cost as much as $5000, depending on the pump and other features. In addition to the cost of the machine, you will need an electrician to install a dedicated 15 amp line if you don’t already have one. And then there’s the cost of electricity to run the machine. Even a small freeze dryer, (which does not need a dedicated 15 amp line) will process just 6-10 pounds of food still costs about $2000.
So while the resulting product is tasty and it’ll preserve just about anything you can think of, it’s still might not be an affordable choice for you.
Don’t put all your eggs…
You know the saying about putting all your eggs in one basket. The same applies to preserving and storing your garden harvest. No single method is good for everything, or all situations. Consider your time and space limitations. Also, the types of fruits and vegetables that you grow may dictate which methods you use.
When the food starts pouring in this fall, use the methods that take the least amount of prep and processing time and layer processing methods.
For example: while your food is processing in the canners, you can be prepping food for freezing or fermenting. The dryer can be running at the same time that you’re canning.
If you use a variety of food preservation methods you’ll get the most out of your summer’s work and ensure you have tasty and nutritious food all year long.
