Preserving food

[Don Alaska]

I know @Marie Mallory has posted about her canning and freezing of some things. Does anyone else preserve food? I think @Yvonne Smith does some fermenting as well. We have been drying herbs, making jelly, jam and syrup, pickling all kinds of stuff, and pressure canning beans and salmon. We still have a lot to harvest and a lot to process. I pickled 6 half-pints of jalapenos today and my wife did 17 pints of cherry jelly. I hope to do cowboy candy relish either tomorrow or Monday. We picked 4 gallons of cherries yesterday at a friend's place, and wife collected 4 1/2 gallons of tomatillos this afternoon, and there are still many to pick. We have oodles of tomatoes to process, although there are many that are not yet ripe. My wife is processing a big pot of V-8 juice, but it has not been canned yet. We froze 15 galloons of raspberries, most of which will go into my wife's morning smoothies, but we also made 2 batches of jam.
We had the grandkids over today to help pick early apples. The first apple pressing will be on September 8th I think, but we may miss it due to scheduling conflicts, but the orchard folks said they would have a pressing just for us if we miss the community gathering.

I harvested two buckets of potatoes as part of my "research" into intensive potato culture in containers. The regular container yielded 4 pounds of potatoes and the intensive one yielded 7 1/2 pounds--almost double the yield, but the intensive method used 4 times the resources. I may tweak it a little next year and try another trial. We still have two more comparison containers, and 3 rows of spuds in the ground to dig. We might have the grandkids back over to help harvest potatoes, carrots, beets, and rutabagas. Potatoes especially are a treat for them as it is a bit like a treasure hunt

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Cindy was almost a Chef she was that good of a cook. Once she came in the kitchen and I was eating a frozen pizza. (Suitably doctored, of course.) She says "Don't you know what stuff if full of Preservatives?" I replied "Yeah, that's why I eat it. I want to be preserved."

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

I'm seeing a lot of praise for freeze-drying. The equipment doesn't sound inexpensive but if you have a lot of things to preserve it seems to be a great option.

 

[Don Alaska]

I'm seeing a lot of praise for freeze-drying. The equipment doesn't sound inexpensive but if you have a lot of things to preserve it seems to be a great option.

Freeze-drying is a good preservation method if you can afford the equipment (or can justify buying it). The upside is that it will keep food for years, up to 20 or 30 if properly done. The only real downside is that it doesn't reduce the volume of the food being preserved as regular drying does.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

Freeze-drying is a good preservation method if you can afford the equipment (or can justify buying it). The upside is that it will keep food for years, up to 20 or 30 if properly done. The only real downside is that it doesn't reduce the volume of the food being preserved as regular drying does.

True, but a lot of things like fruits might be post-processed by crushing and grinding.

Berry powder, peach powder, etc. could be used in cooking and baking or maybe making light confections.

Raspberry or blackberry added to those peanut-butter/cocoa no-bake oatmeal cookies sounds interesting.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I know @Marie Mallory has posted about her canning and freezing of some things. Does anyone else preserve food? I think @Yvonne Smith does some fermenting as well. We have been drying herbs, making jelly, jam and syrup, pickling all kinds of stuff, and pressure canning beans and salmon. We still have a lot to harvest and a lot to process. I pickled 6 half-pints of jalapenos today and my wife did 17 pints of cherry jelly. I hope to do cowboy candy relish either tomorrow or Monday. We picked 4 gallons of cherries yesterday at a friend's place, and wife collected 4 1/2 gallons of tomatillos this afternoon, and there are still many to pick. We have oodles of tomatoes to process, although there are many that are not yet ripe. My wife is processing a big pot of V-8 juice, but it has not been canned yet. We froze 15 galloons of raspberries, most of which will go into my wife's morning smoothies, but we also made 2 batches of jam.
We had the grandkids over today to help pick early apples. The first apple pressing will be on September 8th I think, but we may miss it due to scheduling conflicts, but the orchard folks said they would have a pressing just for us if we miss the community gathering.

I harvested two buckets of potatoes as part of my "research" into intensive potato culture in containers. The regular container yielded 4 pounds of potatoes and the intensive one yielded 7 1/2 pounds--almost double the yield, but the intensive method used 4 times the resources. I may tweak it a little next year and try another trial. We still have two more comparison containers, and 3 rows of spuds in the ground to dig. We might have the grandkids back over to help harvest potatoes, carrots, beets, and rutabagas. Potatoes especially are a treat for them as it is a bit like a treasure hunt

Hubby just pickled some eggs in hot sauce ,they should be ready to eat in a few days.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I'm seeing a lot of praise for freeze-drying. The equipment doesn't sound inexpensive but if you have a lot of things to preserve it seems to be a great option.

Learning new things can be a real job for me now. So much to do as it is. I don't comprehend like I used to. Plus, I added a new job 10 months ago with these two huge dogs we adopted!

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

This one is a little off-topic... or maybe not.

Sort of a "Mr. Wizard Does Herbs" and in the process he shows one way to get more out of fresh herbs and use them in new ways. As a side-effect, the end product can likely be stored in a freezer for years.

To save you the time, basically he uses alcohol to extract the goodness from green herbs and concentrate it. The result can be used with a dropper or even a spray bottle.

I'd imagine it works for things like hot and sweet peppers, garlic, onions, celery, etc. as well as green herbs.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

We have one of those FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer gadgets that Cindy bought at Costco. But we had one before and I personally feel they aren't worth the cost of the bags. They cost more than Ziploc bags and while the FoodSaver bags do keep food fresh a little bit longer, maybe four months instead of three, it's cheaper to just eat the food you buy soon after purchase. Everything is better when it's really fresh. And what we do freeze is never in the freezer for very long. I date everything so I know when stuff is put in there.

A box 152 Ziploc bags costs about $17 at Costco when they have a coupon in their coupon book. A box of assorted sizes of FoodSaver bags costs about $40 at Costco with a coupon. My son and I just bought a new box of Ziplocs after the one Cindy bought almost three years ago finally ran out. Since the box was open and a few bags were used, I'll say the box lasted two years and call that about $8.50 per year. So if we then say that half of a box of FoodSaver bags costs about $20, that is still more than double the price for a short amount of additional time food will stay fresh in the freezer.

 

[Marie Mallory]

We have one of those FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer gadgets that Cindy bought at Costco. But we had one before and I personally feel they aren't worth the cost of the bags. They cost more than Ziploc bags and while the FoodSaver bags do keep food fresh a little bit longer, maybe four months instead of three, it's cheaper to just eat the food you buy soon after purchase. Everything is better when it's really fresh. And what we do freeze is never in the freezer for very long. I date everything so I know when stuff is put in there.

A box 152 Ziploc bags costs about $17 at Costco when they have a coupon in their coupon book. A box of assorted sizes of FoodSaver bags costs about $40 at Costco with a coupon. My son and I just bought a new box of Ziplocs after the one Cindy bought almost three years ago finally ran out. Since the box was open and a few bags were used, I'll say the box lasted two years and call that about $8.50 per year. So if we then say that half of a box of FoodSaver bags costs about $20, that is still more than double the price for a short amount of additional time food will stay fresh in the freezer.

We use glass containers, when possible, but also use Ziplock bags too.