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CartHere’s How to Preserve Food
Whether you’re growing it all yourself or augmenting with store-bought items, preserving your own food has become an increasingly popular pastime. Not only is it cost-effective, but you can also better control the food quality and dietary intake of your family. If you preserve enough, it also ensures you’ll have food in the fridge and pantry through the winter. Here’s a breakdown of the most popular food preservation methods along with some tips to get started.
Root Cellar & Cool Storage
A root cellar lets you keep fresh vegetables on hand through the winter, or until you’re ready to process them for longer term storage. If you don’t have a root cellar you can easily set up shelves and wooden crates in your basement. Either way, the space must but be kept cool, dark, dry, and well-ventilated. Here’s some tips for safe storage:
Pull your root vegetables and dry them outside for a few days to kill off root hairs and toughen the skin
Prior to storage, cure onions in the sun for a few days, and cure squash for a few weeks
Brush loose soil off vegetables before storing (do not wash them!)
Keep turnips and cabbage away from your other veggies as they will taint the flavour of other items
Apples emit a gas that causes potatoes to sprout and rot—store them separately!
Alternate between layers of sand and veggies to fill your crates
Check for signs of rot or pest incursions every week
Sprouting veggies = too much heat, while shriveling veggies means the air is too dry
Freezing Fresh Food
Freezing is by far the easiest method of food preservation. All you need is a vacuum sealer and some heat seal rolls to fill up your freezer. But there’s the rub: your freezer can fill up fast, leaving you little space for your everyday items. A chest freezer is a great solution if you’ve got the space. Firm, just-ripe fruit and vegetables work best for freezing, though some will need blanching beforehand. Fruits & veggies that freeze well include:
Apples
Beans
Blueberries
Cranberries
Gooseberries
Peas
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Canning
Canning is one of the oldest and most popular food preservation methods. It takes a bit of time, but you can preserve almost anything, and it will last up to a year. The heat process of canning causes the food to expand in the jar and release steam, which pushes out the air. This forms a vacuum seal once the jar cools, keeping out air, moisture, and bacteria. Another great thing about canning your own food is you can store it in the pantry at room temperature vs. taking up valuable fridge space. There are two types of approved canning methods:
Water Bath Canning
Water bath canning involves boiling your jars, lids, and contents in a big stock pot, and then removing them to cool. One big benefit about this method is you can do it on your stovetop. So it’s a great way to learn about canning before deciding if you want to purchase a pressure canner. That said, not all foods can be preserved this way. Water-bath canning is a low-temperature process best used for high-acid foods like fruits and pickles, and for making jams, jellies, salsas, and chutneys.
Pressure Canning
Pressure canning uses high-pressure and much higher temperatures than water bath canning. A pressure canner is specifically designed for low-acid foods like vegetables and meats. If you want to can green beans, meats, or soups, you’ll need to use a pressure canner. It features a lid that locks onto the pot, and a dial or weighted gauge that allows you to regulate steam pressure inside. The pressurized steam can heat jars up to 115°C (240°F) to kill micro-organisms in low-acid foods. Water bath canning only heats food to boiling temperature (100°C/212°F), which is not hot enough to destroy spores that cause botulism. Whichever method you use, you’ll need the following:
Fermenting
Fermenting is an extremely safe way to preserve food because the acid content in the jars prevents the formation pathogenic bacteria. This means you don’t even have to sterilize your equipment. In fact, the lacto-fermentation process makes vitamins, minerals and digestive enzymes more bio-available to your body. Salt and water are all you need, though some recipes call for fresh or vegetable starter culture for faster fermentation. Filtered water is essential, as chlorine and fluoride kill the healthy microbes needed for fermentation. You can ferment almost any vegetable, and even mix different kinds together for a ready-made meal. Cabbage (sauerkraut), carrots, onions, beets, garlic, and cauliflower can all be fermented with delicious results. Fermented foods do, however, need to be stored in a cool root cellar or refrigerator. The contents will gradually soften so when you choose to eat them is partly subjective. Typical storage times are 6-12 months. Here’s what you’ll need:
Fermentation Weights
Pickling Pipes
Pickling
Pickling is a quick and easy way to preserve food. It involves heating up water, salt and vinegar (and sometimes sugar) to make a brine. White vinegar and white wine vinegar are popular because they won't affect the colour of most vegetables. Cider vinegar offers a milder flavour but causes produce to darken. You need to wash, peel, and chop your items first. Then you pack the pieces into mason jars and fill them with your brine (leaving a 1/2 inch space at the top). Here’s some yummy foods you can pickle and keep in your pantry:
Pickled Cucumbers
Pickled Beets
Pickled Onions
Pickled Radishes
Pickled Jalapenos
Pickled Cauliflower
Pickled Carrots
Pickled Cherries
Pickled Peaches
Dehydrating
Dehydrating fruit and vegetables can be done in your oven, but it’s time-consuming and you’ll need to leave the oven door open. A food dehydrator offers a great alternative solution. It reduces water content by circulating warm air over the food via a built-in fan. This not only prevents the food from spoiling, it also allows it to retain most of its nutrients. A vacuum sealer is the best way to package your dehydrated food. When stored properly in a dark, dry, cool area, it can last up to 20 years. Dehydrated food can be eaten as-is or rehydrated for use in recipes. You can dehydrate most fresh food, but some things work better than others:
Vegetables: Beans, carrots, mushrooms, onions, peas and tomatoes can be rehydrated when adding to soups and stews.
Fruits: Apples, peaches, pears, cherries and blueberries are great for eating as snacks or chopped into granola and trail mixes.
Herbs: Basil, dill, fennel, lemon balm, mint, oregano and parsley can be dried for later use in cooking, teas and baking.
Sprouted Grains: Barley, buckwheat, rice and quinoa can be dried for use in flours, granolas, and baking.
There’s no shortage of food preservation methods, or of the benefits they can bring to your family. Start small with a basement storage area to hold your harvest and some basic canning equipment. Come springtime, you might find yourself planting more veggies just to keep up with your preserving!
