Aug 17

Wish You Could Save Summer in a Bottle? You Can…Can! Preservation Nation!

Well, you had to figure it would happen. As soon as the resurgence in interest in learning to grow your own food began a few years back, could a growing interest in food preservation be far behind? Back when I was certified as a Master Gardener in LA County, they had discontinued their Master Food Preserver program…but now it’s back and back with a Bang! With only 18 seats to fill for this year’s program, they received over 100 applications! Never fear…there’s always next year.

HOW DO I PRESERVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!

Remember, it’s not all about canning. Food can be preserved by salting, pickling, drying and freezing among others. The method you choose depends on the results you want – do you want to impart a different flavor to your product or do you want to preserve, as much as possible, the state and flavor of the original crop? To cover all the bases, HGEL has brought together a collection of links to great resources on a variety of methods to get you started down the road to preserving your garden’s glory!

Great Links to Articles and Blogs

How it was done in the 1800s – Preserving Vegetables from Lee’s Priceless Recipes (originally published in 1895)

National Center for Food Preservation

Preserving Vegetables from University of Florida Cooperative Extension

All About Home Canning, Freezing and Making Jams and Jellies from Pickyourown.org

PreserveNation Blog with Master Food Perservers Ernest Miller and Delilah Snell

How to Preserve Food without Refrigeration from MotherEarth News

Real Food Stockpile: Preservation and Storage Techniques from KicthenStewardship.com blog

Your Canning Guide from Sunset Magazine

How to Build a Root Cellar from Organicgardening.com

Root Cellars: How to Keep it Cool from Old Farmer’s Almanac

Growing a Greener World: Homesteading and Preserving the Harvest

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Harvest: Boom in Gardening, Canning, Enjoying!

How to “Martha-up” Your Jam Labels for Nearly Free in About 5 Minutes from Northwest Edible Life

Cultural Methods/Recipes for Preserving Food

Sun-Drying: A Traditional Native American Method of Preserving Food from South Dakota State Cooperative Extension

The Food Timeline: FAQs Mesapotamia through Shakespeare from Foodtimeline.org

Amazing Pickled and Marinated Vegetables from Jamie Oliver/Food Network

Pickled Green Tomatoes from WhiteonRiceCouple.com

Napa Cabbage Kimchi from Epicurious.com

Shan Pickle Recipe from EatingAsia.com

Labanese Veggie Pickles from Habeeb.com

Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon from Whiteonricecouple.com

Indian Pickle and Chutney Recipes from Mamtaskichten.com

Japanese Pickle Recipes from Japanesefoodreport.com

An Easy Recipe for Spanish Pickles from Simplespanishfood.com

Master Food Preservers (Cooperative Extension) Programs

Not all Cooperative Extension Programs will have MFP programs. If yours doesn’t, suggest there’s enough interest to start one. If you’ve got a sign up sheet of all your friends to show them…even better! Remember – to remain certified, you’ll be required to fulfill a certain number of volunteer and continuing education hours each year. Click on the link below to find your county’s local office.
National Database of Cooperative Extension Offices

Videos

University of Alaska Cooperative Extension brings you…”Pickling Vegetables”

and “Drying Vegetables”

Everything (and I mean everything) you ever wanted to know about “Freezing Food” from Michigan State University Cooperative Extension

“How to Can” from our friends at Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply – groworganic.com

“Classie Parker Preserves the Community”

The Canning Queen of the Desert from Etsy on Vimeo.

Posted by GeriMiller. Filed under Food Preserving, How To Guides. Tags: Canning, cooking, edible, edible gardening, Food preserving, gardening, gardening guides, how-to guides, Pickles, recipes