Waste not: the harvest
From July until December, good things just pour into the markets or grow in our gardens. The prices are down, the quality up and there’s more than you can put on the table. Come January those tomatoes, figs, chestnuts and peaches will be only a dream. Most of us will be faced with out-of-season and not-quite-mature fruits and vegetables that come from far, far away and are not improved by the trip.
I used to think preserving was a big deal, something done only by those domestic goddesses with more time than money, and required a hefty original outlay for equipment and containers. I used to think that I could buy everything that those goddesses made at home. I was wrong.
It turns out that at least some preserving is easy and doesn’t require special equipment. Anything that has a lot of acid or sugar is dead easy to do, and anyone who cooks pasta should have a pot big enough to do it in. If you also have a stockpot, you are in clover.
How do you know what is safe to preserve without a pressure canner?
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/pubs/current/FDNS-E-39.html is your resource. If you want to see a prettier version, the United States Food and Drug Administration site on food safety is http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html
http://southernfood.about.com/od/canning/ is another site that also includes some recipes.
I don’t know of any other site in the world that is so thorough and well-researched as that site. Sure, you can ignore their standards and perhaps get away with it, but what’s in and on your food these days is not what Grandma knew, and I consider that site my encyclopedia on preservation.
If you have a freezer that stays cold enough, the possibilities expand to include foods that are not high in acid or sugar. Freezing is easy enough for a four year old to learn. You just need some information on how to get rid of natural enzymes that make foods unpalatable and how to exclude air from the packets, and then you need some cheap plastic bags made for freezing and some coated metal twist ties. A vacuum sealer would be a nice thing to have, but I have never had one.
I make do with very simple equipment. My freezer is not self-defrosting. I use a combination of preserving jars and jars that things came in from the shops. I use my stock pot, my pasta pot and a big, lined copper pan for jams. For dehydrating I have only my fan oven. I therefore do only the simplest processes, but what I make isn’t always so simple when it’s done.
In August I froze both tomato juice and tomato puree. Why? Because I am not equipped to can them and the frozen products taste fresher, plus I can buy good canned tomatoes here. I completely forgot to go out and pick hazelnuts this year, but usually I would also have picked those and have frozen the shelled nuts. I went blackberrying and froze those because I was too involved in something to do anything else and I still have blackberry essence (blackberries marinated in 99% pure alcohol) from last year. In October the peaches came in, they were scarred and blemished, but I made jam from some, froze even more, and invented a peach mostarda with balsamic vinegar to use with cheese for desserts. Right after that the figs screamed for attention, so I followed my friend Jane’s directions for a fig and lemon conserve, also for cheese plates. We tried the figs last week with Gorgonzola and Pecorino, and it was fabulous.
Nothing I made was difficult or very time consuming. I also didn’t make a lot of anything. I think I have a pint and a half of the figs and the peach mostarda.
Parsley and celery leaves were dried in the fan oven and packed into recycled glass jars because it is so humid here.
Come late October the meats that are somewhat seasonal start to be on sale and I start to buy at those prices and re-wrap them for the freezer. Late lambs come to market now so that they don’t have to be fed over the winter and end up mutton. Pork is available year round now, but the traditional season is fall and winter, so there are both a wider variety of choice now and sale prices. I’ve started asking around to find a farmer who grows his hogs organically and who may sell me a quarter or a half that I can have butchered into cuts not usually found here. I have always wanted to corn a ham, but I know of only one small county in one state of the USA where such a thing can be bought around New Year’s. (Considering the size of my fridge, that should be an adventure in itself.)
Two weeks ago I actually made something from part of my frozen store of peaches.
Gnam! as we say here.
For most of us, this bountiful season is almost over. If you live in the southern hemisphere, it is soon to come and I hate you anyway until April. It is, however, still apple season and the oranges and lemons are coming into the market. Pumpkins and squashes decorate every green market. Just like strawberries, they won’t be here forever. Does anyone recall the last piece of watermelon he had? Tomorrow I am going with Olga to find an apple orchard before they all look like this
When you open up a book on preserving, the first thing they say is to “choose only the most perfect and ripe you can find.” I disagree. As long as I patiently remove any sorry parts or blemishes, I see no reason at all not to use the less beautiful for things that are going to be sliced, diced, chopped or otherwise altered from their usual form. Organic produce is rarely perfect, but would you rather have peach pie filling with nicks in the slices where you cut away a blemish? Or would you like a side of bug spray with that? Just don’t expect to make anything with that apple above.
I am a real amateur on this subject. I think there are friends out there with a lot more information and ideas on this subject than I could imagine. So, what do you know? What have you done? How did your mom approach the saving of the harvest for the dead days of winter?
Talk to me!
3 comments November 8th, 2006
