Preserve Hacks
RECLAIM YOUR FOOD INDEPENDENCE
When you walked into the kitchen of your grandmother, especially in the autumn time, there was a safe bet that you could have seen her bottling, canning or dehydrating something on her stove or in her oven. This tradition was not only learned from her mother and grandmother, but also from their personal experience when life’s goods were a bit more sparse than they are now. They knew if you didn’t have it preserved in some way, the winter was going to be a time to do without many things when it came to nature’s goodies.
SKILLS & TECHNIQUE EXPERTISE – PRESERVING FOOD IN OUR TIMES
The Art of Food Preservation and the knowledge of how to do it is slowly being lost in today’s households. The ease of which we have been able to get food year-round and the lack of the younger generations in learning how to do it have contributed to this fact. There may come a time in the not-so-distant future that this skill will be needed and wanted again. Take the time to find out how and what you can preserve with even just the most surface of knowledge. Have your Foodie Goodies available all year long!
Preserve Details
If you are old enough you have memories of a grandmother or two who took in the harvest of their backyard gardens and took a good week to can and bottle what they grew. in fact, you may have been asked to help with the hand schucking and packing of those cans and jars. We need to get back to the basics and know how we can depend less on external food sources. We need to keep and teach these practices to all who are willing to learn.
Canning is a necessary method of food preservation. Usually used for dry goods, but not exclusively. Often used to mean bottling too (which is technically incorrect) uses tin cans, lids, and a vacuum seal to keep the air away from the food. Having a shelf-life estimated from 1 to five years, this is usually used in large productions in factory setting this type of preservation is unique and a bit harder to do without the right tools to seal the can lid and make things air tight.
With that said, we will strive to get you the info, knowledge and hands-on application of this vital and needed methods to feeding your family.
Bottling is more widely used for those items that are liquid or closer thereto. (Wines, natural juices, fruits and veggies). In the home setting it can be utilized for those concoctions that are a little more involved than a single liquid. Salsas, soups, and yes even meats can be heated to a point that the steam (air) escapes the seal lid bottle and preserves the contents therein.
Bottling on the home front can be used for more than your home brewed beer and grandpa Elroy’s moonshine. It can be properly used to enhance meal preparation for a very long time. This method can last up to and often beyond five to 10 years.
Dehydration is exactly how it sounds. The native peoples of nearly every era have used this method to preserve their caches beyond their normal “good until” expiration date. This often involved finding a very flat rock in a hot summer’s day and placing that in which you want all the liquid to be drawn out upon that flat rock. Beyond keeping the vermin away, this method took a very long time to perform.
In today’s world, we have food dryers that do the same without the sweltering weather and long days next to a rock. We will use this method often with fruit and some vegetables to be able to preserve their “snack-ability”.
Freeze drying is a food preservation method that removes all the liquid from a particular food without impacting the taste (or nutrients). It’s a two step process that starts by freezing your food in a bag that once is frozen goes through a vacuum cycle. Taking the ice crystals and air that formed on the food preserving it for another day.
This method has shown to be the longest lasting preservation tactic, that of being 25-30 years in keeping it edible and delectable. We will also be utilizing this great way of doing dinner, and lunch, and even breakfast… possibly even a few snacks.
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