It is possible in this day and age to go back to our old roots, preserve the best quality of food, raise a family, and keep up with our occupations.  Granted, the amount of food we preserved this year, is still nothing compared to the amounts our great-grandparents stored.  I'm sure they had hundreds of jars lining there basements with a variety of recipes.  We are starting off slow.  We made a goal to can tomatoes and cucumbers, and freeze the rest this season.  Here's how we did.    

This is our freezer.  It is packed full with blanched veggies, frozen hand-picked fruit, jams, pies, sauces, salsas, pestos, breads, stocks, and meat. I still have an order of 8 pastured raised chickens from Peter Allen's Newfield's Own Produce, and cuts from a friend's pig I have to squeeze into it, somehow, in the next few weeks.  To freeze food is such an easy way to preserve fresh produce from the garden, but we would like to get more into the habit of drying and canning.  There is only so much room in a freezer!! 

This is something new we tried this year, sun drying our tomatoes.  The tomato crop was awesomely overwhelming.  This was very easy to do too.  At first we tried drying them in the oven.  I found this to be too frustrating!  The last thing I want is for the oven in our kitchen to be on for 24 hours on a 90 degree day outside.  We instead, took an extra screen from our windows and placed it over the trays of cut tomatoes.  It took about 4 days, but the sun did all the work.  We also cut the ample amounts of cherry tomatoes we harvested and used the dehydrator for them.  I can't wait to throw my sun-dried tomatoes on a homemade pizza this winter.    

The canning process takes forever!  I cannot lie!  I would still like to find a way to can more though next year.  I suppose I will find out this winter, as I crack open our homemade sauce, if it was worth all the work.  I will keep you posted.  We also wanted to can pickles this season, but that has not happened yet.  We only got around to making refrigerator pickles, which are very yummy too, but only last 3 months in the fridge. 

On another level, of food preservation, is the storage of vegetables, without having to do anything to them.  I like that idea!  These onions will keep us fed until spring.  Our harvest last year of onions was well worth growing again for this season.  We will also have a few potatoes, but not like last year due to a poor yield, and I am hoping to store some carrots and beets too.  

I don't think anyone who looks to start preserving fresh produce from the garden or farmer's market can escape saving summer squash.  I made two loaves of zucchini bread at a time this summer.  We would eat one, and freeze the other.  We also have grated, sliced and cubed zucchini to make other meals this winter.  I may look to can some next season.  

If you are looking to do some food preservation of your own, a website I refer to often is the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  It's easy and quick to find how to preserve a particular type of food.  I also like to looking at old cookbooks.  They are very thorough and accurate at how to keep food for a long time.  The old Joy of Cooking is a favorite of mine.  


Happy Cooking!