Showing posts with label preserve organic food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preserve organic food. Show all posts
Preserving your organic foods
Preserving the bounty you’ve grown.
Want to enjoy the most healthful food, like local, organic fruits and vegetables, all year round? Preserving the bounty you’ve grown yourself or purchased from your local food co-op or farmer’s market makes it possible. And for those who live where the growing season is relatively short, it’s great way to extend the season.
Simple food preservation techniques can lock in flavor, help maximize your food dollars, support local agriculture, and give you a chance to really get to know the food you eat and serve to your family.
Check out the list of what’s in season in your area on our home page to jump-start your imagination. If it’s June, that could mean local strawberries are plentiful–and ripe for freezing. In July or August, a big bubbling batch of tomato sauce or salsa could be just the thing. Of course, a walk through your garden or local co-op to see what’s fresh and abundant is also a great way to identify preservation possibilities.
It’s Not Just Grandma’s Pantry
Putting up jewel-toned jars of pickled beets and brandied peaches may be what comes to mind when you think “food preservation,” and canning has become popular across generations, with plenty of unique recipes that appeal to a range palettes. But canning isn’t all there is. Other simple ways to preserve local and seasonal foods include drying, freezing, curing, pickling and even cellaring (yes, putting your food in a root cellar; grandma did know best, didn’t she?). For beginners, dehydrating and freezing foods are a snap—and no special equipment is required
Freezing
When it comes to nutritious preserved foods, freezing is second only to fresh foods. While freezing can affect the texture of some foods, most vegetables, fruits, meats, soups, and even herbs can easily be frozen in airtight containers for use all year long. The key is to start with cold foods so that the time it takes for them to freeze is very short. This minimizes ice crystals and preserves the color, texture, and taste of your foods.
Try freezing cold berries or chopped vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet. Once frozen, transfer to a freezer bag or Mason jar for storage. You’ll be able to pluck a single berry or measure 2 cups worth from the container without defrosting the entire batch. Fresh herbs, like basil, thyme, mint, and chives, can be snipped into measured teaspoons or tablespoons and frozen in ice-cube trays topped up with water. Stored in a bag in your freezer, they’re recipe-ready almost instantly. And remember: a full freezer is an efficient freezer, so don’t be shy about filling it up. Did you know? Nuts, seeds, and whole grains can be stored in the freezer to extend their shelf life and prevent spoilage.
Drying
Dehydrating foods is a simple and easy way to keep vegetables, fruits, and even meats stored away until you are ready to use them. Drying preserves foods by taking all the moisture away; without moisture, bacteria cannot grow and your foods stay delicious for months—even years. While there are plenty of dehydrators available, many recipes are possible using a regular home oven.
Fresh herbs can be dried in a microwave or just hanging from your ceiling! The best thing about drying is that it uses very little energy, and the preserved foods are lightweight—easy to store and transport (perfect for camping!). Did you know? Dipping fruit slices in pineapple or citrus juice before drying can preserve their color and prevent browning. It’s delicious, too!
Canning
Home cooks have been preserving food in jars for centuries, and these days we have plenty of resources to do so safely and with confidence. Canning does require some special equipment, available at many co-ops and hardware stores, and recipes designed and tested for safety. After the initial investment in jars, a canner, and a few accessories, the expenses are minimal and the results can be phenomenal. Canned goods go far beyond the usual tomatoes and green beans. Modern canning recipes allow you to create unique and memorable foods for gifting or for enjoying yourself. Did you know? Home-canned goods should be used within a year for optimal quality, but are safe for much longer, as long as safe canning methods were used.
Fermenting
Fermentation brings us some of our favorite foods: cheese, yogurt, beer, wine, pickles, and even chocolate. Nearly every culture in the world makes use of the natural preservative effects of fermentation. Fermentation works by transforming the natural sugars in foods into tart and flavorful foods that tend to resist spoilage at cool temperatures.
Fermentation is made possible by the action of beneficial bacteria— the same bacteria that keep our immune and digestive systems healthy. So fermented foods are not only practical, they also deliver a healthy dose of probiotics. Another benefit of fermentation is that no special equipment is required. You can get started with as little as a knife, a cabbage, and some sea salt, and couple of weeks later you’ll be enjoying sauerkraut!
Did you know? Every ferment is unique because of the bacteria and yeasts that are naturally present in the air and foods in that region. The same recipe can taste different across the globe.
Food preservation
Preserving food without canning or freezing or refrigerators?
Food preservation has long been a necessary pursuit of humans through the ages. While short term food preservation methods are largely dominated by today’s refrigerators, and long term preservation is dominated by canning or freezing, our ancient cultures thrived without such technology by collecting, drying and storing grain in large ceramic pots. Hunter-gatherers preserved meat and fish by air drying or smoking. Salt and sugar, when readily available, were also used as a preservative.
Countless methods and technologies of food preservation have been attempted through the millennia and a few tried and true methods that are natural and sustainable have been passed through generations. These techniques are part of food preservation history are of course, organic, and still applicable and useful in modern sustainable living.
Preserving meat through drying
This most ancient form of food preservation is simply the removal of water from any given food by air drying, sun drying, or smoking. Commercially available food dehydrators or a home oven can also be used to preserve food. Nearly all foods can be preserved through drying including meat, grains, fruits, vegetables, fungi, and even milk. Smoking, is part of the food drying method.
Salt Curing
Curing is a method of preserving food, most often meat and fish, by the addition of salt, nitrates, or sugar. Salt-cured meat works by inhibiting the growth of microorganisms by drawing water out of cells through osmosis. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of bacteria and smoking the meat adds additional chemicals that reduce the amount of salt required. Common examples of salt-cured meat include bacon, kippered herring, corned beef, and pastrami. Olives, pictured above, are easily preserved through the salt curing method as well.
Sugaring
Sugaring is a method that places dehydrated food into pure sugar. The purpose of sugaring is to create an environment hostile to microorganisms. Sugaring is commonly used to preserve fruits and their peels as well as spices such as ginger root.
Pickling
Also known as brining, pickling is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine (a solution of salt in water) to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution such as vinegar. The resulting food is called a pickle and can be any variety of food item including eggs, peppers, cucumbers, or even citrus fruits.
Biopreservation/Fermentation
The use of nontoxic and beneficial microorganisms can also preserve food. An ancient form of biopreservation is fermentation which was, and still is, used to produce beer, wine, vinegar, bread, yogurt, cheese, and butter. All of these items can still be produced in the home kitchen using biopreservation techniques.
For short term food preservation methods, simple technologies such as the zeer pot, submersion in water (such as a lake or river) and the use of cool caves or underground pits extend the expiration of many perishable foods. These techniques of course can be employed today as well, some more fitting in certain climates than others.
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