Why & How
Find Local Farms & Food
Become a Localvore
Eating Seasonally
Cooking & Food Preservation
Growing Your Own Food
Blogs & Web Resources |
| Preserving the Bounty - Saving in Times of Plenty
By Eleanor Tison, RAFFL Board of Directors
Late summer and early fall in Vermont is truly a time of plenty. However, this time of plenty is too-rapidly followed by the relatively lean times of late fall, winter, and early Spring. Many of us want to continue supporting our local growers and producers, but either cannot access their products, or cannot find enough variety to fill our family’s plates or please their palates. One solution is to change our mindsets from being “consumers” to being “producers” - producers of preserved foods that is.
To preserve the bounty of your favorite local foods, you do not need expensive equipment or special training. First and foremost, you need to change your shopping habits.
Shop local farmers’ markets, U-pick operations, or farm stands with an eye for vegetables and fruit at the peak of production, and then acquire PLENTY—that is, don’t just buy enough for a meal or two, but negotiate a good price for a bushel or more. |
Cooking & Preserving Resources
RAFFL's teamed up with other members of the Rutland County Nutrition Coalition to offer cooking shows on PEG TV - the local community access television station. What's Cooking Rutland, is a monthly cooking show often showcasing locally grown products.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: online tips and tutorials
Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation from farmers and gardeners of France’s Terre Vivant
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz
|
If you are a member of a CSA, pay attention to what is in surplus and take the extras offered, or, better yet, offer to help harvest during a bumper crop in exchange for some of the extra harvest.
The next step involves some PLANNING. Enlist the aid of family and friends, and set aside that evening or the next day, to be devoted to processing the bulk purchase. I am able to clean, snap, then preserve (freeze) enough fresh green beans to last my household of seven from September to May! Because I bought several bushels at once, I was able to acquire the beans for a great price, too.
Don’t know how to even freeze the produce you prefer? Purchase or borrow a “how-to” guide or good cookbook from your local bookstore or library, visit reputable websites such as the Vermont Extension Service, or view instructional footage on YouTube. Better yet, invite yourself over to help a friend or neighbor who knows how to preserve your favorite food. Any of these experiences can take you through the basics of preservation techniques.
Many of us think first of pickling cucumbers, green tomatoes, or green beans (my mother always pickled watermelon rind) and hot-water bath “canning” berry jams or tomato sauces. These practices were popularized during the Depression and World War II, but are built on a foundation of even more traditional food preserving practices. Fun food preservation methods to try range from the traditional New England practice of root cellaring, to the more taste-altering practices of lactic fermentation, drying, curing, smoking, and salting.
Freezing (storage at 0º F or below) is perhaps the simplest and fastest means of preserving fresh produce. It also has the advantage of having a minimal effect on flavor and nutritional values if the food is processed and packaged correctly before storage. Your freezer, especially if you have the expanded space of a chest freezer, can become a treasure chest for hoarding every type of food harvested over the months of summer and fall bounty. |
