How To Preserve Food for the Winter

How To Preserve Food for the Winter

“It’s convenient to have a root cellar or a basement where canned goods can be stored, but if you have neither, you can still put aside local garden produce to eat in the wintertime. It’s meaningful and satisfying to do just one or two new things each year that will get you closer to self-sufficiency and healthier food. Perhaps you can freeze a few tomatoes when they’re in excess at the farmers’ market. Next year you might want to buy equipment to can tomatoes. You’ll smile to see them in the kitchen cupboard instead of processed food from the store.”
There are other ways besides canning and fermenting to have local food to eat in the wintertime. Here are three more ways to preserve the summer harvest for our winter feasts:
The freezer still seems essential: The content of our freezer varies with the current year’s harvest. We always enjoy the small green beans that are barely steamed before being placed in freezer bags. The pressure cooker softens vegetables, so I prefer freezing them to preserve their texture. My mouth waters now to think of winter meals when we cook them lightly in olive oil, garlic and salt. I’ve learned to label freezer bags so I don’t thaw diced bell peppers for dinner when I wanted green beans. Some of last year’s peaches made it into the freezer too, but this year I used the water bath method to can them. Shredded zucchini or even zucchini bread is frozen, and makes easy desserts and nice gifts in the winter.
The downside to using a freezer was that our electricity came from a coal-burning plant. We’re dependent on freezing for preserving the chicken and beef from our farm, so are delighted that we finally got solar panels installed.
What did people do before they had electricity to freeze food? Smoking meat to preserve it was one option, and a smokehouse was part of every homestead. Canning meat takes energy and a pressure cooker, but then the meat can be stored on shelves. Drying meat for jerky is still in favor, and there are methods that don’t require the amount of preserving chemicals that you find in store-bought jerky.
It’s fun to dry: Dried beans have become a staple at our house and are a frequent ingredient in winter meals. Many varieties of beans have made their way to us through friends and seed-savers. Whether bush or climbers, we eat or process some in the summer while they’re in the tender, green bean stage. Next stage is the shell beans that one can still bite into, and require 15 to 20 minutes cooking time. After that, I fall behind and allow the beans to dry on the vine. When one variety of beans appears dry and there’s an extra moment, I cut or pull the vines and put them in a bushel basket in the hot toolshed. They stay there until the slower evenings when I pull out a lawn chair to face the sunset and sit and shell beans into a large bowl. When the chickens head into their coop, I close up the henhouse and head inside for the night. I’m surprised when people comment on how much work it must be to have such a variety of dried beans in glass jars on the porch shelves. No wonder I find it a pleasure instead of work!