Preserving Foods

I tried my hand at canning last year for the first time in a long while. I got to it a bit late so all I made were green tomato pickles, but the results were nice. Hopefully I'll have more tomatoes this year (they refused to ripen last summer) and I can put up some salsa and tomato preserves. I'm going to try cucumbers in the garden this year too, so hopefully I'll have gherkins!

Generally I found it to be pretty sweaty work bending over the massive boiling kettle but I managed fine on my own, and it's actually rather fun. The biggest problem I found is getting the supplies. In the US most grocery stores stock self-sealing mason jars and equipment but I've never seen them here except in specialist online shops. I see the kilner-style jars but they're not what I want for the kind of canning I do. With all the gardens here I can't believe that no one cans, is there just another style in the UK?

In terms of home food preservation I'm not sure how energy-efficient it is; you need a high flame on the cooker to keep the kettle boiling but once it's done, it's done. Freezing is definitely a simpler method for foods like vegetables.

I use the USDA guide for reference, it's in 'American' but there's a lot of detail in there. 🙂

I think eat fresh food is more eco.

Pickling onions and garlic doesn't require any energy use.

For onions, first take your onions and put them in a large bowl: fill the bowl with warm water and add a couple of tablespoons of salt, stir in well.

Now when you peel them the skin will come off easily.

Of course, leave the root on till the very last minute!

Put the onions in sterilised jars and cover with pickling vinegar. Put a plastic seal thingy on top (such as you find in jam lid packets - if you do jam you know what I mean) and screw the lid on tight. Store in a dark place: edible after about 3 weeks (or earlier if you're my husband).

I think eat fresh food is more eco.

It is more eco to grow your own food, but it's not possible you have fresh food for 52 weeks of the year unless you want to eat the same thing every day.

If you grow your own food then you will have a surplus some by design and some to ensure enough is grown, it's also good soil husbandary to grow in sections, i.e. by type because it enables rotation and prevents the build up of pests and deseases.

So given there is a surplus, it needs to be preserved or composted. If you compost the surplus, then at times when you have no crops, you will need to buy in food. If it's local, then you've got the minimum of transport polution, but local food will have the same seasons as home grown. Therefore, it's likely to use imported food with its high food miles, irradiation and reduced nutritional value.

Therefore, preserving suplus homegrown food is by far the more ecological. However, the method, i.e. bottling, canning, drying or freezing is a valid debate.

BTW, we reuse the jars with the press button on the lid, because the lids reseal. If they don't reseal then the button won't stay down. I think we get a least 3 reuses out of every jar.

Myarka.

Hi Myarka

I have made apple jelly/mint jelly. Then the pulp that is left in the jelly bag I put through a nylon seive to get the 'bits' out (composted), and the puree that remains I made into chutney using a selection of other fruit/veg as available - onions, green tomatoes, plums, marrow, etc. If necessary I buy in veg from the market. One needs to adjust the recipe for taste with the different ingredients. All with excellent results.

I have used the bottling method in the past, but found with fruit it was so sour and needed too much sugar to make it palatable - so we stopped doing it and used the freezer. I also have a recipe for preserving green beans in dry salt, but never used it - again the freezer became a godsend for all the spare garden produce. Some is stored blanched, some part-made into recipes (soup bases minus added water), pure fruit purees, etc.

You could always try preserving spare eggs in isinglass 😀 - if you can bear the flavour :eek:. My grandmother introduced me to them in 1950's during rationing -uuurrrggghhhhh!!!!! She also treated me to plums and gooseberries bottled without sugar - I don't know which was worse!!!!! I'd been used to bananas, pineapples, paw-paws, sweet green oranges, custard apples, mangoes, and cape gooseberries - all naturally sweetened by the African sun.

Have fun experimenting!

I had a real bonanza last summer. I made some Marmalade, Blueberry Jam, Apple and Ginger Chutney, dried some Wild Mushrooms, and froze cooking apples.

This year I intend to make some blackberry jam and hopefully some mango and cardomon chutney - if my friend lets me in on her secret delicious recipe. She did however tell me that its ok to put mangos in the freezer and bananas. The mangos go a bit soft but are still very usable in chutney or with ice cream (home made preferably). The banana skins also go black but they are fine to use.

Bnah
x

Anyone make Rumtoft (sp?) Although it takes some months it makes a very special dessert in those winter months!

'Bella :rolleyes:

piece of info regarding Preserving Foods

Sugar acts as a food preservative?

Sugar acts as a food preservative by which one?
increasing the acidity of food.

reducing the amount of free water in food.

increasing the water activity of the food.

directly killing disease-producing microbes.

and have any one tried prescriptive onion pickle its oasam
jsut take few onions and chilly put it in viniger and keep it for 2 o 3 days and add some spicy and keep it for a week the tase is realy different

how to measure carbon food print

hey there
I just need some good suggestion to measure carbon food print , and i need to know some good alternative energy methods .

cheerssss 🙂

I think eat fresh food is more eco.

wow....I like fresh food best. It is safe and healthy..;)