When I had kids I was determined that they would begin life with a healthy diet. Even if they didn’t keep it up through their teenage and college years, I know most people eventually find their way back to doing things as they were raised to do them, especially if …
These tips for storing winter squash will help ensure you have fresh vegetables from your garden long into the winter months. Summer is easy. Our gardens are overflowing with leafy lettuce, ripe tomatoes, and fresh ears of corn. As the temperatures drop, our gardens can still offer us a second …
Pickles are not only a favorite addition to many lunch and supper menus (as well as barbecues, picnics and buffet tables), they are probably the easiest way to preserve your cucumber bounty. There are basically two different approaches to making and preserving pickles. There is the age-old tradition of making …
What Is Fermenting? Fermentation is the process of converting carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms such as yeast or bacteria—usually under anaerobic conditions. Fermenting is a natural occurrence, meaning that it can and does happen without humans doing anything. Sometimes grapes or berries will drop off the vine …
What Is Dehydrating? Dehydrating is one of the oldest forms of food preservation. There are varying degrees of dried food. For example, zucchini chips are dried until they are light and crispy. Grapes are dried until a large amount of water has evaporated, but they are not dried to the …
What Is Canning? Canning is a food preservation method that uses temperature to kill microorganisms while sealing food in an airtight container. My Top Five Favorite Benefits of Canning Save Money–When you can your own food, especially food that you’ve grown yourself, you save money. You can save even …
Pineapple jam is not the most popular of jam varieties with the food storage crowd. This is completely understandable; after all, pineapple is a tropical fruit and in the heyday of canning people canned what they could grow and put away for the winter. Since winter never comes to the places …
Apple season is upon us. Time for cider, pie, and applesauce. For my family, it’s a fun time picking from our favorite wild apple trees and comparing them to the varieties we find at the university orchard. This has been an odd year for apples. Many of our favorite trees …
I know a post on cleaning a dehydrator seems a little simple. After all, it’s a box with some trays – how hard can it be, right? Well, you’re right, it is pretty straight forward. A little soap and water and in most cases you’re good. But like most activities there …