Lots of us remember when our grandmothers canned food and the sealed jars lined shelves in the cool, damp cellar that doubled as a safe place in case of a tornado.   I can still smell the aroma of the smoke house on my grandparents farm….and that was definitely long, long ago.  My mom wan’t into canning.  She liked the grocery store.

For many years I was actually scared to can anything for fear of poisoning my family with botulism.  How stupid was that?  Along about the mid-sixties a friend gifted me with homemade pickles that tasted just like those my grandmother made year after year.  I LOVED those pickles then, and still do to this day.  Of course I got the recipe…….and you will find it on this very site shortly.

The pickle deal opened the door to many canning and preserving adventures (and sometimes mis-adventures) over the years.  I certainly wouldn’t call myself a master-canner, if there is such a thing, but I got pretty good at it.  I’ve developed my favorite pickled beets and an old Shaker recipe for bread and butter pickles.   My beautiful storage shelves of pickled fruits and vegetables, canned fruits were my pride and joy.  They were also the source of the perfect gifts for almost every occasion.

I still am not friendly with pressure cookers, so can’t speak from experience about actually canning low acid vegetables, meats and other things like that.  However, with my family of eight I kept two freezers filled, thus avoiding the pressure cooker.  I know people who swear by them….I’m just not one of them.  Whatever method, the cardinal rule is to follow directions exactly, and make sure all equipment and containers are clean and sterilized.  Anyone can do it………I did.  So can you.  I guarantee you’ll never regret capturing the season’s bounty and enjoying it all winter long.

Canning isn’t the only good method of food preservation.  Dehydration is one that I personally love doing.  It’s almost impossible here in the humid midwest to dry tomatoes without a dehydrator.  However, when I lived in southern Utah, the low humidity made the drying very quick and easy before storing the beautiful chunks in good olive oil.  Humid or not, I won’t part with my dehydrator.  Not just any food dehydrator, it’s the biggest Excalibur Food Dehydrator with the most shelves and an automatic shut-off.  It came with a good size full color manual so I would know what I was doing, I suspect.  You can take a good look at a variety of Excalibur Food Dehydrators at www.amazon.com.  You can even buy a new or used one there too.  Mine has hundred and hundreds of hours on it, and still purrs like a kitten.

I couldn’t chat about the world of food preservation without mentioning one of the most fun and tasty aspects of storing food.  That is making jams and jellies, butters and a whole list of sweet conctions (which also make great gifts by the way).  Homemade jams and jellies are easy to make.  Just get organized and follow the rules.  No store bought spread can come close in comparison.  Here, you can really go unique. You can make and share gifts not available at any price.  Mine are homemade chokecherry jelly and homemade wild plum jelly.  Not for sale anywhere!

There are quite a few other methods to preserve food and lots of interesting history to go with recipes from generations long gone.  It will be my pleasure to share it all with you.  I’ve even got some interesting stuff on winemaking around here somewhere.

Gosh, I planned to focus on welcoming you to the new Food Preservation Guide with a laundry list of topics to be covered, but the conversation took it’s own way. Must have been the smell of Grandma’s pickles that I imagined.  That said, I want to invite you to begin preserving food.  There are good reasons.  One is that it’s a very smart way to save money.  Another is that you know what’s in the food you and your family eat.  Another is your personal effort to be self-reliant….to be able to care for yourself in an emergency.  And, finally to enjoy the satisfaction of creating something useful, tasty, nourishing and beautiful.

So, you don’t have the huge garden your grandmother had.  Maybe you don’t have a garden at all.  Food preservation doesn’t have to be a monster job, although when that meant survival itself, it often was. Today we have lots of choices.   The grocery store comes to mind………..overloaded with all sorts of produce in season.  The farmer’s market where locally grown food is yours.  You’re neighbor who prays someone will take her squash off her hands.  Take it, dry it and use it in soups, casseroles, breads and even unique potpourri (yes, I said potpourri!)

Go foraging for the wild stuff.  Depending on what part of the country you live in or near, the choices abound.  We have loads of wild sand plums that make an exquisite jelly.  Here’s a good tip.  Make enough for at least THREE years in a good year.  Frost and nature have a way of messing things up.   In my experience, the best chokecherries grow in Wyoming, and that’s where I get them.   

Be on the lookout for what grows in your area.  Look for apples, crab apples, peaches, apricots, pears.  Ninety-nine percent of the time if you just ask, people are happy that you actually want to make their ground cleanup easier.  Give them a sample of what you created from their generousity and they’ll love you and welcome you back……guaranteed!

So, I welcome you to the new Food Preservation Guide and invite you to visit often for lots of great information and recipes that will make preserving food one of your favorite activities.