Table of Contents
60
6 Use Your Garden to
Disconnect from Industrial Food
Take control of your food supply, enjoy better flavor and nutrition, and reject a flawed system by growing your own food or buying locally grown fare.
8 21st Century
Homestead Food Security
14 Seed-Starting Basics
Start seeds yourself to get a jump on the growing season and enjoy unique plant varieties.
18 Use Cold Frames
to Grow More Food
Sow seeds in simple frames to add more than a month to your spring garden season.
By working with the land, we can produce much of our own food.
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14
22 Easy-to-Make
Mini-Greenhouses
Stretch the growing season to savor fresh, homegrown veggies all year by using these nifty quick hoops in your winter vegetable garden.
24 Keep Bees, Naturally!
Enjoy the many sweet rewards of beekeeping by learning how to use natural methods to harvest fresh, delicious honey from your own backyard.
COVER PHOTOGRAPH:FOTOLIA / MONTICELLLLO
Knowing when to harvest will guarantee the freshest, most flavorful and nutritious produce from your garden.
The MOTHER EARTH NEWS Guide to Growing Your Own Food
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40 28 Container Gardening
with Vegetables and Herbs
Easier Than You Think
You’ll never buy dried herbs again after you try one or more of these six methods for drying your own herbs at home.
34 Fresh and Local
Spring Recipes
Spring is the season for young and tender treats right from the garden.
40 Backyard Chickens for the
Best Eggs Ever
You can keep a few hens to produce homegrown eggs, even if you only have a small backyard.
45 The Incredible
Versatility of Eggs
The eggs sold in most grocery stores are inferior to pastured eggs in almost every way. Many chefs agree that eggs from hens who get to graze pastures and eat bugs have better flavor and texture.
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50 The Best Tomatoes to
Grow Where You Live
Lacking a good garden spot? Create a bountiful, diverse garden in containers.
31 Drying Herbs:
50
Enjoy bumper harvests by growing varieties recommended by organic gardeners in your region.
56 Dry and Freeze Tomatoes When your tomato harvest is abundant, try these simple preservation techniques. You’ll be glad you did when a tomato craving hits in December!
60 Pick for Peak Flavor
Knowing when to harvest will guarantee the freshest, most flavorful and nutritious produce from your garden.
64 Raising Rabbits for
Meat and Breeding Stock
These multipurpose lagomorphs require little and yield lots; an ideal quality that supports raising rabbits for meat.
69 Raising Chickens for Meat Want to ensure that the chicken on your plate was raised and processed humanely? Do it yourself!
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64 74 Easy Ways to
Preserve Fresh Food
Pack your pantry with the help of this crop-by-crop guide to food storage.
80 To Bake the Best Bread
Grind Your Own Grain
Healthy reasons you should consider grinding your own grain at home.
84 Homemade Butter
The best you’ll ever have.
90 Craft These Fresh
Easy Cheeses
Learning to create fresh cheeses is an art that is far easier than aging cheese — and you won’t have to wait months (or years) to taste the results of your alchemy.
92 Easy, High-Quality, Low-
Cost Homemade Yogurt
After you know how to make yogurt at home, you’ll wonder why you ever wasted money on the store-bought stuff.
94 Additional Resources
Find gardening advice, seed sources and companies, stores for gardening tools, and more.
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Use Cold Frames to
GROW MORE FOOD
Sow seeds in simple frames to add more than a month to your spring garden season.
By Barbara Pleasant Illustrations by Elayne Sears
G
around by myself without straining, so size and weight are important considerations. If you live north of Zone 6, you may want to create frames that are large enough to accommodate black, water-filled containers for solar heat storage, and insulate the sides by adding a snug berm of soil or mulch. In climates with chronic winter cloud cover, you can maximize available light by painting the interior walls of your frames bright white, or by covering the walls with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
ardening guru Eliot Coleman asserts that “the basic cold frame is the most dependable, least-exploited aid for the four-season harvest.” I couldn’t agree more. The winter I built my humble frame of 2-by-4s topped with an old shower door, I gained a month at the front end of salad season. The best part was being able to sow some of my spring seeds How Cold Frames Work directly in the frame. This made more space available under lights indoors for tomatoes and other crops that don’t like chilly Cold frames shelter plants from ice, snow and treacherous conditions, and eliminated the hassle and setbacks involved winter winds, and they heat up the soil whenever the sun shines. with hardening off seedlings and then transplanting them. Best The soil inside a frame will warm up much faster than of all, seedlings got a head start in real sun, so they never got open ground. Because seeds of many hardy stretched out and leggy as they often do when started indoors. vegetables can germinate (Indoor grow lights are vastly less intense than real sunlight.) What can you sow in a cold frame? In spring you get a boost with virtually any crop by sowing in frames. The list of “Top 12 Winter Cold Frame Crops” (below) can get you started, and as days get longer and warmer in spring, you can try your hand at framing up peas, bulb onions, potatoes or even tomatoes. When a cold frame is no longer needed for a crop that’s up and growing, simply move it to a new location and plant more seeds. Traditionally, gardeners have used cold frames to harden off seedlings started indoors, but you also can use a cold frame to winter-sow onions, cabbage or other hardy crops that are easily lifted and transplanted into rows. A cold frame can be a wood box with a recycled window (or shower door) for the top or a hay bale enclosure covered with plastic. You might build one with bricks or concrete blocks and top These vegetables are easy to grow when it with translucent corrugated fisown in cold frames in late winter. berglass (see “Anatomy of a Cold Arugula Chard Lettuce Frame,” Page 16). Your frames Beets Chinese cabbage Mustard need not be all alike, though havBroccoli Green onion Radish ing two of the same size makes it Cabbage Kale Spinach possible to stack them for added height. I like frames I can move
in the 50-degree-Fahrenheit range, a three-day spell of mild weather often coaxes them to life. Weed seeds will germinate alongside the seeds you plant, but you will see fewer weeds if you cover the soil’s surface with a 1-inch-deep blanket of potting soil (purchased or homemade). Add water as needed to keep the soil from drying out. After seeds have begun to grow inside the frames, the plants are surprisingly cold-tolerant. Yet these and other winter-sown vegetables will suffer if a frame is allowed to overheat, so it’s crucial that frames be opened to vent out excess heat. When in doubt, it’s always better to vent than to risk frying your plants. If you can’t be around to open and close your frame and a warm sunny day is in the forecast, covering the top of a closed frame with a light-blocking blanket is your safest strategy.
Climate-Controlled Frames Any cold frame will harness solar energy for your plants’ benefit, and there are several low-tech ways to help your frames retain solar warmth. Black antifreeze containers, or milk or kitty litter jugs painted flat black, can be filled with water and tucked in the corners. Or you can cover the spaces between plants with flat stones painted black, or “solar pillows” — plastic freezer bags painted black and filled with water. If you want to get more sophisticated, check out the Solar
Top 12 Winter Cold Frame Crops
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are famously kept on the roof of the Paris Opera and on top of the Bank of England. Many beekeepers find their neighbors are happy to have bees around, especially if you’re willing to share some of their honey. The pollination bees provide is a real advantage for nearby organic gardens and orchards. Keeping bees does involve some investment of time and money, although if you want to sell some of the honey, it can be a moneymaker, too. Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine, says the effort of managing bees takes “more than for your pet cat, but less than for your pet dog.” The initial cash investment is a few hundred dollars, but can be less if you follow a few simple cost-cutting tips. (See “Beekeeping Supplies,” right.) After you’ve committed to beekeeping, you’ll want to start a hive or two in spring, as soon as the weather gets warm. It’s easiest and most fun to get started if you can find a local beekeeper to be your guide.
KEEP BEES,
Enjoy the many sweet rewards of beekeeping by learning how to use natural methods to harvest fresh, delicious honey from your own backyard. By M.E.A. McNeil
N
ot only does keeping a beehive provide you with fresh, luscious honey, but as an added benefit, it can increase your garden and orchard yields by helping ensure your plants are well-pollinated. If you’re going to raise bees, raising them naturally is a better idea than ever. Toxic chemicals are often used to treat exotic mites found in beehives. Unfortunately, we now know these chemicals have not only failed, they have strengthened the mites and weak-
ened the bees. Plus, the chemicals are so hazardous that pest control licenses are required to use them, and even then, the chemicals still sometimes fail to protect the bees. Fortunately, there’s an alternative to using chemicals for beekeeping. By learning to read bee behavior, you can avoid problems and know when to apply nontoxic remedies if they’re needed. If you’re going to start beekeeping, a good place to begin is by learning the ways of these undomesticated insects. Curl up with a good book or magazine on beekeep-
24 MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD
24-27 BeeKeeping.indd 24-25
Initial Decisions Before you decide to start a beehive, check out local regulations to be sure beekeeping isn’t prohibited in your area. Also, consider whether you have a spot on your property suitable for keeping beehives. The best place to site hives is a location with a clear flight path for bees that’s away from human traffic and that features a windbreak, dappled light and morning sun. The bees need access to land that’s free of chemical spraying and an uncontaminated water source — otherwise your bees are likely to flock to a neighbor’s dripping faucet. The land where your bees roam does not need to be your own. In fact, there are many city beekeepers, and bees
LEFT: FOTOLIA/JANIS SMITS; ABOVE: ROBIN ARNOLD
Naturally!
What You Need
ing. “Bees are superb teachers,” says Marion Ellis of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. “Bees provide a link to the natural world that will enrich your life.”
Starting with at least two hives is a good idea, because it will give you the option of using more non-chemical techniques. For example, you can combine colonies if needed to help them survive the winter. In general, you’ll need boxes and frames, protective clothing and tools, and, of course, bees. Pass up the allinclusive, pre-built beginner kits that come with a plastic foundation. Bees build better on pure wax. A warning about secondhand equipment: Although recycling is a way of life for most farmers and homesteaders, accepting secondhand boxes, frames or comb is not worth the risk. Dormant spores from a deadly bee disease are viable for decades. However, secondhand hive tools, smokers and bee suits are fine to use, because they can be cleaned up. Most beekeepers order pre-cut box and frame components. They come with jigged pieces with dovetailed joints and are as easy as Legos to
Beekeeping Supplies
Beekeeping does involve some initial expense. Here’s a list of what you will need to start two hives. The cost can be divided into one-time startup expenses for hive components (about $550) and other equipment (about $250). If you get everything new, the cost comes to about $950 for two hives, plus bees and shipping. You can cut costs by starting with swarms instead of purchasing bees. You can also buy some equipment secondhand, although you should not buy used hive and frame components because of the threat of spreading mites and disease. Before you order any equipment, you will need to decide whether you want liquid or comb honey (see “The Sweetest Harvest,” Page 27).
Hives, Frames & Foundations
Other Basic Equipment
Two hives, commercial-grade. This is a one-time expense of about $400. It includes these parts of the boxes: four hive bodies (boxes), six 65⁄8-inch honey supers (boxes), two reversible bottom boards, two telescoping covers with inner covers, two queen excluders, two top feeders, two screened bottom boards and two entrance reducers. Frames and foundations. These will need to be gradually replaced every three years or so, and cost about $150. That estimated cost includes commercial frames and foundation sheets. Be sure to get correctly sized frames for your supers. Also, if you decide to make liquid honey, you’ll need to order crimpwired foundation sheets. For comb honey, order thin, unwired foundation.
One-time expense, $250 and up Zipper-veil bee suit and helmet Boot bands Gloves, plastic-coated canvas 7-inch stainless steel smoker with shield Hive tool Frame grips Bee brush Spur embedder for wiring frames Embedding wire
Bees & Other Expenses 3 pounds of bees, plus queen, about $130 to $200, plus shipping (per hive) 1 gallon exterior latex paint or Auro natural stain Outdoor wood glue (Elmer’s or Gorilla) Cinder blocks or wood for a base
SUPPLIERS Betterbee: Greenwich, N.Y.; 800-632-3379; www.betterbee.com Dadant & Sons: Hamilton, Ill.; 888-922-1293; www.dadant.com Western Bee Supplies: Polson, Mont.; 800-548-8440; www.westernbee.com GloryBee Foods: Eugene, Ore.; 800-456-7923; www.glorybeefoods.com Brushy Mountain Bee Farm: Moravian Falls, N.C.; 800-233-7929; www.brushymountainbeefarm.com You can also buy inexpensive pre-assembled frames directly from this Amish beekeeper: Rudy E. Swartzentruber: 271 Johnson Road, Rensselaer Falls, N.Y. 13680
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Fresh Garlic and Herb Mayonnaise (Aioli)
Berries With Crème Fraîche
If you’ve never been treated to freshly made mayo, it’s time to pamper yourself. Plus, it’s ridiculously easy to make. It won’t store as long as its store-bought cousin, but you’ll relish a much healthier — and preservative-free — version! NOTE: All ingredients should be at room temperature, and use fresh eggs from pastured hens.
Crème fraîche is a creamy concoction with a texture and tang somewhere between yogurt and sour cream. It’s a delightful accompaniment to foods both sweet and savory. There are many different inexpensive strains of bacterial cultures you can buy online to culture your cream (try www.cheesemaking.com). If you purchase a commercial starter culture, follow the package instructions. Or you can start a batch with various store-bought ingredients, as long as they are unpasteurized. (The bacterial culture needs to be alive.) Once you’ve made one batch of crème fraîche, you can use it to culture each new batch. Yes, it’s that good — you’ll want to keep it going!
1 egg yolk 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp garlic, diced
Pinch salt 1 twist freshly ground pepper 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
In a food processor, blend all the ingredients except the oil for about 1 minute, then add the oil drop by drop at first, then in a stream and continue to process until creamy and smooth. Adjust seasonings as needed, and feel free to add a pinch of cayenne or chopped herbs.
Root Veggies: beets, parsnips, radishes, salad turnips Garden Veggies: asparagus, garden peas, potatoes, scallions, spring onions, sugar snap peas Sea Veggies: dulse, various kelps (e.g. kombu, wakame), nori (laver), wrack Fruits: apricots, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, raspberries,
If you like mayo, you will looooove it homemade. If you think you don’t like mayo, you will probably looooove it homemade!
rhubarb (not technically a fruit), strawberries Ephemeral Garden Treats: garlic scapes, pea shoots Wild Edibles: cactus pears, cattails, claytonia (miner’s lettuce), dandelion greens, fiddlehead ferns, lamb’s quarters, morel mushrooms, nettles, pokeweed, purslane, ramps (wild leeks) Meat: Most pasture-raised meat and
wild game are best in the fall and winter, but spring is a great time to stock up on frozen and aged meats. In some areas, there is also a spring turkey hunting season. Fish: Spring is the season for most freshwater fish, including bass, carp, catfish, crappie, pike, salmon, sunfish, trout and walleye. Saltwater seasons vary.
2 tbsp starter (unpasteurized buttermilk, crème fraîche or sour cream) 1 cup heavy cream Raw sugar
Fresh berries, halved or sliced Fresh mint leaves
Stir starter into the cream, cover, and let stand at room temperature for about 24 hours. Sprinkle a little sugar over your berries, toss to coat, and refrigerate. Spoon your berries (which should be juicy by now) into individual bowls and top each with a dollop of crème fraîche, plus a few mint leaves.
Fresh berries can certainly stand alone as a worthy dessert, but a dollop of homemade crème fraîche sends them over the moon!
Special Spring Pesto Garlic scapes are the garlicky-but-mild aboveground flower stalks of garlic bulbs that appear briefly each spring. Pea shoots (also called pea greens) are the young leaves of garden peas, and they’re bursting with fresh sweet pea flavor. In this nontraditional pesto recipe, the scapes and shoots take the place of fresh basil leaves and garlic cloves. Use your spring pesto as a pasta sauce, sandwich spread or flavor enhancer for soups and stews. ⁄2 pound garlic scapes or pea shoots, or a mixture (if using pea shoots only, add 2 cloves garlic to the recipe) 1 ⁄2 cup Parmesan cheese 1 ⁄2 cup unsalted walnuts (You can substitute almost any other kind of nut, but walnuts and 1
Because it freezes so well, pesto is a wonderful way to extend the fresh herb season. 36 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD
34-38 EIS Spring.indd 36-37
pecans are likely to be the freshest choice in spring, as they will have been harvested in the preceding few months. Or choose nuts that were roasted during their peak season.) 1 ⁄2 cup extra virgin olive oil Sea salt, to taste
Pulse everything in a food processor, adding the ingredients one at a time in the order listed above. Pesto keeps well for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator, and freezes beautifully. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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into sauces. By the end of the day, the kitchen table was stacked with square containers, which we carried to the chest freezer in the basement. In the winter, those containers of summer goodness were transformed into lovely tomato soups, rich spaghetti sauces, thick meatloaf sauces and — my favorite — stewed tomatoes served with a big pat of butter in the middle. In the ’60s, I married into a big-time canning family. I still remember those sweltering Pennsylvania days with baskets of tomatoes lined up on the kitchen table and a room full of busy, knowing women preparing tomatoes in large, steaming kettles. By the end of the day, dozens of pints of stewed tomatoes and
Dry & Freeze
Stewed tomatoes are the antidote to wintertime garden flavor amnesia!
TOMATOES There are four types of tomatoes, each with its own preserving virtues. • Meaty paste tomatoes (sometimes called Romas), such as ‘Italian Red Pear,’ ‘Principe Borghese,’ ‘Roma’ and ‘San Marzano,’ are great choices for drying. You can also freeze them whole, roasted or in sauces. • Cherry tomatoes, such as ‘Red Cherry,’ ‘Sun Gold,’ ‘Sweet Chelsea’ and ‘Sweet 100,’ are smaller and sweeter than other tomato types. They’re great for drying or freezing as a puréed sauce. • Standard slicing tomatoes, such as ‘Early Girl,’ ‘Celebrity Hybrid,’ ‘Ace,’ ‘Better Boy,’ ‘Homestead 24’ and ‘Rutgers,’ are great for cutting into chunks to freeze or can and make great juice and sauces, but they are generally too big and juicy for drying. • Beefsteak tomatoes,, such as ‘Brandywine,’ ‘Beefmaster’ and ‘Super Beefsteak,’ are super-juicy, which makes them a great choice for tomato juice to be canned or frozen. They’re also good roasted or stewed.
When your tomato harvest is abundant, try these simple preservation techniques. You’ll be glad you did when a tomato craving hits in December! By Rosalind Creasy
P
utting up tomatoes has been part of my life since the ’50s, when I helped my mother and grandmother prep them for the freezer. Not too many folks had a freezer in those days, but my dad worked for General Electric, so our house had all the latest appliances. Like most food preservation events I’ve been part of, it was a group effort. Dad and the kids harvested tomatoes from his garden, then one of us washed them in the sink. Then my mom and grandmother took over. They skinned, seeded and chopped tomatoes for stewing, or cooked them down
Stewed Tomatoes LEFT PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: ALLI LANGLEY; DAVID CAVAGNARO; RIGHT: ROSALIND CREASY (2)
4 Types of Tomatoes
quarts of juice were ready for the pantry. In the ’70s, my husband and I moved to California. I wanted a vegetable garden, but our new backyard was shady — no place for tomatoes — and edible landscaping hadn’t yet occurred to me, so taking out the front lawn wasn’t an option. Soon an opportunity arrived to garden with my neighbor. With four children between us, we decided we could help our collective food budgets if we put a large garden in her backyard and bought a chest freezer to preserve our shared harvest. For four years, we enjoyed lots of beans, zucchini and corn, and hundreds of pounds of tomatoes. We usually turned the tomatoes into plain sauce,
This recipe is a time-honored tradition for preserving ripe garden tomatoes, and it’s also great for canning. Yield: 1 pint. 8 medium ripe tomatoes 1 tbsp olive or safflower oil 1 to 2 tbsp brown sugar 1 ⁄4 tsp dried thyme 1 ⁄2 tsp sea salt Freshly ground black pepper, to taste For serving (optional) 1 small onion, diced 8 to 10 mushrooms, sliced Butter Fresh rosemary sprig To preserve: Dip tomatoes a few at
PHOTO CREDIT, SLICED MATERS (TOP): ALLI LANGLEY
PHOTO CREDIT, WHOLE PLATED TOMS (BOTTOM): DAVID CAVAGNARO
Serve this inspired dish as an appetizer with focaccia or on an antipasto plate. Use the leftover oil in salad dressings, marinades and dips. The cheese will keep in the refrigerator for about a week. Yield: 1 quart. 1 cup dried tomatoes, whole or halved ⁄4 pound fresh 1-inch mozzarella balls 8 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped 1 tsp fresh marjoram or oregano, chopped 2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped 1 tsp whole green peppercorns 1 ⁄2 tsp salt 1 ⁄4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 11⁄4 cups extra-virgin olive oil 3
In a small bowl, pour 1 cup boiling water over the dried tomatoes and let sit for at least 15 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain and set aside. Remove the mozzarella balls from their brine. In a quart jar with a lid, add tomatoes, cheese and seasonings, each a little at a time. Pour the olive oil over the top, making sure to cover all the ingredients. Refrigerate to marinate for at least 24 hours before using. a time in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds. Then quickly dip them in cold water and peel. Cut the peeled tomatoes into quarters and lightly squeeze the chunks to remove most of the seeds. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add tomatoes, brown sugar, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes or until the juice has reduced about one-third. Cool to room temperature and then freeze in a sealed freezer bag. To serve: Sauté the onion and mushrooms with a little butter, over medium heat, until the onions are translucent (about 15 minutes). Add the thawed stewed tomatoes plus a pinch of fresh rosemary, heat and serve.
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Mozzarella Cheese Marinated with Dried Tomatoes and Herbs
After you’ve enjoyed all the cheese and tomatoes, you’ll be left with an incredible olive oil.
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PHOTO CREDIT, STEWED TOMATOES (TOP): ROSALIND CREASY PHOTO CREDIT, MOZZARELLA (BOTTOM): ROSALIND CREASY
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Easy Ways to Preserve
FRESH FOOD
Pack your pantry with the help of this crop-by-crop guide to food storage. By Barbara Pleasant
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RESOURCES
Cool-Storage Superstars
These crops will keep for two to six months at cool room temperatures and require no processing, containers or refrigeration. Could things get any easier than slipping a few buttercup squash into the garage or finding a place in an unheated closet for some sweet potatoes? The rich flavors of those two crops actually improve under good storage conditions, so you’re not settling for less by storing. If bringing winter
FOTOLIA/ALISON HANCOCK
C
an you name three crops that will keep easily for months in a cool closet? (Try garlic, sweet potatoes and winter squash.) How about a trio of vegetables that will stay fresh until in this article indicate, tapping such savwell after the holidays if stashed in the ings can be as easy as going to the farmers’ refrigerator or even just a cooler in an unFor additional information beyond what market to stock up when your favorite heated garage? (We suggest beets, carrots you’ll find in this article, we recommend fruits and veggies are in season, and then and potatoes.) Regardless of whether you the following online resources. learning which techniques are best for purchase produce or grow your own, or storing each crop. Because most foods can whether you’re new to preserving or are a • Storing Vegetables at Home be preserved in more than one way, you veteran of the pursuit, this guide is brimUniversity of Wisconsin-Extension choose the preservation method that fits ming with invaluable ideas to assist you bit.ly/1qPuzWm your cooking habits and time constraints. in preserving your fresh fare for better • Drying Fruits & Vegetables To simplify home food storage, we’ve eating year-round. Pacific Northwest Extension divided crops by preservation method, Buying local produce and “putting it bit.ly/2haGajR starting with those that require the least up” (or “putting it by,” depending on • Preserving Food at Home amount of time, effort and energy to prewhat part of the country you’re from) is Blog at National Center for Home Food serve. Even when put through the process also a great way to support your area’s Preservation, bit.ly/1PXSQWv of canning or freezing, home-stored foods farmers. Every bite you take — today or save huge amounts of energy in reduced months from now — helps strengthen packaging, transportation and storage costs. Freezing is the most your local economy, supports more sustainable food production, energy-intensive means of home food preservation, but you can and brings you a significant step closer to a more self-sufficient life. still conserve energy through reduced use of transportation fuel by Another bonus: Buying local food in bulk and preserving it can freezing food that was grown locally. save you money on your grocery expenses. And, as the examples
squash home from the farmers’ market, cradle them in towels to avoid accidental nicks or bruises. Garlic benefits from a cool environment, but most varieties will keep at room temperature for several months. Stow nuts out of the reach of hungry rodents, and freeze them after their protective shells have been removed.
Crop
Peak Season
Handling and Storage Tips
Garlic
Midsummer
Cure at 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 weeks. Optimum storage conditions are 60 to 65 degrees with moderate humidity. (May also be dried.)
Sweet potatoes
Late summer to fall
Cure at 80 degrees for 7 to 10 days. Optimum storage conditions are 55 to 60 degrees with high humidity. (May also be frozen.)
Unshelled nuts
Fall
Dry at 70 to 80 degrees for 4 to 10 days. Optimum storage conditions are 45 to 60 degrees with moderate humidity. (May also be frozen.)
Winter squash
Late summer to fall
Harvest with stub of stem attached and then wipe clean. Optimum storage conditions are 45 to 55 degrees with moderate humidity. (May also be frozen.)
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