So the question that I have heard a lot of is this summer is "We just got a lot of ___________ from our CSA. We can't eat it all/we're bored sick of it/we don't know what to do with it".
Obviously, no one wants to throw food away or even compost it, feed it to the pigs/dogs/chickens etc. So here are a few long-term, easy storage tips.
First, get yourself a good food storage book. Whenever I have a question, I consult Mike and Nancy Bubel's Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables. It tells you the best conditions to store each type of food in, and also which varieties are the best keepers. While the focus is on root cellaring, it is important to note that you don't need an actual root cellar in order to root cellar (did that make sense?).
So here's my short-list of autumn glut CSA foods and what to do with them.
Potatoes:
Immediate use: The nice thing about potatoes is that they'll store short-term without you having to do anything other than keeping them in a dark place. In the fall, we make potato pancakes, fried potatoes, skillet frittatas, and of course mashed potatoes. If there are some good-sized ones, we make crunchy potatoes (twice baked potatoes) with lots of goodies in them.
Storage: White potatoes store well at 36-40 degrees F with 90% humidity. If you have a nook in your house that can meet those conditions, great. To increase the humidity, take any organic material (leaves, straw, shavings) or sand and soak it. Pack your potatoes lightly, as ventilation is a good thing.
I also mash potatoes and store them in quart size containers and freeze. This is a great option if you have the freezer space!
Tomatoes: Don't refrigerate them! Keep them on the counter and they'll be happy for a week or two. We bought three crates at the farmer's market this summer, and they were fine just sitting on the table until we could process them.
Immediate use: Salads, sauces, stuffed tomatoes, casseroles, pasta or rice dishes, in egg dishes. We make fajitas a lot, so I always add a couple then.
Storage: Two easy methods: Sauce them (if it's a roma or other paste tomato) and then freeze in quart size bags. Or, just throw a bunch of whole tomatoes in a gallon bag and freeze. The skins will come right off when you thaw. You could even core the tomato before freezing. You can also can. Please remember to add 2 TBSP of lemon juice to each QUART (1 TBSP to each PINT) because today's tomatoes are generally not as acidic as yesteryear's. You can use a hot water bath (no need for the canner). You can also prepare pizza sauce or salsa and then can (or freeze) those.
Winter Squash (including pumpkins):
Immediate Use: Again, these have a really long shelf-life at room temperature so there is no pressure to use them. Yay. The problem I find, is that I get sick of eating squash after about two weeks, so I put them in the baskets that hang from our rafters and forget about them. Then in January, I look into the baskets and there are a half dozen shriveled up squash specimens that probably don't contain many nutrients.
Baked squash is always easy, and it's even easier in the crock pot. You can mix mashed squash with mashed potatoes to cut the squash flavor if you're not a big fan. You can make squash bread (always a huge hit in our household). You can also stuff the squash with a meat casserole type thing and then cook it. You can also use the puréed squash as a substitute for the oil, eggs and water when baking cupcakes etc. from a mix.
Storage: So I tried canning these suckers (since I'm running out of freezer space) and I think it would work, but it's very labor intensive as you have to skin the squash without cooking it first. Then you must blanch the squash and then you need to use the pressure canner for 90 minutes, which I don't like using.
So, the easiest way to store for us (aside from hanging it in the baskets) is to cook the squash, scoop it out, and then freeze it. I'm hoping that by storing it in this manner right off the bat, I won't have any shriveled up squashes come mid-winter.
Carrots:
Immediate uses: We always have carrot sticks cut in the fridge. We find them particularly helpful if we're having an unpalatable vegetable according to Bud--he can munch on those instead. If you have a juicer, use it here. Carrot muffins are yummy (so is carrot cake). I actually use carrots in my roasting pan to support the chicken instead of using a rack. In any soup or stew you can add carrots. In fact, a mixture of carrots, celery and onion is the classic mirepoix--the base for any stock. One of my favorite salads is simply shredded carrot and shredded beet mixed with a light vinegar and some seasonings (unfortunately, my darling husband is not a beet fan).
Storage: Theoretically, these are stored at 32-40 degrees F with 90-95% humidity--very similar to potatoes. I store mine in the same place (an unplugged freezer turned on its side in the basement with shavings in it). Just layer the carrots with the organic material between them. The carrots should be close to one another, but not really touching. Store only the largest, most regularly shaped ones.
I also will blanch and freeze diced carrots to add to a mirepoix later or to a vegetable medley as a side dish.
Hardy greens (spinach, chard, kale, collards):
Immediate uses: I'm a big fan of sautéed kale, onions and pepperoni. I'm sure you can do a similar dish with spinach. In my opinion, these hardy greens are best when slightly wilted over your stovetop. They are also great in soups, stews and pasta dishes. You could also make a yummy spinach dip with some sour cream.
Storage: You can actually freeze these. You'll want to blanch them for a couple minutes beforehand.
Good luck and may there be no more glut!
Showing posts with label food preservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food preservation. Show all posts
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Why dehydrate?
This model from Nesco probably cost around $85 (it was a gift). The gift was actually given to us jointly with another friend (there really is no need for every single household to own a dehydrator, as most of the year, you don't need it). Dehydrators also come in a box shape but I haven't tried those. Do get one with the fan on the top though, as they are much easier to clean (if the fan is on the bottom, all the little pieces of food that fall through the cracks in the trays get caught there). You can always buy additional trays, although I wouldn't suggest working with more than a stack of 8 as the drying will become uneven.
Anyway, the apples in the picture above are all from our trees (or trees alongside the road). They are truly beautiful and delicious. For the first time in my recollection we won't actually have to buy any "fresh eating" apples as these untended trees are producing great fruit as is (I know, I keep harping on this point, but it is rather spectacular). My darling husband and I have basically been running the dehydrator every night with its trays full of apples. To prepare, he peels the
We lay the apple slices on the tray. This was done very quickly (about 3 minutes) in the essence of time, but you can spend all the time in the world arranging them so that there are no spaces between the slices and everything looks very geometric. 
The four trays (probably made from 15 small to medium apples) yielded about 1 1/2 quarts of dried fruit. I store them in Mason jars or plastic bags. Storing them in Mason jars (no need to seal or anything) allows you to see if they are truly dry. If condensation starts appearing on the inside of the jar you need to dry them more (or eat them) because they will mold.
We have also used our dehydrator to make liver treats for the dogs, "sun-dried" tomatoes, dried mushrooms, fruit roll-ups (lots of fun and super easy), and beef jerky. All of these items have a considerably long shelf life (months if not years) and the beauty of it is that there is no need to refrigerate, freeze or can!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Getting Ready for Winter with some Freezing
It's now officially "late summer", but we've been working like crazy to get all of our food up for the winter. Nature works on her time, not ours, and we have to remain flexible even if we were caught off guard this year with the incredibly early apple season. The apples are truly amazing. If you're in the Northeast, perhaps you're noticed the bounty and size of apples on trees that have not been tended by humans for years. We found a tree around the corner that has some early type of green apple that rivals any apple at a farmers' market in size, looks and flavor. After asking permission from the landowners, we grabbed our apple picker and ladder and picked 10 gallons of apples in about 15 minutes. The lack of a late frost, and a relatively warm, dry (but not drought) summer has led to the best apple season in a dozen years.
This onslaught of apples means that cider pressing season is under way--a full 6 weeks early (we haven't even gotten the dried beans on the drying screen yet!). My darling husband pressed the first two batches last night. Due to the flies, the warm weather, and the lack of freezer space, we heated it up to pasteurize it and then will just drink it in the next week or so. I have plenty of apples to make pies, crumbles and applesauce with as well. And then at some point, I'll have to dehydrate a dozen or so quarts.
The tomatoes are also in, which means we're prepping those for winter storage as well. To keep things simple, we simmer down a bunch of roma (paste) tomatoes (cut in half but skins still on) with a handful of fresh basil and oregano. Then we just blend them and store them in the freezer in quart containers or baggies. When we want to make sauce we'll take a container out, add more herbs and some sugar and let it cook down. If you don't have your own garden, I would highly recommend that you purchase your tomatoes from a local farmers' market. You'll get a great deal if you buy in bulk (I paid $15 for about 20lbs of tomatoes which is 75% off the $3/lb price) and if you have the freezer space it is well worth it. If you don't have a large freezer, there is a great book out there, Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning, which highlights old world techniques.
A new technique I just learned for preserving corn is to simply to blanch the cob and then freeze the whole darn thing. I've always cut the kernels off the cob after blanching, but this way allows you to obviously have corn on the cob in the middle of January. I guess it depends on how much room you have in that freezer.
You'll find celery at the markets as well right now. This would be the easiest vegetable to preserve, as you just dice it and freeze. No blanching, boiling, etc. required. I keep the leaves as well for tossing in stocks, soups etc. and also because it works as a great substitute for parsley.
Finally, peppers are coming in. My own pepper plants did not fare too well (as usual), but I have been buying them for $0.75 a piece at the market. I dice them up, saute them with a little olive oil for just a few minutes and then freeze. Throughout the winter, I can pull them out and add to fajitas, soups, stews, steak, etc. I've also stuffed a few of the peppers with a sausage/cheese/rice/veggie medley. I wrap those babies in foil and, guess what, freeze them. It makes supper SO simple, especially on a busy day. You can prepare stuffed zucchini in the same fashion as well.
So the freezer at this point, is pretty full. I also have bags and bags of peas, beans, corn, blueberries, and strawberries in our small upright freezer. The only other thing i have to put in there (aside from tomatoes) will be any onions that are not of good storage quality. I'll saute those up and then freeze in small quantities, as onions are not supposed to be refrozen once thawed. Then we'll be good to go fruit and vegetable wise for the freezer. Root vegetables will be stored in the cellar, and the kale, brussel sprouts and leeks will be wintering over in the garden for as long as possible.
This onslaught of apples means that cider pressing season is under way--a full 6 weeks early (we haven't even gotten the dried beans on the drying screen yet!). My darling husband pressed the first two batches last night. Due to the flies, the warm weather, and the lack of freezer space, we heated it up to pasteurize it and then will just drink it in the next week or so. I have plenty of apples to make pies, crumbles and applesauce with as well. And then at some point, I'll have to dehydrate a dozen or so quarts.
The tomatoes are also in, which means we're prepping those for winter storage as well. To keep things simple, we simmer down a bunch of roma (paste) tomatoes (cut in half but skins still on) with a handful of fresh basil and oregano. Then we just blend them and store them in the freezer in quart containers or baggies. When we want to make sauce we'll take a container out, add more herbs and some sugar and let it cook down. If you don't have your own garden, I would highly recommend that you purchase your tomatoes from a local farmers' market. You'll get a great deal if you buy in bulk (I paid $15 for about 20lbs of tomatoes which is 75% off the $3/lb price) and if you have the freezer space it is well worth it. If you don't have a large freezer, there is a great book out there, Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning, which highlights old world techniques.
A new technique I just learned for preserving corn is to simply to blanch the cob and then freeze the whole darn thing. I've always cut the kernels off the cob after blanching, but this way allows you to obviously have corn on the cob in the middle of January. I guess it depends on how much room you have in that freezer.
You'll find celery at the markets as well right now. This would be the easiest vegetable to preserve, as you just dice it and freeze. No blanching, boiling, etc. required. I keep the leaves as well for tossing in stocks, soups etc. and also because it works as a great substitute for parsley.
Finally, peppers are coming in. My own pepper plants did not fare too well (as usual), but I have been buying them for $0.75 a piece at the market. I dice them up, saute them with a little olive oil for just a few minutes and then freeze. Throughout the winter, I can pull them out and add to fajitas, soups, stews, steak, etc. I've also stuffed a few of the peppers with a sausage/cheese/rice/veggie medley. I wrap those babies in foil and, guess what, freeze them. It makes supper SO simple, especially on a busy day. You can prepare stuffed zucchini in the same fashion as well.
So the freezer at this point, is pretty full. I also have bags and bags of peas, beans, corn, blueberries, and strawberries in our small upright freezer. The only other thing i have to put in there (aside from tomatoes) will be any onions that are not of good storage quality. I'll saute those up and then freeze in small quantities, as onions are not supposed to be refrozen once thawed. Then we'll be good to go fruit and vegetable wise for the freezer. Root vegetables will be stored in the cellar, and the kale, brussel sprouts and leeks will be wintering over in the garden for as long as possible.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Holiday Tales
My darling husband, Bud and I (and Belle) just arrived back from a pleasant visit to Boston to see my folks and brothers. It was great fun to catch up with everybody in the middle of a blizzard. We managed to see the Nutcracker (Bud enjoyed the production, but he was a little shocked to see the Nutcracker in such tight white tights), go sledding, venture out using the T (Boston's public transportation system) which Bud loved, and visit the Harvard Musuem of Natural History which not only has the unique glass flower collection, but is also a taxidermist's haven. I could have spent all day looking at the glass flowers (they really do look absolutely real--you could never tell they were made from glass) but Bud was enjoying looking at all the stuffed animals. Darling husband was interested to see if I would write a post about how the Rich White Man was able (Is Still Able?) to go to Exotic Places and Exploit their Resources and bring back Specimens to Stuff, but I think that is a post that deserves its own space, which is not right now.
The blizzard dumped about a foot of snow in the city of Cambridge. It is curious to witness how city people deal with snow. True, there really is no place to put it. And the plows really do plow in cars that are parked on the streets. The four adults in our party spent a good hour digging out the cars mid-morning. But walking the dog as the sun was setting, there were still folks just starting to attempt the chore. While there were some conentiuous moments in the neighborhood about the legality of "saving" dug out parking spaces with lawn chairs, trash cans etc (and the city of Boston does have a law on the books saying that one has 48 after the snow emergency ends to remove lawn chairs from parking spaces), it was heartening to see a group of teenangers walking around offering to help shovel out folks.
One of the highlights of the visit, aside from the storm, was a drawing for my older brother's canned goods that he and his fiancee canned last summer. I myself freeze or dry more than can (something about not having a lot of time or patience prevents me from canning much), but Bro and his sweetheart canned cherries, made ketchup, peach butter, tomato sauce, apple butter, pickles from summer squash, among other goodies. Last year, they sent us canned vegetable bouillion, relish and peaches. I am truly envious of all their preserving. His sweetheart also works for a botanical soap company out in Montana so we now have organic soap to last all year (did you think we smelled that bad?!) and our own soap making kit in case we run out! You can check out her soap here.
My younger brother was also very thoughtful and supplied me with an awesome pair of moutaineering gloves from Eddie Bauer (I could actually care less about where they come from as long as they keep my hands warm). They are probably the most high-tech pair of gloves I've seen, let alone owned, and are made of leather (including little grippy things) but obviously include a super warm lining and there is even a "snot band" on the thumb to wipe away that 5:30am cold snot (yes, it happens). I have never climbed a real mountain (I stick with big hills), but I'm thinking if these gloves can keep a moutaineer warm, they can keep me warm doing the morning feedings.
Since my darling husband and I bought each other a fully functional door for Christmas along with two storm doors and some professional weatherstripping (our farmhouse has 5 entrances), we didn't really exchange gifts. My parents were thoughtful enough to give us a deep dish pie/quiche dish, which is fabulous, since I only have an apparently very small pie dish. Quiche is usually a mainstay in the family (and apple pie is a dessert staple in the fall when we have oodles of apples), although now our chickens have stopped laying and we no longer have a supply of eggs. Luckily, the Natural Foods store down the road does. Along that line, it looks like we're going to dispatch most of our hens this weekend (the Buff Orpingtons were originally a friend's and I promised we wouldn't send them to "camp" so they will stay along with the rooster). As my darling husband says, it may be an ominious way to start the New Year but you have to take advantage of the warm weather when we have it.
As we head towards the dusk of this year and the dawn of another, I will not burden you with reflections of the past or resolutions for the future. I wish everyone a blessed New Year and to remember the words of Julian of Norwich, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
The blizzard dumped about a foot of snow in the city of Cambridge. It is curious to witness how city people deal with snow. True, there really is no place to put it. And the plows really do plow in cars that are parked on the streets. The four adults in our party spent a good hour digging out the cars mid-morning. But walking the dog as the sun was setting, there were still folks just starting to attempt the chore. While there were some conentiuous moments in the neighborhood about the legality of "saving" dug out parking spaces with lawn chairs, trash cans etc (and the city of Boston does have a law on the books saying that one has 48 after the snow emergency ends to remove lawn chairs from parking spaces), it was heartening to see a group of teenangers walking around offering to help shovel out folks.
One of the highlights of the visit, aside from the storm, was a drawing for my older brother's canned goods that he and his fiancee canned last summer. I myself freeze or dry more than can (something about not having a lot of time or patience prevents me from canning much), but Bro and his sweetheart canned cherries, made ketchup, peach butter, tomato sauce, apple butter, pickles from summer squash, among other goodies. Last year, they sent us canned vegetable bouillion, relish and peaches. I am truly envious of all their preserving. His sweetheart also works for a botanical soap company out in Montana so we now have organic soap to last all year (did you think we smelled that bad?!) and our own soap making kit in case we run out! You can check out her soap here.
My younger brother was also very thoughtful and supplied me with an awesome pair of moutaineering gloves from Eddie Bauer (I could actually care less about where they come from as long as they keep my hands warm). They are probably the most high-tech pair of gloves I've seen, let alone owned, and are made of leather (including little grippy things) but obviously include a super warm lining and there is even a "snot band" on the thumb to wipe away that 5:30am cold snot (yes, it happens). I have never climbed a real mountain (I stick with big hills), but I'm thinking if these gloves can keep a moutaineer warm, they can keep me warm doing the morning feedings.
Since my darling husband and I bought each other a fully functional door for Christmas along with two storm doors and some professional weatherstripping (our farmhouse has 5 entrances), we didn't really exchange gifts. My parents were thoughtful enough to give us a deep dish pie/quiche dish, which is fabulous, since I only have an apparently very small pie dish. Quiche is usually a mainstay in the family (and apple pie is a dessert staple in the fall when we have oodles of apples), although now our chickens have stopped laying and we no longer have a supply of eggs. Luckily, the Natural Foods store down the road does. Along that line, it looks like we're going to dispatch most of our hens this weekend (the Buff Orpingtons were originally a friend's and I promised we wouldn't send them to "camp" so they will stay along with the rooster). As my darling husband says, it may be an ominious way to start the New Year but you have to take advantage of the warm weather when we have it.
As we head towards the dusk of this year and the dawn of another, I will not burden you with reflections of the past or resolutions for the future. I wish everyone a blessed New Year and to remember the words of Julian of Norwich, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
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