This section describes general methods of food preservation.
For detailed canning, freezing, drying, or root cellar
storage procedures, look in the chapter that covers that
food—for grains, Chapter 3; for herbs, Chapter 5; for
fruits, Chapter 6; meats, Chapter 8. For vegetables, look in
Chapter 4; pickles are mostly discussed under "Cucumbers"
and sauerkraut making under "Cabbage" in that chapter.
IN-GROUND STORAGE: Some people say you should leave most of the root vegetables in the garden during the winter, even after they're grown, rather than using other preserving methods. Parsnips and salsify are about the best for that; they're often left in the ground over winter with a mulch over them. But I tried that and despaired. Every time I wanted something out of the garden, the ground was either frozen so solid that I couldn't dig it up, or it was so wet and muddy that I could barely manage to pull my legs back out of the garden soil, much less bring an armload of vegetables with me. If the ground freezes down far enough to freeze your vegetables, they will get soft and be no good anyway (except for leeks). I guess it depends a lot on where you live or what your garden storage system is.
IN-GROUND STORAGE: Some people say you should leave most of the root vegetables in the garden during the winter, even after they're grown, rather than using other preserving methods. Parsnips and salsify are about the best for that; they're often left in the ground over winter with a mulch over them. But I tried that and despaired. Every time I wanted something out of the garden, the ground was either frozen so solid that I couldn't dig it up, or it was so wet and muddy that I could barely manage to pull my legs back out of the garden soil, much less bring an armload of vegetables with me. If the ground freezes down far enough to freeze your vegetables, they will get soft and be no good anyway (except for leeks). I guess it depends a lot on where you live or what your garden storage system is.
DETERIORATION IN STORAGE: We share this wonderful
world with myriad invisible but ravenous little critters who
love to eat exactly the same things we do. The food preservation
game is to get a move ahead of them and "enzymes,"
which are chemicals contained in the food itself that can
cause undesirable changes. Salt, sugar, alcohol, sodium
benzoate, and sulfurous acid are "chemical" preservatives that, in effect, poison or make the food yucky to the
beasties. Drying food makes it impossible for them to grow
and reproduce in it. Freezing puts them into hibernation
except for the most cold-hardy, which can then double their
number only in months, perhaps, rather than in hours.
Canning, when you do it right, kills every last beast in the
food and seals it up tight so that no more can get in. Cellar
storage takes advantage of certain living foods' natural defenses
against spoilage.
All stored foods, no matter how they are stored, slowly
but steadily lose quality and nutritional value as time goes
by. Some foods deteriorate faster than others. If a food was
on the verge of spoiling when you started, it may lose quality
more quickly in storage. Some storage methods, such as
canning and drying, hold the food better than others. The
biggest single risk factor for most stored foods is warmth,
which causes the loss of both nutrition and palatability.
With few exceptions, the cooler it is (above freezing for
nonfrozen foods), the better they keep. For every 20 degrees'
increase in storage temperature, you lose one half of
the possible shelf life of most stored foods. The ideal storage
temperature is 38-40 E
PRESERVING MEAT: Our family of 7 (and very often
extras) can use 2 big calves, 4 pigs, maybe half an elk,
and 50 or more chickens a year. The pigs supply cooking
grease as well, which can be canned or stored in the deep
freeze. Without electricity to run a deep freeze, you can't
keep meat frozen, except if you live where there is a really
bad winter—and even then, only during that winter. In
most places, your outside temperature will be below
freezing sometimes, but you'll also get off-season thaws
that could spoil the meat. So, without electricity, you'll
have to either rent a locker in a nearby town, which doesn't
cost much, or can most of your meat right after butchering.
That's what the old-timers did, and they ate well. You
can also dry the lean meat in small strips—jerky. But
that isn't as tasty or chewable as canned meat. You can
can the meat from any kind of animal; just bone it out
first. Another food preservation system for meat is making mincemeat at the beginning of the cool season. It will
keep during the winter months in a cold, outdoor place.
