Yesterday, we talked about canning and mentioned that it’s not always our go-to preservation technique. We figured it might be appropriate to talk about how our preservation focus has “evolved” over the years.
We used to (and to some degrees, still do) have many jars of canned goods put up. As “slightly younger” growers, though, the appeal of “canned everything” just isn’t there for us, at least like it might have been for our grandparents in the early 1900’s. Like most people these days, our general desires have revolved around fresh and fresh-ish kinds of foods these days.
Once we fully recognized this preference, our preservation practices largely shifted. The blanch and freeze process we heavily use fits into this, because frozen goods are often not all that different from fresh foods, at least once they are cooked. Canning just tends to obliterate any semblance of “fresh,” given the high temperatures, processing times and sometimes pressures used.
Another thing we often practice is frequent pickling and fermentations. The focus of these kinds of preservations tends to be a matter of weeks, not months or years. These preservations definitely satisfy the “fresh” desires for food, preserving things like “crunch” and those fresh flavors.
In fact, we’ve sort of integrated these short term preservations into our “whole year” diet, too. It’s not uncommon for us to buy “a little extra” in the winter months and throw down a sauerkraut, picked veggie or some other short term preservation. This helps us maximize food budgets, especially when we get those foods on a deal.
One of the often overlooked and more challenging aspects of working with preserved foods is fully integrating these things into your cooking and diet. When you make and preserve “appealing” foods, this process is much easier. It’s really important, as modern preservationists, to recognize how our tastes and preferences have evolved!
A helpful technique that we’ve used was to really give a hard look at the things we were buying and using regularly. Then, we evolved our gardens and preservations to try and match those needs. An example? We go through a ton of canned tomatoes, all year. So, it’s highly valuable for us to produce canned tomatoes as it’s directly contributing to our bottom lines and nutritional intake.
Though it does make us “create of habits,” we also have favorite things we make every year. When we find a preservation or product that we really enjoy using, we lean into that. Making stuff you like to eat is a “good idea” and will help the efficiency of your garden’s output. If you don’t like a food, don’t make it or grow it!
We encourage our readers to really give a hard look at this. It’s one of the more important things we’ve discovered in maximizing the modern garden. We don’t “have” to replicate the ways of generations that came before us, we can fully make this stuff our own!
