One of the things we like to talk about each season is how we learned how to do this stuff. Believe it or not, we didn’t grow up with big gardens and food preservation at the forefront. For us, these interests developed later in life and weren’t necessarily inspired by our upbringing.
It was fully into our adult lives where we picked up the deep interest in growing food and food preservation. Everything we’ve learned has been self taught, sometimes by book, the internet or even just by doing it and learning from our mistakes. We’ve continually picked up and tried to develop newer skills as we’ve advanced our efforts in food preservation.
For example, here we’re using a food mill. Perhaps surprisingly, this wasn’t a tool in our repertoire until just a few years ago. At the time, we wanted to make and preserve tomato soup from our harvested tomatoes, which necessitates using a food mill. It’s hard to believe we got by without using one for so long!
The food mill is designed to separate seeds and skins from the pulp and juice of a given fruit. It basically forces the produce into a seive, allowing us to keep the parts of the fruit we want and getting rid of what we don’t. We try to use it each season, just to remember how to put it together and keep our skills fresh.
One of the things we “harp on” each season is the continual exercising of various growing and preservation skills. When you keep these skills “well greased,” it’s easier to both do them, but also to pick off more advanced skillsets. When you’ve well exercised the majority of preservation methods, crafting almost anything is easily within your reach.
A big part of this, for us, is setting new goals or venturing into “new things” each season. Sometimes we’ll do the same things, but maybe with a twist or new technique. While we’re certainly creatures of habit, and we do encourage people to grow and make things they like, it’s almost entirely these “new things” that will help you grow as a gardener and preservationist.
If you’re new to all this, it’s important to recognize you’re not going to learn everything, all at once. This stuff takes many years to develop and eventually practice well. You can be decades into the hobby and there will still be things you’ve never done, perhaps like using a food mill for example! It’s important to be patient with scope of growing and preservation!
If you’re doing or learning something new this season, what are you up to?
