Enjoy the Bounty of Summer All Year!

It's nearly August! The bounty of summer is in full swing, and in Connecticut there is no shortage of delicious, fresh, and varied produce to put in our kitchens. Produce, however, has a pesky habit of going bad over time, especially when you're dealing with highly perishable fruits like berries. This month, when all the tomatoes in your garden are ripening at the same time and you have more access to fresh local produce at the market than you know what to do with, use some of these methods to preserve the harvest so you can enjoy it all year!

Drying: Out of the three major food preservation options, drying is the most economical. It requires the least amount of energy input, and much of the work is done in the background while you're off doing other things. Here's an article by Jean Nick from Rodale that details the process of dehydration, complete with tips and recipes sure to make your mouth water.

Canning: Canning takes some time and skill, but it's the only way wet foods can be preserved without refrigeration. If you want to learn how to can just about anything, peruse this blog by Canning Granny. She provides a wide variety of recipes and tips from her own kitchen and from readers' submissions.

Freezing: Freezing is arguably the easiest food preservation technique, requiring relatively little time or preparation, but it requires a lot of freezer storage space and, therefore, a lot of energy. Good Housekeeping gives a good introduction to freezing, including what not to freeze and how to properly prepare and wrap food for freezing.

And if you want to learn more in depth guidelines and tips, the Cornell Extension has a great webpage about all three food preservation techniques. Check out our webpage as the summer draws to a close to learn about our fall food preservation workshops as they are scheduled.

Have a bountiful day!
-Melissa

Freezing & Drying Workshop and our Canning Workshop

On Saturday, October 15, CT NOFA had two workshops at Common Ground High School! The workshops are meant to teach consumers and farmers about preserving foods to last through the winter and how to use some of the hardier winter crops grown in Connecticut.  The first workshop, held in the morning, was "Freezing and Drying."

 CT NOFA's Office Manager, Deb Legge, was the freezing and drying instructor, along with a CT NOFA Board member and food enthusiast, Janet Heller. Deb is showing her variety of fruit leathers in this photo, made from a variety of fruits includng: apple, pear, rubharb, strawberry and crabapple.  

Some healthy fruit rollup! 

 Deb demonstrating the use of garden sheers to cut fruit leather (she promised to have never used them outside)

We all approved of her work.  For a portion of the workshop we were in Common Ground's kitchen where Deb demonstrated how she prepares fruit for drying and also demonstrated how to blanch kale (you basically submerge kale in boiling water for one minute and then transfer it to ice water so it retains most of its physical properties and its taste, but kills the enzymes that cause it to decompose).

The next workshop "Preserving the Harvest: Canning" was held in the afternoon.  Wyatt Whiteman, who owns a one acre farm in Fairfield and lives in a farmhouse that dates back to 1760, shared a delicious salsa recipe with the participants, who got to work vegetable chopping:

Then Wyatt showed the participants how to mix their chopped vegetables, and transfer them to cans for safe consumption.  Everyone got to bring home a can of salsa for their home! Preparing some foods for canning is more complex while others (like salsa) are a process of cutting and mixing the right ingredients.  There are hundreds of canning sites out there - but this one explains the basics nicely and has an instructional video: http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx

Stay tuned for more ideas on how to eat local even when Connecticut's farms are under frost and snow in the coming months!