Preserving our produce

Preserving food ©Janet Allen"Canned" jam, dried peppers and apples, and winter squash stored, then frozen

We value eating our own nutritious, safe food and we value eating food grown locally.

Here in Central New York, with a fairly short growing season, that means we need to preserve some of our summer bounty to eat during the winter months.

We do this in a variety of ways: canning, drying, freezing, and storing. Different methods work best for different foods.

So far, we've been pretty successful, and pretty much all winter we've been eating our own food as well as some we've purchased at the Regional Market in the fall.

Cookbook ©Janet Allen
A favorite cookbook

Of course, besides preserving, we cook a lot of our produce during the growing season and beyond. (We share some of our favorite recipes on Our Green, Good Life website.)

We've acquired favorite recipes from a variety of sources, but this book has been especially handy through the years (as you can tell by its battered condition). It not only has good recipes, organized by vegetable, but it also provides some growing information (though not always organic methods), harvesting information, and storage information. Knowing when to harvest and how to store produce is really important! Unfortunately, this book is out of print, but there are used copies online.