Resources

The first source I found is one of the first books I bought when I was starting to learn about how to can and preserve.  It is called Stocking Up and was published in 1986.  The author is Carol Hupping and the staff of the Rodale Food Center. 

This book has everything you need to know about preserving. It discusses the proper way to harvest your produce and what to look for to make sure you are getting the freshest ingredients.  She describes in detail how to freeze, can, dry, pickle, and ferment each type of vegetable or fruit.  There is even a section on how to dig a root cellar.  She also has chapters on drying, curing and canning meat, poultry and fish.  She talks about the process of making you own yogurt, butter and other dairy products.

Included are many recipes that are suitable for freezing for use later on.  For example, tomato sauce that can be frozen and used for many different purposes or eggplant parmesan which can be taken out of the freezer for a quick meal long after eggplant is gone from the farmer’s market.

The second book is very similar and is titled Putting Food By written by Ruth Hertzberg, Beatrice Vaughan and Janet Greene.  It was published in 1973. 

This book has all the techniques described in the first and also includes recipes.  One difference is that this book starts off with a chapter on “Why Foods Spoil”.  The authors explain the different things that can go wrong if food is not preserved properly. 

The final source is a little different.  The book is called The Edible Heirloom Garden written by Rosalind Creasy and published in 1999.  In many ways I think this may be more important as it discusses the preservation of heirloom vegetables. Our farming culture is moving more and more toward a monoculture of food and there are many varieties of vegetables that are being lost.  In an interview with Kent Whealy, who is the director of Seed Savers they discuss how networks of gardeners save and share seeds in order to save these vegetables. 

In this book the author takes the reader through the process of deciding which vegetables would be the best choice for their region and how to lay out their garden. She then describes each vegetable from beets to squash and talks about when they should be planted and harvested.  She then tells you how to store them for use throughout the year. The vegetables that can’t be stored, or root cellared, she tells you how you can pickle.  She includes many seasonal recipes from simple roasted parsnips to corn pudding. 

As we start changing our way of thinking about food and where it comes from books like this are as relevant today as they were 14 years ago. 

Web resources for canning are many and they are very informative.  I do think that these older books are still a valuable resource to have on hand. 

The National Center for Home Food Preservation (http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_home.html) is probably the most comprehensive site I found for canners whether you are a beginner or have been canning for years.  It covers all of the standard preservation techniques and includes storing and canning meats.  It does not include dairy. 

For beginning canners there are many sites that offer tips and techniques on how to start small.  My favorites are Food in Jars (http://foodinjars.com) and Local Kitchen (http://localkitchenblog.com).  I would caution that if you are using a blog or other non-regulated site for canning to make sure they have a good reputation and that there recipes have been tested for safety.

To learn more about heirloom gardening you can visit http://www.seedsavers.org/ or http://heirloomgardener.com/ .