Preserving-
Freezing, dehydrating, curing, pickling, and preserving or canning fresh produce is one way to keep your food local and variety available all year round.
You might look into making jams, apple butter, apple juice, applesauce, pickles etc. Do This--> Check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation for details on how to preserve food safely and properly: http://nchfp.uga.edu/ Quick Tips For Freezing Foods:
Dehydrating Foods: The principle of dehydrating foods is to remove its moisture through heat, but not so high of a heat that it cooks the food. Electric dehydrator systems are often used today. Avoiding Death When Eating Preserved Foods:
What?! Avoiding death? That's right. If done improperly, preserving your foods can introduce molds and bacteria into your food. A common, and deadly, bacteria that grows in the vacuum sealed world of a preserved food is Clostridium botulinum. Symptoms: If eaten or exposed to your blood stream, it will cause paralysis, double vision, droopy eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing & breathing, and even death. **So.... Following proper procedures when preserving your foods in airtight containers is imperative. Signs that your preserved food might be contaminated with bacteria or fungus:
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Canning Basics Video
Although you may hear of many canning methods, only two are approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). These are water-bath canning and pressure canning:
This video will demonstrate water bath canning basics from Boston station WBUR's "Here & Now" resident chef Kathy Gunst:
Common Water-bath canning equipment:
--> If you choose to do some preserving: Research procedures including adding ingredients, minimum heat levels, and time duration for the particular food your will be preserving; they can differ depending on the type of foods you are working with! |