Preserving what we grow is so rewarding, and there are so many ways to do it! Home canning, dehydrating, freezing, and even storing are a few ways to "put up" the foods you grow, but there are definitely more! One of my favorite ways to preserve fruit is to make wine. This post will kick off a series that will take you through the fruit wine making process, step-by-step from ...
PRESERVING FOOD
How to Make Strawberry Wine Step-By-Step
Looking for something to do with those few extra pounds of strawberries at the end of summer? Why not capture summer 2018 in a bottle by learning how to make strawberry wine? It's sweet, it's refreshing, and you don't need much to make it if you already have the equipment and supplies. If you haven't made wine before, don't worry. Inside of this post is everything you need ...
Canning Low Acid Foods: 7 Safety Rules You Need to Follow
Home pressure canning is a fabulous way of preserving the bounty from your garden or store, but for some it can feel very scary. Many hear horror stories involving pressure canning and wonder "will I blow up my kitchen?" Some simply just stick with water bath canning, and unfortunately, end up using that method for foods that need to be processed under pressure, putting their ...
How to Store Root Vegetables with No Root Cellar
As gardeners, the goal of growing our own food is to achieve good nutrition by providing enough healthy food to put on the table for the family throughout the year. Most crops are preserved by some sort of food preservation method: canning, dehydrating, freezing, etc. However, if you know how to store root vegetables properly, you can cut out a lot of extra work for ...
How to Preserve Grapes with Your Freezer
Grapes are one of the most fantastic fruits we can grow on our homestead. Not only do they taste amazing right off the vine, you can learn how to preserve grapes by dehydrating, freezing, or making wines and vinegars. While growing grapes might seem like a tricky endeavor, once you have them going, they will produce for you year after year. Your grapevines will provide ...
Freezing Tomatoes for Preserving Later in the Year
Garden fresh tomatoes are a cornerstone of summer harvests, and sometimes the windfall of tomatoes is much more than we can keep up with--or maybe it’s just me! Both consistent harvesting from the garden and vigilant organic pest control are taking up a lot of time, leaving time for little else. There's an easy way to deal with this wonderful problem, and that's freezing ...
Drying Beans in a Dehydrator for More Convenience Food
As homesteaders, we are constantly busy, aren't we? There is so much to do on our properties that needs attention, and all of it seems to be RIGHT NOW. Despite the fact that we have plenty of food at our fingertips from growing food in our gardens, chicken coops, and perhaps even our livestock, the one thing our homesteads can't really give us back is time. Let me show you how ...
How to Dehydrate Potatoes for Convenience Food
Life is just busy, no way around it. And homesteader's lives tend to be a little more busy than other people's, but that could just be a matter of opinion. Whatever has your life busy, busy, busy, there's definitely that temptation to stroll through that boxed convenience aisle! We throw caution to the wind in exchange for the ability to quickly get something delicious on the ...
How to Dehydrate Tomatoes for Everyday Use
Having a well-stocked pantry is 100% necessary for the home cook that is striving to stay away from precooked, prepackaged, and fast food. He or she is seeking to create better, more healthy, and flavorful meals like chili and spaghetti without having to run to the store, or worse yet, order in when one item hasn't yet been replenished. Tomato products are one of those items ...
How to Dehydrate Food for Beginners
It's an hour before dinner and you have no earthly idea what you are making for the family. Is there any macaroni and cheese? Nope. Spaghetti sauce? Nada. Canned beans? Yep, but no cheese or tortillas. Ever been there? You won't have to be once you learn how to dehydrate food! Imagine always having on hand the items you need for a recipe. I'm not talking frozen or canned ...
Pressure Canning Carrots is Safe and So Easy!
The other day I found a fantastic deal on carrots, .20/lb! The carrots are nice-sized, but 25 lbs is a lot of carrots, even after canning 21 quarts of my mom's soup (you can see that recipe here, if you're wondering about it). Canning carrots is how I decided to handle the last 15 of those 25lbs! Pressure canning carrots is one of the easiest home canning jobs you can ...
How to: Safe Delicious Pressure Canned Ground Beef
Canned ground beef isn't for everyone, and believe me, I wasn't sure it was for me either! However, over the years as I have learned to can it according to one of the recipes in the Ball Blue Book, I have really learned to rely on it as a staple in my kitchen. I mentioned the other day that we can use home-canned meats in many different dishes, like spaghetti, chili (my ...