Category: Grub Garage
Hi.
I hope this is the right catagory for this. Does anyone have any experience canning or preserving fruits and veggies? I want to start so thought I'd see if any of my fellow cooks who are blind have any hents or tips.
Thanks.
My daughter started getting into the so-called locavore lifestyle, one of them teenage idealist things I suppose.
Well, canning takes a lot of equipment and we don't have a ton of money so I opted for freezing. I did food processing duty, not just as my share of the deal, but finally in years the baby girl wanted to do something with the dad, something they ddon't want much of as teenagers. So I sorta stepped up to that one for all it was worth.
Freezing has two basic parts I'll describe, and I don't think too much of it has to do with being blind though I myself have never had sight.
First, most fruits and veggies have to be blanched or cooked just a bit first. Apparently that slows down enzyme activity sso the sugars and other components don't break down.
Second, you often need a citrus component to the mixture, that is supposed to preserve its color and texture. Also with fruits you do need to add some sugar, apparently that helps also but I don't remember how.
Now the part I think does affect us without sight, is processing it to begin with: If you're like me and mostly you've cut up and managed food from stores, some of the stuff from those local types of places looks defective, at least to us. I had nearly thrown away some pieces of fruits that had been either ripped or seemed a bit softer or somewhat defective, nearly sent the daughter into idealistic paroxisms about things natural and so-called "not perfect" fruits. This was especially true of peaches and similar stuff, it just looked like part of it was bad or something. I don't know, probably the color was still the proper color so she knew. So anyway, if it's just you, you can probably get away with throwingt those parts away as you might, unless you know another way to tell it didn't rot or something.
That's the only part I found to be a bit of a challenge without sight. But the butchery of fruit carcases and the chemistry / physics involved just meant for me to read up on some places that were into the what and the how, rather than the ideals, and it's not difficult. You just have to dedicate time to doing it, though, as it's sort of a industrial operation and there are quite a few steps that have to happen in rapid sequence, like getting everything cooled to temperature after blanching so it doesn't overcook, and getting things bagged in time, stuff like that.
But although they usually describe the product in terms of what color it turns, you can use their timing plus calculate to make up the difference if you're doing different proportions. The fruits and veggies are still supposed to remain crisp or whatever consistency they were ahead of time, or at least close to it.
Oh and one other easy mistake to make: they're right when they say spread the bags out as flat as possible in the freezer for the first 48 hours or so, because everything's gotta freeze individually or it will clump up.
Also, this works best with a full-sized freezer. We did not get one of those as she started into this in the fall, and who would know if it was one of them passing idealist phases or not, you know: kids.
But, ideals or no, the food is amazingly good and the work is not difficult, just time consuming. I would dedicate a whole afternoon to process the following:
corn, broccoli, peaches, nectarines, and pears.
With a full freezer you can even process peas and green beans, if you set the temperatures at 0 Fahrenheit or so.
Between the two of us, we got it done: she had the ideals and I had the science / engineering background to make short work of the situation. Now, I never did get around to building her some sort of indoor garden situation for those herbs, though I've looked at several plans with draining ducts and the like. Admittedly I am not the most versed in this stuff, so I just do what I do best: take it all apart, figure out how the parts work, and put it back together.
Yep, in the research I've done, it does look to be a bit complicated. I'm trying to start a stockpile so while freezing would work for making our summer veggies last throughout the winter, it wouldn't help much in the wake of a disaster. I don't have tons of cash to by MRE's which aren't very healthy anyway, so I'm trying to figure out a way to economically build our supplies. One of the ideas in a book I'm reading was to can one's own food. That might not happen though. lol
thanks very much for the advice on freezing.
If it's a stockpile you want, why not a dehydrator?
Those are pretty easy to use, from what I understand, sort of like smoking meat: you just make the product into strips or pieces, put them on the racks, and depending on what it is or what dehydrator you have, you may have to turn them over after a certain time.
Your paleolithic ancestord did dehydration of foods long before any other methods, and it keeps virtually without spoilage, especially if you go for the full dehydration rather than the sort of halfway sticky stuff people often do. Then when you want to use the veggies or fruits you can soak them in water and they will plump up. I can't imagine this would pose any serious challenges being blind as you can do it by timing and by feel.
Plus, as with any sort of storage, weight is a concern: dehydrated stuff is amazingly light since most organic products (not the way my daughter says organic, I mean just having been alive once) are mostly water in weight. So with some decent cannisters and a dehydrator you would be good.
I think I've seen some on Craigslist anywhere between $60 and $200 or so. That would be cheaper than canning supplies or less than what it would take to do freezing.
It's definitely a time thing though.
That's a great idea that I hadn't thought of. We have a dehydrater but I've never had good luck with it. It was a pretty cheap one though so perhaps a different kind would do a better job. I think I'll look into dehydrating. Thanks for the idea.
leo what is the locavore life style. never heard that term. please educate the ignorant.
i've always found it worked better for me to put whatever i was freezing in a single layer on a cookie sheet. then when it was done, it could be batged.
in my experience if you are going to use whatever you are freezine in a soup or a stew, then blanching isn't that necessary. it's just an appearance thing mainly.
forget canning. it's too hard to do. i know blind people who have done it, but my question is why. when they have so many inexpensive canned goods in the store stocking up on those is a lot more economical.
yes, it is more economical but store bought canned goods only have a shelflife of about to to 5 years, if that. Besides, I'm about to attempt to start a garden so I want to preserve what I can.
You can indeed can on the cheap. I used my turkey roaster and a dozen quart ball jars I got at the hardware store to can some apple and pear butter I made last year. Your going to need a sighted assistant mainly for support and morale. The most expensive thing you'll need is a pair of silacone gloves to protect your hands when filling the jars with hot fruit. With a water bath canner ie turkey roaster you can fill the cans screw down the tops and let them cool in the water. A large pot with boiling water to staralize the jars will also help. A jar filler ie funnel with a wide bottom will make filling easier. I think the only reason to can is if you have a garden. Make a day of it put on lots of good tunes and keep snacks handy. You can do it. Happy gardening and canning. Tiffany
Well, I'm out on the sighted assistance but I have another plan.
I've begun dehydrating fruit and am having lots of success. I've learned how to package it for long term storage as well.
I need to get a better food dehydrator but the one I have now will do. My next trip to the store will involve lots of produce to dehydrate. I'm getting the garden started on Thursday but that's in another post. lol
Thanks for the suggestions.
Turricane, the locavore lifestyle as the daughter explained it, and as I read, has to do with eating foods that are in season in your local area, so you buy from establishments that get their food from the local farms.
I thought at first it was something else for the snooty idealistic young hipsters to get excited, wave their cell phones around, and text about. Well they do all of that, but it actually does result in better tasting food and the work is mainly time-consuming.
I don't think with canning in jars you're going to exceed five years' supply anyway. Glass is porous.
I've always wanted to learn how to can things. My mom canned things when i was a kid and they were amazing. I've frozen things before, but never dehydrated them. That would be cool. I'd never thought of that.
Take care,
Dawnielle
I am thinking about canning or freezszing food from my garden this year. I am going to do more reading on it. We canned some when I was a kid, but I really didn't pay to much attention to it though. In the last few years I have really gotten in to gardening and it would be so nice to have veggies from the garden all year!
Wow I don't know much about this kind of thing. So can one actually buy empty cans for this purpose? And can one actually seal them like the canned foods you get in stores?
Usually, glass jars are used.
I realize this topic's a bit old, but I thought I'd chime in. Just as a disclaimer, I myself have never canned. However, I've read quite a bit about it, and it seems the only way to safely can low-acid foods like meats, veggies and seafood s through the use of a pressure canner. Basically, it's like a pressure cooker but bigger and with an actual pressure gauge. You'll also need some wide-mouthed canning jars, and from what I can gather, you can sterilize the jars in the pressure canner as well.
If you're interested, here's an introduction from Presto, a maker of pressure canners. If you happen to have a pressure cooker that's six quarts and above, you can also can in there. The only difference is that if you have a six-quart, you'll be able to process less per batch.
http://www.gopresto.com/recipes/canning/
my daughter has canned green beans and tomato sauce. she was blind and both turned out fabulous. something new that just came to my knowledge was that there are new pressure canners that have a basket inside. you can take the basket out with the jars in them thus eliminating the issue of hot water and burning hands etc. I will let my daughter know this thread is on here and maybe she can add her expertise.
That'd be awesome! Thanks.