Freezing, drying and fermenting your harvest
Becki Janes offers tips to get the most out of your produce
Becki Janes
Guest columnist
The Valley Echo
November 3, 2020
Becki Janes owns and operates Becki’s Bounty in Black Mountain. Courtesy photo
In the second installment of this series on preserving foods, I’ll discuss freezing, drying and fermenting. Last time we talked about hot water bath and pressure canning. That piece contains a link to the USDA’s site on methods of canning.
Freezing beans, squash, corn and any number of fruits is an excellent way to keep your fresh products for use through the winter. Some folk like to throw their surplus tomatoes straight into the freezer to cook down for sauces at a later time. I, however, prefer to save my freezer space for other items. I start freezing my fruits and vegetables as soon as I have any surplus in my garden’s production.
Some items like blueberries can go straight into the freezer. Most vegetables, however, need to be treated with heat by blanching to suspend changes in the product before freezing. See this USDA link for all details on freezing. I try to have pretty empty freezers just as production really takes off in the garden to make room for fresh produce. I then try to use up my frozen products first so that I am saving my shelf stable canned goods to last until the next growing season.
Dehydrating foods is an excellent way to set aside food stores that take up little room and can be quickly prepared with reconstitution using plain water or canned stocks. I recently took a recipe of dehydrated vegetable and beef stew on a camping trip. My co-campers really liked it. Lots of folk are out there hiking and camping these days so dehydrated recipes and snacks are the way to go to reduce the weight you might carry.
Sandor Katz’s New York Times Bestseller “The Art of Fermentation” offers recipes and discussion on the benefits of eating fermented products. Photo courtesy of Becki Janes
Let’s talk fermenting. So many vegetables can be safely fermented right on your countertop, especially cruciferous or root vegetables. Sandor Katz’s New York Times Bestseller “The Art of Fermentation” is a great resource with lots of recipes and a thorough discussion on the benefits of eating fermented products.
I always have a jar of fermented cabbage in my refrigerator. I eat it like it is or I add it to salads or stir fry recipes. My favorite vegetable to ferment is daikon radish. A fermenter can be as simple as a mason jar with lid and ring. The jar should be “burped” once a day until the fermentation process slows down. Or if there is a beer or winemaker in the family you might borrow an airlock. Fermenting produces probiotics to benefit your gut health.
This year I combined fermenting and canning. I made an excellent wine grape jelly from pomace, a byproduct of local winemaker Tom Mincarelli’s micro winery. Pomace is the residue of fermented grapes that have been pressed to produce the wine. We have lots of frozen pomace and an excellent jelly recipe. Contact me at the email address below if you want to try your hand at making this jelly from local grapes grown using organic methods.
Good luck with all of your canning, freezing, drying and fermenting and know that I am happy to answer your questions about food preservation!
Becki Janes is owner and operator of Becki’s Bounty, a large market garden in Black Mountain., featuring a 6,000-square-foot-foot vegetable garden and a passive solar greenhouse with rainwater collection. For more information on Becki’s Bounty, email Janes at beckisbounty@gmail.com.