Pass the Preserves
Preserving Your Harvest
The spring and summer growing seasons provide us with an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. Preserving your harvest can be done in many different ways: canning, pickling and freezing just to name a few. Molbak's Pass the Preserves online video tutorial series, with our host Lisa Taylor, will walk you through a variety of food preservation techniques.
Lisa shares her own personal tips and tricks and will show you how easy it is to take the freshest produce - whether you've grown it yourself or purchased at the local farmers market or grocery store - and turn it into a year 'round resource. It's a family fun activity and we hope you enjoy preserving as much as we do!
There's more than one way to preserve your harvest!
Canning
Canning is one of the most versatile ways to preserve a vast array of fruits and vegetables. A delicious bounty of your own favorites all year long!
Homemade tomato sauce, fresh peaches, raspberry jam, pickles can be available from your own pantry any day of the week.
Freezing / Blanching
Freezing your harvest is quick and easy. Many fruits and vegetables can go straight from the garden to the freezer (cleaned of course) in air tight bags or eco-friendly storage containers.
Some fruits and vegetables will require blanching before freezing. Simply plunge the fruit or vegetables into a large pot of boiling water for about one third of the regular cooking time, then transfer to ice cold water, before patting dry and freezing.
Fermentation
This is one of the oldest ways to preserve foods. This process utilizes bacteria and fungi - or yeasts and molds - to produce either alcohol or acid from carbohydrate sources. These metabolites preserve products and create unique flavors, textures and enhanced nutrition. Fermentation generally occurs in an anaerobic environment, meaning no oxygen is present.
Pickling
You can pickle just about anything from obvious cucumbers to unexpected fruits such as strawberries. Each vegetable or fruit has different requirements and we'll show you a few.
