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Mastering Food Preservation: Canning Acid Foods
The eighth class in the Master Food Preserver Program built on knowledge gained in previous sessions, and introduced us to additional techniques for canning and preserving high acid foods,...
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Mastering Food Preservation: Winter Storage Techniques
An important part of eating locally year-round in Maine is learning to store food for the winter. To further knowledge about this, the Master Food Preserver Program includes a section on Winter...
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Mastering Food Preservation: Blue Ribbon Winners
The last section of the Master Food Preserver Program was on judging canned goods at fairs, a fitting end to our training as one of the opportunities available to volunteer Master Food Preservers is...
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12.17.12 Snow, dried beans, and chicory
“It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow.” — Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” The garden snug under its covers and an extra blanket of newly...
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Mastering Food Preservation: Hands-On Workshops
A series of hands-on food preservation workshops are being offered through the UMaine Cooperative Extension, with several of them hosted by the Kittery and Marshwood (South Berwick) Adult Education...
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How to Preserve a Husband + 5 links
We came across instructions for “How to Preserve a Husband” tucked in the back of a “Ball Blue Book” from 1966. For more on the topic of preserving… ~ Watch: Cassie Parker, the Canning Queen of New...
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The Science, Art and Lore of Pickling
“On a hot day in Virginia, I know of nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the steps in Aunt Sally’s cellar.” —...
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4.29.13 Preserving the New Season
While inspecting our stores and planning this year’s garden, we’re making a mental list of things to preserve in the coming season: - Freezing peas — One of the earliest tasks; as with tomatoes, we...
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Mastering Food Preservation: Ball’s BPA-Free Canning Lids
We’ve long been concerned about BPA in canning lids, and just received an alert from a reader that Ball is now offering BPA-free lids: They began production/release of their BPA-free lids in January...
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Barley Scones with Rhubarb-Ginger Jam
I’m a terrible shopper when traveling. Fortunately, the Gardener is not. Other husbands may bring home gifts of meat. Much like the Will Ferrell character in the movie Stranger than Fiction, mine...
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Pea Pod Broth
So much of cooking, especially preserving, is born of necessity. It’s always disturbed me that we didn’t use the pods left from shelling peas. Their skins dense with pea flavor, it seemed a wasted...
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7.15.13 Agretti, Invaders, and Other People’s Harvests
This is the second time around with the radishes and agretti. The early spring plantings of both failed to thrive, and were replanted with enough success to be included in this week’s harvest. To get...
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Mastering Food Preservation: More on Identifying Ball’s BPA-Free Lids
For those concerned about the presence of BPA in the lining of lids for home canning, we posted previously on identifying Ball’s new BPA-free lids by looking for the serial number on the boxes they...
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Mastering Food Preservation: A Pickle Primer
“The laws of hair care are simple and finite.” — Elle, “Legally Blonde” We’ve all had them, bad hair days. And, for those who practice the art of canning, the same goes for less than optimum pickles....
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Putting Up: Tomatoes — Crushed & Sauced
For some, security is having enough jars of strawberry jam, for others it’s having a root cellar full of potatoes. For us, it’s having enough canned tomatoes to fill an entire shelf in the pantry....
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Putting Up: Pressure Canning Workshop in Kittery
Take your canning beyond pickles and preserves at this upcoming hands-on workshop on Pressure Canning Tomatoes on Tuesday, September 24th from 5:30 to 8:30 pm, at Traip Academy in Kittery, ME. We will...
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Canning it Forward
We take back what we said about growing tomatoes in Maine. After promising to help can for an overwhelmed neighbor, this beautiful basketful was just delivered filled with Amish paste, Rose de Berne,...
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Putting Up: Tomatoes — Roasted & Canned
After stocking the pantry with a season’s worth of crushed and sauced tomatoes, we wondered about roasting as a way of preparing them for canning. We’ve roasted smaller tomatoes to freeze but, with...
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Putting Up: Carrot Pepper Salsa, Canned + Lacto-Fermented
Like seed catalogs for home gardeners, fellow preserver Kate says the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is the canner’s equivalent — wonderful to browse mid-winter and dream of the colorful jars...
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Putting Up: Sweet Cherry Tomato Pickles
We made Sweet Cherry Tomato Pickles for the first time last year, and they quickly became a favorite. Juicy, tangy and bite-sized, they’re easy to serve as is or blended together for a quick...
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