Preserving Your Harvest

Food Garden Group member Margie M shared her extensive knowledge of preserving in a workshop for those with limited or no preserving experience.

Fermenting and Microwave Bottling

Recently Food Garden Group members visited Jenny's kitchen for a demonstration of fermenting and microwave preserving.  This blog post is based on notes Jenny provided, with some extra info and photos added.

Fermenting

Fermenting is the process of preserving vegetables in brine.  Pretty much any vegetable can be fermented.  Use what is abundant and fresh.  It is fun to experiment.  Root vegetables ferment really well.

People choose to ferment vegetables for a number of reasons:

1. It is a low-cost and effective way of long-term storage.
2. Fermented vegetables are very good for the gut.  They improve irritable bowel.
3. Vegetables remain crisp, yet easy to chew and taste very nice.

The main ingredient added to the vegetables is brine.  Brine used in fermenting is '2% brine', which means 1 level tbsp of salt (or 19 grams) added to 4 cups of boiled water.  Add to vegetables when cooled down.

For fermenting use salt without additives.  Normal salt contains iodine and anti-caking agents and they affect the taste and the fermentation process.  The amount of salt determines the speed of fermenting: less salt means faster fermenting, more salt means slower fermenting.

Other ingredients are optional.  Tannins can be added, so vegetables stay crisp, so there is less chance of them going mushy.  Good tannins are found in grape leaves, sour cherry leaves, bay leaves, cloves, tarragon, cumin, thyme, vanilla and cinnamon.  Pepper and other spices can help to create tasty results, but of not contain tannins.

Use ceramic pots (crocks ; there is one in photo 2 below), glass jars with metal clips (fido jars, see middle of photo 1) or jam jars, vegemite jars or similar with plastic lids and air locks (on the right in photo 1).

photo 1: fido jars (middle) and a glass jar with plastic lid and airlock (right)

photo 2: a crock (middle) and a jar with an airlock (the other jars are microwave bottles)

For glass jars with plastic lids buy small black rubbers (gaskets) and air locks (look in the brewing kit section of hardware stores), drill a hole in the plastic lid and then fit gasket and airlock.

To make sure all vegetables are submerged in the brine, in other words to stop 'floaters', and to prevent spoilage and mould, put a ziplock plastic bag without holes with a bit of brine as a weight in the top of the jar.  Alternatively, you can cut a cabbage or grape leaf to size and use that (see photo 3 below).

photo 3: using a cabbage leaf to keep floaters down

During the fermentation process CO2 bubbles come to the top of the jar. The fido jars and glass jars with airlocks allow this CO2 to escape.

Sauerkraut ('sour cabbage')

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size white or green cabbage
• 1 tbsp of caraway or dill seed or cumin
• Salt without additives (see above)

Method:

1. Core and shred the cabbage, except for an outer leaf you may like to use as cover
2. Weigh, put in bowl, then add 1 tbsp of salt per kilogram of cabbage
3. Add caraway or dill or cumin and mix ingredients
4. Pound the mix for about 10 minutes with a rolling pin to release juices.  If the cabbage has not made enough of its own brine, add a small amount of 2% brine.
5. Spoon into jars, pressing down to release air bubbles.  Do not fill right to the top.  Leave about 2 centimetres so CO2 can escape.
6. Cut the outer cabbage leaf to size and put that in the top of the jar or fill a small plastic bag without holes with a bit of brine and put that in the top of the jar.
7. Put the lid on, not too tight.  If using airlocks add some brine to the top of the airlock.
8. Leave in an area with moderate temperatures, not in direct sunlight.  Put jars on bowls to catch liquid that bubbles out. 
9. When mix has stopped bubbling CO2 (3 - 6 weeks ), store in cool area, for instance the fridge.
10. You can keep the sauerkraut for up to a year before it becomes too mushy.

photo 4: pounding the Sauerkraut mix with a rolling pin

Fermented carrots

Ingredients:

• As many carrots as you would like to preserve
• Fresh dill or dried dill seed or other spices (ratio depends on your taste)
• 2% brine (see above)

Method:

1. Chop the carrots into small sticks
2. Cover with cooled down brine
3. Add spice of choice, dill or turmeric etc. and mix well
4. Same as Step 5 - 10 above

There is a lot of info on the internet on fermenting.  A good site is Wild Fermentation .

Microwave bottling

The major attraction of microwave bottling is that you can do a jar or two at a time.  The process is fast and easy and the result is yummy and healthy.  Microwave bottling is mainly used for fruit, but it can also be done for tomatoes.  It can not be used for green vegetables.

Jenny recommends that you use a traditional microwave, i.e. one with a rotating platform, because otherwise jars may not heat evenly.  Use the 'medium high' setting on the microwave.

For fruit that is sweet you can add water or light syrup (1 cup of sugar per 3 cups of water).

For fruit that is not sweet you may want to add heavy syrup (1 cup of sugar per 1 cup of water).

You can use jam jars or Fowler Vacola jars with clips.  There are no problems with metal lids if you adhere to Step 6 below.

photo 5: Jenny fills a jar with a mix of fruits

Ingredients:

• Fruit, a mix of fruits or tomatoes
• Water or light syrup or heavy syrup

Method:

1. Wash unblemished fruit, then peel, core, slice or dice
2. Pack fruit until no more fits in the jar without pushing down
3. Add water or syrup until fruit covered, but not to the rim of the jar
4. Put lid on loosely so excess liquid can escape.  If you are using Fowler Vacola jars clip them the normal way
5. You can microwave more than one jar at the time, but give them ample space and make sure jars do not touch the microwave walls or each other
6. Microwave according to 'Microwave times' below
7. Do not leave the kitchen: keep an eye on what is happening.
8. Tighten lids as soon as jars are removed from microwave (be careful they are hot)
9. You should hear lids 'pop' as the jars cool down (a sign that the jar is properly sealed).  If a lid does not pop, eat contents of that jar first
10. Store the jars in a cool place

photo 6: give your jars ample space

Microwave times

Jar size 250 - 350 ml: 5 minutes for 1 jar + 2 minutes for every additional jar

Jar size 400- 650 ml: 8 minutes for 1 jar + 2 minutes for every additional jar

Jar size 700 - 900 ml: 12 minutes for 1 jar + 2 minutes for every additional jar

Good books on the subject are Isobel Webb's 5 Minute Microwave Bottling and More Microwave Bottling (publisher The Five Mile Press ).  Some local libraries in Hobart have the books.

Happy bottling!

Processing produce when you don't have much time

Hopefully your food-garden will produce a glut or two this season.  Broadbeans, peas, strawberries, raspberries, stone fruits, tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, you name it, if the glut is on, they either need to be eaten or preserved for later.  But what do you do if you don’t have time to immediately create the wonderful sauces, jams and other delights you have in mind?

This blog post focuses on quick methods for processing your glut. 

Here are the quick methods I am aware of:

Method 1: do nothing

Are you joking?  Well, no.  The dying down of your potato foliage (telling you that your spuds are ready for harvest), or the fact that your carrots or parsnips have reached a good size, does not necessarily mean that you have to take them out of the ground.   If three conditions are met you can just leave them in the ground until you need them.  These conditions are that your soil is not very clayey, is not and will not be very wet and does not contain a lot of root-eating grubs.  In these circumstances AND if you stop watering the crop, gradually diminishing autumn temperatures create a perfect storage area for your crop.  I have done it and it works in my garden, with the limitation that you need to dig up your crop before mid August when ‘the call of nature’ becomes too strong and roots begin to sprout.

Method 2: store in a cool and dark place

I will never forget a visit to a cool dark cellar below a stone farm-house in the South of France.  The wonderful smells and the wealth of food hanging from rafters, on shelves and in bottles were just fantastic.  If you have a year-round-cool, dry, preferably dark area somewhere (perhaps under your house), it might be suitable as your food cellar.  After harvesting, leave your crop outside in the shade for a few hours until it is dry, then store it in your food cellar area, making sure it is well ventilated.  Potatoes and other root crops will do best in total darkness, and will last well over winter until around mid August when nothing except anti-sprouting chemicals will stop them from sprouting.  Garlic does not need to be kept in the dark, but, unless treated with nasties, will also sprout in early Spring.

An old variation on this theme was used in Europe in centuries gone by.  A hole was dug in ground not subject to flooding or in a shed, a layer of dry sand was put on the bottom of the pit, root crops were stacked in layers on their side and then buried with sand.  Works well, but only until early Spring.

Method 3: wonderful vinegar

Vinegar is a flavour-enhancing quick reliable preservative. 

In essence, ‘pickling’ is filling sterilized jars with produce and adding vinegar until it covers the content.  Put on the lid, store in a year-round-cool spot, preferably a fridge, and your produce will remain fresh for a very long time.

For garlic the process is very quick and easy: see garlic recipe here.

For other produce herbs and spices are added: see capsicum recipe on that same blog page.

Soaking in salty water (‘brining’) is a time-consuming process used with for instance olives before storing them in vinegar: see the same blog page.

Such a wonderful substance, vinegar!  What a pity fruit stored in vinegar is not all that wonderful.

Method 4: freezing

With the availability of electric refrigeration we can now freeze and store food for years.  However, with human-induced climate change and electricity costs now serious issues, freezing is no longer the ‘no brainer’ it once was.  Still, there is no doubt it is fast and easy:

·      Freeze whole
‘Just chuck it in the freezer’ is a real option for some produce.  Don’t let your lemons lose their ‘zing’ on the tree.  Pick them, remove any dirt and blemishes, put them in a bag, and freeze whole.  Do the same with Rhubarb and Leek if you have space for long stalks.  Just make sure you separate them in quantities that are easy to ‘dislodge’ from your freezer.

·      Cut and freeze
Wash, remove blemishes, cut into bits, put in meal-size containers and freeze.  This method can be used for rhubarb, leek, silverbeet and many other leaf vegetables and stone fruits.  I use lunch boxes for leeks that I cut in half.  When I need a stalk I separate it from the rest of the stalks with a knife and because it is hard it is easy to cut.  The taste is identical to that of a fresh leek.

·      Blanch and freeze
Blanching is the process of steaming vegetables for around three minutes.  Many vegetables will lose colour if frozen without blanching.  Blanching also has the advantage that the volume of your produce shrinks, so less space is taken up in your freezer.  This method can be used for peas, beans, carrots, and many other vegetables.  Tomatoes are blanched to make it easy to take of the skins.

·      Cook and freeze
For bulky produce such as tomatoes cooking and then freezing is very tempting.  Clean your produce, cut into bits, cook until soft, put in meal-size containers and store in your freezer.  This will save a lot of space compared to the uncooked produce.

Method 5: Microwave

Microwave bottling is a not well known method of preserving fruit and some vegetables.  It works a treat, is ideal if you just want to preserve a small quantity and produces very healthy results as you don’t need to add sugar.  Food Garden Group member Marg wrote a blog post on the subject.  You can find it at https://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2012/03/harvest-time.html 

Through the ages people around the world have tried to preserve fruit and vegetables in many ways.  Some failed and made people ill or worse.  Please read ‘Oil does not preserve food’ at http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au/p/preserving-your-glut.html ).   

Other proven methods for preserving produce are drying, 'Fowlers Vacola'-style bottling and brining, but they are not quick and fall outside the scope of this blog post.

Are you aware of other quick methods for processing produce or would you like to comment on this blog post?  Click on No comments at the bottom of this post or email foodgardengroup@gmail.com and your information will be added to this blog post.

 

Preserving - You need to know this!

Look at this pile of capsicums.  The key to growing capsicums successfully must be water and fertile soil.  Mid December I planted two capsicum seedlings and because our wet summer I now have a glut.  I needed to find out how to preserve capsicums.

I had a look at books on preserving and also on the internet.  I found wonderful recipes of capsicum, sometimes grilled, with herbs and spices in oil.  The pictures looked good.  The writers promised this would taste good.  Great!

But then, as I kept looking, a message began to come out loud and clear.  One forum even said it in no uncertain words.

Oil does not preserve food.  Books and web sites that do not point this out are omitting a really important fact.  Why?  Because preserving in oil could lead to the development of bacteria, for instance C. Botulinum, which could kill you.

In order to preserve food the pH (acidity) of the food needs to be 4.6 or below.  Commercial producers of foods in oil (such as sundried tomatoes) are by law required to rigorously test the pH of their products.

Foods that are low in acid (all vegetables) need to be preserved in vinegar. It is also good to add lemon juice.  Lemon juice you buy in bottles is preferable as the acidity of fresh lemons varies depending on type and state of ripeness.

Phheww.  I had to share this with you.  Of course I was the only person in the world who did not know this.  Well, no.  I found quite a few instances on forums where people wanted to know what they had done wrong when their great looking bottles of capsicums in oil turned out to be fermented when they opened them.  Well, whatever you do, do not eat them or the oil they were preserved in.  You could die.

The Food and Agriculture department of the CSIRO put together a very readable factsheet on ‘Preservation of vegetables in oil and vinegar’.  You can find it at http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Food-and-Agriculture/preservation-in-oil-vinegar.aspx

For my capsicums I might use a recipe with vinegar and lemon juice.   

Bon appetit !

Microwave Bottling

The summer harvest is in full swing at my place and my kitchen has been a fruit processing centre for some weeks.

One of the new things I have tried is microwave bottling rather than the usual Fowlers Vacola water bath bottling.

With some trepidation I followed the instructions in the microwave bottling book. I used a tiny amount of liquid and sliced the fruit into sterilised Fowlers bottles, added new rubber rings and clipped on the metal lids and zapped them for the time prescribed according to the power of my microwave.

I fled the scene on the first attempt but nothing untoward occurred and the result was cooked fruit in a vacuum seal so all looks well for long keeping.

I recommend the process.  Isabel Webb wrote 5 Minute Microwave Bottling and More Microwave Bottling (both published by The Five Mile Press).  They provide full directions.

The local library has several books by this author on the topic. I have now successfully bottled tomatoes, peaches and nectarines. Quinces are next.

The advantages are you can do a bottle or two at a time.  It is fast and healthy, no added sugar required, just fruit.

Happy bottling!