Preserving the Taste Review

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(More customer reviews)I can't recommend strongly enough that anyone interested in preserving track down a copy of this book. It's by far the best preserving book I've found, and it's scandalous that it's out of print. If I hadn't found this book, I might have made my apricot preserves with a recipe that called for 7 cups of sugar. Anyone who has ever tasted a ripe apricot knows it doesn't need 7 cups of sugar to taste good. The recipes here respect and value the flavor of the fruit, and they use simple, clear methods to produce soft-set, spoonable preserves. The author only uses commercial pectin when she's making something like pepper jelly that has *no* natural pectin in it. The majority of the recipes are just fruit and a small amount of sugar. She teaches you to make your own pectin from tart apples, and she calls for the homemade pectin in some of these recipes. After reading this book I feel confident to create my own preserving recipes so that I can get the flavor and texture that I like. I found this book much more unique and empowering than the other books on the subject, like Blue Ribbon Preserves.

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Home cooks learn to make small batches of jams, jellies, preserves and pickles with intense flavors. Called a jam genius by Gourmet magazine, Edon Waycott's jams and preserves are made with fresh-picked fruit, a minimum of sugar, and all-natural homemade pectin made from tart, green apples. The 63 recipes include classics such as apple butter, plum jam, and peach preserves, as well as several of Waycott's original recipes.

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Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own: Bob Flowerdew's Guide to Making the Most of your Garden Produce All Year Round Review

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(More customer reviews)"Grow Your Own, Eat Yor Own" is a masterful return to the attention, care and respect those from generations past gave to their land and to their tables. Full of earthy, inspiring photos, recipes and advice, this book has me thinking not only about how I will process my own produce, but also the simple tools and resources available to make my garden really work hard for my family. To do everything so artfully illustrated by garden "guru" Bob Flowerdew would be a full-time job. (Wish we all had the time!) However when the moment strikes you to perserve, sprout, pickle, or plan an appropriate garden harvest for your home; this book is your first stop, your new Bible!

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Eating locally and growing one's own fruits and vegetables are the first steps in helping the green movement. However, many people don't know where to begin growing and harvesting their own crops. And, what happens when everything is ready to be picked at the same time? Or when the garden's bounty has been eaten? These questions and more are answered in Bob Flowerdew's invaluable new book, in which he discusses everything from what to grow for processing and preserving, when to plant them, and how to harvest them. Once the gardening basics have been covered, Flowerdew serves up 50 delicious recipes featuring the very foods grown in the backyard. Perfect dishes for the fall include steaming Baked Apples filled with dried fruit and brown sugar, sausage-stuffed Baked Squash, a warming bowl of Spaghetti Polognese (using lean ground chicken), and savory Stuffed Peppers.As the weather turns colder, there is Potato Dauphinoise, Celery Soup, and Apricot Christmas Pudding. And, with spring and summer's abundance of berries come such spectacular treats as Fruity Upside-Down Cake, Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream, and Lemon Meringue Pie. There are condiments galore and Flowerdew even shares his secrets for tossing the best salad, making the best cider, and creating his very own liqueurs. Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own is a wonderful no-nonsense guide to getting the most out of any garden at any time of the year, and will be a welcome addition to all gardeners' reference library.

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Keeping the Harvest: Preserving Your Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs (Down-to-Earth Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought three books on canning and this book was the best. It is simple to understand, has pictures of the way things should look, such as the canning jars in a not water bath. I was canning tomatos and this book was so easy to follow. It listed the different methods for canning, as stating the best method.
I bought a pressure cooker and could not understand the manufactures directions, this book explained in simple terms, everything I needed to know, to use the pressure cooker. It has pictures on how to can tomatos from start to finish, which I really appreciated. To me a picture is worth a thousand words.
I think if you are a first time canner or even experienced, that this easy to use book is for you. I know I will be using it for years to come. Thank you to the authors.

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Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest: An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)Canning & Preserving Your Own Harvest is a no-nonsense, step-by-step guide to properly (and safely - improper canning can promote food poisoning) preserving one's food, from freezing, drying, and canning to creating a root cellar, making fruit preserves, pickling, and much more. The second half of Canning & Preserving Your Own Harvest is devoted to recipes that make delectable use of one's preserved food! A "must-have", user-friendly guide for anyone interested in preserving what they have grown themselves, Canning & Preserving Your Own Harvest is highly recommended.

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Equipped with the knowledge of when to harvest, how to harvest, and what supplies are needed, anyone can learn what it means to create authentic, old-fashioned recipes in this age of grocery-store dependence. Carla Emery's in-depth knowledge comes from her years spent with farmers and homesteaders who truly lived off the land. Organized by food categories, this book — culled from and expanding on sections in the famed Encyclopedia of Country Living — features a wealth of recipes, each preceded by a discussion of our changing motivation as food consumers along with detailed explanations of the processes behind canning and preserving. From drying to pickling to freezing, Emery's preserving methods are as broad in scope as the recipes themselves. Do-it-yourselfers can welcome summer's arrival with chunky peach jam and oven-dried tomatoes, or host a fall harvest with fresh herb bouquets and smoked chicken. Step-by-step instructions, charts, and informational sidebars make the process easy and enjoyable.

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How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency Review

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(More customer reviews)Piers Warren starts off with basic instructions for storage methods: clamping (storing large quantities of roots outside) and other methods of dry storage, freezing, drying (from oven to dehydrator), vacuum-packing, salting, bottling/canning, pickling, relishes & sauces, jams & jellies, and fermenting. This volume isn't meant as a full-blown wine-making or jam-making resource, so these are only the most basic instructions.
The rest of the book covers individual types of produce in alphabetical order. Since the focus of this book is supporting yourself on your own produce, Warren discusses some topics you might not expect. For instance, how best to harvest a vegetable so as to encourage further harvest throughout the season. He discusses varieties that will have longer harvest times, or that will produce during different times of the year. He talks about how some plants can be started at different times so as to result in a longer harvest period as well.
One potentially useful feature is the section of recommended varieties. For example, the apples section lists out two good varieties of cooking apples, a crab apple, and a handful of eating apples, noting which ones keep particularly well or work best for wine-making or the like. However, in some cases this won't be as useful outside of Britain (the book was written & published in Britain but is also being distributed in other countries). For instance, I don't recognize many of the apple or tomato varieties. However, I do recognize a number of the carrot and chard varieties. It just depends on whether a particular type is available & grows well where you are.
The one other small potential snag is a couple of terminology issues. Most of them aren't a big deal (what US readers call canning, Brits call bottling, but the author notes this). One or two types of produce might be listed under a name unfamiliar to you (plenty of people have heard eggplants called aubergines, but not everyone in the US knows them by that term). Don't let this deter you from buying this book if you're in the US, however---the information is incredibly useful, and in most cases there are enough informative notes included that you can substitute varieties as appropriate or easily figure out the terminology differences. Also, all measurements for recipes and such are given in both metric and English measurements.
If you want to become more self-sufficient, or you just want to make better and less wasteful use of your garden produce, I definitely recommend this book.

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How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency has been completely revised and is the modern guide to storing and preserving your garden produce, enabling you to eat home-grown goodness all year round. The easy-to-use reference section provides applicable storage and preservation techniques for the majority of plant produce grown commonly in home gardens. Why is storing your garden produce the key to self-sufficiency? Because with less than an acre of garden you can grow enough produce to feed a family of four for a year. But without proper storage, most of it will go to waste since much of the produce ripens simultaneously in the summer. Learn simple and enjoyable techniques for storing your produce and embrace the wonderful world of self-sufficiency. In the A-Z list of produce, each entry includes recommended varieties, suggested methods of storage, and a number of recipes. Everything from how to make your own cider and pickled gherkins to how to string onions and dry your own apple rings. You will know where your food has come from, you will save money, there will be no packaging, and you'll be eating tasty local food while feeling very good about it!

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Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation Review

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(More customer reviews)For the most part, I really like this book. I have lots of ideas that I am dying to try when my garden starts to bear. I have a ceramic-invection cooktop so I am wary of putting a fully loaded 30 quart pressure cooker on top of it.
I would consider purchasing an additional book if you are unfamiliar with food safety and home food preparation. I gathered that the contributors and the authors are aware of these practices, but did not really elaborate on them very much or stress crucial points necessary for food safety, like cross-contamination or not washing the vegetables well. The book does stress the importance of not using chlorine-treated water so it must be filtered in some way to remove it. Don't want to kill the good bacteria, I suppose.
I'm not sure how well these concepts would work if you have a very small kitchen or don't have a keeping room or cellar. Instructions are given for digging out a small keeping area and topping it with a large flat rock you can slide off. I just gathered you need a good work and storage space.
Directions for making drying racks with screen are given. I have heard of using a discarded screen door for large amounts of drying.
I often do not have huge amounts of fruits and vegetables on hand to do massive canning. The amounts here seem to be very manageable, as well as easy to try out the different types of preservation on the same item to see which you prefer.
I didn't quite know what to make of the jelly/sugar section. The blueberry recipe sort of bewildered me as you are to mix fresh blueberries with what is left of last year's blueberry mixture (not pure blueberries). Sorry, but I don't have any of last year's mixture as I just bought the book and I'm not even sure what was in last year's mixture. I assume it contains some sort of fermented starter, like a fermented bread starter.
I was intrigued by the alcohol section, especially the recipes for elderberry and dandelion wines.
Some of the recipes are for basic canning. You have to have hot, sterilized jars. It wasn't mentioned, but when the recipe tells you to place the lids on the jars for a seal, I think the jar still needs to be hot. The overall impression of some of the recipes is that you meander around the kitchen and process when you feel like it. I saw my grandmother do this when she only had enough to fill a few jars and she called it canning, even though she also used a pressure canner.
This is not a literal cookbook to me. This is a collection of recipes from residents in Terre Vivante. Some of the recipes are vague at best, offering no measurements or ratios. Some are more specific, thankfully. As I am unfamiliar with the finished product, I am afraid that I might over or underestimate the amount of herbs or spices. Some of the recipes gave instructions on how to preserve zucchini and other vegetables through drying, but no idea how to use it in a recipe. Do you put it in dry or have to rehydrate it first?
A few of the recipes seemed to be different versions for the same item, so perhaps those could be combined for one functional recipe.

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Typical books about preserving garden produce nearly always assume that modern "kitchen gardeners" will boil or freeze their vegetables and fruits. Yet here is a book that goes back to the future—celebrating traditional but little-known French techniques for storing and preserving edibles in ways that maximize flavor and nutrition.Translated into English, and with a new foreword by Deborah Madison, this book deliberately ignores freezing and high-temperature canning in favor of methods that are superior because they are less costly and more energy-efficient.As Eliot Coleman says in his foreword to the first edition, "Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern scientific methods that remove the life from food, and the natural 'poetic' methods that maintain or enhance the life in food. The poetic techniques produce... foods that have been celebrated for centuries and are considered gourmet delights today."Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning offers more than 250 easy and enjoyable recipes featuring locally grown and minimally refined ingredients. It is an essential guide for those who seek healthy food for a healthy world.

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