Autumn is harvest time.\u00a0 If you are like most people you have had some successes and some failures.<\/p>\n

Some fruits and vegetables such as apples, winter squashes, cabbages, potatoes, and many root crops will store well without any preparation; as long as only healthy, intact, and unblemished produce is stored.\u00a0 These foods were traditionally stored in a root cellar dug into a hillside.\u00a0 Some root crops can just be left in the ground with extra mulch to prevent freezing.\u00a0 A proper root cellar needs darkness, cool temperatures (32-40\u00b0 F), adequate ventilation, and high humidity, with no dripping condensation.\u00a0 Some older houses even have built in cupboards that have ventilation to the outside for storing produce.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Drying<\/i> is perhaps the oldest form of food preservation; fish, meat, fruits, vegetables, and herbs have been dried in the sun for thousands of years.\u00a0 The traditional method is just to lay the food out on drying screens.\u00a0 Daytime temperatures, however, should be 85-100\u00b0F or more, which is unlikely in our climate\u2014except with specially designed solar dehydrators.\u00a0 Homemade or commercial electric dehydrators give you much more control (especially in excluding insects and other pests).\u00a0 Oven-drying is only possible if your oven can be set at lower temperatures (130-150\u00b0 F).\u00a0 Smoking<\/i> is a better option for meats and fish, but requires a specially built barbecue or smokehouse.\u00a0 Curing<\/i>, the dehydration of food using salts, is usually done prior to smoking.<\/p>\n

$\"Blueberries,$ <\/a>
Blueberries, frozen on a tray prior to packaging.<\/p><\/div>\n
Freezing<\/i> was used in colder climates.\u00a0 Modern freezers make this the easiest way to preserve your food.\u00a0 It\u2019s best to look up the best method for each crop.\u00a0 Fruit can be frozen with or without sugar or syrup.\u00a0 Berries can be frozen on trays to keep them separate and subsequently repackaged.\u00a0 Most vegetables need to be blanched first. \u00a0Blanching involves dipping them in boiling water for a few minutes; this process slows enzyme action and preserves flavor, texture and nutritive value.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found that frozen vegetables that were not blanched end up tasting bitter.\u00a0 Tomatoes, peppers and onions do not need to be blanched.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fermentation<\/i> uses microorganisms to convert starches and sugars to alcohol; barley into beer, fruits into wine, and cabbage into sauerkraut or kimchi. Wines, beers or ciders that have transformed into vinegar can then used to make pickles. Pickling<\/i> involves soaking a food in acid (usually vinegar) to chemically transform it.\u00a0 Spices are added to many pickling recipes to make chutneys, relishes, and other sauces.<\/p>\n
Early cultures stored fruit in honey.\u00a0 Although sugar had been known to Europeans since the time of the crusades, due to taxation and other trade barriers it was not widely available to common people until the end of the 19^{th<\/sup> century.\u00a0\u00a0 With sugar, you can preserve fruits by making jams and jellies.\u00a0 <\/i>For the best results, follow an appropriate recipe in a box of pectin.<\/p>\n}
$\"Canned$ <\/a>
Canned plums and mixed berry jam<\/p><\/div>\n
\u00a0 <\/i>\u00a0Canning<\/i> is a process of heating foods in jars or cans to destroy microorganisms and inactivate enzymes, as the jars cool they create a vacuum seal that prevents recontamination.\u00a0 This can be done with a large kettle or a pressure cooker.\u00a0 Canning fruits, such as peaches and pears (and tomatoes), is safe and rewarding.\u00a0 I have even made my own apple pie filling!\u00a0 Low-acid foods such as meat or vegetables (excluding pickles) need to be processed with a steam pressure canner to prevent against botulism poisoning.<\/p>\n
Keep growing to eat healthy!\u00a0 Starts of cool-season vegetables can still be planted. \u2014 Sprouts can be grown year-round in your kitchen!<\/p>\n
(This article was first published in the Peninsula Gateway\u00a0<\/em>on September 29, 2010)<\/p>\n
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Autumn is harvest time.\u00a0 If you are like most people you have had some successes and some failures. Some fruits and vegetables such as apples, winter squashes, cabbages, potatoes, and many root crops will store well without any preparation; as long as only healthy, intact, and unblemished produce is stored.\u00a0 These foods were traditionally stored<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}