Prepare & Put Up!

The Wartime Pantry

During the two world wars, despite the increased availability of canned goods, American women were called upon to put up their own food as part of their patriotic duty. Available tin was used for some commercial canning but most tin was used in the war effort. By this time, hot pack canning was considered the most reliable and, with "two hours from garden to can," the rule to follow. Around World War I, canning clubs were encouraged and fostered by such groups as the Department of Home Economics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Farm women and their teenage children were also encouraged to start canning businesses from their farm homes.

A 1942 article detailed the effort: "This year, American homemakers are canning at home as a patriotic duty, for it is especially important that no food be allowed to go to waste during the summer and fall . . . From the standpoints of family health and economy, the canning of vegetables from Victory Gardens, and homegrown or locally-gathered wild fruits, and also reasonably priced fresh products on the market is one of the homemaker's important contributions to the wartime nutrition program."

Courtesy WHYY

Back to Basics

Across the nation, folks are down on their knees, hands dirty, seeds and trowel clench firming in hand determine to grow their own food Though some crops may fail miserably others crops may step in and take up the slack. With hard work, effort and patience this hearty lot of homegrown soildiers will be blessed up to their eye balls in produce.

Home preservation, canning is rising trend and "mainstream" amongst city dwellers who are searching for something purposeful and tangible in an uncertain world.  As the summer harvest season is upon us we figure it's high time we revisit and relaunch an old challenge we hosted a few years back.

You've taken steps to GROW YOUR OWN, now onto the next phase of the homegrown challenge -- extending your garden's bounty by preserving the harvest.

Preservation Methods

Canning
Freezing
Drying
Fermenting

Storage

Stockpiling your pantry
Root cellar

Share

Sharing your bounty - trade, barter, exchange with your neighbors.

Tally Ho

Keep track of your preservation and harvest efforts. Tally up how much you've harvested and preserved during the course of the growing season. Recording keep is essential if you want to know how well your growing efforts were for the year.

Start by keeping a daily journal with records on how much eggs, produce , etc were harvested, what you preserved that day and even jot down favorite recipes.

Participating

If you like to take part in this challenge, post in comment box below.

Participating on the Internet?

Feel free to use the ‘Harvest Keeper Challenge’ image on your blog/site if you are a taking part.

PLEASE REMEMBER when you use this image to “SAVE AS” to avoid using our bandwidth and LINK the image to the challenge here (http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2010/08/09/put-em-up-harvest-keeper-challenge/ )

And if you are a blogger who already participated in this challenge a few years back, don’t forget to update your links and images!

Spread the preservation movement: share, email, post this challenge – the more people participating the better.

By being a HARVEST KEEPER you are

- Providing nutritious food for your family
- Ensuring food security
- Improving quality of life
- Saving money
- Reducing food miles, fuel & energy dependence
- Reducing waste with excessive packaging

Enjoy the fruits of your labor!

:: Resources ::

Nation Center for Food Preservation

Food Preservation Methods

Preserving your harvest with turn-of-the-century methods

Food Storage FAQ

Canning Guide

Home Canning

Canning Low Acid and High Acid Foods PPT

An Introduction to Home Canning

Quality for Keeps: Preserve Your Garden Delights — How to Can Fresh Vegetables

:: Books & Supplies ::

Art of Canning DVD

Supplies

Canning Kit w/ utensils with Ball Canning Book

Preservation Supplies

Collection of Preservation Books

Though winter is still lingering (there's a huge storm set to pound the LA area this weekend!), it's canning time again!

What's in season is citrus and what's on the stove top is marmalade!   Thanks to a local, organic supply of citrus from Sergio's farm we gals are back in the kitchen - jammin.

With the versatile meyer lemons, juicy tangelos and sweet navel oranges we made a batch of "Three Citrus Marmalade" substituting tangelos for the grapefruit.

It was so deliciously tangy we were licking it out of the pan after we had filled the canning jars.

Kitchen ready for canning action.

Monday was such a gorgeous day that we put up a table out on the back deck to be able to enjoy the sunshine (not to mention less clean up in the kitchen with all that juicy fruit)

Sunshine and citrus - what a lovely mix.

All cut up and ready to go.

Boiling down.

All done!  Now waiting to for the marmalade to set.

Even Fairlight got in on the action (after the canning was done of course!).  She's funny sometimes she'll turn her nose up at oranges and then like this time she wants one!

Jordanne cuts up some orange slices.

Fairlight getting her dose of vitamin C.

Ginger Soda

Then Jordanne got a hankering for some soda and made a huge batch of ginger soda.  Yummy!

Jordanne adds sugar to the cut up ginger.  I spot an ear (to the left)!  Wonder who could that be?

Fairlight smells the sweet sugar and looks up with a pathetic pleading look. How can you turn down that face?

Yeah, we are suckers.  Suckers for a cute face that is.

In goes the ginger syrup, add yeast and presto - easy, natural soda!

Ginger soda bottles.

The Jr High School "Harvest Homesteaders" canathon finished up today.

This time around we made up a batch of peach jam and spiced apple sauce.

Peeling and cutting the apples.  I told the girls they should get extra credit for peeling and chopping the apples with an eco-plastic knives!

One piece for the pot, one piece for me, one for the pot....

Mashing the peaches then putting the peach jam into sterilized jars.

Out come the peach jam from their water bath.  Next round is the apple sauce.

Yesterday's batch of strawberry jam gets some trimmings which read "Happy Holidays!  Homemade from Westridge School"

Apple sauce and peach jam.   They jars will get nifty trimmings tomorrow and then off the jars go to a local food bank

The girls proudly show off their work.

Group shot with the girls and their teacher.

All in all a good time and a good day's work.  The local food bank is going to be surprised and what a joy it will be for these girls to give such a homemade blessing.

Jordanne & I gave a hands on canning workshop at a local girls high school today.    Seven enthusiast girls made a batch of delicious strawberry jam which will be donated to a local food bank for the holidays.

The girls chop up the strawberries they got from the local Farmer's Market

Using the handcranked food processor

MASH!  MASH, MASH! Mashing the strawberries is fun.  Everyone wanted to try.

Gathering 'round the table to work and chatter.  We made a point to tell the girls that canning not only opens new food adventures but also brings about a togetherness when friends and family are involved.

Stirring the strawberry jam mixture, while I go about explaining the basics of water bath canning method

Jordanne womans the water bath pot while the girls ladle out the jam mixture into the jars

Of course the girls can't pass up a chance their canning creation - yummmmmmmy!  I grab a spoon and get in on the action.

Into the water bath the jars go

And there's a bit extra to enjoy on some warm muffins

Strawberry jam!

You gals were great students and the fun times aren't over yet!

Jordanne & I will be back again tomorrow to finish with the canning class.   This time around we'll be making peach jam and apple sauce. 

Stay tuned for more lip smackin' canning photos.

It's a messy, sweaty, steamy and sometimes sticky work; but the fruits of our labors are certianly worth the hours of labor.

With summer winding down, canning efforts have increased so that our cupboards will be stocked for fall and winter.  Here on the urban homestead we try not to purchase any canned food products - except for canned organic tomato paste (maybe this year I'll make our own but we'll see how well the second crop of tomatoes does first).   Yeah, really.  No other canned food products and our pantry is proof of that.  If you walked into our kitchen and opened the cabinets, you would not find any store bought canned goods.

Yesterday was busy day on the urban homestead.    While the guys were out working in the garden and taking a few trips to get supplies (more on what they are working on later), we gals were putting up more jam and pickled squash.

These are the days we live for - days where work is productive and purposeful.

Jelly (or pindo) palm fruited for the first time this year.  When the stalk was full of creamy white blossoms the bees were having a nectar field day.

Jelly palm fruits harvested and ready to make - guess what? Jelly!

Jelly palm fruit jelly.

Actually, having never tasted a jelly palm fruit before, we were pleasantly surprised at the taste - a delicate mixture of apricot and orange flavors.  The fruits made a scrumptious, tropical jelly (Jelly Palm Jelly Recipe).  It was soooo good in fact that there was a little leftover in the pot and everyone couldn't resist sticking fingers in to get a good lickin'.

Summer squash

Zucchinis in pickling mixture waiting to be canned

I am having to make sure we have plenty of these pickles on hand (even asked Justin to plant a second succession of squash)   Why?  Jordanne has an obsession for these pickled treats, especially when having a grilled cheese sandwich.    If you aren't a fan of summer squash then these pickles will convert you - trust me!  Just ask Jordanne....

Did a bit of experimenting with the summer squash pickle recipe and used tromboncino (trombetta) squash.  This is an Italian summer squash that is versatile as a summer AND winter squash (shown here, Jordanne's hugging one)  Yeah, told you she's a squash convert.  hehe

Next, some lemon syrup (thanks to Freedom Gardener DuaneD for sharing his surplus)

All stocked up!  The entire kitchen cabinets are filled to the brim with the homestead's harvest.

Following in an age old tradition here at the urban homestead we've been busy in our preservation efforts - canning, drying and brewing.

Canning

Made a batch of jalapeno jelly (first time trying this recipe and was quite pleased with the results)  

After straining the liquid for the jelly, saved up the leftover chopped peppers and added it to a bit of homegrown/made salsa.  But what to put the salsa on?  So we splurged and bought a bag of organic blue corn chips to compliment the homemade salsa.

Brewing

With all the herbs and fall soon approaching will be making a few batches of herbal syrups and brewing some herbal wine.  I will post all about our herbal brewing efforts here at LHITC

Next up was green beans!

Then elderberry syrup

Drying

With back to normal summer time temps it's perfect for solar drying tomatoes in the solar food pantries. With the extreme heat, I expect these tomatoes to be dry in just a few days and will pack 'em in olive to preserve them for fall and winter use.

This is some of what's left (below)....

We've also got to "put up" more squash pickles and pickled dilly beans before summer is out - they are two of the favorites here!

Not to mention, more tomato sauce needs to be "put up" and with the guavas ripening soon they'll have to be dealt with too.

Busy, busy!

Now if you'll excuse me I have a  lunch date with Mr Peppers- going to stuff him and his buddies.

Our family are firmed believers that change begins at home.  And "Home" is certainly a hot word these days and touted as "one of the most radical thing you can do."

In the last year we've seen a growth of more and more people who are staycationing, growing their own food,  preserving, being crafty and doing more with less.

With new eco lingo like "carbon footprint" and "low impact living" just goes to show that folks are starting to re think and re prioritize their lives.

I believe this homegrown, diy mentality is one of the reasons PTF has been such a tremendous inspiration to people (btw, PTF has been online going on nigh 8 years now! can you believe it?)

Which calls to mind a recent review of HomeGrown (the documentary about our urban homestead) saying:

Should we stay close to our families, and create support networks, maybe we would be better adjusted and happier than our doppelganger typing away in a skyscraper cubicle. But it brings into question the notion that President-elect Obama has brought up in his speeches: will we be willing to sacrifice in order to better the planet for all of its inhabitants? Or will we keep going at the rate we are now and see what happens?  Courtesy Civileats

In choosing a more sustainable path, this choice involves what many greenies skirt -- sacrifice.  But through such sacrifice, a sense of place and quality of life is gained.

What homegrown solutions have you implemented?  What have you sacrificed in order to make the world a better place.

Homegrown Holiday

More and more folks are jumping on the eat and buy local bandwagon.  Why?  Because it makes sense not ship out-of-season foods or goods from thousands of miles away.

Here's an interesting fact

Despite the apparent abundance (and over-abundance) of food in North America, few of us realize how fragile our food supply really is....  In the case of a major natural disaster (earthquake, tidal wave flooding, etc) or disruptions in transport (closed airports, restricted borders, etc.), most North American cities would have less than a three day supply of fresh food. Dry and canned foods could theoretically last up to three weeks, but would be preceded by widespread, panic-driven hoarding.  Courtesy of Bringing Food Home

This year PTF cooked up some challenges to help deal with such unsustainable problems we face.

100 Foot Diet Challenge - Growing Food Closer to Home

Harvest Keeper Challenge - On the Preservation Front

Liberate Your Yard - Growing Food Not Grass

Say AHHHH - Show Us Your Insides

and now during this festive season...

Home-Grown for the Holiday

Are you one of those who eat, sleeps and, well, what ever closer to home.  Are you fed up with the over consuming, mass advertising, have it all culture that's shrinking the earth's resources and just making everyone downright unhappy.

Are your a homebody who likes to stay home, make your own gifts, preparing local and homegrown foods.

Then this nifty little icon is just for you to use on your blog.

Also make a list on the homegrown things you are doing to make this holiday season a more local and low impact one

Enjoy!

Speak Up!

Would you like to see more challenges issued here at Little Homestead in the City?

pink...

or should I say green and yellow.  Pickling is in full swing here on the urban homestead.  Putting up pickled dilly beans and peppers.

Without a pressure canner, pickling is a simple easy way to preserve the harvest using vinegar, spices, salt and into the hot water bath they go.

More on pickling vegetables.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments and sharing your preservation efforts.  For many of you it's been your first season, a baptism of boiling water into the glorious world of canning and food preservation.  What a wonderful connection and camaraderie there is among us!  And what an accomplishment to open up your kitchen or pantry cabinets and not see one store bought can goods!

I am still crossing my fingers over the tomatoes.  Just a few days ago we had fall like weather and one needed to put on a sweater and socks because it was quite chilly.  But that nippy spell was short lived.  Now the temperatures are near triple digits.  So hopefully the tomatoes are loving the heat and we can squeeze out a few more pounds.

If we don't get enough tomatoes to see us through the fall and winter, I may just have to raid a local farmers market for their "seconds."  Or post on our sister site to see if anyone has surplus tomatoes they'd like to swap.

Tomatoes are a basis crop we can't do without.  With so many uses - sauce, salsa, ketchup.  It will be a long (and boring) winter without a supply of canned, frozen and even dried tomatoes.

Today, we'll be drying the remaining peppers.  I kinda, sorta like my second hand electric dehydrator.  It works great, but it's a little noisy.  Growing up in a simple, low tech household I am not very fond of any mechanical noises.  So I've put the electric dryer (plugging it into our mini solar power plant)  in the garage so as not be disturbed.

Besides drying the peppers in the electric dryer, we'll be sun drying a few batches.

How are you preparing for hard times ahead, what practical solutions are you sharing with your family and friends?

Another busy week of harvesting and preserving in our efforts to bring food security closer to home.

While the kitchen is hub for the harvest happenings and we gals hang out with the likes of Ms Guava and Mr Pepper,  outside we shift gears into a fall garden mode.

In the kitchen, since we had an abundance of whooper squash we made a batch of pickled squash.  Very tasty!  We also grated a froze a bunch to use in winter for cakes, muffins and vegetable patties.

Though, fall has fallen here in So Cal that means tropical fruits like guavas start ripening! So with these tropical delights, we'll be putting up jars of jam and preserves.

In the garden, trays of seedlings wait in the greenhouse to replace expended summer crops.  Our planting efforts turn to cooler weather crops like: broccoli, cabbage, kale, potatoes, peas, beets and more.

We still have harlequin bug issues. Never in our 20 plus years never growing here at the 'stead have we experience such an infestation.  One person we asked advise from suggested we vacuum the little buggers.  Sounds like a plan.

What are you planting and preserving this time of year.  How well did you fair in our Harvest Keeper Challenge?

How are you gearing up for your fall and winter garden?

Another busy day ahead as we stock our pantry full of homegrown.

Roasted peppers

Squash pickles

Pickled banana peppers

Luscious guava jam

Going Back to Basics

Los Angeles chefs are happy to be in a pickle

Pickling is as old school as the patés and prosciutto that often accompany its results. It's a technique born of pre-refrigeration necessity and the cyclical pattern of gardens.

Read full article

In a Pickle?

Do you have loads of vegetables and there's no more room in your freezer?

Pickling is one of the oldest (drying the other) of food preservation and it's fun!  Low acid vegetables would require a pressure canner (more about low acid, pressure canning in a later post), pickling is a quick and easy way to extend your summer harvest.

Guide to Pickling Vegetables (pdf)  This is a great online guide!

Now go forth and ferment!  Just be warned that if you do happen to pickle peppers, you may find yourself muttering something about Peter Piper.