This is the "Preservation" section of a presentation given at CSW 2021, the Convention on the Status of Women, typically held each spring in New York. Cathy Mauluulu of Big Ocean Women and I taught the "Four Ps" of greater self-reliance when it comes to food: Principles, Production, Preservation, and Propagation. (Our portion of the video begins at 1:23:45.)
No matter who you are or where you live, there’s a way to better use the resources around you.
A few years ago I read a report saying that in the United States, 40% of the food grown is wasted, rather than eaten. Some of that happens in the field, some in warehouses or stores, some in restaurants or homes. That’s awful. And it’s not just a problem in wealthy nations. Not even close. It turns out that in developing countries, 40% of the food grown is wasted rather than eaten. More of it spoils in the field, since it’s harder to get to market, or to preserve it for extended periods.
A few years ago I read a report saying that in the United States, 40% of the food grown is wasted, rather than eaten. Some of that happens in the field, some in warehouses or stores, some in restaurants or homes. That’s awful. And it’s not just a problem in wealthy nations. Not even close. It turns out that in developing countries, 40% of the food grown is wasted rather than eaten. More of it spoils in the field, since it’s harder to get to market, or to preserve it for extended periods.
If you can get the food when it’s plentiful and in danger of spoiling if not handled quickly, preserving it is a way to not only save money and prepare for the future, but a way to reduce the waste in the world. And of course, reducing waste saves money. One thing I do fairly often is buy several pounds of food when it’s marked down because of nearing its sell-by date, take it home, and right away preserve it for later. It most often gets cooked, packaged in a useful size for my family, labeled, and frozen. If it's meat, sometimes I’ll pressure can it instead for quick meals later. Either way, whenever we eat it, we’re eating at last month’s or last year’s prices. And yes, in places where it’s legal to have a year’s worth of food on hand, getting that much basic food is not only doable, but saves you so much money! In times that the prices rise—whether because there’s a shortage, or because there’s high demand—if I have plenty of food on hand, I can hold off buying until the prices drop. This benefits everyone. It helps me because I’m eating on last year’s prices. And it helps my community because not buying the in-demand food then leaves more for those others who need it.
Waste less in your own home and garden, and don’t eat up everything right away. It’s the food version of “spending less than you earn.” See what you can preserve for later. Even storing away a tablespoon of rice per day will add up.
A cookbook from almost two hundred years ago explains, “The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments, so that nothing be lost. I mean fragments of time, as well as materials, … whatever be the size of the family, every member should be employed either in earning or saving money... and should be taught to consider every day lost in which some little thing has not been done to assist others.” (America Frugal Housewife, 1838)
One important aspect of preserving is to share, especially anything you don’t have time, space, or energy for. Whatever is around should be used to benefit someone.
Waste less in your own home and garden, and don’t eat up everything right away. It’s the food version of “spending less than you earn.” See what you can preserve for later. Even storing away a tablespoon of rice per day will add up.
A cookbook from almost two hundred years ago explains, “The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments, so that nothing be lost. I mean fragments of time, as well as materials, … whatever be the size of the family, every member should be employed either in earning or saving money... and should be taught to consider every day lost in which some little thing has not been done to assist others.” (America Frugal Housewife, 1838)
One important aspect of preserving is to share, especially anything you don’t have time, space, or energy for. Whatever is around should be used to benefit someone.
Some of the methods of preserving include dehydrating or drying, pickling or brining, smoking, freezing, dry-pack canning, pressure canning, boiling-water canning, or ‘root cellaring’—which doesn’t actually require a real root cellar. Your area and circumstance will best fit with at least one or two of those. How can you learn what will be best? What are your area’s traditional ways of preserving? Find a mentor—the older and more experienced, the more wonderful it is on both sides. Create a ‘maternal economy,’ a sisterhood, a brotherhood, utilize the experienced home economists at your local extension office.
Some climates are warm and dry, which is perfect for drying foods. When I lived in El Paso,Texas as a little girl, we dried apricot halves up on our hot black asphalt roof, with the fruit spread out on clean window screens and covered lightly to keep off bugs. When we moved to a much colder climate, we dug a hole in the garden and buried a big, clean garbage can in which we stored our carrots through the winter. Eventually we bought an electric dehydrator—which is still one of my favorite tools. In my previous house, we had very limited space to store foods, so I started drying some of the foods that I used to bottle. Take tomatoes, for instance. Six quarts’ worth of tomatoes could now fit into a single quart jar, once the tomatoes were dehydrated and powdered. Tomato powder can be used in almost any recipe that calls for canned or cooked tomato products-- everything from tomato juice to pizza sauce to tomato paste. Now I make powders out of lots of vegetables- bell pepper, celery, tomato, mushrooms, pumpkin, zucchini. They thicken and flavor soups and sauces, or hide in smoothies or baked goods like bread or brownies. Powdered zucchini or pumpkin can be used in any recipe that calls for puree.
There’s so much that can be done to preserve and use food instead of wasting it! Links to instructions and resources for dehydrating, as well as the other preservation methods, are below, as well as on my "Favorite Resources" page.
Some climates are warm and dry, which is perfect for drying foods. When I lived in El Paso,Texas as a little girl, we dried apricot halves up on our hot black asphalt roof, with the fruit spread out on clean window screens and covered lightly to keep off bugs. When we moved to a much colder climate, we dug a hole in the garden and buried a big, clean garbage can in which we stored our carrots through the winter. Eventually we bought an electric dehydrator—which is still one of my favorite tools. In my previous house, we had very limited space to store foods, so I started drying some of the foods that I used to bottle. Take tomatoes, for instance. Six quarts’ worth of tomatoes could now fit into a single quart jar, once the tomatoes were dehydrated and powdered. Tomato powder can be used in almost any recipe that calls for canned or cooked tomato products-- everything from tomato juice to pizza sauce to tomato paste. Now I make powders out of lots of vegetables- bell pepper, celery, tomato, mushrooms, pumpkin, zucchini. They thicken and flavor soups and sauces, or hide in smoothies or baked goods like bread or brownies. Powdered zucchini or pumpkin can be used in any recipe that calls for puree.
There’s so much that can be done to preserve and use food instead of wasting it! Links to instructions and resources for dehydrating, as well as the other preservation methods, are below, as well as on my "Favorite Resources" page.
►How to Waste Less food posts:
-Reducing Food Waste, and What To Do With Sour Milk
-Cutting Food Waste
►How to eat well and still spend less
►Canning 101 - Free video trainings from the USU Extension Office, for lots of kinds of canning, from marmalade to meat.
►Canning Meat, from Backwoods Home Magazine
►"How To Can Anything" You'll have to see this one to appreciate the treasure trove it is. It has step-by-step canning photos, how-to's, why-to's, why-not-to's, plus lots and lots of recipes. Also has links for purchasing what you'll need.
►Which foods can be safely bottled at home
There's also a great FB canning group, called "We Might Be Crazy But We're Not Stupid"-- they are careful to stay within USDA safety guidelines.
►Tattler reusable canning lids
►http://www.dehydrate2store.com/ - how, what, and why to dehydrate. Lots of videos, including one on building good-looking, shallow shelves for your storage jars.
►How to dry-pack foods This link has several links within it.
►Making and Using Vegetable powders
►Storing Vegetables At Home --How to store them through the winter, even without a root cellar.
►Storing Fruits and Vegetables at home: see page 5 at this link for a chart of what foods prefer similar conditions.
►http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/root-cellaring-zm0z85zsie.aspx Written by Mike and Nancy Bubel (who wrote the book on Amazon, considered the 'bible' of root cellaring!)
►http://www.nepanewsletter.com/cellar.html gives an excellent, detailed overview of what you learn in the Bubel's book
►“Return of the Root Cellars”-- great overview.
►hows, whys, recipes, and supplies for making consistent quality pickled (lacto-fermented) foods. I haven’t tried these yet, but I have been adding more fermented foods to our diet. Also this: https://myfermentedfoods.com/how-make-lacto-fermented-pickles/
-Reducing Food Waste, and What To Do With Sour Milk
-Cutting Food Waste
►How to eat well and still spend less
►Canning 101 - Free video trainings from the USU Extension Office, for lots of kinds of canning, from marmalade to meat.
►Canning Meat, from Backwoods Home Magazine
►"How To Can Anything" You'll have to see this one to appreciate the treasure trove it is. It has step-by-step canning photos, how-to's, why-to's, why-not-to's, plus lots and lots of recipes. Also has links for purchasing what you'll need.
►Which foods can be safely bottled at home
There's also a great FB canning group, called "We Might Be Crazy But We're Not Stupid"-- they are careful to stay within USDA safety guidelines.
►Tattler reusable canning lids
►http://www.dehydrate2store.com/ - how, what, and why to dehydrate. Lots of videos, including one on building good-looking, shallow shelves for your storage jars.
►How to dry-pack foods This link has several links within it.
►Making and Using Vegetable powders
►Storing Vegetables At Home --How to store them through the winter, even without a root cellar.
►Storing Fruits and Vegetables at home: see page 5 at this link for a chart of what foods prefer similar conditions.
►http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/root-cellaring-zm0z85zsie.aspx Written by Mike and Nancy Bubel (who wrote the book on Amazon, considered the 'bible' of root cellaring!)
►http://www.nepanewsletter.com/cellar.html gives an excellent, detailed overview of what you learn in the Bubel's book
►“Return of the Root Cellars”-- great overview.
►hows, whys, recipes, and supplies for making consistent quality pickled (lacto-fermented) foods. I haven’t tried these yet, but I have been adding more fermented foods to our diet. Also this: https://myfermentedfoods.com/how-make-lacto-fermented-pickles/
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