Food preservation tips

[Guest Jcmarcum]

I am a new member and a welcome from "Prag" also came with a suggestion to post some info on this forum. My husband and I garden avidly. We grow all heirloom or self propagating seeds so we have not bought plants in about 8 yrs. We grow 23 varietals of heirloom tomatoes, 10 heirloom/self-prop hot peppers, 12 H/S-F sweet peppers, cucumbers, various squash, greens, beans, tomatillo....extensive perennial herbs and annual herbs as well. The summer garden is coming to a close so canning has been full swing as well as freezing and drying. Hunting season is upon us as well so I am quite busy as an abattoir. Some of the most basic tips I can give are as follows. Water is a great preservative both for meat and for larger fleshy peppers (bell) it takes up space and if you are limited for freezer space that's a prob. If you have an excess of for example peppers, tomatillos, or tomatoes a good way to hold them over if canning isn't your thing or if you would be using in a different application ie salad dressings, sauces etc... These can be puréed with the desired ingredients ie vinegar base for dressings ... And roll in freezer bags.
As both a chef and abattoir I encourage my clients and frankly anyone who will listen to utilize more of the animal that is being hunted. Stocks made from the bones/ roasted bones freeze beautifully long term. Also if your limited on storage cook the whole deer haunch/ or shoulder roast eat what you like for one meal then portion out the rest into vac bags w a little broth or rolled in freezer bags. Then you can pull later for perhaps pot pie, she pares pie, enchiladas ,Crepes ....whatever and you can use the strained frozen sauce for Demi glacé , reduction, gastrique....game fowl, undulates same basic application. Remember when cooking WILD game meat most animals the fat content is extremely low so to avoid adding fat especially from some other animal roast COVERED with a little water or stock plus whatever else ie mirepoix , herbs...do not exceed 350* . Hope this is useful info. Happy to answer questions if any. Ex Animo

[Jamie Jackson]

Excellent post JCM. Wow...there's a lot of great info in that post. :up:

 

We garden (but not as intensively as you guys do), can (All American Canner), dehydrate (Excalibur), and of course have a couple of chest type freezers.

 

 

I like your suggestion of pureeing the various veggies you mentioned, seasoning them, and freezing them for later use. Saves a lot of steps when preparing a meal at the end of the day.

 

 

Any special tips of "seed saving"? How are your germination rates?

 

And..as related to your garden. I make the assumption it is fairly large...Do you use traditional garden bed arrangements? Raised beds? Combination?

 

 

Stock! Oh Yeah! Great stuff. I canned a turkey and pork loin a few weeks ago. I took the bones from the turkey and slow boiled them for several hours.. about 10 hours total...and canned the stock from that.

Awesome stuff. We've used a pint of it already.

 

 

Regards your mirepoix... do you ever dehydrate the mixture? freeze? or just use fresh when in season?

 

We use the "Cajun Trinity" a lot ourselves (bell peppers, onions, and celery)...but we're from "down there" originally. :pleased:

 

 

 

edit...because I can't spell...obviously LOL

Edited October 12, 2014 by prag

[Guest Jcmarcum]

Our garden is direct tilled into the ground. I do have two raised beds out of necessity they are Botha perennials asparagus and strawberries. I actually put these in because we had a natural wash area in heavy rain so i dug out a swale and bordered it with the two long rectangular boxes. That water diversion kept the area from washing where we plant our leafy greens, onions, carrots, and beets. Also because they are perennial it makes them super easy to maintain.

Our germination rate is 96/98% for our tomatoes! about the same for our sweet peppers! about 90% on hat peppers really went up when a good friend suggested a good rinse on the hot pepper seeds because the capsaicin can cause them to dry poorly. We did not know this some years ago and looking back the hotter the pepper the worse our germination rate was. Our summer squash rate is also very high. Our lowest prob 70% are our more gourd like fall squash. I think there's a fine line of too small too big in some of these varietals.

My husbands grandmother froze her seeds we don't. We dry on fine wire mesh or paper towels in a cool dry dark place. Then store in small manilla packets in a tool box.

We do a lot of companion planting knowing which are friendly with each other and which are not. That arrangement we hav e really gotten down over the last several years. Some herbs also make good companions especially as repellents or pollinators.

You can freeze mirepoix or trinity I use quite a wide variety of things depending on culture of cuisine I am preparing. I like to use as much from the garden as possible throughout the year. Whether canned, frozen, or dried. Most things loose flavor in the drying process with the exception of oregano and Mexican tarragon. Also some of the stronger basils such as anise, Greek columnar and African blue.

Great to hear that you guys make stock I believe so many people don't know what their missing. Bravo.

I also meant to say I make a lot of tomato sauce and tomato jam... One huge recommendation I can give to everyone that cans. Throughout the summer and early fall I roast and skin/seed tomatoes then freeze until I can all together in the fall. Then take the gallos of frozen tomatoes and go what direction I choose one time. Much easier to do one large batch of whatever than multiple all summer.
Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Ex Animo

[musicman]

Wow! I'm a total newb, a city boy, if you will. This summer I did my very first container gardening...some great successes and horrible failures! Haha!

I'm definitely going to do some more next year.

Great info here. And some new words I'm going to have to google! Ha!

Welcome to the forum, too!

[peejman]

Good info. I've never made the leap of trying to save seeds, though I probably should.

[Hiker]

Which varieties of heirloom tomatoes are you growing. I've struggled with brandy wine and tried Arkansas Traveler but don't have good results. I start the seeds indoors in Feburary and transplant into my raised bed garden after fear of frost has passed. Ant tips?

[Guest Jcmarcum]

Hello Hiker, we grow 23 varietals including brandywines, pink brandywines, red velvets & red baby's which are all closely related. I also have Arkansas Travellers (they are not one of the higher producing vines, however our brandywines are prolific producers. Things to check: depth of soil and firmness of it. If your depth is too shallow or too loose most heirlooms don't thrived in it just as those varietals don't take to containers well. Also overwatering can be problematic for these they don't mind a little stress. They can get waterlogged if this is the case you will have noticed leaf curling, getting paler early yellowing leaves are a warning of this. We have also had better production not suckering these vines. BWInes typically grow from a sturdy root and send out numerous branches. AK Trav tend to be more stringy and a lighter vine. Our BWs reach 8' our AKT more like 7'. Also your seedlings when planted should be well buried. For ex an8/9" plant should be buried leaving only 3/4" above ground. So make sure your dirt/soil is firm and a foot in depth at least and don't overwater ie make sure drainage is good. Perhaps add some organic material we use aged horse manure. In a raised bed you might add some earthworm castings. I have not grown tomatoes in a raised bed but these are some thoughts that might help. Purple Cherokees n blk Krims might be something you would like to try PCs can be very productive from start to finish in the garden. Longer run than the AKT. Hope you find this useful. Ex Animo

[Hiker]

Yes thank you!