Have you ever preserved any food yourself? What have you done?

ideas:
canning
jellying
drying/dehydrating
pickling
fermenting
lactofermentation
sauerkrauting
salting
sugaring
jerking
storing in oil
making tinctures
storing in vinegar or alcohol
vacuum packing
having a root cellar
or simply freezing everything you can

I am doing several things at this moment. I just cut down a bunch of marjoram stems that was really taking off and about to bloom, and have them laid out on a perforated metal sheet to start drying. Then into a used clean food jar they will go. Just from this one plucking, I will have more marjoram than I could use in several years. I should think about bartering some out.

Also, i am picking dried strawberries and dried peppers out of my dehydrator shelves. Those will go in their own jars for rehydrating and eating later.

I am also chopping up several bunches of celery and a yellow bell pepper and an orange bell pepper. Those will go next on the dehydrator. I sit the dehydrator outside so it doesn't add heat into the studio.

The produce were all food pantry items that the local grocery store could no longer sell and gave to the church to give to the community. I had the celery sitting in jars of water to they would not wilt while i got around to chopping them. What is nice is that they made more leaves while sitting in the water. I will dry the leaves and put them in their own jar - they can be used like parsley or cilantro.

This link has some lovely ideas on preserving foods.

I am excited to try a few of these. Eggs, especially. I am overloaded with eggs right now, as they are laying. Some of my friends have chickens and eggs are easy barter items for them.

But she also has some hints about potatoes, celery leaves, carrots, beans and more.

I am a busy bee today with the preserving. I pulled in round one of celery from my dryer, and am not entirely certain if it's supposed to be leathery or crispy. Same with the bell peppers. I am told to let them cool down and see if they how they feel then.

I did make some crispy carrots. They look like chips. i bet they'd be good to use instead of chips - maybe with a yucca petal dip.

I set aside the celery leaves to dry like an herb. They can be used like parsley.

I am working on the yucca petals I picked today, getting the petals off the pistil. I am going to chop some and dry them, dry some whole, pack some in oil, save some fresh, freeze some, and make a batch of egg/cheese/yucca burritos for this week.

I guess this way when next year's yucca blooms come along i will know what is best to do with them.

I bet they would be good chopped in cream cheese in crepes or something. I don't cook, so the crepes is out. I need a wife!

Okay, the celery is supposed to be crispy. I took out the crispy pieces and put back the leathery ones. The bell peppers are okay from anywhere in the leathery to crispy range.

Those peppers sure do get down to tiny pieces when they are crispy. Oh well, that why things get rehydrated before cooking.

Anyone actually know how to do these things? I am just experimenting. I have all this extra produce from the food banks and I'd rather preserve this food than try to keep up with them fresh and end up tossing them into the compost when they get bad.

I have a ton of tomatoes and cabbage to do soon, also.

I'm having fun documenting how this all goes.

Yes, I have...

*pickled
*dried
*dehydrated
*frozen
*canned

Fruit, vegetables, jerky, shellfish.

It's fun! Because of this thread, I talked my son into stapling together a quick and easy sun dryer screened box, using balsa wood and mesh. The balsa wood is very cheap at the craft store and lightweight! I love sun-dried tomatoes and other dried fruit.

I have done a lot of these in the past, and I am working towards doing more of them now:

canning
jellying
drying/dehydrating
pickling
fermenting
sauerkrauting
salting
sugaring
storing in oil
making tinctures
storing in vinegar or alcohol
vacuum packing
or simply freezing everything you can

I have made my own yogurt when milk was cheap, I made and canned my own sauerkraut before, I have made my own arnicated oil from wildflowers, frozen and canned, salt cured, smoked and pickled salmon, made pickled veggies and eggs.... well, it always amazes me when people don't know how to do this stuff. My mom did it, and I do it, and I don't' like not having a good size pantry built up.

I had a really small yard for about the last 6 years, and now I can have a garden and I have room for a freezer and other preserved food storage.
I will be busy this summer!

Lori, how did your sun screened food dehydrator turn out? What have you dried in it?

Lisa, what have you planted for this year's garden?

A lot of veggies can be blanched and frozen, but it does take up more room than dehydrating. Freezing is my preferred method of preserving fruit and veggies whenever possible.

I have made applesauce in a pot with peeled and chunked up apples with a little water or cider added. Then I cook the apples down until tender, mash them with a potato masher, and add a little sugar and cinnamon to taste, although you can leave that out. It ends up slightly chunky. Once cooled down I freeze it in plastic containers or baggies, leaving a little room at the top for expansion while freezing. It keeps for months.

This years garden - beets, parsnips, radishes, cabbage, kale, cucumbers, peas, marigolds, zulu daisies, broccoli, lettuce, chervil, borage, mint. I have lots of pansies and nasturtiums planted, the last two flowers being edible and preferred at my home. I have a geranium this year after reading on these forums that they are edible.
One of the other gardens I am tending has a ton of rhubarb in it, and someone just put more rhubarb plants there.
Most of the garden will get eaten fresh this year. We will see how much canning I get to do!

I dehydrate oregano and rosemary from my garden. In the recent past I had enough blackberries to make the best jam!

Lisa, what do you do with the borage? And the rhubarb?

What, no rutabagas?

Score! I got my hands on some extra strawberries leftover from a fruit tray at a gathering. I am excited to cut them up and dehydrate. They make delicious and healthy chips!

Strawberries when fresh tend to go off here rather quickly, so this is a great way to extend them. The chips last forever.

BTW, you can dip these chips in cream cheese or yogurt, with a little cinnamon or nutmeg on top. Mmmmmm.

I bet they'd also be good as chips in a swiss cheese or chocolate fondue.

Oh! In related news, at a thrift store today I also found a little strawberry top trimmer. It takes off the stem, so you don't have to cut them off and waste any yummy strawberry. It was 25 cents. Perfect timing.

I love my dried apples! I have been eating them by dipping them in cream cheese and sprinkling cinnamon on top.

My latest batch of strawberries got baked too long and are a little too crisp, but i will eat them anyway. You do have to keep on eye on things like tomatoes and strawberries. Those are more time sensitive than apples, pears and grapes.

Speaking of which, my raisins turned out great. I am just adding them to the boughten raisins for my morning oatmeal.

I have a whole lot more tomatoes to get through today. I am tired of cutting tomatoes, but it's better than just tossing useful produce in the compost bin.

And Susan, I want some of your blackberry jam! Yummmmmmm.

What kind of jam processing do you do? I think there are several ways to do it?