Thursday, June 4, 2009

Food Storage

One thing I am trying to learn more about is traditional food storage. I have some experience with canning, freezing and drying, but I know that if our lives depended upon my skills, we'd be in serious trouble. Therefore, I want to learn all that I can about food storage. This week, I've been drying our Greek Oregano. We don't use a lot of oregano, and our plant is very prolific with its growth, so we have lots extra. Here is some of the oregano drying inside. Once it is completely dry, it will be stored in a half-pint mason jar. Do you do any food preservation and storage? I'd love to hear about what you do. Please share links if you've posted about your efforts at food preservation. In addition to a weekly garden update, I will try to post a weekly food storage update. That might keep me accountable. If I think someone is expecting an update, maybe I won't put off preserving our garden produce. :o) It might work.

3 comments:

Casserlys said...

Years ago I had a dehydrator. I used it for everything including the herbs in my garden. Sadly, it broke about 5 years ago, and I have yet to replace it. I do make pear honey from our pear tree, but that's about it for now. I'd really like to start to learn to can and preserve. Good luck with your endeavors.

Anonymous said...

I want a dehydrator as well. It would be great for making beef jerky, which I refuse to buy @ the store (price, chemicals, sugar, etc).

I've been thinking of a "solar" dehydrator, but I just think the bugs would get to everything, even if covered.

Casserlys said...

I made TONS of jerky in the dehydrator. It was great because you controlled what went in. Plus, you could make flavors that they don't sell in the stores.

All this talk about my MIA dehydrator is making me miss it even more. Hmmm, I will have to look at getting one soon. :) I've never heard of the solar ones, is it a machine, or just putting your stuff outside to dry? If it is outside, I'd be worried about the bugs, too.