It's August your garden, the farmer's markets, and roadside stands are bursting with yummy fresh fruits and vegetables.
If you're like our household, you are eating BLT with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, corn on the cob, and sliced cucumbers on the side once a day.
Green beans are ripe on the vine, and the peaches you bought at the farmers market are so mature and juicy you have to eat them over the sink. Yes, that was me; it was so good.
You can either can or freeze your fresh fruits and veggies at their peak. But what is better? Canning or Freezing?
The University of Alaska found that canning was the most cost-effective way of preserving food; they also determined that freezing was the best way to retain the food's nutrients.
The keyword is safe; canning or freezing food takes a lot of time and effort. Please do your research; the USDA has a large amount of info on food safety. They publish a canning guide that will help preserve food safely.
Cooperative Extension System is always a good source of information. They work through local groups for food safety and the latest info on food preservation and related topics in Michigan.
It is worth it when it January, and you open a bag of frozen corn you cut fresh off the cob in August. That is a taste of summer right on your plate.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation is a source for current research-based recommendations for most home food preservation methods.
With recipes, tips, and how-to articles, this site is worth bookmarking to return to again and again.
If you're looking for vintage books on canning and freezing, Reading Vintage has many on our shelves.
Both the Blue Ball and Kerr Canning pamphlets are popular. Along with other books on the topic. Just browse the Cookbook and Recipe collection or put canning in the search bar.
I hope this information helps you in your kitchen preparing healthy meals for your family now and in the future.
Whatever you decide is the best for your family to preserve all the wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables, it will be worth all the effort.
Just remember how blah and cold January is. That would be the perfect time to make a peach pie with the peaches you canned.
You can search any term used in an antique or vintage cookbook you're unsure of in my glossary of terms used in vintage cookbooks. Or just read it for pleasure; I found brown flour to be very interesting.
All the best vintage cookbooks are here. They will bring back memories of your favorite family's old recipes. Explore cookbooks you will use daily & rare cookbooks you will display on your kitchen bookshelf.
Julia Child was much more than a bestselling cookbook writer and chef. Did you know that she was also a breast cancer survivor, a TV trailblazer, and a government spy throughout her life?
Betty Crocker has changed the world of cooking by providing people with a wide range of recipes for different occasions. Was she a real person? Read and find out.
Pam of Reading Vintage
“Books may well be the only true magic.”—Alice Hoffman
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