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SELF PRESERVATION
Making your own preserves can be satisfying and practical!
There is something so satisfying about making or creating things yourself.
I have always been a creative and resourceful person, whether in sewing, cooking, home décor, art or craft. I like being able to come up with ideas or projects, and work out how to go about doing it myself.
I like to research and learn, ponder and plan, and do things from scratch. OK, so things don’t always work out exactly as I envisioned they might, but half the fun is deciding what to do and planning how you’ll go about it.
This goes for my gardening too, and since I started growing my own organic produce a few years ago, it has been a steep learning curve; with plenty of problem solving, all-out failures, general headshaking, the odd stomping or trowel throwing, lots of Googling & garden guide book checking, and things not working out how I hoped.
This doesn’t stop me from gardening though. In amongst the hard work and frustration, is a true joy that comes from connecting with nature, and nurturing something from a tiny seed to an edible end result!
I have really enjoyed planning the gardens of our ‘urban homestead’, which are still a work in progress, and perhaps always will be! Being able to draw up a permaculturally influenced plan, and then actually carry it out in our backyard, has been hard work, but satisfying.
There are many reasons we are doing this: from food security, reskilling, teaching our kids and increasing our food awareness; to eating healthier and the convenience of being able to walk out the backdoor to pick dinner.
One of the biggest reasons, though, is because it feels good!
To the non-gardeners out there, you may think it weird, but to me it is so exciting to look through seed catalogues and decide what vegetables to grow, or wander through a good nursery in awe at the range of fruit trees available. The way you might swoon over a designer handbag, or drool over a restaurant menu, is how I feel about a basketful of freshly harvested, home grown organic fruit and vegetables!
For the things that don’t work out, there are plenty of successes and often, surprises too. Many vegetables will self-seed or hibernate in your compost, and in the next season, you’ll get a bonus crop you weren’t expecting.
Or just when you give up on a vine that isn’t going to produce in time, the next day it is covered in emerging pods!
It is particularly satisfying when you try something that perhaps the guide books or websites suggested were for a different climate, and with fingers crossed and perhaps the right microclimate, you grow it right here in Canberra.
Of course, then there is the bittersweet gardening phenomenon of a glut or abundance, when you have so much of one vegetable or fruit that even your family, neighbours or colleagues turn down your offers of more give aways. There are only a certain amount of zucchini recipes, or ways to use up green tomatoes, that you can force on your family!
That’s when being able to preserve your harvest comes in handy.
From canning, hot water bathing, dehydrating, lacto-fermenting, smoking, and freezing, there are many methods you can use to make the most of an abundance from the garden.
There are a whole range of foods you can then enjoy when the fresh produce is not in season, in the way of relishes, chutneys, dried fruit, fruit leathers, stewed fruit, jams, syrups, cordials, wines, pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, tomato sauce, pesto, dried tomatoes in oil, chargrilled eggplant, dried beans and legumes, and passata!
Preserving is a skill that has been misplaced in that last few generations, but certainly one that is easy to regain. But why go to all the effort to learn and use these skills? Isn’t that what is available in the supermarkets anyway? Most commercial items have got nothing on the taste and satisfaction of preserving your own home grown produce.
Preserving your own food can be an all-consuming hobby. If you want to do a lot of ‘canning’ (preserving acidic fruit in liquid in jars) you may want to invest in equipment like a Fowlers Vacola Preserving Unit, a guide book and utensils, and the jars, rubber seals, lids and clips that are required.
You can buy a dehydrator or perhaps make a solar dehydrator yourself! Otherwise a large pot and second hand jars may be suitable for making relish or jam. You can buy new lids to fit jars you’ve saved too.
Perhaps you have a grandma or aunt who can lend you their equipment (and teach you too), or find your resources second hand, at op shops, markets, eBay or AllClassifieds.
Fowlers Vacola jars need a thorough check to ensure there are no chips in the glass rims, and you might buy new rubber seals too.
Some community centres might consider it a worthwhile investment, if you approach them with a group of interested locals keen to share equipment, and perhaps they might even set up lessons or workshops too.
Otherwise you can just dive right in, like I did, and work it out as you go.
Preserving food is a serious concept, but with some respectful caution, and an ‘if in doubt, throw it out’ mentality, it’s no more dangerous than eating food from a supermarket deli or leftovers at Christmas time!
It wasn’t that long ago that growing your own and preserving it were routine household chores, and in many countries, still are. It’s like being a part of a secret club, one in which contentment and happiness can be found in a basketful of home grown produce, or a shelf full of home preserved goodies.
You feel like you’ve connected with the seasons and cycles of nature, like you used your bare hands to cultivate the earth, and have honoured the opportunity that Mother Nature gives us. Sure, you might feel exhausted, and sticky by the end of it too, but you won’t feel hungry.
