I once pickled watermelon rind. It was disgusting, but I was practicing for 4-H, and we had a pickling and canning book and the recipe was in there so we tried it. I think that was in 1994. My mom finally threw out the jar of pickled watermelon about 4 or 5 years ago, and I am sure if you would have opened it, it would have tasted just as gross 14 years later.
Canning and preservation of food has been part of the human experience from the beginning of time. Early civilizations developed ways to salt and preserve meat and fats for colder months. Berries and veggies were dried and stored for later. Grains were harvested and stored so they could be ground when the winter came. Today many people do not have any idea how to preserve food.
Today I helped my mom can tomatoes. We blanched the tomatoes, peeled off the skins, put them into jars, sealed them with the canning lids, and put them in boiling water in the pressure cookers to get the seals to stick. If the lids bowed in towards the contents of the jar, then they had sealed.
She has also cut corn off the cob and frozen it, frozen blackberries and blueberries, and canned and frozen green beans this year. Basically she will have the harvests of summer at hand until next summer. Here is a good resource for anyone who wants to learn how to can or preserve stuff: http://nchfp.uga.edu/
No comments:
Post a Comment