(Recap) Sustainable Saturdays: Preserve The Harvest

Reported by foodem.com, the online wholesale food marketplace-

At my parent’s house in Denver we are lucky enough to have apple, cherry and peach trees, along with grape vines. With all this beautiful, fresh produce, we are pretty much set for the entire summer. However, we have to be quick to collect every morsel as soon as it ripens in order to beat the birds and the worms. For starters, if we don’t grab the apples as soon as their green color start to blush, we will lose them to worms. Oh, and our poor cherry tree is almost always flocked with birds, forcing us to spend our summer evenings collecting buckets of cherries. On the other hand, our peaches and grapes are usually safe and produce a large harvest.

With our constant picking and gathering, we hardly have time to eat all of what our trees provide. We can’t make enough pies, cobblers, crisps and chutneys to keep up with the natural cycle. For that reason, we always end up canning and freezing our fruits for upcoming fruitless season. We have made jams, sauces, jellies and dehydrated fruit. So when that cherry pie craving strikes us in the fall, we have loads of frozen cherries in the freezer waiting to satisfy our cravings. Also, in the dead of winter, we spread our homemade jams on our morning toast.

Drying, canning, freezing and preserving your harvest has endless benefits. It saves money, eliminating the need to buy jam or pie filling for the rest of the year. And, although making jam can be time consuming (and hot!), it doesn’t require expensive ingredients; the end result makes it worth every step.

Beyond the money saving aspect, it is also good for your health. Fruits from the supermarket are often drenched in pesticides and preservatives. They are also picked before ripening has occurred and stored in warehouses for transport across the country.

Even without bountiful fruit trees, there is still a way to enjoy your garden year round. Nearly anything you plant can be preserved! There is no reason any foods produced in your own yard should go to waste.

(Photo Source)