Food Preservation to an Extreme

I’ve read that humor is the good-natured side of truth. Verne and I often joke about being enablers. The truth is, we are. Since we met I’ve always encouraged him to pursue his interest in old cars, which has mostly involved buying and storing them. At one count we owned a dozen, a barn (and barnyard) full of rusting old jalopies, with only one having been restored to its former beauty.

Verne's 1952 Chevy Truck

In the same supportive (enabling) way Verne has always encouraged me to pursue my creative interests, whether quilting or crafting. I have boxes of quilting fabric, paints and pencils, and assorted other art supplies. Enough for two lifetimes. That is not to say I haven’t made a few quilts or produced a few frame-worthy drawings or paintings. It is to admit that I may have (slightly) overbought. I hold the enabler responsible for my folly, just as he has often jokingly blamed me for the number of old cars we’ve owned.

We seem to support and encourage (ok, ok…enable) each other to excess. So, it should be no surprise that when it comes to my latest passion, food preservation, we do it to an extreme. Who else do you know would buy 300+ pounds of produce in a matter of two weeks for a household of two? If you missed reading about our U-Pick fun at Sloughhouse, click here. (Note: The 184 pounds of produce I talk about in Moser Fall Harvest was the first trip. We went a second time a few weeks later and came home with another 150 pounds. Yikes!) We keep telling each other that it’s really not as bad as it sounds. The pumpkins and winter squash made up at least half of that weight. I’m here to tell you that it was as bad as it sounds! We spent days in the kitchen preserving tomatoes and peppers in all forms, including frozen and canned jars of tomatoes, salsa, dehydrated peppers, and we even made a dehydrated salsa. Are we beginning to sounds like Preppers? During this same timeframe we made our first-of-the-year trip to Apple Hill and bought a 22-pound box of Bartlett pears. Had our favorite apple variety, Pink Lady, been in season we would have come home with an equal amount of apples. We finished our pear canning project and left the following day for our weeklong trip visiting family and friends in the Pacific Northwest. A much needed break from the kitchen.

That brings me to our most recent excess. We came home from our September driving vacation with 50 half-pints of tuna that Scott and I pressure canned, ten pounds of frozen huckleberries (that await the jam pot), and 45 pounds of Harry & David Bartlett pears. The pears couldn’t wait and within two days of returning we were back in the kitchen canning (shouldn’t it be “jarring”?) pears in a simple syrup, my award-winning pear conserve, and pear ginger jam. I thought we’d never see the bottom of the box. We eventually finished our project and after a few day’s rest we were on to the next food venture.

Me with Joanne and Mike Baldinelli

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a food sourcing mission this past summer and plan to ramp it up in 2017. I read recently that 40% of the food that America grows each year is wasted. Shameful! I want to do my part to help reduce that number. The Baldinelli’s, friends I’ve made through the Master Food Preserver program, are grape growers in the Shenandoah Valley. Mike mentioned that following last year’s harvest they gleaned another 3,000 pounds of grapes, called seconds. I’m not sure if that has to do with the quality of the grape or because it’s the second time picking. I suspect the latter. He offered (I may have asked ;)) to have us over to pick as many grapes as we wanted. This is my kind of fun! Maria and Ruben were back from fishing and I invited them to spend the day with us. I know I’ve said this before, but there is something so special about picking your own food. It was a beautiful fall day. Mike and Joanne joined us in the vineyard and explained the differences to look for between the Zinfandel and Cabernet grapes. The Zin are larger and clusters not quite as tight as the Cabs. Mike gave us buckets and a special knife with a curved blade to cut the clusters from the vines. We picked for over an hour and according to my calculations went home with about a hundred pounds of grapes. 

Maria

Ruben

I’m writing this blog on the third day of juicing over 35 quarts of the stuff. I had no real plan for the juice except to make a batch or two of grape jelly. That was until I drank my first glass of Zin grape juice. It was so delicious I could only wonder why in the world people prefer the fermented version of it. I’m already planning to make grape picking (and juicing) an annual event and have more of our family join in the fun next year.

Before I sign off, I know you must be wondering how we extracted the juice. Readers moderately schooled in home food preservation techniques are thinking we cooked the grapes and then let them drip through a jelly bag. That is one approach that we’ve used for other fruit and it’s okay when making a small batch of jelly. But a hundred pounds? Not ok! We used a Steam Juicer. The fruit (and veggies of any kind) are placed in the steam basket on top and as the produce softens and cells break down the juice is released into a kettle that is equipped with a drain tube and clamp. After about an hour for grapes, longer for other produce, the clamp is removed and the juice flows into a container for storage. Easy Peasy! The juicing possibilities are endless.