Strawberry Fields Forever: 5 Reasons Why Preserving Your Own Food Is Green
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 08. 1.08
(Hamutal Dotan, from Toronto, goes berry-pickin')
It seems like such an old-fashioned “Leave It To Beaver” sort of tradition –– going out strawberry and cucumber picking and making your own jam and pickles. But more TreeHuggers, we are finding, are going out into the fields and back to the wisdom of our grandparents by making their own preserves. It makes green sense.
Our friend from Green Prophet, Hamutal Dotan, recently did it. She spent a day out berry picking, and wrote out a step-by-step recipe for the even the lamest cooks in the crowd.
So did this TreeHugger. While up in Northern Canada earlier in July, I decided to venture out with my family and spend a day berry-picking and making jam. In total, the whole process took about 5 hours from start to finish (including the berry picking) and created memories and yummy jam that will last a long time.
As we rack up food miles for everything we eat, preserving our own food seems to be the way of the future.
My niece and her friend make strawberry jam. After boiling the strawberries, we had to skim this pinkish foam off the surface. A few spoons of it added to a cup of milk, made the most delicious strawberry flavored milk any of us had tasted.
Earlier on The Huffington Post, we wrote about the benefits of jarring your own preserves, and one reader pointed out that freezing works well too. Although it consumes more energy to keep them frozen, and assuming you have a large storage freezer, this might be a good way to keep your local farmers market beans green all winter, while avoiding cans (and the health dangers of BPA) and buying food from distant locations. Now for today’s tips:
Five Green Reasons for Canning and Preserving Your Own Food
1. You know what's going in, and can avoid dangerous additives. A healthier you is a greener you. Fewer doctor's visits, less expensive diets, less of everything.
2. Instead of buying fruit from exotic and foreign countries in the winter, and having it shipped all the way to your door (this takes a lot of energy!), just go into your pantry and eat your own tasty and healthy preserves.
3. Preserving with your family and friends makes for a simple and practically cost-free day of fun. Go pick your own berries and veggies. Expenses will include canning equipment and jars, plus the veggies and fruits. But imagine the money you will save in the long run?
4. Preserves make wonderful gifts. Imagine making your labels on your own organic jams, chutney and pesto and telling your friends how you made it for them at the dinner party? It's a good cheap way to give your friends presents they are actually likely to use. Plus you'll be popular.
5. Preserves jars can easily be recycled. And I am not talking about the blue box. Ask your friends to return their jars. Promise them that they will be filled up next season with something new if they do. Just imagine how many people and local farmers you are going to make happy!
Want More Green DIY Recipes?
homemade yogurt
preserves become ideology in a jar
homemade chocolate cake
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Grain Shipped Under Sail Reduces Carbon Footprint
- New Carbon Footprint Standard Launched in the UK
- Brad Pitt Lends His Voice to e2 Transport
- 5 Strategies for Getting the Most from Your Farmers' Market
The jars are reusable as opposed to simply recyclable,
a distinction most people don't recognize. The article was
fun. My wife is gardening again this year after several
years of hiatus, so canning will again be an early fall activity.
Yum.
Why recycle the jars when you can reuse them? Mason jars are extremely handy for this!
I read somewhere that it's actually bad form to NOT return the empty jar to the person who gave you the preserves/jam/pickles/etc.
I think you meant to write "reuse" in reason 5, but committed the very common error of instead writing "recycle," which is not at all the same thing. Other than that, good post. Thanks!
Good article, but what's with the last picture? We couldn't find one more that was sexually suggestive?
[Yes, I said it. But you were thinking it.]
I don't remember seeing June Cleaver doing any gardening, pickling or canning. Lisa Douglas from Green Acres may have tried it though.
Glad to see that people are canning again. It is fun to pull a jar of pickled beets off the wall, and know you grew 'em and canned 'em, and they tast so good.
But what we really need is a recipe for DILLY BEANS!!
Oh, Jack, I'm sure you can find the pictures your looking for somewhere on the net.
You can often get boxes of canning jars cheap at flea markets or yard sales. Just be sure to check the the top edges don't have chips or cracks and you're good to go. You do have to buy new lids every year, but the metal rings are reusable.
I also got boxes of jars from my grandmother, including some of the old style ones with the glass lids. The books and articles will tell you it isn't safe to use these, but my grandparents and parents used them for many, many years with no problems. If you can find the rubber sealing rings, give 'em a try. As long as you're careful and check your final seal, you should be good to go. If you don't want to risk it, those old jars make attractive containers for giving gifts of dried herbs or your own cookie mix and such.
Make sure you're doing it right.
Water bath canning 101: http://sharonastyk.com/2008/07/17/water-bath-canning-101/
Pressure canning 101: http://sharonastyk.com/2008/07/24/pressure-canning-101/
BOTULIZIM. UR DOIN IT RONG.
Wow, that picture of the nubile redhead with a bucket of sweet, juicy strawberries between her legs is really pervy! Kudos!
Someone should write an article comparing the sustainability (or even cost savings, if any) of canning at home versus buying canned food in the store. I expect that there are certain economies of scale to be found by factories buying fruit wholesale, canning it wholesale, and saving you the trip to the farm.
But maybe we're all a little too impatient to wait for Aylmer's to stop putting BPA in their cans?
Agreed Ernie, but ultimately that transportation to and fro seems to be the killer. Even if the energy investment from a factory is less, the type of energy MAY be less desirable (in this day and age).
I really like this idea, but how do you preserve? I have been looking into converting to an organic living, not just for the environment but for my health.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation is where the research, development, and testing for safe food preservation practices blessed by the USDA is done.
It is housed at the University of Georgia and is a good and a reliable online source of information. The Ball Blue Book is a venerable text for food preservers and a much larger (and more expensive) publication on the subject is the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Check them out.
The NCHFP site is
-Bubbles