Bumper Crop Seeks Preservation
Mason jars and food mills reappear in homes
throughout region
A combination of warm dry stretches and periods of
light rain this summer have resulted in abundant harvests and content farmers
and gardeners.
After last year’s somewhat miserable weather that
resulted in poor yields, tomatoes are now bursting (especially after the most
recent infusion of water). Apples are large and weighing down trees, and squash
turned scores of little yellow flowers into fruit.
Now it’s time to make sure everything doesn’t go bad.
Back before aluminum cans and flash freezing, canning with glass Mason jars was
practiced by a majority of Americas. Some basements are still lined with the
colorful variety of jars scribbled with descriptions and dates.
Whether you have a backyard garden or visit local
farm stands to fill up on bushels of produce, two fun and relatively simple
ways of getting started with food preservation are canning sauce with plum
tomatoes (see CWN article here) and making hard cider by fermenting apples to
help them last for months or years (the most popular drink in America before
Coca-Cola replaced it was hard cider).
Buy or borrow a simple apple cider press and think
about buying a book to get started with. As the apples are being pressed and
funneled into gallon jugs, and some sips are being shared, the experience of
picking, washing, crushing, and sipping fresh off the tree makes it taste that
much better.
After having your fill of fresh cider, set some of
the gallons aside with an airlock plug. This device keeps air out of the jug,
while allowing gas produced by the cider to escape. As the cider starts to
ferment—which is the process of natural yeast found in the air eating the
sugars in the cider and producing carbon dioxide—you will see bubbles traveling
up the jug like soda.
There are many techniques for bottling and adding
additional sugar once the bubbles stop being produced. The basic premise is
that the cider needs to sit for a couple of months; once the yeast is inactive
the jugs can be poured into smaller individual bottles and capped. A good rule
of thumb is that you can be drinking hard cider with family during all of the
holidays. The bottles make a great gift and topic of conversation.
Apples are in season during September and October at
most of the farms in the area. If you would like to plant an apple tree or two
of your own, there is still time for it this season. There are a wide variety
of species available at local nurseries. Some of the best apples for producing
a great hard cider are crab apples and apples that are tart.
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 1:40 PM.
Filed under
Environment,
Food & Restaurant,
locavore
.
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