the fact that we’d have no kitchen this summer led us to forego planting the garden as well—it was a good choice considering how busy we are and how much added work there is when undergoing a major home renovation. we are very relieved not to be worrying about watering and weeding or where the heck we are going to wash whole baskets of produce.
we still however, crave the sparkling flavors of fresh summer veggies and have been lucky to rely on the kindness of friends and neighbors who are sharing the overflow from their gardens. in particular, our dear friend beckie not only lends her kitchen weekly for me to prepare foods for freezing, but never sends me home without a basket of greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, or even eggs for our table.
throughout the season, we’ve been getting together at her house to bag up berries, peaches, tomatoes—all those fruits that are too sticky to deal with when one doesn’t have a sink big enough to wash them.
in a corner of the porch we are using for our main living space right now, i eked out a little square to lay down a cotton rug for ripening peaches under newspaper. most of these will be for the table, but if they all ripen at once, i may end up freezing some.
yes, it’s that time of summer when the harvest is an unstoppable tide and it’s all we can do to keep up with it. that said, it’s important to make sure you know what you’re doing; preserving food has wonderful benefits but only if you use best practices. as an ever-evolving science, the rules of food preservation change and so should our knowledge about the topic, if for no other reason than that food itself is constantly evolving too.
it never hurts to know more about preserving food safely and efficiently, while retaining the best flavor and texture possible. everyone can use a little help in this regard and a good book on the subject can be a valuable friend.
enter a new release from the culinary institute of america, preserving: putting up the season’s bounty
i’m sure there are many more comprehensive volumes out there on canning and preserving—big thick books that cover every eventuality. but this book has something those books don’t—it’s small size, weight, and attractive layout make it so easy to digest that i’m actually reading and using it.
why, i can pop this baby in my tote bag and take it along to beckie’s house to read to her if i want—i like that.
inside, it’s filled with all sorts of useful information that we want to know. but what i like is that it gets you thinking about the endgame before you even start gardening or buying produce.
very smart advice since the end result is only as good as the quality of the produce you have to work with.
the preparatory chapters also discuss the concept of the pantry, how much you really need to put by, and how to store preserved goods properly. all good advice for laying a good foundation.
because let’s face it—putting up food is a labor intensive job, often hot and messy and somewhat pricey; maybe even more costly than average store-bought brands. the big payoff is a healthier, better tasting product of known origin; important enough for many of us to pursue despite the cost. the least we can do to pay ourselves back by treating the final results like the treasured goods they are.
the middle chapters of the book focus on various preservation methods, each having its own pages in the spotlight. for each, the authors discuss tools and terminology, introducing basic methodology and defining the terms you need to know.
this is where, as a beginner or someone who has limited space to work, you can choose the tools and strategies that will work best for you. for instance, one of the reasons i have yet to pursue canning, is that for so many years i lived in city apartments with no space to store big pots and boxes of jars that i would use but one month per year—or to store rows of finished canned goods either. i took to freezing because it was quick and easy after a long day of work and ziploc bags took up much less space when not in use.
however, freezing is not the best method for every food and it does require quite a bit of freezer space. i know i should explore canning for certain types of food and one of these summers, i will. i’ll probably get beckie to walk me through canning at some point; just not right now.
still, i love to read about it and doing so may spur me to try it on some level, sooner rather than later.
of course there is a chapter on pickling, along with drying, smoking, and freezing.
you’ll probably find it amusing that even though we don’t cook meat here, i still think it would be awesome to make my own bacon if i did include that in my diet.
i mean, it’s GOTTA be a far cry from what you’d buy in the cooler at the supermarket, right?
even as we work away at freezing fruits and vegetables, beckie and i come up with questions we need answered. it’s always nice to read more about a method i use all the time—why not? one thing i do know is that i don’t know everything about anything.
safe food storage is a topic that totally deserves to be revisited on a regular basis—scientists are finding out new information all the time and updating old, long-held beliefs about the “right way” to handle food.
finally, the book ends with a chapter on homemade pantry staples such as ketchup and other condiments, with advice on filling up that pantry you prepared at the start of the season. it’s nice that they circled back to the beginning i think; it makes me feel that it’s in keeping with the growing cycle of the garden.
here the authors discuss how to clean and assess your jars and equipment as you empty and put them away during the winter—when to get rid of pieces that won’t be useful in the future, how to keep an eye on the shelf life of preserved goods, and how to keep the pantry clean and free of pests. a lot of information for such a small volume.
doesn’t that sound like a terrific little book? wouldn’t you like to own one? well as luck would have it, our friend nathalie who is the director of publications at CIA (and an awesome knitter), has very generously offered us two giveaway copies of preserving!
here’s how it’s going to work: we’re going to give away one copy here on the blog and one copy on our knitspot facebook page. erica will mastermind how the FB giveaway will work and announce it there. the cool thing is that you can throw your name in the hat in both places for two chances to win (though we will award only ONE book per winner).
to be included in the blog giveaway, leave a comment at the end of this post by 9 pm ESDT on sunday august 24th, telling us what favorite summer food you are preserving (or wish you could). we’ll pick a winner and announce it early next week.
a big thank you to nathalie for giving us an advance peek inside the preserving book and providing giveaway copies for a late summer treat.
195 thoughts on “pickled pink”
I cannot wait until I can preserve cukes and make pickles!
Thanks for the giveaway and for still posting about garden things, even though you don’t have a garden this year. I LOVE reading your blog, especially this time of year, and living vicariously through all of your preserving 🙂
I would love this book! It’s almost spring here, and I’d love to stock up when things are in season. My favorite thing to cook so far has been dilly beans (pickled green beans), but I’ve never actually canned them – just eaten them from the fridge.
Wow, that sounds like a great book. I keep admiring the way you put food away for the winter but don’t know how to do it myself.
I would love to learn how to preserve baby gerkins, I just love them!
About 8 years ago my 2 sons started a family tradition when we picked too many baskets of strawberries from the local farm. They decided to make their own strawberry jam and it was such a success that we’ve been doing it every June since then. I’ve also added Spiced Blueberry Jam and a couple of chutneys as well as Apricot Lemon preserves. The whole family looks forward to receiving them every year. This sounds like a great book to expand the repertoire.
How cool is this! I bought large flats of strawberries at the local upick farm and sliced them up for the dehydrator. They are now all packed away to be used in baking or in oatmeal during the long cold days of winter.
I always freeze a lot of the blueberries, blackberries, and rhubarb from the garden, and depending on the size of the roma tomato crop I may can or roast and freeze it. I guess my favorite thing, though, is making blackberry jam and preserving it. Haven’t done it yet this year.
I put up pickles and preserves. I also make limoncello and the summer batch will be ready to give away for Christmas gifts. I hope I win.
I’d love to start working on preserving anything. Making my own jam would be wonderful!
I love making strawberry jam and cucumber pickles. I have lots of tomatoes so I really want to try my hand at canning those.
Thank you so much for this giveaway.
I am going to try my hand at canning pickles this summer. I have made jams in the past and freeze some summer veggies.
This year’s weather has diminished out crop somewhat. Too hot to fast and too wet. BUT I do freeze as much as possible. Green beans are a particular favorite. But batches of vegetables ready for soups and veggie stews are always a must. The book looks very informative. If I don’t win I will probably buy a copy!
Too much rain this year to put in many vegetables successfully, but I have a stack of blueberry-filled freezer bags for the winter, and blackberry season is in full swing, so a “jam session” awaits, and there’s always the prospect of canning applesauce in the fall.
This looks like a great book. I’ve always relied on the Ball Blue Book, an old Joy of Cooking, and the advice of friends (who know how to make jam without pectin). Having all that information, and new ideas, in one place would be just wonderful!
I love homemade sauerkraut and want to take this project on. Thank you for the chance to win this book!
I am looking forward to making our own ‘sauerkraut’ with my father in law again this autumn. But at the moment, I am working my way trough making raspberry jam! the colour of the jam goes perfectly well with my knitting though…
I would love the win the copy of the book, thanks for this interesting post anyway.
I love zucchini relish and rhubarb jam. I picked rhubarb (from my own plant) when it was ready earlier in the season and placed it in the freezer where it is just waiting for processing when I have the time.
My garden has done poorly this, so I’m not putting up much. But if I could, I would put up my own canned tomato products, stewed and paste especially. That sounds like a book I could really use, thanks for the offer.
I froze a lot of raspberries from my garden – they were especially abundant this year. The book sounds interesting.
Wow! This book is just what I have looking for…small, easy to read, and understandable directions. I would love to have this book.
I love how it goes beyond canning! I would love this book!
This would be a great little treasure to own! I am a beginner so I know I have a lot to learn.
Wow! That sounds like an amazing book. In the Southern Hemisphere I am planning my summer garden and what I wish to preserve this year. It is so easy to preserve too much of one thing and not enough of another. The more options and plans the better.
I miss homemade pickles and jams. If I win ill definitely get started on that!
Looks like a good book!
I would love to win a copy! We didn’t remodel this year but did move from one house to another over the summer so no big veggie garden for me this year either. I’ve been going through withdrawal and would love to study this for updated methods to use with NEXT year’s harvest.
Corn. Cut right off the cob and frozen. Pull it out for thanksgiving and everyone will love you
My small kitchen=freezing not canning, at least not yet. I love freezing organic blueberries and cherries. The blueberries I throw into oatmeal in the winter, and the cherries I eat one by one as soon as they thaw. All cherry lovers should freeze cherries!
Since moving to Austin, i’ve fallen in love with Texas peaches. I would love to preserve that great summer flavor to enjoy all year long!
I’ve never done any preserving, as I don’t know how! Wouldn’t this be a great book to learn from, though.
Oh, the peaches have been so delicious this summer – I wish I knew how to preserve them. But that would mean taking away time from my knitting! Someday I’ll give it a try…
Oh, I would live to win a copy of this book– my “newest” preserving book is probably 25 years old, and you’re right– things change! I have recently finished preserving peaches: peach jam, peach/Earl Gray preserves, peach bourbon butter and sliced frozen peaches for smoothies (had a bumper crop from the tree in our yard). Later this month, I hope to can salsa– it’s become a yearly tradition to have a (small) bonfire in the yard and have friends over on one of the days when there’s a fresh vat of salsa on the stove!
We have a very small garden (our first in decades) and have a lot of cucumbers. Who knew they would grow so well? I would like to freeze some peaches and blueberries. And, I’d like to make some jelly & jam. This book looks really good.
I am doing peaches this weekend,…both canned and jam,….would love that book!!!!!!!!!
I love to hear the “pop, pop” of the lids sealing on my canned tomatoes. That is my favorite memory of our canning days as a child. I haven’t read a canning book in awhile. I think it’s time I did.
I would love a chance at this book. Looks like fun 🙂
Thank you for the lovely giveaway opportunity! I would love to add it to my cookbook collection. We just finished putting up blueberries and we’ll be making tomato sauce and salsa in the coming weeks.
I just made blackberry jam last weekend with blackberries I picked up roadside in Maine on a work related trip. YUM!
With friends and neighbors who have summer apple trees, I am up to my ears in applesauce. I love how quick and easy it is to make and so satisfying seeing all those jars to get my 7 kids through the winter!
This is the first year I planted a garden and I’m really enjoying watching everything grow. Would live to get some new ideas from this book. Thank you.
I have had a garden for several years and this is the first year I have really felt the need or desire to can. I want more control over the what exactly is in my food and this will be a great way.
Last night I froze tomatoes for the first time. It was soooo much easier than canning them!
Looks like a fabulous resource!! I don’t often have the energy for preserving, but when I do, it would be great to know the best way to do it!
Right now, my little container garden isn’t big enough for us to preserve any of the veggies we grow, but garden space is one of my “must haves” as my husband and I house hunt. I would love to grow more and preserve the hot peppers he loves, and I have dreams of filling a second freezer with my harvest and having rows of jars of preserved food in my pantry!
What a great book! Even if I do not win a copy I will be getting this.
I have dreams of pickling and preserving, but I haven’t managed it yet. I did freeze some blueberries! I find it reassuring that you had this huge (to me) garden, and you managed it all through freezing. Next summer, that’s my year.
I wish that I could preserve watermelon.
Even though my only attempt at canning, crab apple jelly if you must know, was a complete disaster, I keep wanting to try it again, I have a Meyer Lemon tree in my yard that is producing a ton of lemons…Meyer Lemon Marmalade would be such fun to make! Would love a copy of this book.
I would love to preserve all of the tomatoes, small – large, that my garden is producing faster than my family can consume them.
Drying, Canning, Sauces, Ketchups, Oh My!! The possibilities are endless.
Thank you for sharing such an amazing resource!
I wish I could preserve something this year – perhaps peaches. Next year we’re moving and I’m hoping to join a CSA, which will force me to use lots of local fresh produce.
This year was the first year that I was able to have a garden in a few years since I actually was living in the same house all season! 🙂 Probably my two favorites are tomatoes and zucchini. I dried a bunch of Juliet tomatoes and froze shredded zucchini. I’ll be making soups over the winter and other dishes for using the tomatoes and the zucchini is for when I have a craving for homemade zucchini bread! Yum! I want to try my hand at canning too and was thinking about it this year, but my schedule was crazy enough that it just didn’t fit. Hopefully next year I can change that and I really want to try my hand at jams and jellies!
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