Harvest Home

The two answers are firstly – it’s cheaper – especially if you buy from farmers markets and pick your own farms where seasonal products are always cheaper than out-of-season imported supermarket alternatives.  The second answer is that locally grown, organic fruit and vegetables are much better for you – they are fresher so a better source of nutrients and they have not been subject to thousands of miles of travel, so buying them and preserving them saves yet more damage to our fragile planet.

There are three main methods of preserving – the most perennially popular is freezing. 

Not everything freezes well, and freezing is a high cost method of preservation because of the electricity freezers use.  However freezing is the best method for tender vegetables and fruit such as peas and beans, and all the currant and berry families, (with the exception of strawberries) which freeze beautifully and lose none of their colour or flavour provided you do not store them for too many months.  Many books will recommend that you blanch vegetables before freezing, but I prefer to spread the freshly picked vegetables or fruit thinly on trays lined with wax paper and freeze them rapidly.  Using this method means the vegetables and fruit are easy to separate when you want to use them, and also it allows very rapid freezing which means the ice crystals in the food will be smaller.  Large ice crystals, resulting from slow freezing, damage the cell walls of the food itself and consequently, when it is thawed, liquid will be lost including some soluble nutrients. 

For other vegetables and some fruits, the ancient process of dehydration (drying) is my preferred choice.  Flavour and aroma are concentrated as water is removed from produce, producing a very intense flavour.  Drying eliminates fermentation and rot and mould-forming bacteria, hence dried vegetables and fruit will last a very long time (years possibly) if correctly stored in airtight containers in a dry, cool place.  The added bonus of dried food is that it takes up far less storage space than other methods which is a bonus in today’s society where homes are generally much smaller.  Foods which dry beautifully are tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions and garlic, cucumbers and courgettes, apples, strawberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, seedless grapes and herbs. 

You can dry foods in various ways.  The golden rules of successful drying are that is must be done as quickly as possible to prevent deterioration, the food to be dried must have good air circulation all round to produce satisfactory results, and foods which discolour on contact with air must be dipped in lemon juice and water to preserve colour.  Large fruits and vegetables must be cut into slices or wedges.  Small produce like cherry tomatoes or grapes can be left whole.  Herbs should be removed from their stalks (unless you are tying them in bunches to hang-dry). 

One method is to use the oven with the temperature very low.  This can be relatively successful in a fan oven where the air is constantly circulating therefore increasing its moisture capture.  Another is to lay the produce out on wire trays in an airing cupboard, but this can be slow so food can deteriorate.  By far the best method is to purchase a new generation food dehydrator which consists of a stack of vented trays with a heating element and a fan to circulate air.  There are many on the market, but my recommendation would be the DA750 Fruit and Vegetable Drier from Vigo Ltd in Devon (www.vigopresses.co.uk, 01404 892101).  It is a compact and easy to clean unit and in tests, my team found that the results were excellent and drying times were quick therefore reducing energy consumption. 

Dried foods produce the most wonderfully intense flavours when used in soups, stews, purees, winter fruit compotes and home made muesli.  Try dressing pasta with chopped dried tomatoes, olive oil and basil.  Or make a delicious refreshing soup from a couple of handfuls of dried cucumber and courgette, home made chicken stock and chopped onion.  Dried mushrooms make a fantastic addition to any stew or casserole – or rehydrate them and use them, and the soaking liquid, plus some boiled rice and chopped nuts to make a healthy and delicious stuffing for cabbage leaves, hollowed out red peppers, or aubergines.  

Yet more foods are best preserved by bottling.  Tomatoes, if you want them to retain their fresh appearance and constituency, bottle well.  Fruits such as pears, peaches, cherries and apricots bottle very well.  Vegetables do not as the bottling process does not produce sufficient heat to destroy the bacteria which can cause deterioration and, even worse, botulism.  Vegetables can be bottled using a long, high temperature, sterilisation method, but this spoils the flavour, colour and texture and so either freezing or drying are far better forms of preservation.

 

Bottling requires some specialist equipment.  You must have proper storage jars which will withstand the heat of sterilization and have correct seals to create an airtight vacuum.  Kilner jars with a glass cap and a brass band or preserving jars with glass lids and metal clips are the best.  You will need a vessel for sterilizing the jars – either a large tank Pasteuriser (again available from www.vigopresses.co.uk) which will hold up to 14 jars depending on their size, or use a pressure cooker.  If you use a pressure cooker, you must put a wire rack in the bottom to stop the jars coming in contact with the bottom of the pan.  If they do, they can crack. 

All fruit is best bottled in syrup rather than water.  Bottling in water means that some acids develop, leaving the fruit unpalatably tart.  Fruit prone to cook to a pulp such as apples, should be bottled raw so that the sterilization process also cooks the fruit.  Other fruits with have a longer and uncertain cooking time, such as plums, peaches, apricots, pears, benefit from being peeled, stoned, halved and poached until tender before bottling.  To sterilise the fruit, pack the washed fruit into the jars and cover with cold syrup (made by dissolving 4oz sugar in l pt of water, boiling for 3 – 5 minutes and then straining).  Close the jars using whichever method is appropriate and stand in the pasteuriser or pressure cooker.  (Refer to the manufacturer’s instructions to assess how much water is required and how long to sterilise the jars for).  After sterilisation, leave the jars for 48 hours before testing that the seal is airtight.  Then store and use as required. 

Bottled fruit needs no embellishment.  It is delicious eaten on its own, or with some yoghurt, or on top of a bowl of creamy porridge to make a healthy and warming winter breakfast.

Recommended reading:    ‘How to store your garden produce by Piers Warren - £7.99 – www.greenbooks.co.uk