Simple Home Preserving
Simple ways you can preserve your garden harvest without canning.
By Steven Biggs
Simple Preserving Techniques
Preserving often brings to mind piping hot mason jars, bags of sugar, the stinging aroma of boiled vinegar, and a hot, steamy kitchen—all hallmarks of canning.
But there are many other preserving strategies that are simpler and less energy-intensive.
Sauerkraut is a great example of a simple method of preserving. All it takes is cabbage, salt, and time.
Preventing Spoilage
We preserve food by preventing the growth of spoilage organisms:
These organisms include fungi (e.g. moulds) and bacteria (e.g. botulism), and insects
We prevent their growth with conditions that don’t suit them: acidic, cold, lacking in oxygen, or dry
Sauerkraut
Enjoy your garden harvest year-round by using a few simple preserving methods. Simple is the key word: the simpler it is, the more likely it is to get done.
I was pretty excited the first time I made sauerkraut. No more insipid, store-bought kraut: I wanted the good stuff. With fennel seeds, juniper berries. Maybe even some apple slices. My great aunt Anna later taught me to put a whole head of cabbage near the bottom of the crock, so I could have whole sour cabbage leaves for making cabbage rolls.
You can’t get more tactile in food prep than making sauerkraut. It takes repeated punches to the salted, shredded cabbage until a film of liquid starts to show. The arm motion I find works best is a bit of a punch with a twist.
Once the cabbage is softened and there’s liquid, I added a bit of brine so I have enough liquid to pin down all the shredded cabbage under a weighted plate and have it submerged.
Then it’s time to let it ferment.
The first time I made it I kept the crock in the house. It didn’t win me any favours with my wife, Shelley.
It stank. I remember her saying to a technician at the door, I’m sorry about the smell, it’s my husband, he’s making sauerkraut.”
Now I make sauerkraut in the garage.
Bugs Too
A stint in the oven at low heat, or storing dry beans in the refrigerator is a simple way to deal with bean weevils.
Insects are spoilage organisms too. One year I found lots of scampering weevils drilling holes into my dried beans.
After making sure our stored food is insect-free, the next thing to do is have food in a sealed container — where insects can’t get to it.
Make sure that there are no hidden travellers or eggs: Even though my dried beans were in a closed jar, they included weevil eggs. If I had used a heat treatment to kill the eggs, I wouldn’t have had a jar full of weevils.
Fermentation
Lactic-acid-fermented dilly garlic cucamelons.
Lactic-acid fermentation is what makes sauerkraut sour. It’s a naturally occurring process during which lactic-acid forming bacteria multiply rapidly, giving off enough lactic acid to preserve the cabbage.
Despite the sour flavour, sauerkraut is made without vinegar.
This same fermentation process can be used for other vegetables too. Brined (fermented) dill pickles taste different from pickles made with vinegar—it’s the lactic acid that makes these pickles tangy.
Like sauerkraut, brined cucumbers undergo a fermentation process that produces acidity. This acidity then prevents the growth of spoilage organisms. Other vegetables such as cucamelons, beets, carrots, beans, and onions can also be fermented.
Other Preserving Techniques
Drying herbs. TIP: If drying herbs in the sunlight, cover them with a paper bag to get dry herbs that aren’t bleached by the sun.
DRYING is a simple preserving technique that works because most spoilage organisms need moisture to grow. While the drying of fleshier produce with a high moisture content might be best done in the oven or a food dryer, other crops dry very easily.
Herbs are one of the easiest things to dry. They hang in bundles from my garage ceiling, while linden flowers and elderberries are spread out on metal pie plates or cookie sheets. The dry bean plants hang by the roots to dry until the fall, when the beans are removed from the shell and stored in jars.
A dedicated drying room or shed isn’t necessary. Try drying herbs in the kitchen window. We’ve had good luck with strings of hot peppers or the wild mushrooms that we dry in the kitchen—we’ve even used the hot dashboard of a car to dry plates of elderberries.
FREEZING doesn’t kill all spoilage organisms, but it puts growth on hold.
My favourite freezing method is a simple technique for herbs. I love dill—and lots of it. In late spring there’s so much in the garden that I have to weed it out from the other crops. Instead of drying it in the sunny shed, where the sunlight causes it to fade to grey, I simply chop it then freeze it in a plastic tub or jar. I have ready-chopped dill all season long. The same technique works well for parsley too.
The Easiest Preserving Technique
What’s the easiest preserving technique? Leave the crop in the garden as long as possible.
Parsley can be retrieved from under the snow
In winter, the few leeks that remain in the garden make a nice stew during a mid-winter melt
Carrots and parsnips can be kept in the garden well after the first frost—in fact, they sweeten up with the cold weather as starches are converted to sugars
Ripe lemons can remain on the tree for months
Here are 25 storage crops you can grow in your garden to store for the winter.
I’ve had fun over the years getting my kids to help punch down the shredded cabbage to make sauerkraut!
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Foraging for Morel Mushrooms (and a Morel Sauce Recipe)
Here is the recipe for my morel sauce.
By Steven Biggs
How to Find Morel Mushrooms
I recently posted a picture of morels on social media and mentioned I make them into a sauce. I had a few requests for the recipe, so here it is. I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine!
I love a springtime walk through the woods to look for morel mushrooms. I love cooking with morel mushrooms.
But there’s something else I love too: the hunt.
Walking slowly, scanning the ground: It takes intense focus. And I find that time spend in the woods, focusing on what I’m seeing, is a beautiful time for me.
When I spot a morel, I stop in my tracks and then scan the ground all around it — because where there is one there are often more. And I don’t want to step on any of them!
When the lilacs bloom, I figure it’s time to look for morels. Some years I get lots; some years not as many. Either way, it’s a spring ritual I love.
Keep reading to find out more about foraging for morel mushrooms—and for my recipe for a delicious morel sauce.
Morel mushrooms can be difficult to spot. But once you see one, look all around, as there will often be more in the area.
A Great Family Activity
My wife, Shelley, and I started mushroom hunting before we had kids. And once we had kids, we kept on mushrooming.
I’d carry babies on my back…though it’s harder to bend over to pick the mushrooms! Or we’d choose locations where we could pull along a wagon.
For small children, a basket makes morel hunting fun. Maybe they’ll find morels — maybe leaves or pine cones or snail shells.
One thing is for certain: Kids are lower to the ground, and they can be very observant. We’ve had many trips to the woods where the kids spot mushrooms before we do.
My daughter Emma on a springtime morel hunt with us when she was little.
Kids are lower to the ground, and they can be very observant. We’ve had many trips to the woods where the kids spot mushrooms before we do.
Morel Sauce Recipe
This sauce is great for lubricating crepes filled with ham and steamed asparagus (make sure to put some sauce inside the crepe before you wrap it up, and then put more sauce over the top of the crepe once it’s all wrapped up!)
It’s nice on grilled poultry. Or, use it spooned over a fried egg. (And…you might just want to taste a couple of spoonfuls of sauce on its own, just don’t let anyone see you do it!)
Crepes with morel sauce, inside and out. Don’t be stingy with the sauce!
This recipe uses the trinity of mushrooms, cream, and white wine. It’s not adulterated with lots of herbs, so the mushroom flavour shines through.
Depending on the time of year, you can use dry or fresh morels. (Of course, you can use other mushrooms too…but the morels are my favourite.)
Ingredients:
10 morels, coarsely chopped
1 shallot, minced*
½ cup white wine
3 cups stock (chicken or veg both work well)
1 cup heavy cream (don’t wimp out with light cream – you want good, heavy cream…this isn’t supposed to be a low-fat sauce)
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste
*Don’t worry if you don’t have a shallot…use a cooking onion instead and it will be fine.
If using dried morels:
Start by reconstituting them in ½ cup of water for about 30 minutes before chopping
Reserve the liquid (strain if needed)
Instructions
Cook shallots in butter until translucent
Add morels, salt, and pepper and cook another 2-3 minutes
Add wine and stock (and reserved liquid, if using dry morels) – and cook until reduced by about 2/3
Add cream and simmer about 20 minutes, until the sauce will coat the back of a spoon
I love morels. And I love the hunt for morels!
A Final Note on Morels and Mushroom Hunting
Don’t eat what you can’t identify.
Full stop.
Neither Shelley or I grew up with morels. We didn’t know where to look for them or how to identify them. But experienced friends took us out mushroom hunting.
Then we joined a local mycological society (the fancy term for a mushroom club) which had forays to nearby woods. The forays were a great way to be around people who were knowledgeable about mushrooms and could help us identify what to eat — and what not to eat.
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Lemon Mussels Gremolata Recipe
Homegrown Lemon is Great with Seafood
If you are growing a lemon tree indoors and wondering what you will do with your homegrown lemons, here’s a recipe I love and included in my book Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can’t: Lemon Mussels Gremolata.
Thanks to author, storyteller, and chef Signe Langford for sharing this recipe.
And if you’re a gardener, keep in mind that a potted lemon tree is a great addition to the garden. As well as fresh lemons, you get fragrant flowers, and flavour-packed leaves that are very useful in the kitchen!
Lemons: A Perfect Patio Plant
Lemon trees are more cold-tolerant than many people realize, which makes them an ideal potted plant for decks, patios, balconies, and gardens in northern climates. That’s because the cold-tolerance means there are many ways to overwinter lemon trees.
You don’t need a greenhouse or a bright south-facing window indoors!
As well as the fruit, if you grow lemon you will get deliciously fragrant flowers and very aromatic leaves that you can use to flavour all sorts of dishes (I love wrapping lemon leaves around a firm cheese and grilling on the BBQ!)
Read about why lemons are a great choice for northern gardens
6 Reasons to Grow a Lemon Tree in a Cold Climate
Read about how cold lemon trees can get over the winter
Find out more about my book Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can’t
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More Lemon Resources
Book: How to Grow a Lemon Tree in a Cold Climate
Course: Grow Lemons
Keep Your Lemon Tree Through the Winter
And enjoy fresh homegrown lemons!
Meyer Lemon Sorbet Recipe
By Steven Biggs
Meyer Lemon Zest is a Big Part of this Sorbet
If you are growing a Meyer lemon tree and are wondering what to make, here’s a great way to enjoy the unique flavour of Meyer lemons: Meyer Lemon Sorbet.
I included this family favourite in my book Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can’t: We make it using our own homegrown lemons.
This recipe uses both the juice and the fragrant zest.
If you’re growing other citrus, you can use this same recipe to make your own sorbet. For sweeter citrus, you might want to use a bit less sugar. For other citrus such as yuzu, you might add a bit more sugar.
Find out more about yuzu, a fragrant citrus that’s a great container plant for a home garden.
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Looking for More Lemon Ideas?
Here’s another lemon recipe: Mussels Gremolata with Lemon.
For more recipes and information about growing potted lemon trees in cold climates, go to the Lemon Home Page.
More on Growing Lemons
If you want to grow a potted lemon tree (that actually fruits) in a cold climate, below are a couple more resources to help you on your journey. I grow lemons and other citrus here, in Toronto, Canada. (My oldest potted lemon tree is from 1967!)
Book: Grow a Lemon Tree in a Cold Climate
Course: How to Grow a Lemon Tree in a Cold Climate
Keep Your Lemon Tree Through the Winter
And enjoy fresh homegrown lemons!
