DIFFERENT METHODS of PRESERVING FOOD
for the Winter

The small, upright freezer in our kitchen.

Canning pickle relish.

Preserving food helps us be more self-reliant by letting us eat locally and seasonally during the Winter. We're slowly learning the different methods that can be used to preserve food when we can't eat it fresh:

• freezing food & making use of our freezers
  
• storing food in our attic root cellar
• dehydrating (with the wood stove and other dehydrators)
• harvesting & storing herbs
• canning
• fermenting

Ultimately, we want to learn how foods were preserved before canning and freezing became available, because they require resources we can't provide ourselves (electricity and glass jars with sealing lids). We want to learn how to store most of our food through other methods: using root cellars, smoking meats, dehydrating, fermenting, or preserving food in salt, oil, and sugar.

Carrots stored in sand in the root cellar.

Trying to dehydrate currants in the oven.