Preserving the Local Harvest
Harvest season is quickly coming to a close. The tomatoes, peppers and zucchini were hit by a hard freeze last night. It looks like the end of another gardening season. While preparing the soil for the winter season, it brings pleasant thoughts as I reflect on a very productive growing season. It also is a time to be thankful for the bountiful harvest and the skills that enable me to be a successful grower.
Soon I will turn the compost pile for winter and add the garden plants to the heap. Leaves will be collected and used as cover for the winter and some will be tilled into the garden soil to mulch for next year. The canna bulbs need to be dug and the strawberries will need a nice layer of leaves before the snow flys. Garlic needs to be planted.
Other than drying more herbs, I am done with preserving for the year. My goal at the beginning of the growing season was to grow more of my own food and herbs and to preserve as much food as I was able. 
I probably have talked too much already about what a great garden I had this year. I planted more food than ever and set my sights on freezing and canning more produce than last year. My plan was to be able to provide myself with my own food, in enough quantity, to last the winter months. What I was unable to grow, I would purchase, in bulk, from the Farmer’s Market. Mission Accomplished!
(Picture at right is of my garden in July, 2008.)
Why is growing and preserving your own food important? First in importance would be for the nutritional value. I am a fervent believer in providing my body with the most natural and healthy foods possible. By growing more of your own food, you supply your family with healthy, organic foods at the peak of their nutritional value. Organic foods purchased in the local stores are not always grown locally and can be expensive. Growing more of my own food would enable me to eat more organic and (very!) local food while saving me money.
Secondly, I believe that we must “relocalize” our food sources. Eating foods from local sources is gaining in popularity, but as stated above, the price can sometimes be out of reach for some folks (myself included). The more food you can grow in your backyard will mean more savings for your family. Not everyone has experience with gardening, but this is a skill we will need in order to feed ourselves in the very near future due to the energy crisis. Locally grown food, may become the only way we will feed ourselves. We will rely increasingly on either food we grow ourselves or food grown within a few miles of our home.
Along with growing more of our own food, comes preserving that food to feed ourselves through the winter. My second goal for this growing season was to expand my preserving. My second priority for this growing season was to preserve more of the food I grew. The last couple of years I had frozen and canned some basic foods, but this year I really wanted to increase my food stores and expand into more freezing, dehydrating, and root cellaring.
The season’s canning
is finally done and it was a marathon session this year. While I have not kept track of how much I have stored in years past, I have considerably exceeded that this year. I had some different types of fruits available to me this year and I was able to try new things. All of the fruits and veggies are from my garden with the exception of the Colorado peaches (Rochester Dance Co. fundraiser), the apples, and the corn (both occuring locally). My 2008 food storage includes canning the following:
- 5 quarts + 6 pints of Colorado peaches
- 9 pints spiced peaches
- 12 pints peach jam
- 14 pints strawberry-rhubarb jam
- 32 pints stewed tomatoes
- 4 pints garlic basil tomato sauce
- 6 quarts cinnamon applesauce
The following are some of the stored freezer items:
- 9 cups elderberries
- 16 cups rhubarb
- 12 cups corn
- 27 cups zucchini
The following veggies are part saved in my emerging root cellar (some of the harvest is pictured to the right):
- 36 hills of potatoes (5 buckets full)
- carrots (1 bucket full)
- onions (more than I care to count!)
Along with this, I have acquired a food dehydrator and have been drying fruit and herbs. My herb garden greatly expanded this year and I have dried and preserved everything from an assortment of mints to basics like oregano. These will be shared with neighbors and family to flavor cooking and for making teas all winter long.
So, now the bragging is done and I return to the real reason for writing this. We must learn the simple skills of gardening and food preservation. These skills, I feel, will be essential to our everyday lives and become a necessity in the not to distant future. We must find ways to feed ourselves locally and to become independant of foods hauled in from the corners of the world. Our current energy crisis simply will not allow us to continue with life as we know it.
Neighbors and communities must find ways to grow their own food. Some may choose to grow their own in backyard gardens. However, there are many where this is not an option such as those living in apartments. In these cases, cities must encourage, support and make possible community gardening options or neighborhood gardens where everyone can play a role. This article is not only about my preservation successes, but it is also about the wish for attention to this important topic of community and relocalization of our food. We must preserve & restore our local harvest opportunities.
by Lisa M. Peterson