How To Preserve Produce Without Refrigeration
(Page 2 of 9)
July/August 1971
By Frank Garrett
Drying is another easy and quite old (dried foods have been found in human settlements dating back to 4,000 B.C.) method of keeping produce. In this process, spoilage is prevented by removing most of the food's natural water. Many edibles can be dried . . . but just as many cannot.
RELATED CONTENT
In 1809, the French government presented an award to Nicolar Appert for his discovery of the modern canning process. This is the most versatile of all food preservation methods. It consists of the destruction by heat of the micro-organisms which normally cause food to decay and the prevention of their re-entry into the food by an air-tight seal. Naturally, foods of varying composition must be processed differently but the principle is still the same.
Above all else, canning preserves nutritional value. Except for the initial loss by heat degradation (which occurs with all cooked foods), all the vitamins, minerals, trace elements and delicious flavor of the fresh produce are sealed right inside the can for an indefinite storage period. Ole Nick Appert really came up with something!
SIMPLE STORAGE: In The Garden
The simplest storage of all, I guess, is no storage at all. Jerusalem artichokes, for example, are very poor indoor keepers but they may be left in the ground indefinitely after first frost and dug throughout the winter as needed. Other crops—such as kale, collards, parsnips, salsify, leeks and Brussel sprouts—also withstand cold weather readily and can be left in the ground right through the winter in all but the most severe climates. Freezing actually improves the flavor of parsnips, salsify and kale but a protective mulch of two inches of straw is usually laid down over crops left in the garden in this manner.
SIMPLE STORAGE: Root Cellar
Most root crops and a few fruits can be stored indoors in a deep cellar or in a specially constructed root cellar (some for a year or longer). The important thing to remember is to keep the produce dry and cool ( between 50° F and 55° F). EDITORS NOTE: General recommendations for a root cellar call for higher humidity (around 80%) and lower temperatures (around 34° F) for the storage of most produce. See NOTE at bottom of Figure 1 for further details.
Vegetables which can be kept in a cellar include all types of potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, beets, turnips, parsnips, horseradish, radishes, rutabagas, salsify, carrots, leeks, onions, kohlrabi . . . and almost any other root crop you can think of.
NOTE: An excellent inexpensive source of diagrams and information on root cellars is Storing Vegetables and Fruits in Basements, Cellars, Outbuildings and Pits. It costs only 15¢ from:
SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402
FIGURE 2. how to build a root cellar
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