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Step-by-step illustrated instructions, informative charts and a host of delicious recipes make this an indispensable kitchen reference. Covers freezing, canning, drying and pickling produce fresh from the market or garden.

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Simple step-by-step instructions guide you through the process of drying and storing more than 100 kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and herbs. There are even complete plans for building your own food dryer. As seen in the Seed Savers Exchange catalog.

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The Solar Food Dryer describes how to use solar energy to preserve your summer's harvest. With your own solar-powered food dryer, you can quickly and efficiently dry all your extra garden veggies, fruits and herbs with free sunshine and enjoy their goodness all year long! Solar food dryers perform amazingly well under a wide range of conditions, working effectively in almost any climate where you can grow fruits and vegetables. As a bonus, solar food drying is a great way to learn about solar energy and experience the incredible power of the sun — as well as being a great deal of fun! The Solar Food Dryer includes everything you need to get started:

• Complete step-by-step plans for building a high-performance, low-cost solar food dryer from readily available materials
• Solar energy design concepts
• Food drying tips and recipes
• Resources, references, solar charts and more

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The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving takes the guesswork out of home preserving. Both beginners and pros can make the most of fresh fruits and vegetables when these are readily available and inexpensive. Because these recipes require a minimum of time and fuss, home cooks will enjoy creating the preserves almost as much as everyone else will enjoy tasting them.

Included are both traditional and new recipes. Detailed instructions provide the safest and latest processing methods. Some recipes are suitable for microwaves. A brand-new chapter features freezer preserving as an alternative to the traditional methods. The more than 300 enticing recipes include:

• Jams, jellies and low-sugar spreads
• Conserves, butters and curds
• Pickles, relishes and chutneys
• Salsas, mustards and marinades
• Flavored oils
• Dessert sauces, syrups and liqueurs

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The third edition of The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home has been completely revised and updated. It includes dozens of recipes, from basic food preservation techniques to jams and marmalades, pickles and sauerkraut and even preserving herbs.

You don't need a lot of time or years of experience to preserve garden-fresh fruits and vegetables. Simple step-by-step instructions give you the confidence and know-how to freeze, dry, can, store and brine the abundance from your CSA share or summer garden.

Grate and freeze excess zucchini; it will be perfect in quick breads and muffins all winter long. Pick up a crate of less-than-perfect tomatoes at the farmer's market and preserve them in jars of spicy salsa. Turn the overflow of green beans from your CSA farm share into tasty dilly beans to eat all winter or give as holiday gifts. Dry mushrooms, make ketchup, can nectarines and make fruit leather.

This user-friendly book includes charts and lists that will help you successfully preserve foods, as well as a recipe section for using your preserved food in delicious meals. With these techniques and recipes you will be eating local all year long.

About the author: Janet Chadwick has been a teacher, and has authored several books including No Time to Cook, How to Live on Almost Nothing and The Busy Persons' Guide to Preserving Food. As a teacher, her special focus was on cooking for people with special diets. She lives in Florida.

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Saving time and money is easiest with make-ahead meals, and in Fix, Freeze, Feast you have all the steps you need for making delicious meals ahead, freezing them and enjoying them whenever you are ready.

By making food ahead you will be saving money, as you can buy seasonal products or in bulk. Freezing your meals in ready-to-eat servings will allow you to have a delicious homemade meal at the table in minutes, without having to spend hours preparing, cooking and cleaning every week. Just thaw your meals in the fridge overnight, reheat and enjoy.

With more than 100 recipes including sauces, beef, pork, chicken and vegetarian meals, as well as pastas and Mexican-style dishes you'll be on your way to filling your freezer with delicious meals that, once thawed, will take just minutes to cook.

The recipes in this book include meals you can prepare, freeze, and cook when you are ready, fully-cooked frozen meals you'll just need to thaw and reheat, as well as recipes for smoothies, freezable cookie dough and other treats.

Fix, Freeze, Feast contains tips on grocery shopping for your make-ahead meals, and recipes for using your frozen marinades and sauces in other recipes anytime, as well as labels for correctly identifying your meals in the freezer, and detailed information about cooking your once-frozen meals.

Cook ahead, skip the restaurant, save money and enjoy fast wholesome meals every night in no time.

About the Authors: Lindsay Tkacsik and Kati Neville are enthusiastic make-ahead cooks, warehouse club shoppers, and founders of meal assembly businesses. They share an appreciation for well-organized freezers and clearly labeled containers.

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Author Sharon Astyk tackles all the nuts and bolts of preserving foods, and provides tips on how to bulk buy and preserve food inexpensively. Independence Days is packed with valuable secrets to home food preservation, including canning and dehydrating techniques, root cellaring, season extension, and a host of broader issues. In addition, it focuses on how to enjoy a delicious, high-quality diet at home year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating self-sufficient and vibrant local economies.

In just a few decades, America's approach to food has changed radically from the self-sufficiency of our grandparents to the convenience foods of mega-supermarkets. The recent economic crisis has seen millions of North Americans move from being middle class to poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the trend toward self-sufficiency, whole foods health and eating locally is shifting from being a pricey fringe activity to an essential element of getting by. But how can you eat locally, not just when the farmers markets are bountiful, but all year-round? Who really knows anymore how to eat outside of the supermarket, and who really knows how to eat a balanced diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods?

About the author: Sharon Astyk is a former academic who is a writer, subsistence farmer, parent, activist and profile blogger (SharonAstyk.com). She farms in upstate New York with her family, raises livestock, and grows and preserves vegetables. She is the author of Depletion and Abundance, and co-author of A Nation of Farmers.

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For anyone who's ever headed to their local farmers' market reciting the mantra "I will not overbuy" but has lumbered home with bags overflowing with delicious summer strawberries, zucchini blossoms and tomatoes, or autumn apples, pears and cauliflower, this book will be your saving grace.

Well-Preserved is a collection of 30 small batch preserving recipes and 90 recipes in which to use the preserved goods. Preserving recipes like Marinated Baby Artichokes are followed by recipes for dishes like Marinated Artichoke and Ricotta Pie, and Sausages with Marinated Baby Artichokes; a Three-Citrus Marmalade recipe is followed by recipes for Chicken Wings Baked with Three-Citrus Marmalade, Shrimp with Three-Citrus Marmalade and Lime, and Crepes with Three-Citrus Marmalade, and so on.

Author Eugenia Bone, a New Yorker whose Italian father was forever canning everything from olives to tuna, describes the art of preserving in an accessible way. Though she covers traditional water bath and pressure canning in detail, she also shares simpler methods that allow you to preserve foods using low-tech options like oil-preserving, curing and freezing. Bone clearly explains each technique so that you can rest assured your food is stable and safe.

With Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods, you will never again have a night when you open your cupboard or refrigerator and lament that there's "nothing to eat!" Instead, you'll be whipping up the seasons' best meals all year long.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is recommending books to readers. For 40 years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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There's something to be said for simpler times, when our way of life seemed more wholesome ... when our food was grown with fewer pesticides and growth hormones ... when we tended kitchen gardens, kept a flock of chickens and "put up" beans, pears and pickles. So it's easy to see why people across the nation are returning to their roots — and root cellars — and embracing a return to the basics.

With Traditional Kitchen Wisdom you, too, can enjoy the rewards of being more self-reliant by ...

• Growing your own fruits and vegetables in a space as small as a windowsill
• Turning fresh fruit into jams and jellies
• Learning safe canning and freezing methods
• Drying foods and creating your own herbs and spices
• Making homemade wine, beer and naturally flavored vodka
• Raising chickens and honeybees, making your own cheese and more!

Start your own family traditions with Traditional Kitchen Wisdom, and rediscover the pleasure of returning to a greener, healthier and more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is recommending books to readers. For 40 years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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Sweet winter squashes, hardy greens, jewel-toned root vegetables, and potatoes of every kind make local eating easy and delicious in the colder months of autumn and winter. Whether these vegetables are gathered straight from the garden, from a well-tended root cellar or from the market, their delectable flavors and nutritional benefits pack a powerful punch. Try them in soups (Celery Root Bisque, Portuguese Kale Soup), main dishes (Ravioli with Smoky Greens, Chicken Pot Pie with Root Vegetables), winter salads (Warm Goat Cheese and Beet Salad, Thai Cabbage Salad), and side dishes (Cashew Carrots, Braised Collards with Bacon). With this collection of more than 250 recipes, you’ll discover how simple and delightful it is to eat locally all year long.