ONL052 Preserving the Harvest Tips from Karen K. BreesONL052 Preserving the Harvest Tips from Karen K. Brees

Karen K. Brees , Ph. D., author of The Complete Idiot’s Gude to Preserving Food is the subject of Cathy’s interview today. Her book is a great beginner’s reference on canning, freezing, pickling, and more. The Podcast interview can be played on the device below or downloaded from iTunes, Zune, or Stitcher.

Karen, a master food preserver, lives on a ranch in Idaho where she raises South African Boer goats (for meat) and vegetables. In spite of a small growing season, she manages to produce a large bounty of produce for her family. By preserving her harvest, she and her husband enjoy local, sustainable food year round. Food preservation techniques used to be handed down from mother to daughter, but many of these traditions have been lost over the last 40 years as modern, processed, convenient foods filled the supermarket shelves.

With the recent interest in eating local foods, eating seasonally, and home gardening, there is an increased need to learn these skills once taught at home. Karen’s book is a good beginner text that gives newbies the basics in a wide variety of skills including food safety, freezing, canning, pickling and fermenting, relishes, jams and jellies, drying, salting, smoking and root cellaring. Learning to preserve your sustainable, seasonal food can save you money, as well!

I’ve used a couple of recipes from the book and they were easy to do from her clear directions. I put up 7 pints of Wilma’s Bread and Butter Pickles using my own homegrown cucumbers. Karen describes these as “the best you will ever find,” and I have to agree. They include 3 ingredients I haven’t used in bread and butter pickles before. I’ve also put up a beef brisket from Natures Harmony Farm using her corned beef recipe. I’ve made this once before from a Julia Child recipe. I need to wait another three weeks to see how it stacks up, since the corning process takes 4 weeks.

If I’m ever successful in growing more cabbage than our cabbage worms can eat, I’d like to try her sauerkraut recipe. One reason I’ve been hesitant to attempt this is insecurity about what might go wrong at each step. Karen includes a thorough troubleshooting section to address these concerns, detailing what to expect when things are going right and how to know when it has gone wrong.

In the interview, Karen discusses some helpful tools and hints that are helpful to know. The supplies and gadgets she discusses can be found at our Amazon Store.

Chapter 6 is devoted to the freezing of meat, poultry, seafood and game. This includes tips for wrapping, identifying cuts of meat, definitions, and more.

We’d love to hear about your favorite techniques for preserving the harvest and your experiences with them. Leave comments below. Write in any questions you have for Karen.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:39 — 55.7MB)