Notes for improvement

Food Preservation Techniques 

While I have only tried a few Preservation methods I am interested in food and the processes it under goes in order to make it last longer.  I have a garden, I have two gardens actually.  One is in the backyard and one I keep on the front balcony.  The balcony holds all of my houseplants, An herb-garden, and a late blooming tomatoes patch. “Green tomatoes are well worth harvesting. Those in the light green stage will ripen, providing good eating long after the vines have been killed by frosts.” (Garden Way Associates 23)  In the backyard I grow tomatoes, peppers, Scallions, Rhubarb, and pretty flowers.  The backyard garden produces more tomatoes than the porch garden.  I think this is mainly to do with them getting more sun, and being in the earth as opposed to in pots.

Last year for the first time I planted Thyme and Parsley in the outdoor garden.  They flourished.  By the end of summer they were both big and beautiful.  I decided to harvest, and store the leaves in ways that would allow me to use them in all my winter dishes.  Just the thought of this plan made me very happy, I felt successful.  I had grown it.  I had cooked it.  Now I would preserve it.

There are two categories of preservation techniques:  The traditional techniques and the industrial techniques.  The traditional techniques consist of:  Dehydrating, Chilling, Freezing, Salting, Sugar, Marinating, Lye, Can & bottling, Jellifying, Smoking Jugging, Fermentation and Pits & Trenches.  “The aim of Preserving is to slow down the activity of microorganisms and enzymes or destroy them altogether; they cannot survive in acidic or dry conditions, in high concentrations of salt and sugar, in alcohol, or in high temperatures.” (Steel 16)  The industrial techniques consist of:  Hurdle technology, “Hurdle technology is used in industrialized as well as in developing countries for the gentle but effective preservation of foods.” (Leistner)  Sterilization, Vacuum wrapping, Imitation food, adding of Antibiotics, Electroporation, Modified atmosphere, No thermal plasma, High-pressure preservation, and Bio-preservation.

To preserve the parsley I used two methods, freezing and refrigeration.  My technique was to wrap the freshly cut branches in plastic wrap and place into the freezer.  This was not very successful.  When I tried to the use it, all I got after thawing was a shriveled mess.  So I ended up using it sparingly and always as iced crystals.  “The freezing process does affect their texture, so they are best frozen in oil or water for ease of use.” (Steel 32)  To preserve the Thyme I used drying and refrigeration.  Drying;  I preserved thyme by hanging it out to dry in my pantry.  This was very successful.  My technique was to make small neat bundles of the freshly cut branches and wrap string around the stem portions.  “Dehydration is one of the oldest-known methods of food preservation, probably because it is so simple and extremely effective:” (Steel 124)   My refrigeration technique for both plants was the same.  I stuffed wads of the freshly cut plants into zip-lock bags.  These I placed in the fridge, and used often while they were still fresh.

The Porch Garden's production was also beautiful and plenty.  The potted herbs, I decided to preserve by keeping alive, smelled so good.  My technique was to place the various herbs in the sunniest  windows and nurture them on plant food, water and good conversation.  This was not totally unsuccessful.  But that is another story, for another time. 

Works Cited

Building & Using Your Root Cellar. United States: Garden Way Associates, Inc., 1978.

Leistner, L. “Basic aspects of food preservation by hurdle technology” International

            Journal of food Microbiology. 2000 Apr 10; 55(1-3): 181-6.

            http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10791741

Steel, Susannah. Get Started Preserving. New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley, 2013.

Rainy are my days or the peas trees are in.

 Happy is my garden.  It has been raining all week long.  The rain started on Sunday.  Just in time to rescue us from two weeks of smoldering humidity.  Our nights are sweet and cool again.  But I am never satisfied with perfection.  I long for the hot days of summer.  We are getting the pool up and running this year.  The kids are so excited it makes you smile just watching them as they watch the water and chemicals go in.  Just thinking of watching them, we will have to be extra vigilant.  Should I place latches high up on doors.  Or at least latches with bells/noise makers attached.  Pools of water and children equal thoughtless attraction.

Oh, but my garden, I planted peas yesterday.  There were a few hours stopping of the raining.  I honestly thought that it had stopped so I got my four little peas trees off the porch garden and transplanted them into my, whatever-I-wish-to-plant-this-year, garden.  It poured last night.  I planted them on a hill so this morning when I checked, they were still alive.  I am ecstatic.

The Beautiful Green Days

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All winter long the mad gray giants raged, scouring and scratching at the ice covered sky.  Their brittle bone like fingers broke often.  With sharp snaps one piece after the other would go crashing down to the frozen earth.  There, adding their music to Winters. 




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Green is the color of the trees now.  They are growing fat too, on sap, and have covered their hands in soft leafy gloves.  No longer raging, they gently sweep puffy white clouds across the blue-blue sky.  It is the hue that covers everything, even the rocks that live in wet locales. 





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Early springs' favorite color is the many shades of green.  She dyes unchecked and I spin to see it all, missing twice as much as I catch.



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Dragons! We have wild pumpkins.

Once in a vegetable garden far away there lived a young group of plants called the companions.  Better friends than Corn, Zucchini, Lettuce, Basil, Chives, Tomatoes, old man Rhubarb and the lover-ly Marigold were never before seen.  Certainly not in this garden.

One day wild dragons came.  Even Gardener didn’t know how they had got there but they stayed and started taking over the garden.

The plants all felt threatened by the beasts.  They were afraid the dragons would wrap their long shinny green tentacles around them and squeeze the life right out of them.

The dragons were rumored to be aggressive wild things who would strangle any unsuspecting plant in their path.

 

The plants of the garden could not grow fast enough to move out of the way of the oncoming dragons.  Something had to be done.  

Basil stepped up and suggested that the companions get in line and go to war. 

So with the help of the good giant known only as Gardener, they were able to turn the dragons aside. 

Corn and his family cheered the longest.

The Zucchini family cheered the shortest.

Tomatoes and the rest of the plants were just happy it was over.

A garden party was held all the ladies and gentlemen of the land were invited to a feast that seemed not to end.

Soon after the great dragon war, the companions settled back into their daily routine of growing and dreaming of the thing called harvest that Gardener talked so sweetly about.

Changing the sheets or Replacing sweet comfort with careless luxury.

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Spring is here.  Summer is coming and I am glad that winter has left.  It is getting hot and turning green outside.  My big blankets are starting to keep me too warm.  Last night I stripped my bed of the fluffy green winter sheets, the ones that make me feel as if wrapped in a cocoon of sweet comfort.  I dressed my bed for the summer in regular cotton sheets the color of sand with circle patterns big and small.  When I looked down at the bed that I had just made a feeling of gratitude took me to my knees.  Mine are Blissful prayers.  As I lay in bed smiling and thinking about why I was feeling so happy the only thing that came to mind is the change in seasons.

 

Green has not always been my favorite color, so the symptoms of the deficiency surprised me.  In the springtime, I feel a great sense of hope, like an expectant mother.  Every morning I get out of bed, look out of my window, and smile at the subtle changes.  By the time summer arrives, I am fierce and full of energy, like the big strong baobab tree, I find myself gloriously centered.  Than the leaves begin to turn, signaling the end of summer.

Disappointment comes at me in full force, autumn in all her beauty has come.  A compelling urge to dress myself in all these colors consumes me.  I daydream of commissioning a beautiful autumn colored winter coat.  My thoughts and conversations are of the coming season “will we be having a calm or bitter winter this year?”.  In the winter, I experience a sadness that I medicate by doing nice things for myself, like spiking my morning coffee.  The entire season I spend eating homemade cakes and pies.  Thank God for Christmas.  Rugs and throws in every room and cheerful music on the radio.  Winter is spent waiting, waiting for spring to come again, waiting for the green.