I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had the “one-and-done” conversation with people who are rightly concerned about investing in long term food storage but don’t want to be inconvenienced by it.
Being compelled enough to invest money into food storage, buying a bunch of it all at one time, and then (having their conscience soothed), put it away and forget about it. Their thinking is that they have done their due diligence, with minimal inconvenience and now can get on with life giving no more thought to it.
The first time I heard this philosophy was a friend many years ago. They had learned of a new brand of food being sold locally, that had a very long shelf life. It was kinda pricey but the shelf life was attractive. They bought a year’s supply for their family of four, stacked it into a corner of their basement, and brushed off their hands so-to-speak. They were more than content with this marvelous plan; they had their food storage and didn’t have their life complicated with having to eat it. Simple. I admit, the idea was a little unsettling to me; it didn’t seem that life could really be that easy. Fast forward a couple decades. My friend had passed away of cancer. Their children had grown up. Her husband had remarried and moved to a different city. He called me one day. They’d had a house fire! All was lost including their long term food storage, which he had carried with him ten years before. Insurance had provided the money to replace it and he wanted to do exactly the same thing they’d done before.
1. USE IT
The reason he called me? Because he knew that at the time I sold Thrive Life foods, a relatively new brand of freeze dried food. “Just give me a reasonably varied assortment of food like I had before.” he said. He had no intention of ‘wasting’ it by eating it. It was intended as 100% food insurance, to be packed away again. We talked about the fact that most of the food he had depended on to ease his conscience for so long, was well over 20 years old, and not all of it was freeze dried, meaning it didn’t have the 25 year shelf life he thought it did. We talked about what he’d had previously – including milk and eggs (neither of which at the time he bought it, claimed to have the 25 year shelf life he believed everything had). As a friend, my counsel was to USE some of the food he was buying for two very important reasons: 1) to KNOW what one had, and 2) to know HOW to use it. Long term food storage is not the same as buying perishable food from the grocery store. It requires a little different ‘thinking’ to get used to it. He was adamant about “not bothering with all that”. What he had done two decades ago was conscience soothing and he wanted more of that.
We came up with a reasonable selection, and it was sent to him – which he stacked in a corner somewhere to never think about again.
His details involving the house fire may have been unique, but his philosophy was not. I have had that same conversation with many people over the years.
them: “Oh freeze dried food! I have a ton of that in my basement.” me: “Great. How do you like it?” them: “Oh, I have no idea; I’ve never used it.” me: “Why not?” them: “Because its FOOD STORAGE! And besides, I haven’t got a clue what to do with it.” me: “How long have you had it?” them: “We got it the year after we were married.” me: “How long have you been married?” them: “37 years.” me: “Wow. You know its 12 years past its expiry right? You don’t have milk and eggs in there do you? them: “Yes.” me: “Well, I know the food you’re talking about, and the shelf life of milk used to be 5 years, and eggs was 3 years. Those are over 30 years past their expiry date. You might wanna dispose of them. . . . . I wouldn’t even open them if I were you, just throw them out. . . . . So, . . . just curious, when were you planning to figure out how to use this food anyway?”
I have another friend who had pretty much the same idea. She had a lotta long-term-food-storage that she’d never had any intention of using, but a few years ago it became alarmingly evident to her that it was waaaay past its prime. She doesn’t want to waste it, (and waste all the money she spent on it), she wanted to learn how to use it. She had no recollection of how long she’d had the food (decades she admits), and there was no date on the cans. Apparently the labeling laws have changed since then.
My counsel? To USE it of course. I promised to come over and show her how to use them. We opened up her first can – broccoli. It was absolutely indistinguishable. Looking nothing like broccoli should, and smelling terrible. Nothing anyone would want to eat. “What can I do with it?” she asked. “Throw it in the compost.” was my suggestion. We opened a can of spinach with similar results.
On the left is dehydrated spinach that was deliberately left on the shelf waiting for some emergency that would justify opening it. No one could remember how old it was, and the owner mistakenly believed it was freeze dried when in actual fact it was dehydrated (with a much shorter shelf life). This is what happens when you don’t USE the food you store. The result was a lot of wasted food, and a total waste of the money spent to acquire it. The spinach on the right is a 7 year old can recently opened. It is what freeze dried spinach SHOULD look like today, tomorrow, next year and 17 years from now.
To be fair, the food we opened was much older than it was ever intended to be. It is not the manufacturer’s fault that the food was not used when it should have been. It is the result of faulty “save-and-protect” reasoning. But on the other hand, from the beginning she never knew what she had, what it looked like, or how to use it anyway. Ironically that scarcity mentality intended to not ‘waste’ food by using it, resulted in ultimate waste. Wasted food is wasted dollars. It’s simple math.
I well remember that same brand of freeze dried food when it was a new thing, trying to wrap my mind around the concept of it and trying to justify the cost. I bought some, used it, didn’t see the value at the time, nor the point. As the science of freeze drying got better over the ensuing years, the food got better, and the nutrition got better.
2. FIND THE BEST
In 2009, when I first started buying Thrive Life (the brand I finally settled on after trying several on the market), their guarantee was that the produce went from field to freezer in less than 24 hours. I was impressed with that. By the time I put that into print, the company corrected me – their guarantee was now less than 12 hours. “Can’t get better than that” I thought. Produce picked ripe, washed, peeled, chopped and into the freezer in less than 12 hours? Incredible. “Can’t get better than that” I told people. Wait! In another year, they raised the bar again. Produce picked at perfection when all nature’s goodness was at its height, and then washed, peeled, sliced and into the freezer in less than 6 hours! (usually 2 to 4 hours). Amazing. NOW with a pretty good degree of confidence I can be sure “it really canNOT get better than that!”
In summer months my household eats directly from my backyard garden. I am hard pressed to get produce from my garden to the table in four hours! Truly it cannot get better than two to four hours.
What does that mean to you and me? Why is that such a big deal?
Because all fruits and vegetables begin to deteriorate within the first hour after harvest. That’s why. They begin the process of deteriorating in colour, texture and nutritional value immediately. To pick a fruit before its fully developed is to start out with a handicap. Thrive Life has a commitment to excellence that forbids picking produce before its ripe. Then its a race against the clock. That produce is washed, peeled (if needed), sliced or chopped and flash frozen to -40C within four hours! In that frozen state the food is transferred to a facility where all the remaining moisture is removed in the second step of the two step process of “freeze-drying”.
When spinach or broccoli or mangoes or strawberries or whatever, goes into that BPA free can at the end, it is more nutritious than those same ‘fresh’ fruits we buy in the produce department of our local grocery stores – that in nearly all cases were picked before they were ripe, and have been shipped a thousand+ miles to ripen on the supermarket shelves sometime in the following week or two. Without any moisture, that food is sealed in an oxygen free can, giving it an exceptionally long shelf life. Zero moisture + zero oxygen = zero decomposition. So when I open a can of peaches that was packed 7 years ago, it is as nutritionally sound as it was the day it was sealed. If I open that can another 7 years from now, it is still the same. THAT is what we’re talking about. And that’s why timing is such a big deal.
“freeze drying food is not rocket science”
3. Benefits of using freeze dried food NOW
FAMILIARITY Becoming familiar with freeze dried food while our lives are comfortable and predicable is so important. Sometimes people fool themselves into believing they’ll use it when they have to, but a crises is not the time to start experimenting with foundational necessities like meals. There are bound to be some differences between what you’re using now and freeze dried food. Familiarity brings confidence, and confidence removes fear. When we are prepared, there is no fear.
KNOWLEDGE With familiarity comes knowledge and skill, opening a whole new world of possibilities. Learning how to use freeze dried food will make meal preparation a lot quicker and easier. Those fruits and vegetables are already washed and chopped, ready to eat straight out of the can, or to throw into your soup, casserole, omelette or stir fries. The cheese is already shredded, the meats are already cooked – ready to refresh and add to your meal. You’d be surprised at how streamlined your meals become. You can have dinner on the table in minutes.
ZERO WASTE Not only will you reduce the waste of produce in the fridge going bad before you can get to it, and the waste of trimming a good portion of your broccoli, cauliflower and peppers etc, but you will eliminate the waste of those cans of food timing out. Think of the waste that my friend experienced having to throw out most of her ‘shelf stable’ canned food. My other friend who replaced it all after the fire – he would have had to replace it all anyway, fire or no fire – because most of it was long expired before the fire.
When you regularly USE your food storage, it replaces perishable groceries that would other wise go into the trash. The North American average for household kitchen waste is up to 40%. That’s an incredible figure to wrap your mind around. If you’re the average North American consumer, up to 40% of the food you buy is going into the garbage! What if you could reduce that waste? How much money would YOU save in a month, in a year? Take a minute (knowing your monthly food budget), and use some simple math to roughly calculate what that might look like to you. Imagine what you could do with an extra $3000 or $4000 a year! You could probably have your food storage built up in a very short time for one thing.
CONVENIENCE One of the things we will depend on in any emergency is having food that will be convenient to prepare with fewer resources than we’re currently accustomed to. Knowing what that food is and what kind of variety is available ahead of time is helpful. Also knowing what your family prefers and doesn’t prefer ahead of time is pretty helpful too. You don’t want to learn that when its too late.
4. SCARCITY vs ABUNDANCE
A can of dehydrated cabbage, about twenty years past its expiration. This is the kind of thing that never should have happened.
A scarcity mindset is a way of thinking that focuses on the idea that there is a limited supply; one becomes obsessed with protecting it. Its a trap many of us fall into when it comes to food storage: “This is food storage. It must be protected.” But we’ve already seen where that thinking leads, and its a slippery slope. When the supply is not being replenished, protection mode kicks in. So what is the antidote?
Rotation. Rotation is a “1st in-1st out” mindset. It is continuously using and replacing. It is treating your food storage like groceries and your groceries like food storage. It is the philosophy you’ve heard me repeat many times if you’ve read anything I’ve ever written on the subject: Store what you EAT, and Eat what you STORE.
If you are constantly adding to your food supply every time you buy groceries, and constantly eating from it, then replacing it, you are ROTATING. This keeps everything fresh and updated, saving you money and providing peace of mind. Your food storage becomes an organic thing with a pulse, not an inorganic box of dead food that nobody wants that cost you too much money. Consider a different perspective.
5. CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT IT
When you change the way you look at it, everything about it changes. The missing link between the SCARCITY mindset and the ABUNDANCE mindset is ROTATION. Rotation of “using and replacing” helps us regain control, and allows us to see abundance instead of scarcity. Change the way you’re looking at things.
I truly believe that when we are prepared, there is no fear. It is a personal mission of mine to help people gain the freedom and peace of mind that BEING PREPARED offers. And that includes FOOD STORAGE. Part of that is to help people stop wasting the food they purchased and are currently purchasing, and to help people acquire their food storage in the best possible way, getting the best prices and benefits in the process.
This is a course of action I have followed my entire adult life; it is very important to me. In the process, I discovered Thrive Life freeze dried food in 2008, and by the beginning of 2009, I brought it into our family bookstore – Generations Bookstore in Edmonton, Alberta. One of our major sidelines was food storage and emergency preparedness so it was a perfect fit. Since that time, we sold the store, but I kept Thrive Life with me as a personal consultant. I believe it is the best brand on the market today for high quality freeze dried food, and I am committed to helping people benefit in the same way I do from it.
In our house I’ve put it to the test. We’ve used it almost daily since those early years, and I know of which I speak.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on food storage and all things related. I welcome any questions you might have about Thrive Life specifically. Who knows? You might even want to become a consultant yourself.
The story of cereal grains is the story of humanity’s transition from nomadic life to one of settlement and agriculture. With the exception of people in the far north, every culture from time immemorial has their own cereal grain, depending on climate and soil conditions: wild grasses, nuts, and seeds gathered, then pounded into flour or roasted and eaten whole. The beginning of agriculture marked the end of dependence on foraging, and the need for constant travel searching for food. Family groups could afford to build more permanent homes and bigger numbers meant more hands in the fields, hence the need for more buildings in which to gather – permanent communities – civilization.
Why wheat?
WHEAT IS GOOD FOR YOU. There, I said it. Notwithstanding all the wheat haters out there and the anti-gluten people, for most of us, wheat is an excellent choice.1 Whole grain wheat is an excellent source of fibre, antioxidants, vitamins (particularly the B vitamins), minerals, and even protein. Almost 80% of its protein comes from ‘gluten’, (a large family of proteins) which is also responsible for the unique elasticity and stickiness of wheat dough, making it so desirable for bread making. 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of wheat contains 15 grams of protein! To put that into perspective, that’s about a quarter of the recommended daily amount of protein for the average 160 pound adult. Gluten can cause side effects in a small percent of people with conditions like celiac disease, IBS (inflammatory bowel syndrome), and gluten allergy, but most people eat it without any issues.
People who eliminate wheat from their diet by extension also avoid the excess calories in too much bread, pizza, junk food and desserts. Obviously one is going to feel healthier as well as experiencing weight loss, and this could cause one to mistakenly assume that wheat and other gluten containing foods are the culprit. To the contrary, wheat in its natural form fuels the body with essential nutrients and is associated with reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and obesity. The secret is to avoid the excess oil and sugar that so often accompanies wheat flour in baking. Too much of anything is a bad idea.
2. Wheat is readily available in every part of the world. Wheat is a hardy and forgiving plant, growing in nearly every horticultural zone where there is sufficient moisture and fertile soil. It was cultivated anciently in Western Asia, (being found in archaeological excavations in present day Iraq), accepted now as one of the earliest known sites of agriculture. It was cultivated in Egypt as early as 4000 BC, and from there eventually spread throughout the Roman Empire and Asia. The Romans brought it to Europe where it grew exceptionally well, and 500 years ago the Spanish brought it to the New World. By the 1800’s wheat had literally travelled the world and was being cultivated on every inhabited continent. In 2023, the top ten wheat producing countries in order are: China, India, Russia, United States, France, Canada, Germany, Pakistan, Australia, and Ukraine. Generally Ukraine had been in the top five producers – their current production has suffered since the Russian invasion in February 2022. 2
Dan and I discovered wheat six months into our marriage. We were young and still ‘playing house’, but neither of us had ever used ‘wheat’ as a whole grain before (or probably even seen it if I was to be totally honest). Friends in our congregation were making a group purchase of wheat from the Peace River area, and they invited us to join. We decided we might as well jump into this ‘adult thing’ with both feet so we bought some. 10 bushels of hard red spring as I recall. Dan felt that if we were going to have wheat, we needed to figure out what to do with it, and I agreed. We assumed we could just ask those same friends, but was surprised to learn that most others didn’t feel the same compelling need ‘use’ it. It was after all, for ‘food storage’ – which evidently meant for some future undetermined time when we’d all be glad we had it. That didn’t make sense to us, so we started doing our research – pre internet and social media – the old fashioned way, books! And you might not be surprised to know that there weren’t that many books available on the subject either. A pamphlet in a health food store was the best we found for a long time, so it became a life long quest, with lots experiments. There didn’t seem to be any shortcuts.
“Almost all the wheat produced today for human consumption is used for the making of bread, but the very earliest farmers didn’t use it that way.”3 Evidence from early sites indicate that it was probably soaked and then cooked into a porridge of sorts.
While whole wheat is high in fiber — not surprisingly, refined wheat contains considerably less as the bran is removed during the milling process. That is true with every other good thing that wheat brings to the table.
Whole grain wheat kernels are called ‘berries’, and they are SEEDS, containing everything a new sprouting plant needs to be healthy, made up of three parts: – the protective outer layer: BRAN – the heart or ’embryo’ of the grain: GERM – the starchy middle layer intended to feed the sprouting new plant: ENDOSPERM
When the wheat berry is ground into flour, the bran gives it it’s familiar slightly brownish tint, and oil from the wheat germ is released. Its best to grind fresh, only what you can use in a few days because the wheat germ has a healthy fat that will go rancid if left too long. Pay attention to the ‘best before date’ on store bought whole wheat flour for best results. Better yet, grind your own.
This is precisely why it became desirable commercially to strip milled flour of its bran and especially its germ – which though rich in vitamins and minerals, has that volatile wheat germ oil. The yield is a more shelf stable product, but at a high nutritional cost. This is called UNBLEACHED white flour. BLEACHED flour is whiter than unbleached through a process that uses ‘bleaching’ agents like benzoyl peroxide or chlorine dioxide to break down the starches and proteins in flour, making it softer and more absorbent, but nutritionally void. Consequently bleached flour is regularly ‘ENRICHED’ with the replacement of more shelf stable vitamins – but don’t fall for that. Again, it’s a poor substitute for what it was in its freshly ground day.
So what is your best option for nutrition when it comes to wheat flour? In the order of nutritional and flavour superiority:
I have had this Grain Master for well over 20 years. It is my 3rd electric wheat grinder. It is the grandfather of the current Wondermill, which I highly recommend. As you can see, you can adjust the texture of your flour. I usually have it set on the finest, although in this picture it is set on the coarsest. THIS is some goofball grandson’s (or son’s) idea of a practical joke.
1. Freshly ground wheat. Not to be confused with whole wheat flour from the grocery store (that is not ‘freshly’ ground). This requires a wheat grinder or grain mill of course. 2. Unbleached flour. The only reason I skip the whole wheat flour at the store is because one doesn’t know how fresh it is (how long its been since that wheat germ oil has been released). The unbleached flour has the germ and bran removed true – but at least it hasn’t been bleached. 3. Whole wheat flour from the store. Look for a best before date and make sure you take it seriously. It is important you use it quickly before that oil goes rancid – you’ll know something’s off when the flour starts to smell bad. Once you’re familiar with a ‘rancid’ smell, you’ll recognize it for the rest of your life.
That’s it. Only three options. Don’t buy bleached flour – it’s not an option. And yes, there is cake flour with added salt and leavening added. I don’t have anything to say about that. I’ve never been tempted to buy it because its just another step along the processing journey and I usually avoid that trip if I can.
Personally, I prefer to grind my own flour, but when I want to lighten it up a little, I’ll add some unbleached. I have never purchased Bleached or Enriched white flour.
using the whole wheat berry
Flour is not the only way to enjoy the benefits of ‘wheat’. The healthiest way to enjoy whole grains of any kind is to eat them whole, and if you’re new to this exciting world of whole grains, wheat is a good gateway. Prepare to be delighted.
Cooking the whole wheat berry is easy enough, it just takes time. Don’t rush it. Take a chill pill and let it be what its gonna be. 1 part wheat + 3 parts water + a little salt. Bring to a boil and boil for a couple minutes, then cover, turn off the heat and leave it over night. The next morning, bring it back to a boil and gently simmer for 30 ish minutes, stirring once in a while to prevent scorching and testing for tenderness once the water has been absorbed.
Wheat Porridge Do yourself a favour and open your mind. Make a small batch the first few times – to get used to it. Its a whole new experience but its so GOOD FOR YOU, its worth the adventure. Best to start it the night before, give it time to soak. 1 cup wheat 3 cups water 1/2 teaspoon salt Bring to a boil, let it boil for a couple minutes, stir and turn heat off. Cover and let sit on the stove till morning. Bring it back to a boil and let it gently simmer for about half an hour or just a little bit longer. Stir every once in a while to ensure the water isn’t disappearing too fast – it should be on quite low. After 30 or so minutes, start testing for tenderness. When its pleasantly plumb and tender to chew, its done. Don’t be in a rush. Spoon about 1/4 cup into a bowl, drizzle a little honey over top and cover with your favourite milk. Enjoy.
Reserve some cooked wheat to keep in the fridge to add to other things during the week; you’ll love their sweet, nutty flavour and chewy texture.
Other ways to use cooked wheat berries
Salads:
Fall Kale Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash and Cranberries Kale 3 or 4 cups (measured after its stripped off the stalks) Butternut squash (or sweet potato) 1 Apple 1/4 – 1/2 cup cooked wheat 1/2 cup chopped parsley 2 green onions chopped 1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries or raisins toasted walnuts 1/2 cup crumbled feta if you have it on hand Much of this can be made ahead and then set aside to be assembled just before serving.
*Peel butternut squash and cut into 1 inch pieces. Drizzle with olive oil and roast in baking dish till fork tender. Set aside. In the meantime, wash kale well and strip greens off stalk. Lightly chop, sprinkle lightly with salt and drizzle a tablespoon (at most) olive oil. Massage with your hands for 2 minutes, rubbing the oil into the leaves, transforming them into ‘tender’ leaves. Set aside. Toast 1/2 cup walnuts. Set aside.
To assemble salad in salad bowl: Start with chopped and massaged kale Sprinkle roasted butternut squash over top Sprinkle 1/2 cup dried berries over top Sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley over top Sprinkle 1/2 cup cooked wheat berries over top Drizzle apple cider vinaigrette over top, and serve.
*optional: arrange freshly sliced pears on the top for the perfect fall touch *optional: add fresh pomegranate seeds over top *optional: use hazelnuts or pecans instead of walnuts, or a combination of your choice *optional: candy the nuts ahead of time for a pleasant crunchy surprise *optional: use mixed greens instead of kale – switch it up depending on the season – tender greens like baby kale, spinach, baby lettuces and arugula.
Apple Cider Vinaigrette 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 1 Tablespoon maple syrup 2 cloves garlic minced 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon your favourite salt about same amount of freshly ground pepper 1/2 cup olive oil
OR Lemon Vinaigrette 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice 1 Tablespoon maple syrup 2 cloves garlic minces 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon your favourite salt about same amount freshly ground pepper 1/2 cup olive oil
In small bowl whisk together everything but the olive oil till fully combined. Slowly add olive oil while continuing to whisk till fully emulsified. This will make enough for today’s salad, and a little extra to store in the fridge for tomorrow’s salad.
Basil Tomato and Corn Salad with Wheat 1 cup cooked wheat 1 cup chopped green onion 2 cups corn toasted in 1 Tablespoon olive oil (OR freeze dried toasted in olive oil and then refreshed with a little water) 2 cups cherry tomatoes quartered, or regular tomatoes diced 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 1 cup fresh basil chopped finely Combine all ingredients together except cheese and basil. Drizzle dressing over salad and toss, then sprinkle cheese and basil on top before serving.
Lemon Dressing: 3 Tablespoons lemon juice 3 Tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper whisk together
TABOULI (Tabouleh) pronounced ta-boo-lee Normally Tabouli is made with bulgur wheat (see below), but you can make it with whole wheat if you like too. Just make adjustments.
2. Soups and stews:
stir cooked wheat into the brothy soup during the last 20-30 minutes, or simmer dry wheat at the beginning of a long cooking soup. Garnish your butternut squash soup with a sprinkling of cooked wheat on top.
3. Casseroles or in a rice pilaf, or on top of Buddha Bowls or Poke Bowls:
On a base of cooked brown rice or quinoa – with any number of fresh toppings of vegetables, fruits and protein artfully arranged on top and drizzled with a light dressing.
4. Breads: Add a cup to your next batch of whole grain (or part whole grain) bread. Add a cup to your next batch of carrot muffins, carrot cake, apple cake, banana loaf . . . etc
5. Whole WHEAT Pancakes using the blender: you’ll be surprised and how light and tender this pancakes are. 3 cups milk 3 eggs 2 cups wheat (just wheat, dry and uncooked) 1/4 cup sugar (white or brown your choice) 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 scant Tablespoon baking powder Pour milk and eggs into blender. Blend on high, then remove small cap on top to slowly add wheat while still blending. Add sugar, oil and baking powder, continuing to blend till smooth. Test your batter with a spoon. There should be no grit left in it – totally smooth. Spoon batter onto greased skillet and cook as you would any other pancake. Serve with syrup or fresh apple sauce.
5. Baked Wheat Pudding 2 cups cooked wheat (or cooked cracked wheat) I prefer whole wheat but it really doesn’t matter once they’re cooked 3 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup honey 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 cups whole milk 1/2 cup raisins nutmeg and cinnamon to sprinkle on top
Beat eggs, add salt, sugar and vanilla. Stir well. Add milk and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add wheat and raisins and stir well. Pour into a well buttered casserole dish and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes, then stir the pudding to keep the wheat from settling. Bake another 15 minutes and stir again. Bake another 30 minutes (to total approximately an hour) or until toothpick comes out clean. Serve plain or with cream, yogurt or ice cream.
Cracked Wheat
Cracked Wheat Porridge or Multigrain Porridge 1/2 cup cracked wheat 2 cups water dash of salt Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer slowly for 30+ minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. When tender to the bite, remove from heat and serve with milk and honey.
Beat eggs till frothy; add salt, honey, vanilla and milk. Beat well. Add wheat and raisins and stir well to combine. Pour into a well buttered casserole dish and sprinkle the top with nutmeg. Cover with a lid or tin foil. Bake at 325 F for about an hour. After 15 minutes, stir the mixture again as the wheat will mostly have sunk to the bottom. Return to heat and continue to bake until the pudding is no longer runny. Remove the lid for the last 15 minutes to allow to brown on the top. Insert a toothpick to test for done-ness as you would for a cake.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. We used to serve it warm with cream or ice cream.
Bulgur Wheat
Bulgur is the fast food in the health food world: whole wheat that is par boiled and then dried and cracked. Because it is pre cooked and then dried, it rehydrates quickly making it very convenient with a mild, nutty flavour and chewy texture. It is a staple in middle eastern cooking and the key ingredient in Taboulleh (Tabouli) Salad.
Not to be confused with cracked wheat, while bulgar is cracked, it is partially cooked first. Bulgar comes in fine, medium and coarse texture . This shortens the cooking time – in fact it doesn’t need cooking, just soak it in hot water to soften it. Coarse bulgar could take up to half an hour, while medium and fine could take 15+ minutes.
Tabouli Salad 1 cup Hot water 3/4 cup medium bulgur wheat pour hot water over top bulgur wheat and set it aside rehydrate (about 1/2 hour).
When bulgur is tender and cooled, begin adding all the above and toss to combine: 1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced 1 medium tomato, diced 6 green onions, diced 1 medium pepper your choice of colour 1 cup (or more) washed and chopped fresh parsley small handful of finely diced fresh mint 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon chili powder juice of 1 lemon, or 1/4 cup lemon juice 1/2 cup olive oil
Toss well and serve. Enjoy.
sprouting wheat
Super easy and very nutritious, sprouting is a great habit to get into, and great to do with kids. Use sprouted wheat (as with other grains and seeds) are great for salads, sandwiches and more.
Sprouted wheat is UNlike many seeds you may have sprouted in the past. Don’t expect it to look like bean sprouts or alfalfa sprouts – its in a league all of its own. Sprouted wheat is also sometimes referred to as ‘germinated wheat’.
Why sprout wheat? Because sprouting turns a grain into a ‘plant’ – for lack of a better term, a ‘vegetable’. Seeds contain enzymes; when they are sprouted they release their enzymes and the once dormant seed springs into life as a new ‘plant’. Enzyme inhibitors are a plant’s natural defense against degradation. When sprouting, grains are given the signal to neutralize these substances that can be hard on the human body. Vitamins increase, including Vitamin C. As the sprout begins taking energy from the endosperm, the changes that take place alter the carbohydrates, and it breaks down the gluten making it easier to digest for people who otherwise might have difficulty with wheat in general.
The tools are simple. There are a large variety of suitable sprouting containers, but to begin with, start with a simple wide mouth pint jar. When I sprout alfalfa or beans I use a quart jar, but you aren’t going to want that kind of quantity to begin with. You’ll need some kind of a lid to strain water from. A net or cheese cloth with an elastic band, or a screen inside a jar ring, or a plastic strainer made for this purpose.
Day 1: Put 1/2 cup whole wheat into a wide mouth pint jar and cover with plenty of water. Let it soak over night.
Day 2: Strain after 8+ hours and give a gentle rinse. Strain again and set it aside. Repeat again at the end of the day. The point is to never let the seeds dry out while you’re sprouting or they’ll die. By the end of day 2, you may already be seeing the beginning of little white sprouts on one end. Yay.
Repeat the rinsing and straining cycle twice every day. I set mine on the counter where it gets indirect sunlight.
Day 3: repeat rinsing and straining cycle. Day 4: By the end of this day your sprouts should be ready to use, for all the same purposes as you’d use softened cooked wheat but with the added benefit that THESE kernels are not cooked and are loaded with additional vitamins including vitamin C. They are very sweet.
This will be good in the fridge for 4 or 5 days, but don’t store it, USE it.
Wheat Sprout Apple Muesli – 2 servings 1 cup wheat sprouts 2 tablespoons liquid honey or maple syrup 1 cup vanilla greek yogurt (or plain yogurt with another tablespoon of maple syrup) 1 fresh apple diced 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/4 cup sunflower seeds Mix all together and enjoy
Yes, you can dehydrate your sprouts and then grind them to make sprouted wheat bread. Make sure they’re VERY dry. It’s tempting to get all excited and try everything all at once. For now, my recommendation is to take a chill pill and start gradually trying things out before you go all crazy (like I did). If you’re going to make this a way of life, its gotta be sustainable. Slow and steady wins the race.
adding back the bran
Bran Muffins in separate bowl, cover 2 cups bran in with 3 cups buttermilk or whey. Stir to moisten all and set aside. In large bowl sift together: 3 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour 1 Tablespoons baking powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons salt
in smaller bowl, cream together: 1 cup butter with 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup molasses. Add 3 eggs and mix well between eggs. Pour sugar/egg mixture into dry ingredients and add moistened bran. Stir only to moisten. Pour into prepared muffin tins. – Bake 400 F for about 20 minutes. When done, remove from heat and let sit in tin to cool slightly before removing.
I hope you’ll give some of these recipes a try, and I hope you’ll start being creative in finding new ways to incorporate wheat into your every day life.
Let me know how it goes.
Warmly,
Cindy Suelzle
Those with gluten sensitivities may have to eliminate wheat from their diets, and those with celiac disease must avoid all gluten in any form. ↩︎
I do not know what I ever did in the pre-earth life to deserve to be born in Canada. I suspect I didn’t ‘deserve’ it; nevertheless Heavenly Father saw fit to place me here and now. I am so grateful for that mercy and blessing.
There are so many things in our life to be grateful for …. sometimes we don’t even think about the blessing of ‘where we are’. Canada.
Thank you to all those immigrant grandparents and great grandparents who made it possible for this to be the land of my inheritance
I did not know this, but the last German POWs were not released from the Soviet Union until 1956!
While the western Allies released their final World War II prisoners in 1948, many German POWs in the U.S.S.R. were kept under lock and key for several more years. Most were used as slave labor in copper or coal mines, and anywhere between 400,000 and one million eventually died while in Russian custody. Some 20,000 former soldiers were still in Soviet hands at the time of Stalin’s death in 1953, and the last 10,000 didn’t get their freedom until 1955 and 1956—a full decade after the war had ended.
Among the delayed released POW’s (not likely in this picture) was one Gotthold Sulzle, Dan’s grandfather Jakob’s brother.
Gotthold appears to have been born in Cogealac, Romania. He went to Germany for work just prior to WWII and as a German was drafted into the German Army. He served on the Russian front and became a Russian POW. Gotthold was decorated with 2 iron crosses (a German military award awarded for bravery on the battlefront).
After WWII ended, Gotthold attempted to immigrate to Canada where other family members had immigrated, however he was unable to take his family with him at the time. Having already been separated from his family for too long, he decided instead to immigrate to Australia.
That is how a branch of Dan’s German family ended up in Australia.
– picture and information shared from Linda Sülzle-Michl.
*note: I am not making any statements about this nationality or that nationality. There were (and there are) terrible things that happened (and happen) to individuals and to families as a result of hate and wicked people – wherever they are. I do however have a tenderness for those who suffer, and an appreciation and admiration for those who overcome and show me a better way. I am attracted to real life examples of the strength and resilience of the indomitable human spirit. They strengthen me and encourage me.
I also feel so much love and appreciation for those first generation immigrants who in many cases sacrificed much so their children could have the better life that eluded them. Dan’s grandparents came from German occupied Poland shortly after the first world war. They had been people of means; educated, land owning farmers. For the rest of their lives while living in Canada, they were labourers and I personally never heard Dan’s grandmother speak very much English. But their children grew up on the prairies and all went on to have meaningful work as they raised their own families in a world of opportunity and comfort – free from fear for their safety. Their children’s children received good educations and also raised their children in a peaceful world of opportunity and comfort. All because Edmund and Olga sold all they had for ship passage, hoping for a better life on the other side of the ocean.
When I was a little girl my mother bought apples by the case this time of year. Usually Macintosh if I remember correctly. They were FRESH, crisp and wonderful, and we stored them in our cold room in the basement.
We loved eating them and could have one whenever we wanted during those weeks. I equate fresh crispy apples with fall school days.
My mom would put some in a bowl on the table and I took it upon myself to shine them so they looked nice enough for a table centrepiece. I took great pride in this task, and it was a continual job as the apples got used up quickly. They needed shining because they came to us looking like the apples in this picture. Once I shined them up with a clean damp cloth, they looked like the apples in the picture below – which incidentally, I just shone to go on the table before writing this.
Can you see the three lady bugs that came inside with them? They thought they found a safe hiding place for winter, but ….. sorry ladies, out you go, find another one. Did you know lady bugs can live three years? I love lady bugs.
By the time I was married, apples came from the store already shiny and I puzzled over my childhood memory of shining them. I missed the ritual, and wondered why my mom would have had me shine apples when apparently they were already shiny. (?)
Years later I learned that the apples we buy in the grocery store are ‘waxed’1 to have that shine. I didn’t know with what, but there was no option. They’re all like that after the initial harvest.
I began washing my purchased apples to ‘remove’ the shine . Ironic eh?
But today. Today we brought in our very own beautiful honey crisp apples. They’re in the fridge now, but some inner voice compelled me to shine up a few for the table.
That’s when it happened. My flash back. THIS! Déjà vu. This I have done before. …. Just exactly like this! With a clean cloth. And just like those in my childhood memory, these apples shone up quickly. Almost like magic. And beautifully.
THIS IS WHAT APPLES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE!
Beautiful. Organic. Right outta your own backyard, or outta your community garden, or your nice neighbour’s yard. With a natural matt finish that shines up with the touch of a slightly damp cloth, till you can see the light reflecting in them. Apples in the fall are one of life’s great pleasures.
I hope you get some FRESH apples this fall, and I hope you have to shine them up. I’d love to hear your apple stories.
Warmly,
Cindy Suelzle
Footnotes:
In an effort to make ‘fresh’ apples available to consumers all year round, it is necessary to treat them. “Waxing these foods seals them, protects them from pests and diseases, and prevents them from drying out, thus maintaining freshness.” (*my note: Interesting use of the word “freshness”) https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/food-safety/information-product/fact-sheet-use-morpholine-apple-coatings.html I rest my case with regards to my opinion of eating IN the Season. Is it really necessary for us to eat ‘fresh’ apples 12 months of the year? ↩︎
I don’t know who had the bright idea of making zucchini into a cake, but they must have had a few get away from them. I think we can all relate, and I’m sure everyone has their favourite recipe. This one may have become my favourite this year, this month, this week! It is rich and delectably CHOCOLATE; light (from the eggs and leavening) and moist (from the zucchini). The perfect combination of everything.
You don’t have to be a visionary to know that THIS
can be THIS:
but it does require a little bit of previous experience because they don’t look like they should belong together. *Don’t waste small zucchini by making them into dessert, eat those fresh out of hand, in a salad or grilled with a little bit of parmesan on them. Baking is reserved for the ones that get too big.
Double Rich Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Begin by peeling your (too big) zucchini, then cut into manageable pieces and shred. Measure out 4 cups shredded zucchini and set aside. If you only have 3 cups go for it anyway, but don’t use more than 4 cups – there’s such thing as too much of a good thing. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 9×13 pan or two loaf pans. I also add a sheet of parchment paper to the bottom.
Sift together in a large mixing bowl the following: 2 cups flour 1 cup cocoa (I know it seems like a lot, trust me – its okay) 1 scant teaspoon baking soda 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Ensure all are thoroughly blended.
In another bowl, beat together: 5 eggs Add 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar and mix well. Add 1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream) 1 Tablespoon vanilla 1/2 cup vegetable oil Mix well.
Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. And mix by hand to make sure all flour is moistened. Add shredded zucchini and stir to combine.
Add 1 + 1/2 cup REAL chocolate chips and stir in. I also add sunflower seeds (I can’t help it).
Pour into your prepared pans. I use a 9×13 glass baking dish. * optional: Sprinkle another 1/2 cup REAL chocolate chips over top.
Place on the middle rack of your oven. Set the timer for 20 minutes, then turn your cake or loaf pans around and bake for another 20 minutes. Check again and gently touch the middle of your cake. If it feels firm and bounces back a little, then test with a toothpick for doneness. If the toothpick comes out clean then remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan on a rack. Don’t rush it. Let it bake for a little longer if needed. Check every five minutes. The loaf pans will take longer because they’re deeper. Don’t under cook, but don’t over cook either. Once its firm to the touch, be sure to test with a toothpick.
Good Ol’ Fashioned Zucchini Cake with Raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Sift together and set aside: 2 cups flour 1T cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder
beat 3 large eggs add 1 cup sugar 1 cup oil 1 teaspoon vanilla mix well.
Add 2 cups shredded zucchini and mix to thoroughly combine Add sifted dry ingredients and stir to combine. Fold in 1/2 cup raisins
Pour batter into buttered 9×13 baking pan and place in middle of hot oven. Bake 40-45 minutes or until centre bounces back when lightly pressed. Insert toothpick as a final check. When it comes out clean, cake is done. Remove from heat and allow to cool in pan.
If you decide to frost it, make a wonderful cream cheese icing with 8 ounces cream cheese – beat till smooth with hand mixer slowly add 2 cups icing sugar beating all along to avoid lumps. Add a tablespoon of yogurt, sour cream or milk if needed to keep the icing from being too dry. Spread over cake after its fully cooled. Serve in cake pan.
Enjoy!
Which one is better? I am partial to the plain zucchini cake with raisins; it tastes like Sunday dinner dessert should. But the chocolate is extra special, so you have to have both in your life for different times.
It’s not very often I publish the words of someone else in this format, but from time to time – as I take notes for me to remember, it occurs to me that you might also appreciate them. These words from Chieko Okazaki, are comforting, reassuring and true.
Who is Chieko Nishimura Okazaki? She was an American writer, educator, and religious leader. I came to admire her while she served in the Relief Society general presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1990 to 1997. I looked forward to hearing her speak – she always started with “Aloha” to which the congregation always responded “Aloha” – and I enjoyed reading her words.
Chieko was born in Hawaii in October 1926, growing up in a Buddhist family of Japanese ancestry that was employed on Hawaiian plantations. She was 15 years old when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and her family did not escape the horror that followed, especially for those of her ethnic and cultural status. She was Hawaiian born, from Japanese heritage, and spent most of her life living in mainland America, but she confronted racism throughout her life.
As a young teen, she became a Christian, working as a maid to pay for high school. Her family (parents and two brothers) sacrificed for her education, and education became her life’s work. She received her first degree in Education at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, her Master’s degree in Education from the University of Northern Colorado when she was 51 years old, and another degree in Educational Administration.
Ironically, she was about the age I am now when I first became familiar with her as a speaker and writer. To me, she had a lotta credibility, and I loved her. She served in the trenches and she got it. She really got it.
In The Wilderness by artist: Ron DiCianni
“It’s our faith” said Chieko Okazaki “that He experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don’t think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually.
That means He knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer — how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.”
. . . There is nothing you have experienced . . . that He does not also know and recognize. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. His last recorded words to his disciples were “And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down Syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He’s been there. He’s been lower than all that. He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and in our grief.” – Chieko N. Okazaki
One of my favourite songs by Kenneth Cope – Broken. Enjoy.
This tender image painted by the Danish painter Frans Schwartz at the end of the 19th century, was brought to my attention recently, and I find myself coming back to it again and again. It amazes me, the kind of emotion that can be captured by the talented brush strokes of an inspired artist. This is not the whole picture, its a close up of the faces. While the full image is breathtaking, I am drawn to, and am captivated by these faces.
We learn about it in Luke 22:43,44
“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.“
Agony in the Garden by Frans Schwartz 1898
Years ago, I was reading this story from a beautiful illustrated children’s book to my then 4 year old granddaughter Rebecca. At this point in the story, when the angel comforted the Saviour, I said aloud “I wish I was that angel who did that for him.”
She sighed and softly replied “I wish ‘I‘ was that angel.” I reflect back on that previous shared moment from time to time. I’m quite sure she has no recollection of it. But among other things, it testified to me of the power of inspirational art to convey the spirit, and the ability that a child has to respond to it when given the quiet opportunity. And it testified to me as well, of the importance of seeking out those quiet opportunities.
I also reflect on the fact, that sometimes, all you can do is offer love and support. There wasn’t a single thing anyone in this universe could have done to take away His pain, or to even make it easier. But this! . . . THIS could be done. . . . A tender embrace, a demonstration of love and empathy, and in this case – heart rending gratitude. For some reason, we do not know the name of this angel, this privileged one sent from above, while many others undoubtedly stood ready, wanting to do the same. What an honour to have been the one to embrace Him at that pivotal moment in time. To have been the one to offer Him comfort, heavenly succor and support. And more personally – Gratitude. Because after all, He did it for us. For you and for me. Personally. Privately. And yet for us all.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf said “What the Saviour did from Gethsemane to Golgotha on our behalf is beyond my ability to grasp. He took upon Himself, the burden of our sins and paid an eternal and binding ransom not only for Adam’s original transgression but also for the sins and transgressions of the billions upon billions of souls who have ever lived. This eternal, sacred sacrifice caused ‘even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer in both body and spirit.’ (DC 19:18)”
Look closely at his reddened eyes in this achingly tender image. At the furrowed brows. I love that his eyes are open. Look at the soft and gentle face of the angel and the enveloping embrace. Though none of us will ever have to experience the depth of His suffering, we know that we do have “our own dark and bitter hours” as Elder Uchtdorf calls them. “Times when our sorrow and grief may appear to be greater than we can bear. There will be times when the weight and remorse of our sins will press mercilessly upon us.”
We can be assured at those times, that we are not alone. That He went before us, and suffered all those things. And not just for our sins, but for our sadness and grief, and hurts of every kind, for our sickness and afflictions. To take them all away. As I heard one say some time ago (referring to suicidal thoughts and intents) “We don’t have to die for our sins. Someone already has.” He knows and He understands. He’s been there. He gets it. He’s atoned for it all. He’s taken my name through the temple of Gethsemane, individually. I don’t pretend to know how, but I absolutely know it. He knows me. And He knows you. He can and will strengthen us. And by taking advantage of that sacrifice, we don’t cause him any more grief, we don’t add to the cost – because the price has already been paid. Whether we accept the gift or not, it has already been purchased. For us.
This song Wondering by Aaron Edson, was brought to my attention from a friend Ron Bissett many years ago. He played it to me over the phone, a poor recording he found somewhere. He wanted me to find him a CD (back before the days of Spotify etc). He asked me because we owned an LDS Bookstore at the time. I found it for him, and for me, and for several other customers, because that over the phone introduction made it personal for me too. Thanks for the tip Ron. Enjoy.
I really hope that I was that angel, but I kinda think I was not. Unlike the angel however, HE can take pain away. And I can be that angel to others, embracing, comforting, supporting, … not able to take grief away, but loving them through it, and hopefully pointing to the One who can take it away – who will take it away.
Just some of my thoughts on a tender subject. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Right off the bat, let’s dispel a few common misconceptions that I observe over and over.
Myth: Harvest is at the end of summer. Sometimes new gardeners have the idea that gardening is like a sandwich. They expect to plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. Truth: If you’ve gardened for awhile, you know the truth is very different. Aside from the near daily attention of watering and weeding, you can begin eating out of your garden within the first few weeks after planting (in garden talk that’s almost immediately), and throughout the growing season. Harvest is an ongoing processall season long. That means you’re picking and eating, but also picking and dehydrating, canning and freezing what cannot be consumed right away.
Yes, there will be things you’ll be harvesting at summer’s end – like winter squash, root vegetables, plums and apples, but that doesn’t take into consideration all the other fruits and vegetables (especially garden greens) that you’ll miss if you wait.
Myth: Fresh food from the grocery store is the BEST option nutritionally. Truth: The word “fresh” has been stretched to mean all sorts of things. The produce in the grocery stores would be best defined as ‘perishable’. In many cases, it takes a week or more before it arrives on our grocery store shelves, and this after being picked before its ripe. Since all food begins deteriorating within the hour its harvested, having it be two weeks from harvest before we BUY it, is a problem. Sometimes, preserved food might actually be more nutritious than the older perishable food in the produce department. Open your mind to some new considerations.
Myth: Storing food will make it last indefinitely. Truth: All storage methods have limits that are shorter than we are tempted to assume. Be reasonable. Nothing STOPS food spoilage, but certain methods of preserving slow it down considerably. It’s food! Its not indestructible. Nutrition is optimum the fresher it is of course, and at the beginning of storing, best used within a certain time frame.
Generally this is what you can expect:
Canned food – commercially canned or home bottled food has a recommended shelf life of 18 months to 2 years. Two years is the time frame I try to work within. Nutritional value is approximately 40% of whatever that food was the hour it went into the bottle. That nutritional value decreases as it ages, so yes, we may all know someone who has bottled peaches from 2018 on their shelf, but the nutritional value is so poor . . . . Just EAT the doggone thing or give it to the chickens! Get it over with! What are you waiting for?
Frozen fruits and vegetables if prepared properly have a recommended shelf life of 4 months to a year. For me, I use a year as my benchmark. Nutritional value is approximately 60% of whatever the food was the hour it went into the freezer. The key is to have it in the freezer as close to harvest time as possible. Don’t forget about it in there.
Dehydrated foods have a Potential Shelf Life of – 1 year for fruits, 6 months for vegetables, 1-2 months for meat (6 months if vacuum sealed. I say potential because there are so many factors to consider when dehydrating at home. How long between picking time and the dehydrator? Did you remove all the moisture? Are you certain? How are you storing it? Best practise is to store in coolish room temperatures (no less than 40 F / 5 C and no higher than 70 F / 20 C), out of direct light. Nutritional value is approximately 80%; again the key is prompt processing.
– Freeze dried foods has an extraordinary shelf life of 25 years if done properly. Freeze drying is a gentler process preserving and protecting the food value. Nutritional value could be over 90%. See below for more information.
One of your greatest resources when learning how to preserve the food you grow (or acquire) is other people. Everyone has an idea you’ve never tried before. Don’t be stuck in the way you’ve always done things, just because that’s how you always have. Be open minded and willing to LEARN, willing to try new things and share your successes and failures. Be wise and pay attention to details.
an important side trip . . . . .
Botulism! is nothing to trifle with.
What is it? Botulism is a rare but serious condition caused by a toxin that attacks the body’s nerves. It can cause life-threatening symptoms. All forms of botulism can be fatal and are considered medical emergencies, but for our purposes here, we’re only concerned about Foodborne botulism. The harmful bacteria thrive and make the toxin in environments with little oxygen, such as in canned food. There. I said it. The growth of the bacterial toxin responsible for botulism thrives in low oxygen and low acid environments. This happens most often in preserved foods and in inadequately processed home-canned or home-bottled foods. Freezing does not kill botulism and neither does boiling.
Strict adherence to cleanliness, and ensuring that proper canning methods are used when home preserving is more important than we might suspect. Fruits and vegetables should be washed thoroughly before using. Glass jars should be cleaned with hot soapy water, rinsed with hot water and kept clean till used. It is not necessary to sterilize jars if they will be processed in a hot water bath for at least 10 minutes.
Only high acid foods like some fruits and in some cases pickled vegetables, should be canned in a hot water bath canner. All other foods: vegetables, legumes, meat and fish should be processed in a pressure canner under recommended pressure. Don’t guess about the pressure or the timing, use a guide. Why pressure? Because under pressure a higher temperature can be reached than simply by boiling.
EATING “IN THE SEASON”
Years ago (for nutritional reasons), I decided to focus our eating IN THE SEASON, preserving the EXCESS of what we could use immediately. Consequently, we eat primarily out of our garden from the beginning of May through the end of September. Other than the watermelon we buy constantly throughout the summer, 90% of our fresh produce comes from the garden. Like everyone else, I still like summer fruits we cannot grow in our climate: peaches, nectarines, citrus, and blackberries – when all those fruits are at their best. Lucky for me, I live in a place where I have the best of both worlds.
Every growing season will be different; not every vegetable will do great every year. Some years are going to be great tomato years, some will be better green crop years. It is important to diversify what we grow to give us the best variety and chances for success. For instance, this growing season (summer of 2024) was the perfect lesson for why diversification is a good idea. It threw some unexpected curve balls at us: April was cold, May was cold and excessively windy, even June was cold and very windy. (Just for fun, I checked some weather history in Edmonton, and in May 2024 we had 8 sunny days!) I was still planting my garden in the middle of June – a full month later than than I ever have before. But then the weather was perfect for weeks at a time. By mid July things most things had caught up. Who knew?
April, May and June this year was perfect spinach weather, but unfortunately for me, and uncharacteristically, I hadn’t planted any. Boo.
What is ready in my yard (and probably your yard too) in May? * Early greens like spinach if you got it planted early enough (the previous August is a good time). * Volunteer Greens: Lambs Quarters – a common garden edible weed that is very much like spinach in many ways. Dandelion leaves – open your mind. When they’re very young, dandelion greens are nice added to a salad. Giant hyssop is an edible native plant that comes up early. Chickweed (yes, another common garden edible weed) that springs to life as soon as the ground warms up. * Sorrel, one of the earliest garden greens. * Rhubarb is at its best at the beginning of the season. * Chives, Garlic Chives and Welsh Onions are up and big enough to start picking for meals.
What is ready in my yard (and probably your yard too) in June? * All your herbs. * More early greens. * Early strawberries. * Hascaps are the first fruits of the season – usually ready before the middle of the month. * Rhubarb is full on and at its best in June.
By the first of July, you should be eating something from your garden every day. Peas, beans, more greens including Asian greens, kale, the first cucumbers, every kind of herb, and the first tomatoes, zucchini and onions.
Very soon the excitement of first ripening turns into mass ripeness – all ready to harvest at the same time. Zucchini that gets so big you can use it for a piece of furniture, or it sits on the counter for several days before you use it; kale that grows bigger by the hour; more salad than anyone can enjoy, and more basil wrapped tomatoes than you can put on any table. Who has time to do take-out in the summer? And why would you? There is so much to eat everyday right in your garden.
Part of the beauty of summer is the healthful benefits of eating in-the-season. There is nothing like fresh sour cherries or royal plums from the tree, or those first crisp apples! But don’t miss the more subtle offerings: parsley that is ready all summer long – wanting to be dehydrated for use all winter, the kale we can literally pick every day and it never stops producing. Gardeners have carefully tended our food plants since the weather warmed up, so be open to all the ways its giving back to us. In some cases the more we pick, the more will keep coming. When we let vegetables like peas, beans and cucumbers stay on the plant longer than needful, they start to over ripen in an effort to produce viable seed, signaling the plant that producing time is over. We sabotage our quality and quantity by not constantly harvesting.
Picking cucumbers every few days as they ripen will keep the plant producing. You’ll have some to enjoy today, some to give away, and some to put up for winter for several weeks. Same with tomatoes: freshly sliced on toasted sourdough, in your green salad of course, fresh bruschetta on fresh sourdough, fresh salsa, roasted pasta sauce, – enough to share and enough to put up for winter.
STORE WHAT YOU EAT AND EAT WHAT YOU STORE
Preserving means no waste, and extending the season – but never at the expense of eating IN the season. We really can have plenty of both. And there are several different ways to preserve, some more suitable than others, each with it’s own advantages, disadvantages and optimum shelf life. Not all methods are suitable for all produce. Be open minded and employ a variety of methods to take advantage of the best options. When you eat what you store, you will have greater success in keeping your food properly rotated.
When harvesting, be GENTLE. All fruits and vegetables are easily bruised and damaged which will affect how long they will last. Use injured produce immediately, and the less severely injured ones as soon as possible. Go through your stored vegetables frequently, discarding all that are showing signs of spoilage.
COLD STORAGE Choose the coolest area in your house or garage that is clean with no risk of freezing. Do everything you can to keep it cool: lowest level if you’ve got a basement, no windows, outside walls if possible, no carpet, no heating vents, dark. Vegetables like potatoes and onions will last for months, beets for a couple weeks at best. If you have a very cold room, you may even be able to keep carrots packed in CLEAN sand for an additional month or two, and possibly even cabbage short term if its cool enough. It is a temporary short term storage method, extending the season another month or two – the key being to EAT it, don’t leave it there for months. Rotation is important. Most modern homes are not built for cold storage.
REFRIGERATION Room is always an issue in any fridge and over packing your fridge reduces its effectiveness to keep everything at a consistently cold enough but not too cold temperature. Additional fridges are additional costs involved in running them. It is an excellent, though temporary, short term storage method. Count your time in weeks at best. Eat your food storage to keep it rotated.
FREEZING Again room is an issue, and leaving foods too long in the freezer is a common problem. Rotate your frozen food, first-in first-out. Short to medium short term storage when properly prepared, packed and labeled.
CANNING Two methods of canning: hot water bath using boiling water reaching 212 degrees F, and pressure canner which uses steam and pressure to reach 250 degrees F. When hot water bath canning fruits and tomatoes, I always add lemon juice or vinegar – depending on the flavour its going to give the fruit. To a quart its recommended to add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice or 4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup) vinegar.
JAMS, JELLIES AND SYRUPS I always can these lovelies in a hot water process. It is possible to freeze jams but I choose not. Freezing always seems to require more sugar, and freezer space is a premium in my house.
DEHYDRATING is one of the oldest ways to preserve foods, keeping them safe to eat and maintaining reasonable nutrition. Estimates are that up to 80% of original food value is preserved. Times to dehydrate range from 1-2 hours to 24+ hours, depending on what you’re drying. Pay particular attention to ensure there is no remaining moisture in individual pieces.
Do NOT dehydrate high fat foods such as avocados, olives or nut butters, or dairy as the risk of food poisoning is too high. I personally do not dehydrate any kind of protein either.
For optimum storage keep in a cool, dry, dark place at temperatures below 60 degrees F or 15 degrees C. Dried foods should be good for up to 12 months depending on storage conditions. Vacuum sealing dehydrated fruits, vegetables and herbs will extend the shelf life for up to 10 years. The vacuum seal prevents oxygen from entering.
PICKLING OR FERMENTING While I have pickled various vegetables over the year: cucumbers, beets and carrots, it seems our family are not big pickle fans so I haven’t kept it up.
We are however, big SAUERKRAUT fans. I like to make a batch of sauerkraut in the late fall – November for the winter.
FREEZE DRYING Freeze drying is a relatively new option in home preserving. Commercially, its been on the market for 40+ years, but a little hard to find. Since the year 2000 its been increasingly more available. The process is two step: 1) Freeze, and 2) remove all remaining moisture WITHOUT thawing. The key to the highest nutritional quality is – how fast can you get it from field to freezer? and how fast can you freeze it? When freeze drying at home, you must have sufficient freezer space to freeze your food in a flat surface layer so that once frozen, the food can be transferred the freeze dryer. Everything will take different times, but to give you an idea of what to expect, blueberries will take approximately 30 hours – up to 40 hours to completely dry. Because blueberries (and other berries like them) have a protective skin on them, each berry must be punctured. If you don’t do that, the outer skin will dry, sealing in the moisture – exactly what you don’t want! Once they’re completely finished it is imperative that you get them sealed in an oxygen free storage container as soon as possible because they will absorb moisture from the air.
Commercially, the process is the same – 1) Freeze, and 2) remove all remaining moisture without thawing through a vacuum like process called sublimation. There are many companies that freeze dry, and I have noticed that not all are the same in their commitment to quality. Again, like for home freeze drying, the key to quality is – how fast can you get it from filed to freezer? and how fast can you freeze it? I have tried many different brands and finally settled on THRIVE LIFE as my brand of choice. There are several reasons for this – all of them relating to their unwavering commitment to quality.
1. They have a list of over 40 items that must be complied with in order to be what they call “Nutrilock” guaranteed. And nothing has their name on it without that symbol.
2. One of the steps in the Nutrilock promise is to Flash Freeze. Typically the time limit is 2 – 4 hours between harvest to frozen. This means that inside of 4 hours, the produce has been picked, washed, chopped, and flash frozen to -40C, sealing in as much nutritional value as possible. I cannot help but consider my own backyard garden: I am hard pressed to get produce out of my garden and ON my own table within four hours! This single assurance bytheway, is very important to me. One of the primary reasons I choose to purchase my freeze dried food rather than freeze dry my own.
I have reflected on this many times over the years, and have several friends who have taken the step into freeze drying their own food. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t considered and even been tempted to buy a freeze dryer. It is cohesive with the way I do things. But the thing that holds me back from this very expensive system, is the fact that I do not believe I can do better or provide a better end product than what I can buy. In all other methods of preserving, I believe I can provide a cleaner and more nutritious end product: canning, freezing and dehydrating. But not when it comes to freeze drying.
Another factor in my decision, is that I cannot provide the variety on my own. And if I do, it will not be as fresh as I require. Thrive Life ensures that all produce is picked at the peak of ripeness – nutritional perfection. They can do this, because of their ability to flash freeze so quickly. For instance, their bananas are picked ripe – every other banana destined for a North American market is picked green).
Once Thrive Life produce is frozen, it is transferred to a facility where it goes into the freeze dryers removing all remaining moisture without thawing – again minimizing loss. That is why it retains its beautiful colour, shape and nutritional value. It comes out of the driers at ZERO moisture and are immediately sealed in cans. Oxygen free + moisture free = no way to decompose, hence an exceptionally long shelf life.
A late summer favourite in our house, we look forward to the apples. Usually coinciding with the beginning of back-to-school time, our apples are ready, and we begin juicing. September smells like apple juice in our house. If the apples are nice then we make a few apple pies to eat and freeze, apple muffins, apple cookies, apples in our salads, apple sauce, apple fruit leather . . . there is no end to the versatility of apples. If your apples are more tart, its not necessary to add lemon juice, but if they’re more sweet, you might want to add 1 T to a pint (500 ml), 2 T to a quart (1 L).
Canning: Yes! As apple wedges as if for pie filling, apple sauce and apple juice. Freezing: Yes! Also cut up as if for pie filling, apple sauce and juice Dehydrating: Yes! Sliced reasonably thinly in wedges or rings.
Canning: not really suitable Freezing: yes Pickling: yes
Beans – green or yellow or purple
Canning: Yes – under pressure. This is my sister’s family’s favourite winter vegetable; consequently she cans dozens of jars every summer. Cooked beans are not a favourite in our house, so I have never canned them. Freezing: Yes. Freeze in whatever meal amount suits your family best. I blanch for two or three minutes then seal into small freezer bags, label and freeze. I find this better suited for our family so that those few of us who like them can enjoy without cooking up to much at a time. Pickling: Yes. Several different types of pickled beans – open your mind and seek out recipes that appeal to you. Dehydrating: No. Texture not good.
Beets can be picked pretty much all July and August as you thin out your rows.
Thinning will allow more room for the beets to grow bigger, and they can be left in the garden till cold weather forces your hand.
Beets are best stored unwashed but with excess soil brushed away, in a ‘cold’ dark place – a cold room or the fridge. Unlike onions and potatoes they can be stored in large food grade plastic bags, but are not suitable to long term shelf life in a cold room. Best place is the fridge. For longer storage, either can, freeze or pickle.
Every year, I look forward to BORSCH, the traditional Eastern European later summer soup, and a national dish in Ukraine.2 click HERE to read my post on Borsch including recipe
Canning: Can in pint or quart jars – because they are a low acid food they must be processed in a pressure canner. Don’t have a pressure canner? Consider pickling them. This you can process with a hot water bath canner. For maximum nutrition, plan to use within 18 months – 2 years.
Freezing: Beets can be frozen with good results. Cook them first. I prefer roasting covered in a hot oven (400 degrees). Keep 1/2 inch or more of their bottom stem to minimize colour bleed, ensuring they stay to their beautiful deep colour. I use a roasting pan, or a casserole dish or even just tin foil – depending on how many you’re doing. Keep them covered. They’ll cook in their own moisture. Or you can boil: cover with water allowing plenty of room in your pot so it doesn’t boil over (big mess). Roasting or boiling, when tender to the fork remove from heat, cool and remove the peel – it will slip off easily in your hands. Slice, cube or grate and package them into freezer bags or containers. Label and freeze. Plan to use before next season for best results.
Pickling: yes Dehydrating: Don’t. You won’t like them. It’s a texture thing.
Berries and Cherries
Canning: Yes – its my suggestion to add 1 T lemon juice to a pint (500 ml) or 2 T to a quart (1 L). Freezing: Yes Dehydrating: Yes Jams: Yes Vinegars: Yes
Carrots can be stored in a high humidity COLD storage room.
Gently wash and trim the tops to within a 1/2 inch, and thoroughly dry before storing. Store only whole, unblemished carrots; refrigeration is highly recommended. Place in large plastic, food grade bags with several breathing holes punched through. Line the bag with a layer of paper towel to absorb excess moisture. Check carrots every few weeks to ensure they’re not drying out, but are also not too wet (I know – sigh). If the paper towels get very wet, replace them. Canning: Carrots can be bottles and processed in a pressure canner. As with beets, if you don’t have one, consider pickling. Freezing: Don’t. That’s all I have to say about that.
Pickling : Yes Dehydrating: yes, but they’re not great and you’ll be tempted to dry way too many than you can use in a reasonable length of time.
Cabbage
Canning: I never have and have no comment Freezing: We often freeze cabbage in the original head, to break down the texture to be better able to make cabbage rolls. Fermenting Cabbage : Sauerkraut. A definite YES!3 Dehydrating: doesn’t sound good to me
to read more about sauerkraut, including how to make it, click HERE
Corn
Corn is best eaten the day it is picked. If needed to pick in advantage, keep as cool as possible and make every effort to use as soon as possible. Suggestion: submerge cobs in ice water right after harvesting, drain and refrigerate with husks on. If the husks have been removed, store in plastic bags, for a few days in the fridge.
Canning: I have canned excess corn before, under pressure in the Pressure Canner. Freezing: My preferred way to store corn. Once the corn is cooked, (we prefer to grill it on the BBQ), we cut the kernels off with a sharp knife. I gather the kernels in a plastic tub. and gently tossed the corn with me hands. Then I pack in serving sized freezer bags. . Pickling: I’ve seen corn used in salsas which are canned, as well as relishes. Personally, I would pressure can these.
Cucumbers
Canning: nope, not unless you’re canning your pickles Freezing: nope Pickling or Fermenting: A definite YES for pickling. Dehydrating: doesn’t sound good Freeze Drying: in small pieces the results are excellent. When home freeze drying I find they don’t stay crisp. It’s tempting to freeze dry in slices, but it seems to work a lot better in dices.
Garlic – as with onions, you can use garlic immediately from the garden,
but for long term storing, as with onions again, it should be cured. Remove all excess dirt and tie in bundles of about 10-12 heads, hang upside down out of the way and out of the sun. Must be cured – as with onions – it is ready to prep and store when it is dry, brown and crispy. Any remaining moisture will promote spoilage down the road.
With scissors cut off the stock, leaving about a 1 inch piece and also remove the root close to the surface. Small paper bags left open at top are perfectly suited for storing garlic in dry dark cold room. Dehydrating: I have never done it myself but I have several friends who do. Slice and dehydrate in a dehydrator. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can dry on a cookie sheet in your oven at the lowest temperature. If you cannot get your oven below 150 degrees, use a wooden spoon to prop your oven oven slightly. Check often to prevent scorching. Once it is thoroughly dry / crispy, powder in a food processer or coffee grinder. A blender will work but you’ll get a lot of powder. Let it settle before opening the lid.
Garlic Salt: My cousin brought me some garlic salt she made herself and now I am a total convert. So doing this myself when I run out. It’s a super simple process. You control the texture of your garlic salt, leave it chunky, coarse or fine – depends on your desired end use.
1 cup coarse kosher salt (non iodized – don’t use regular table salt) 12-15 cloves fresh garlic peeled. Process in food processer until garlic is finely chopped. Spread over parchment line baking sheet and bake 200 degrees till mixture completely dries out. Expect it to take 45-60 minutes.
Baking it makes it a little clumpy, so after its cooled, either crush it in a mortar and pestle or run through your food processer again, or throw it in your high powered blender if you want a finer texture.
Most of the herbs I grow get dehydrated for winter use. The exceptions are dill weed and chives. Dill weed is too delicate to dry – it loses all that makes it wonderful. So I chop it and freeze it, scraping out of its container with a fork while its still frozen and returning to the freezer immediately. Chives are also too delicate to dry – becoming ‘woody’ in my opinion, so I chop and freeze them too.
Small amounts of thin leafed herbs (basil, mint, oregano, parsley, tarragon, thyme) – dry on a clean towel on the table or counter. Larger amounts or thick leaves I put in the dehydrator.
Dandelion roots – I wash, chop and dry roast them in the oven. Store in glass jar away from direct light.
Dill– I am generally interested in the green weed. I pick when they’re green and lush throughout mid summer, swish in cool water then put in a salad spinner to take excess water off. Chop with a sharp knife on board and scrape into a freezer container. Label and seal. Freeze. To use, I simple scrape the chopped weed out of its container with a fork while its still frozen and return to the freezer immediately.
Horseradish – you can make horseradish sauce or freeze it in clumps. It will lose some of its pungency, so plan to use in 6 months. to read more about horse radish including recipes click HERE
Pesto – Pesto is one of my favourite summer traditions. I used to think it was synonymous with basil and at one time it was, but this is a brave new world we’re living in, and pesto can also come from parsley, radish greens, carrot greens, nasturtiums or any combination thereof, or any other flavour you want to preserve.
to learn more about pesto, including recipes click HERE. In the link are several different posts about different ways to make pesto using a variety of herbs. Be creative and have fun experimenting.
Kale
Canning: nope Freezing: I’ve heard it freezes well, but I’ve never frozen it. Freezer space is in short supply at our house. Dehydrating: This is my personal preference. Easy to do and easy to use later. Two to three hours in the dehydrator depending on how full your racks are, and then pack away in a glass jar. Label, and keep out of direct sunlight.
These jars are 2 quart size and you’d be amazed by how much dehydrated kale is in each of these jars. I use it throughout the winter in many dishes, just scooping out of the jar and adding it to soups, stews, chilies and sauces of all kinds.
Freeze drying: One of my favourite freeze dried vegetables. Currently a limited time item with Thrive Life, so keep your eye on it. When it comes back in, grab a few cans.
Onions can be used from the garden as needed all summer long
especially when the bulb starts to round out, but by late summer you’ll notice the tops begin to flop over, giving the signal that the plant has stopped growing. They’re ready to harvest.
To dig, carefully loosen the soil around your onions with a garden fork, then gently pull them up by their tops. Best to keep the full stem intact until fully dry. If the weather is dry with no danger of frost overnight, lay the plants out in the garden for a day or two to dry out. If the weather is not in your favour, move them to a protected area – perhaps the floor of the garage or a covered porch.
Curing onions is the term used to prepare them for long term storage, and is absolutely necessary. The outer layers dry out, tightening around the bulbs to effectively protect them, keeping the onion firm longer. Its a simple process: make sure they have plenty of air space for circulation – ideally outside but protected from the sun. Either hang or lay out. That’s it. You do you, but take care not to bump or bruise them. And don’t rush this process, drying takes TIME, and properly curing onions means you can enjoy the harvest all winter long. Taking shortcuts will prevent proper curing, and the onion bulbs will turn soft and mushy. Curing onions allows them to be stored at room temperature, so even a kitchen pantry would be sufficient if it was nice and dark.
*note: if you only have a few onions and you think you’ll use them up in a few weeks, don’t worry about curing. Go ahead and put them in your fridge.
Either hang or lay out, you do you, but don’t rush the process. Drying takes TIME
Onions are sufficiently cured when the necks are completely tight and dry and the stems contain no moisture. Use scissors to trim the roots to about 1/2 inch, and the leaves to about 1 inch. Like potatoes, onions should be kept cool and dark – with good air circulation. The same kind of containers are suitable. If the onions are exposed to light for any long stretches, they may sprout new green leaves. Use any onions that have been bruised or damaged first as they will not last as long.
Its tempting to store onions with potatoes because their needs are similar, but potatoes release moisture as they age which can encourage onions to develop soft spots, so keep a reasonable distance between them.
Not all onions are intended for long storage. Generally, the milder or (or sweeter) onions are intended for short term use. Stronger (or more pungent) flavoured onions may retain quality for up to a year if cured properly. These are things to consider when selecting the type of onion you want to grow in the spring.
Canning: no Freezing: Yes but. . . . I’ve seen my dad put on goggles and chop tons of onions by hand for hours so that he could freeze them for ready use. That was enough for me to never want to do the same thing. I do not freeze. Dehydrating: Yes, but personally I’d take the dehydrator outside to do it. The idea of that smell lingering in the house for days is not appealing to me.
Freeze drying: Yes! I don’t freeze dry them myself – I prefer the quality of Thrive Life Chopped Onions. 4 For sure one of my must-haves at home, chopped or sliced.
Parsnips – same as carrots.
Peas
Canning: Yes, under pressure Freezing: Yes Dehydrating: Yes, but . . . . I don’t like them. Freeze Drying: YES! They’re great to snack on, and when they’re refreshed, taste just like fresh from the garden. 5
as it converts starch into sugars changing the texture. Cool is good, COLD is not. A nice dark area is necessary as light turns potatoes green. Keep them in a breathable storage container like a cotton or burlap bag, paper bag, basket, or a cardboard or wooden box. Use injured potatoes first – those that may have been damaged with a shovel when harvesting, those with blemishes, those with splits or anything else not perfect. Those injury spots will begin to spoil so use them first. Continue to go through them from time to time, removing any that look like they are starting to rot.
Canning: Yes, under pressure Freezing: No Dehydrating: Yes Freeze Drying: Yes . . . . sort of. I’ve used it commercially freeze dried.
Potatoes are easy to store: choose the coolest area you have (NOT the fridge) and keep them in the dark with as much air circulation as possible. No plastic bags or tubs.
handle Pumpkins and other winter squash gently
as dents and scrapes will introduce decay. Clean the surface by wiping with cool water in which a capful of bleach has been added. This kills bacteria that will quickly gain a foothold in any injury spots, including cuts when you carve a jack-o-lantern. After its been disinfected, dry it thoroughly with a soft cloth before storing it. Keep your pumpkins cool, dry and dark and they’ll reward you by lasting several months. Slight freezing or even too cold will break down the tissue and make the pumpkin soft, but too warm is a problem too. Keep them out of direct sunlight. Best place is in your cold room or garage as long as it doesn’t freeze. Keep them off the cement floor with cardboard, a blanket, wood slats or on a shelf. And try to keep them from touching each other to allow them to breathe.
Canning: Yes, in chunks not puree – and always under pressure Freezing: Yes, but the texture gets watery. I don’t care for the final result Dehydrating: No. Freeze Drying: Yes
Rhubarb – the best friend you never gave the time of day to
Canning: Yes! I cold pack macerated rhubarb into pints, using the juice of the rhubarb and sugar as liquid. 10 minutes in a hot water bath. I don’t feel the need to add any lemon juice or vinegar, as it is acidic enough already. We use this to top yogurt or oatmeal on winter mornings.
Also, rhubarb is foundational in most of my red jams. Freezing: Yes! Wash, chop, bag and freeze. I use the frozen rhubarb in smoothies for an especially refreshing drink. Dehydrating: Yes, but only as fruit leather. By itself or as a base with strawberries, raspberries, plums, and many other flavour companions. Be creative. Yes you can dry rhubarb in small pieces, but it is not a nice texture or flavour and is hard to find uses for. Freeze Drying: Yes
to read more about Rhubarb including recipes, click HERE6
Sorrel and other Greens such as Spinach, Swiss Chard and Amaranth
Canning; nope Freezing: Yes. Lightly blanch and pack into small freezer bags, label and freeze. Dehydrating: nope Freeze Drying: YES
Tomatoes are why I garden
Canning; YES! I always 2 T vinegar to a pint (500 ml) or up to 4 T to a quart (1 L). Freezing: YES! Dehydrating: YES! Freeze Drying: YES! but I find the texture very delicate and that it absorbs moisture from the air very quickly
to learn more about tomatoes including recipes click HERE
Zucchini is the master of disguise
Canning: Yes under pressure Freezing: Yes but texture will be watery Dehydrating: Yes – my preferred method of long term storage Freeze Drying: YES! but I find the texture gets a little spongy after a while
Fruit Leather
Fruit leather! Apple leather – rhubarb leather – any kind of fruit leather. Mix it up. Apple pear. Rhubarb raspberry. Plum! Whatever you’ve got on hand that needs to be used up, turn it into a delicious, nutritious snack to grab all winter long.7
to read more about fruit leather including recipes click HERE
Vinegars
Take your favourite flavours from the growing season and use them to flavour vinegars.8
to read more about vinegars including recipes, click HERE
Tips for storing your preserved foods
Don’t just stash your food and forget about it. You’ve done half the job, but finish it by protecting it, making it accessible and learning to incorporate it into your daily life.
I cannot overstate the importance of STORING WHAT YOU EAT and EATING WHAT YOUR STORE.
In many cases the shelf life of your food will depend on where and how its stored.
Pay attention to the risks : Humidity – Light – Oxygen – Temperature Variations – Pests (insects and mice)
Humidity/Moisture: If dried food picks up moisture molds and bacteria will grow. Moisture can also damage packaging material, and rust jar rings. In areas of high humidity, using moisture absorbers and investing in a dehumidifier is a good idea. OFF the floor especially if the floor is cement.
Light: Direct light, especially sunlight can speed deterioration
Temperature: Optimal temperatures are cool, ranging from a low of 40F (above freezing risk) to maximum of 70F. All food will react badly to heat. Canned food should not be allowed to freeze – freezing will compromise seals. Dehydrated foods can freeze but continual freeze-thaw is detrimental. Even freeze dried food will have its exceptionally long shelf life significantly reduced by heat, and in continuous freeze-thaw conditions.
Pests: Protect your food storage from pests. Moths, ants and mice belong outside but they don’t always stay there, and once they’ve found their way into your food storage – it will be unsafe for you. Glass, food grade plastics and metal are excellent protection but not always practical in every situation. Do the best you can with what you’ve got. Keep food off the ground and off the floor! Aside from being more susceptible to insects, it is also more vulnerable to water damage should that sad event occur.
Preserve responsibly. Pay attention to cleanliness and details like full boiling and timing when canning, full moisture removal when dehydrating, blanching and packaging when freezing. Cleanliness extends to your storage area. Keep it CLEAN.
Label . You think you’ll remember but you WON’T, and even if you did – you may not be the one who uses it.
Shop for Dinner from your Food Storage. Routinely go through it to ensure that seals are still intact, food is still properly packaged, no signs of pests or mould, and to ROTATE it. USE it!
STORE WHAT YOU EAT and EAT WHAT YOU STORE. I know, I know, you’ve seen it before. It is the single most important rule. If you don’t eat what you store, you’ve wasted your time, energy and expense.
the final word (words)
Eating a nutritious and balanced diet with variety is the best way to protect our health. It gives our bodies the best chance to take care of themselves. That extends into the non growing seasons, those of us who live in northern climates must think about winter, so we store food.
* Storing food properly is the key to protecting ourselves and our families WITH continued good health and FROM foodborne illnesses.
* You cannot always tell when food is unsafe by its appearance, smell or taste. Botulism for instance cannot be seen, smelled or tasted. When in doubt, throw it out!
* Preserving your garden produce is the next-to-final step in the blessings and benefits of growing a garden. It is soul satisfying. The last step of course is to continue to enjoy the produce throughout the winter.
I’d love to hear your tips and suggestions, as well as some of your success stories as well as things you’ve learned from failures.
If you knew my dad, you’d agree that he looks just like him. Most of my paternal uncles also look like him. In fact, so do most of my paternal cousins. Even my kids do! Lol. I guess he had some pretty strong physical traits.
On September 13 this year (2024), he would have turned 127 years old, but he left this earth over 45 years ago. He’s my grandfather Leland Albert Harrison.
Grampa always seemed to be old. It shocks me now to realize that he was only a few years older than me for most of the time I knew him. He suffered from gout, and was in near constant pain which restricted his mobility. It didn’t help that he was quite heavy. Which came first, his weight or his gout is hard to say, but each condition aggravated the other. He always wore slippers, even when he was outside because his feet were constantly swollen and painful.
It is well known – especially among his grandkids (of which he had many), that he didn’t know how to deal with kids. He didn’t know how to chat with kids, interact with kids, how to even keep us all straight. So he resorted to teasing. It was his only way.
He’d sit in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, and try to catch us if we attempted to get by. We needed to get by because the kitchen was full of adults sitting around the table or standing, and the living room had red plastic building bricks (the only toy I ever saw in that house). He had an extended reach with his cane, and we learned not to underestimate his reflexes. Just because he couldn’t walk didn’t mean he couldn’t grab you. We’d watch him closely and when he seemed to be distracted we’d make a dash for it. It was really rather scary. He didn’t know what to do with us when we weren’t quick enough, so he’d give us a rough head rub or twist our ears (according to some cousins, but he never twisted mine).
An inconvenience for the older ones, but terrifying, maybe even traumatic for some of the younger ones. Now I look back on it and see an old man who did the best he knew how, but from the perspective of young grandchildren it was very tricky to navigate. I never knew him any other way. One day when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, my grandmother had sent him out to put the sprinkler on the front lawn. I was outside running around with cousins when I came upon him kneeling on the ground beside the sprinkler, unable to stand up. I stood back and silently watched him as he struggled. It was almost a reverent moment for me. I’d never seen an adult in so much need. He asked me if I would bring him “that chair over there”. I brought it, silently. I stood back and watched as he used it as a prop (with much difficulty) to help him stand. When he was on his feet, I quietly walked away to rejoin my cousins. I liked him better after that, he wasn’t just the scary grampa who sat with a cane in the doorway. He was much more . . . . vulnerable.
He and gramma lived in a tiny house they built on his parents’ property in town. In that tiny house with one bedroom and a room reserved (so I’m told) as a place to store coal (later converted into Grampa’s bedroom), they raised 15 kids. Gramma bore 16 children: one died in infancy (Earl), and one died of typhoid fever just before her 15th birthday (Dorothy Ileen). Sadly my grandmother and his mother never got along ‘to put it mildly’. Living a stone’s throw from each other didn’t help, and it must have been very distressful for both of them. I’m sure it was a series of misunderstandings and misplaced pride on both sides that caused the rift, but those feelings perpetuated themselves as life continued and offenses piled up – the older boys tormenting their Gramma Harrison with childish pranks. I never knew my Great Grandmother Capitolia Harrison, she died when my dad was only 13. But I kinda suspect if she’d been alive when I was little, I still wouldn’t have known her. Sad that friction and even enmity in families can be such a thing. And sadder still that it can ooze into future generations long after the original offenses are forgotten. (hmmmm, a life lesson there for sure)
Many years later, while expecting my first child, I told my mother I was considering the name “Afton” as a good name for our new baby if it was a girl. This was my Grandfather’s sister’s name. My mother was mortified! and told me that Gramma Harrison would be unhappy with my choice as she very much disliked her sister in law. I didn’t want to bring any grief to my grandmother so I abandoned the idea, but I was curious about the harsh reaction. My mom had never even met her. I kinda regret never knowing that part of my dad’s family. They all lived in the same little town, and attended the same congregation on Sundays. Tragic when you think of it. I wonder how they reconciled those feelings after they all met each other again in the next world. I bet there are many regrets for how they let it go on for so long.
Leland and Pearl Harrison had a lovely cozy ‘little’ home. Emphasis on little again. And it was always clean; Gramma was fastidious about clean. She had iodine on a kitchen shelf and woe be to any kid who fell and scraped their knee. Iodine hurt worse than the wound. My dad inherited her fear of ‘germs’. He was only 6 years old when his sister died, but it seemed that the years following her death were ones of hyper anxiousness on the part of his mother; today we would called that PTSD. My whole young life was all about ‘not spreading germs’. From this vantage point, I empathise a lot more with my father’s preoccupation with washing hands and clean dishes. Typhoid fever is a terrible disease caused by a salmonella bacteria that is spread through contaminated food or water. It is most common in rural areas of developing countries where there isn’t modern sanitation. I guess small farming communities on the Canadian prairies in the 1930s qualify. And people continue to be contagious with typhoid fever long after they’ve recovered.
Grampa often asked us “whose kid are you?”
I would answer “I’m Wes’s daughter Grampa. I’m Cindy.” I was never certain whether he was teasing or if he really didn’t know. But now, I’m quite certain our sheer number and the fact that we only showed up for a few hours once a year in those days, didn’t help. There was never a hint of any question that Gramma knew us though. Gramma would cup our faces in her hands and kiss them and tell us she loved us. She knew where we fit in and who we belonged to. Her!
He’d call my sister and I “Winder and Cinder” which would always make us giggle, and implied to us that he at least knew OUR names. Some days anyway. He was a tease in every way. It was the only way he knew how to deal with people. And he teased my gramma mercilessly. There may have been a time early in their marriage that she laughed at his teasing, but she wasn’t laughing when I knew them lol. He’d tease her and she’d lash out with some rebuke, then he’d respond with “Don’t be mean to me Mama. You know you love me.” It was very entertaining to us grandkids, but I felt a bit bad for Grampa because it seemed he was always the injured party. One day when I was a young teenager, I confessed to my mom that I thought Gramma was mean to Grampa, and that she hurt his feelings. Mom told me that he’d often reach over and lift up her dress with his cane – which embarrassed her and prompted her rebukes. I had missed that little detail. No wonder she was mad at him.
He was also very accustomed to being waited on hand and foot. She took care of his every need. It probably never occurred to him to peel a potato or wash a dish or even push the toaster down. She fed him every meal he ever ate.
In those days 70 years old was a lot older than it is now, and though he never drank a drop of alcohol or smoked a cigarette in his life, he was not the picture of health. His sheer inactivity was probably his biggest problem. From my vantage point now, I think he deserves some credit for holding his own when literal hoards of adult children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren and other relatives would descend on their home on given day throughout the summer time. In that small house, there was only one place for him to be – sitting on his kitchen chair in the doorway.
I wish I had known the man inside him. I never did, but I treasure the few memories I share with my siblings and my cousins of him. As scary as they were while we lived them, they make us chuckle as we relive them. He died when he was 80 years old, one month before our first child – a son, was born. They overlapped for that short time in the spirit world. I hope they knew each other.
Happy birthday Grampa.
My guess is you’re celebrating with Lemon meringue pie. I’m quite certain they serve that in heaven. It was my dad’s favourite too; perhaps you’re sharing it together.
Warmly,
Cindy Suelzle
* Grampa died March 17 1978. Leland Albert Harrison * Gramma died 12 years later, at the age of 88, April 16 1990. Pearl Cora Reece Harrison
In preparing to write this article – and at the same time, preparing to teach a workshop in our community garden – on Homemade Borscht, I asked a lotta friends to tell me about their Borsch. Every lover of borsch has “their” variation. There are so many different variations that its hard to know what someone else is talking about when they use the word, and how they can all be called the same name! Some people insist on a brothy soup, some people prefer a thicker version. Some use meat broth, some feel that an authentic borsch must be meatless. Some use a cream at the end to cut the acid. Some do not.
Food is part of culture and identity – whether it be in a family, a community, a region, a religious group, or an entire country. Food can be shared and can unite people in the sharing. While there may be regional differences, people from all over eastern Europe are familiar with “Borsch” or “Borscht”. Ukrainian, Polish, German, Romanian, Croatian, Georgian, Russian and others all have their ‘authentic’ versions, but the general consensus is that the dish originated in Ukraine.
People move, and food travels with them. Food moves more easily as long as it moves horizontally (east-west) where climates remain similar. Food is an important part of tradition and memories, and being able to keep favourite dishes a part of one’s life is valuable in adjusting to the many changes that come with a new life in a new country. One cannot over estimate the importance of the food people have been raised with, and families can be quite rigid about not messing with ‘gramma’s recipe’.
In the last part of the 19th century a general exodus from Eastern Europe into western Europe, Australia and North American began in earnest for those seeking a better life. Dan’s family came from Germany, some spending a generation in Poland before coming to Canada. My ancestors came from Denmark, Sweden, England, Wales, Scotland and France. It is always difficult to move to another part of the world, but the travails of immigrants in those days were intense, including breaking land and homesteading. There was much hardship. Both Dan and I feel a deep debt of gratitude for their sacrifices – which made it possible for us to be born here, in this land of plenty and relative safety. And yes, there are still a residue of favourite family dishes among them which have lasted long enough to be part of our family’s heritage.
Let’s get the spelling out of the way first. Borsch or Borscht? The ‘T’ comes from the Yiddish transliteration into English since it seems that the dish was introduced to the west by Jewish refugees fleeing Eastern Europe. So both spellings are equally correct, and no wonder there are so many recipe versions of it. Jewish refugees to the US. Ukrainian refugees to western Canada. Polish, German and Russian refugees throughout the western world. They had one thing in common – the food they all grew in their home countries: root crops, cabbage and dill. These vegetables grew equally well in North American soil and climate (especially in the northern parts) so it was natural that the dish would be reproduced here. Every part of it was something the average farm in the northern hemisphere could produce at home. The ingredients were cheap, plentiful and dependable. The soup was hearty, nutritious and satisfying. How could it lose?
Does Borsch had to be red? In a word – ‘no’. I’ve seen ‘green borsch’, but that’s blasphemous so I’m not gonna talk about that other than to say it is generally a spinach soup – so where it gets off referring to itself as ‘borsch’ is a mystery. Borst IS red. In my mind, beets make borsch RED. If you don’t like beets, don’t make borsch. If you make borsch without beets, you made soup. Might be a good soup, but find a new name, because “borsch” is red. There. Glad we got that settled.
So what is IN borsch? Keep in mind that traditionally borsch is a peasant soup. A good ol’ downhome, country folk hearty beet soup. So that means it had the foods that were easy to come by. Potatoes. Onions and garlic. Carrots. Cabbage. Maybe celery for some. Maybe kale for some. In later years, as it traveled west – peppers and tomatoes; a hundred years ago, tomatoes were not so plentiful in north eastern Europe among farm folk. BEETS. Vinegar. Dill. Sometimes meat, sometimes not – depending on availability. Sometimes sour cream.
So how do you find out which type of borsch you prefer? Well, there are no shortcuts. You have to try a few to narrow it down. Personally, I like a borsch with lots in it. I’m okay with a more brothy base, but I rarely make it that way, because Dan prefers a thicker soup. So I make my brothy soup, then when its nearly ready, I take about 1/4 of it and puree it in the blender. Adding the pureed portion back to the pot makes it thicker and more substantial, and my family prefers it that way. You do you. Make it a few different ways – but keep the basics in place.
What are the basics? BEETS. Added near the end to keep the colour beautiful. Onions and garlic. Other root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Don’t hesitate to add parsnips if you have them. Cabbage. Of course. Some sort of acid – lemon juice of vinegar. In the spirit of authenticity I do not use lemon juice because I am pretty sure no Ukrainian Baba had lemons in her kitchen. The acid is said to keep the red vibrant, and who am I to question wisdom of the ages? Maybe it does, but I like the flavour enhancement anyway. Its not the same without it. Broth. The kind is completely up to you. Beef broth, chicken broth, vegetable broth, water. Whatever you have on hand. I generally use chicken broth or chicken bouillon – simply because it’s light and flavourful. Tomatoes or tomato paste. A relatively ‘new’ (but welcome) addition as Ukrainians wouldn’t have had access to tomatoes on the prairies a hundred years ago. Dill. Other than the onions and garlic, dill is the primary seasoning. Don’t add it too soon though because its a delicate flavour and you might lose some of it’s beauty.
How to make it
1. precook your beets There are many ways to precook your beets, but the easiest is to clean them then place in a covered roasting pan or wrap them in tin foil, and roast in a 400 degree oven for about an hour. Test for tenderness every 15 minutes after 45 minutes. The timing is going to completely depend on how big your beets are – could be an hour, could be more. When you can insert a fork easily, they’re done. Remove from heat and when slightly cooled, peel.
2. Chop your onions and garlic and sauté in oil of your choice over medium heat till translucent. Stir frequently to prevent scorching, while dicing fresh potatoes. *hint: yes, you can add your onions and garlic to the broth mix at the same time as everything else. I prefer to saute mine first as I think it adds to the flavour and I like a more caramelized texture, also it glazes the pot – adding a roasted taste.
IF, you’re going to add meat, either precook it or add it to your onions at this point to brown.
3. Add potatoes to pot and sauté with the onions for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper at this point. Add broth or water, stir well and bring to a boil while you’re chopping cabbage and carrots.
4. Add chopped or sliced cabbage – it seems people have strong opinions on which is best. You do you. (Personally I prefer chunks to slices in a soup.) Stir and add carrots. Bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and gently simmer till all is tender. At this point, add additional Iate-summer vegetables as desired: parsnips or kale perhaps.
5. Add vinegar. Start with 1/2 cup, then add more later if you want. Easier to put more in than it is to remove so start with less and adjust as desired. You can use plain white vinegar. I like to use a flavoured vinegar, perhaps a basil or chive blossom vinegar.
6. Continue to add broth as needed to keep the soup gently simmering. Add tomatoes if desired. Adding tomatoes, tomato paste or tomato powder adds that familiar light acidy taste of tomatoes while improving the texture and colour. I never buy tomato paste – preferring tomato powder so that I have more control on how much I want to use with no waste. In this case however, I generally have a lot of fresh tomatoes in the late summer early fall – so I’ll choose my ripest tomatoes. Continue to cook until tomatoes are fully incorporated and lost their shapes.
7. When your vegetables are tender, add your peeled and chopped cooked beets. Stir well to incorporate colour and let sit for a few minutes. You could be done at this point, ready to add your dill and serve up a nice brothy soup. Or you could take one more step to thicken your soup as I do.
8. Ladle out two cups of soup into a blender, and puree. Pour back into your pot and stir well. If desired, ladle out two more cups and do the same thing, stirring back into the soup. This step is completely subjective. You’re looking for a texture, colour and consistency that you prefer. Remove from heat.
9. Add fresh, chopped dill weed (the green part) and stir well to incorporate. Lots of dill. What does that mean? How do I know? How much do you like dill? Maybe a cup? Maybe more or less. I add at least a cup, but easier to add more later than remove, so start slowly and taste along the way. . Adjust salt and pepper as desired and remove from heat. At this point you can add some sour cream to the pot, or save that for individuals to add to their own bowls.
10. I always save the sour cream to be added to individual bowls at the table with additional fresh dill, because I like sour cream and Dan prefers without.
So much of what your borsch is going to look like will depend on individual tastes. There’s no point in making it a specific way if your family prefers something different. For instance, I know people who add caraway seed to their soup at the simmering stage. Caraway is the one spice that I do not like, so that’s never been a consideration of mine. But its worth trying different things from time to time – you never know how it might add to your over all dish.
Serve with fresh bread or buns. Some nice fresh sourdough served alongside is amazing. Or some nice dark rye bread.
I’ll provide a sample recipe with suggested amounts below for beginners to have some ideas of where to start.
Borsch is a meal in itself, especially served with bread. But serving it alongside a plate of perogies, cabbage rolls and kubasa would be the perfect winter meal.
recipe for 6-8 servings 1 medium onion chopped 2-3 cloves garlic minced 1 large potato diced 3-4 cups chopped fresh cabbage 6 cups broth or water salt and pepper to taste 4 carrots peeled and chopped into nice big pieces nice big handful of fresh kale chopped 1/2 cup – 1 cup chopped fresh dill (reserve some to use at the table) fresh sour cream for directions, refer to numbered instructions above
Pour remaining soup into jars to refrigerate or to give away. That’s a wonderful thing about soup, its a great gift for someone who could use a meal tonight, or its easy for them to pull out of the fridge tomorrow.
. Ironic eh? 
