Sunday, June 22, 2014
Preserving Summer Part One
8:44 PM | 
Posted by
Kaplan Center for Health and Wellness
Mary Oleksowicz, MSTOM, L.Ac
With the summer season upon us it is hard to imagine the
need to preserve summer. With the bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables
available from the farmer’s market or own garden, preserving techniques can
help us to savor the tastes of summer all year long.
One of my favorite preservation methods is canning,
especially when making home-made preserves from fresh fruit. While the endeavor
may sound daunting, the process typically takes less than an hour. On average
about four cups of fruit are needed per recipe and sugar can be used in varying
amounts based on your sweet preferences. I often use stevia, a natural sugar
alternative and universal pectin which will “set” with lemon juice and calcium
(provided with the pectin packets) to help reduce unnecessary sugar. After the
preserve has set, I then ladle the product into mason jars. Making sure they are
tightly closed, the previously rinsed and boiled jars are then submerged in a canning
bath and boiled for 10-15 minutes. While there are other jam recipes available
including freezer jams which require only about 30 minutes, I feel that the
traditional canning method allows you to not only save valuable freezer space
but provides a product that does not run the risk of freezer burn or loss from
an electrical outage.
If preserving jam and jelly seems a bit intimidating why not
flash freeze you some summer tomatoes?
Whole tomatoes of any size can be frozen in small or large
batches for future soups or stews. Store them in quantities that match your
favorite recipes. The plastic bags can be run under tepid water to release the
tomatoes so that they can be used with ease.
Next time, we will talk about the preservation of your
herbal garden for long term spice usage.
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