Food Preservation - Class 2 - Welcome!

Sharon July 8th, 2008

I’m sure some of you are wondering if I can actually come up with a months worth of new topics on food preservation - I’m not sure, but I’m going to try.  I feel like for most of us, things are still going sort of ok - not great, but ok - and that we may well transition away from ok pretty rapidly.  So it is important to me to get the message that we need a reserve of food out to as many people as possible.  Thanks for bearing with me if some of these seems like territory we’ve already visited.

When I did the class last time, I produced over 300 pages of material in a month, and I covered a lot of basic ground.  So if you are new to my blog, new to food storage, and you are wondering why I haven’t explained where to get the buckets to store food in or mentioned bulk sources yet, I’d encourage you to read through all the posts written in March of this year (most of them are listed under “food storage” in the categories but a few escaped and I haven’t relisted everything yet) - and if you have time, the wonderful, wonderful comments that were so terribly helpful.  I’ll also link back to specific posts as I go along.   Thanks for bearing with me as I try not to duplicate my own prior work ;-) .

Ok, here’s the schedule:

Tuesday, July 8 -  General basics – the basics of food storage, finding space, finding time, what’s ready/ripe/available when, and how to get a balanced diet from storage.

Thursday, July 10 - Dehydrating and Preservation in Salt

Tuesday, July 15 - Food storage in a changing world – what do you need, how do you get it ethically, local sourcing, dealing with rising costs, finding the best and fairest deals.

Thursday, July 17 - Water Bath Canning and Lactofermentation

Tuesday, July 22 - Cooking from food storage, and the way that living with a food storage diet is different than the contemporary diet.  We’ll also talk about special needs, children, infants, the elderly, foods to store for emergencies when you have to evacuate.

Thursday, July 24 – Pressure Canning, Preservation in Sugar and Alcohol

Tuesday, July 29 – Making use of stored food without conventional appliances, tools you might want,  managing your reserves, and anything people want to discuss we haven’t covered.

Thursday, July 31 – Season extension and Root Cellaring – keeping fresh food available year round

You’ll notice that each Thursday, there’s a couple of specific techniques we’ll be focusing in on.  You’ll also note that freezing is not on that list - generally speaking, I think rising electric costs may push freezing out of the comfort zone of many people, so I’m leaving it off.  At the end of each Thursday class, I’ll offer a few recipes and suggested projects for those who actually want to put the material to work.

On Tuesdays, we’ll talk about more general issues - bulk buying, how to find the money, the time, the place to store it, meta concerns, and most of all, how food storage changes your diet.  Because unless you are putting your food away in a cave and leaving it to rot unless the TEOTWAKI comes, bulk purchase of food, growing your own and home preservation changes the way you have to eat.  And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  So we’ll focus a lot on diet along with storage.

Ok, moving on!!!

3 Responses to “Food Preservation - Class 2 - Welcome!”

  1. Lisa Z says:

    Ooh! I love the topics. I’m really looking forward to the blog posts. Thanks so much for sharing even with those of us not in the class. You have a calling and I’m so glad you’re doing this!

    I don’t think some of these things can be said enough, as it’s so foreign to most of us who’ve grown up in the last 3 or 4 decades (or so). Still, I’ll appreciate the new material greatly.

    Lisa in MN

  2. Meadowlark says:

    I second Lisa’s appreciation.

    I’m not taking the class, but I too am hungry for information. After skipping pressure canning again this weekend because I was afraid, I think it’s time I make a move.

    Peace to you.

  3. Bee says:

    I can’t wait to see and learn everything you offer. I’m a little sponge waiting to absorb. =)

    Thank you so much for putting this info out there and preparing us.

    You rock!

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