Ramping up local eating by preserving the harvest

On September 8, 2012, Root & Branch will be offering Preserving the Harvest: Taking local eating to the next level. At this workshop we’ll be exploring ways to make the most of the growing season and eat locally year round. Building the skills to preserve and store local foods through the winter is key to

Prairie kimchi adventures

At last week’s Food Preservation Drop In, we started a batch of prairie kimchi. What on earth is such a thing, you may be asking? Well, if you’ve ever eaten Korean food, you’ve probably tried kimchi. Traditionally, it’s Chinese cabbage, radishes, scallions and other vegetables seasoned with garlic, hot peppers and ginger fermented until it

Rhubarb Three Ways (Part 4: Drying)

The third and final way we preserved rhubarb at Food Preservation Drop In (Week #1) was to make it into fruit leather! Dehydration is less energy intensive that freezing or canning, and properly dried foods can store for a year or more (depending on the food). There are many ways to dry foods, including using

Rhubarb Three Ways (Part 3: Canning)

The second way we explored preserving rhubarb at this week’s Food Preservation Drop In was to can some rhubarb chutney. In the past I’ve canned rhubarb butter, which is basically just stewed and sweetened rhubarb that we use on cereal. This year I wanted to try something new, so I adapted a rhubarb chutney recipe

Rhubarb Three Ways (Part 2: Freezing)

At the first of our weekly Food Preservation Drop Ins we focused mainly on rhubarb, and explored preserving it three different ways: frozen, canned, and dried. Freezing is the most energy intensive way to preserve food. It also involves the ongoing cost of electricity and the constant potential of power failure (unless you’re off the

Rhubarb Three Ways (Part 1: Sourcing & Harvesting)

The inaugural Root & Branch Food Preservation Drop In happened yesterday! The idea is that I will be preserving whatever is in season every (or at least most) Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7pm for the duration of the growing season. Folks are invited to drop in to help and learn about different ways to optimize

Why food preservation? And why now??

In Saskatchewan, where most of us have just barely got our gardens planted, it might seem early to start thinking about harvest time. But actually, now  is the best time to plan how to manage the bounty that promises to slam us over the next few months! This next few weeks is like the calm

Food Preservation 101 (a Root & Branch workshop)

Saturday, June 23, 2012 – 10 am to 5 pm* Heritage Community Association (100-1654 11th Ave, Regina) $100 (includes the food that you preserve: fermented sauerkraut, canned tomatoes and dried fruit) Get ready to make the most of this summer’s harvest! This full-day, hands-on workshop is geared towards people who want to increase their food

Amaranth dreams fulfilled over breakfast

I’ve been enjoying amaranth as a cooked cereal for years. The tiny seeds are tasty, pack a complete high protein punch, and are fun to eat. (At our house, meals with amaranth somehow manage to inspire song and dance!) Plus, it’s been in cultivation for more than 8,000 years! So last spring, when we finally

Further adventures with naked seeded pumpkin

The naked seeded pumpkin experiment continued this week with attempts at pumpkin gnocchi and seed saving (click here to read my last pumpkin post). We came across a recipe for pumpkin gnocchi in Amy Jo Ehman’s wonderful local eating resource Prairie Feast: A writer’s journey home for dinner, and since gnocchi is (in my experience)