The Not Quite Hippie Preservation Society
One of our kitchen counters.
Fall is coming, everyone here in Denver felt it over the Labor Day weekend. All of the usual festivals, concerts, garage sales and end-of-summer pool time was had by all, it was had with markedly lower temperatures. Sometime on Friday night a cold front moved in accompanied by one of our famous Front-Range monsoons. On Saturday we all woke up to temperatures in the mid-50s.
For most of the weekend the temperatures labored to rise above 80 degrees. This made for perfect canning conditions.
As the summer growing season concludes we urban farmers are realizing the parade of fresh, always ready produce is going to be gone before long. The lush reds of the tomato plants are slowing down, the peppers are producing a little slower. Soon enough, every living thing in our garden will make the trip to the compost pile. But does that mean this is the end of the fresh tastes of summer?
Not necessarily.
I spent the weekend dogsitting across town (which I’ve been doing a lot lately, dogs love me). Carly was left to her own devices (also dogsitting for her folks, north of town) and went to a farmer’s market to end all farmer’s markets. When I returned home the first request she made of me was to haul in the buschel of corn she had in the trunk of the car.
80 pounds for about 10 bucks. No kidding.
The corn was in addition to the case of peaches, the basket of pickling cucumbers, and the grocery sacks of roma tomatoes she had acquired from one source or another. We had a lot of produce.
The thing about fresh produce? Yeah, it doesn’t stay fresh too terribly long. So, instead of risking waste, we preserve. Taking advantage of the cooler temperatures, we assembled dozens of jars of tomatoes, pickles, and salsa while blanching and freezing about sixty ears of corn over the weekend. Slicing, mixing, boiling, and sealing Ball jars full of the summer flavors. It may not make a lot of sense now, but it will come winter.
Husked. It's a good thing I really enjoy corn.
It’s like that story, with the ant and the grasshopper. Use the good fortune of summer to get one through the winter.
As a culture, though, it seems we have come a long way from understanding what it means to preserve freshness. Many of us can acquire whatever food we want, no matter what the season, through our supermarket. Most of the food for sale there is loaded with preservatives as it is. At the same time, I see the news about entire countries which starve. Not because there is a global shortage of food, but because a lot of food can’t make it to these isolated parts of the world.
Preservation is king. There’s a reason junksops and thrift stores are frequently the deposit grounds for abandoned Ball canning jars. They become the hipster-liquor tumbler. The became the canister best used to keep marijuana fresh. Before all that, it was common practice to use them to keep food fresh.
Of course, this is back when families were still running sustenance farms and backyard victory gardens. Back when companies were still experimenting with chemical preservatives. Back when mobile refrigeration wasn’t yet cost-effective.
Packed in super-tight.
Truly, there is a romatic side to canning. The process of taking something fresh and putting it into a state where it will be edible many months down the line. The contents of the jar sitting on a shelf as a work of art. A mix of vegetables and spices. Transparent jars which allow us to watch cucumbers pickle, dancing around in water and vinegar with stalks of dill and seeds of mustard, the rouge grape leaf. All of them working together to unlock their flavorful secrets. Knowing that in a few short weeks it will be delicious and in several months you may be thanking yourself for having the foresight.
There are countless other philosophies to the practice as well, especially in our American culture. Most of us have difficulty putting money into our saving’s accounts. How can we think far enough ahead to put food away? After all, isn’t food pretty much available to everyone all the time anyway? Sure, we might have to pay for it, but at least it’s there!
As simple as our food system sounds – give money, get food – it is a pretty dangerous way to think. What would we rather be? The ant or the grasshopper? Assume our food system stopped tomorrow – what would happen to you? How long would you realistically last with your last grocery run before things started to look grim?
It is pretty dangerous to put our faith in something so important – like food – when we have just about no control over it. Sure, growing and preserving food takes a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK! We are, essentially, attempting to harness nature to our advantage. As we are all well aware, nature is a hell of a thing to wrestle with.
Do you preserve any food? Why or why not?
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