Ashfield residents Pat and Will Thayer have been preserving foods using a variety of methods for many years.
“There were a lot of children in my family and big gardens. My mother and I learned efficient and easy ways to put food by,” said Pat, adding that her husband, Will, had lived in Alaska for 28 years. “They have big animals and big fish in Alaska. It seems like everything is bigger in Alaska,” she said with a laugh, adding that the large amount of food gleaned from moose, salmon, bear, etc., is best preserved by pressure canning.
The couple has a root cellar in a corner of their basement to store vegetables for the winter. It has two outside walls and is insulated. Pat said they also have a wood stove in the basement and work to keep the temperature in the root cellar at 40 to 60 degrees. Pat said they both enjoy the benefits of having their food come from a local source that also saves them money. Pat and Will described several ways they preserve vegetables, fruits, meats and fish.
“You can freeze things like blueberries, peas, kale and spinach,” Pat said.
She described the process as picking your best, washing the produce, draining the water (especially true for leafy greens), blanching (a quick dip in boiling water), draining again, and packaging in an airtight bag or container.
“You want to have as much air and water out of it as possible. Then freeze,” she said, adding that in the best of conditions, frozen foods will last anywhere from four months to a year.
Pat said the two things she generally pickles are cucumbers and beets, but she will also sometimes pickle spiced plums and peaches.
“The fruits need an acidic environment,” she said.
She described the process as picking your best, washing, slicing and making a brine. A simple recipe for brine is 1 tablespoon of Kosher salt to each cup of water. Pat boils the brine and pours it over her produce, leaving ½ to ¼ inch from the top and sealing (in a canning jar that has been boiled prior to putting the product in). You then let the jars cool until you hear the “pop” that lets you know you have a good seal.
Pat said she pre-cooks her beets and slices them before pouring the brine over them.
“You want to be careful to make sure the edges of the jar are wiped off, so you don’t prevent it from sealing properly,” she said.
She added that the pickles typically last a year, until the next harvest.
There are many foods you can preserve with hot bath canning, but Pat said she mostly preserves tomato sauce, adding things, like onions, peppers and garlic. Pat said her canner (a large pot used for canning) can hold, with a jar rack, about seven quart jars at a time.
“The jars have to be very clean and boiled,” she said.
She said she heats the sauce before putting it into the jars so there isn’t a big difference in temperature when placing the jars into the hot water bath. The jars are filled, and the lids screwed on finger tight. The jars are placed in the bath and simmered for about 35 minutes.
“I then take them out with tongs and wait for them to pop,” she said.
Pat said they often eat the sauce long before the next season, but that a well-sealed jar will last on the shelf for one to two years. “As long as the seal is intact — inspect it. If it’s discolored or fuzzy, don’t eat it,” she said.
Will said when he lived in Alaska there would be “tremendous salmon runs in three rivers for three weeks to a month.” He and others used the fresh-pack method to preserve the fish for up to a year, he said. “We would fill jars with raw fish and pour a brine over them of half salt and half sugar,” he said, adding that the brine helps to draw the water out of the fish. The jars are then canned in a hot water bath.
“When it comes to brines, there are as many recipes as there are people,” he said.
Will said he had a canner that held 16 pints, which he said equaled 16 pounds of fish. Will described the process he went through, fishing for a half day and canning for three to preserve it all and then repeating the cycle for weeks.
Most useful for canning meat and fish, pressure cooker canning is one of the more food safe/secure methods of preservation. Will described the process as heating the pressure cooker to 240 degrees/10 pounds “on a good Coleman stove.” Approximately a pound of meat or fish is placed in the canning jar, which has been boiled for at least 10 minutes.
Will said once the sealed jars are placed in the cooker, it takes about 30 minutes to get a pressure cooker up to 10 pounds. And then cook at that pressure for 90 minutes. He said you then allow the whole thing to cool down until the cooker is at zero.
“You gradually cool down to zero. Then you can open and remove the jars and wait for them to pop,” he said, noting he typically will go through the process three to four times in a day.
If canning smoked fish, Will said the fish are brined first and placed in a smoker for eight to 12 hours before pressure canning. Will said if done properly, pressure cooker canned meats and fish can last eight to 10 years.
“Compare that to eight to 10 months in a freezer,” said Pat.
Will said the process also “makes the toughest meat as tender as can be.”
The canners can cost $400 to $500, Will said, but Pat suggested checking tag sales as well for bargains.
Will said they only dry mushrooms these days, but many other things can be dried such as herbs, fruits, etc.
He said they had a renovation years ago that ended up giving them many screens they have used for drying over the years. The couple described their process of gathering and cutting the mushrooms into uniform sizes, placing them between two screens and putting them in the sun until evening.
The mushrooms, depending on the weather, usually dry in two days, Pat said.
Next the mushrooms are placed in the oven at the lowest possible setting on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes. Once cooled, they can be packaged in ziplock bags and placed in the freezer.
For further information, the couple recommends the book “Putting Food By” by Ruth Hertzberg, Janet Greene and Beatrice Vaughanor, researching pamphlets and online with canning companies such as Ball.
Cris Carl is an avid local gardener, licensed therapist and certified herbalist who has written for the Recorder for many years. Reach her at cstormfox57@gmail.com.