So here is the challenge:
From March 20th, 2016 (first day of spring) through December 20th, 2016 (last day of fall) I'll be preserving food for the coming 2016-2017 winter. Those first nine months of my blog will be dedicated to gardening, foraging, food preservation, fishing, DIY projects, etc. Starting December 21st (first day of winter), I'll take a turn toward creative cooking and recipe sharing (all wheat and gluten-free) as the last three months will focus on surviving... I mean... thriving (fingers crossed) over the winter months on what I've canned, frozen, dried, and stored.
Why?
Inspiration for preserving my own food came initially from the three generations of women before me on my mom's side. When my great-grandmother passed away in the 1970s she left a cellar full of her canned goodies. Though it's not recommended, we were pulling the last of her canned items out of the cellar in the late 1990s. At my grandma's house there was never a shortage of sandhill plum jelly, zucchini jam, cinnamon cucumber pickles, or green tomato relish. And my mom cans a yummy hot garden salsa. As an adult, and especially since developing food allergies, I've come to appreciate home-made and at-home preserved foods more than ever.
A couple summers ago, after estimating how many pints of dried herbs I needed for tea to get through the winter, the first ideas for this challenge came about. In March of 2015 I decided on the majority of the project's parameters, and now here we go!
If you're interested in a true food preservation journey, I hope you visit often.
Christina Ruiz
From March 20th, 2016 (first day of spring) through December 20th, 2016 (last day of fall) I'll be preserving food for the coming 2016-2017 winter. Those first nine months of my blog will be dedicated to gardening, foraging, food preservation, fishing, DIY projects, etc. Starting December 21st (first day of winter), I'll take a turn toward creative cooking and recipe sharing (all wheat and gluten-free) as the last three months will focus on surviving... I mean... thriving (fingers crossed) over the winter months on what I've canned, frozen, dried, and stored.
Why?
Inspiration for preserving my own food came initially from the three generations of women before me on my mom's side. When my great-grandmother passed away in the 1970s she left a cellar full of her canned goodies. Though it's not recommended, we were pulling the last of her canned items out of the cellar in the late 1990s. At my grandma's house there was never a shortage of sandhill plum jelly, zucchini jam, cinnamon cucumber pickles, or green tomato relish. And my mom cans a yummy hot garden salsa. As an adult, and especially since developing food allergies, I've come to appreciate home-made and at-home preserved foods more than ever.
A couple summers ago, after estimating how many pints of dried herbs I needed for tea to get through the winter, the first ideas for this challenge came about. In March of 2015 I decided on the majority of the project's parameters, and now here we go!
If you're interested in a true food preservation journey, I hope you visit often.
Christina Ruiz