Keeping the Harvest for Another Day

If you grow a garden, shop at a farmer’s market, or live on and close to farms like we do here in Georgia, you already know one thing for certain — when the harvest comes in, it comes in fast. One week you’re patiently waiting for the first ripe tomato, and the next week your kitchen counter looks like a produce stand.

That’s where food preservation becomes one of the most useful skills you can learn.

Food preservation is simply the process of saving fresh foods so they can be enjoyed later. Long before grocery stores carried strawberries in December or sweet corn in February, families relied on different preservation methods to stretch the harvest through the year. My momma practiced several of these methods when I was growing up, and I didn’t fully appreciate the value of those skills until I was older and came back to my roots (farm life).

These days, preserving food isn’t just about necessity–well, with the prices of groceries today–it is a necessity. I want to share with you about how you can preserve foods like momma taught me.It’s about flavor, reducing waste, and keeping a little bit of the growing season tucked away for later.