Preservation Guide

Arguably the most intimidating of home preservation options, canning veggies has a long history and modern science to back it up.

Canned food is not something you want to take chances on but the good news is that if you follow tested recipes and methods to the letter, you can get it down to a science pretty quickly.

Generally, all vegetables are low-acid foods and MUST be processed in a pressure canner (not a water bath or steam canner). Low-acid foods lack the acidity needed to inhibit the growth of bacteria and spores that can survive the temperature of boiling water (212°F, 100°C). The bacterium of greatest concern in home canning is Clostridium botulinum because it can produce spores that generate a dangerous toxin that causes food poisoning. Botulism spores thrive on low-acid foods in the absence of air, in the presence of moisture, and at room temperature—the conditions inside a jar of home-canned meat or vegetables. While spores of Clostridium botulinum may survive a boiling water bath, they are destroyed when processed in a pressure canner where the temperature can reach 240°F (115°C) or higher.

A pressure canner is an investment in money and time. They range in price from $200-$800 and before you can safely use one, you need to take the time to know what you’re doing with it. Read through all materials that accompany your pressure canner before using it. Anything from altitude adjustments to air being trapped in the pressure canner can lead to serious complications in your processing and the safety of your food.

Since canning is such a precise process, we recommend looking at your pressure canner manual for referencing recipes and process times. Avoid all recipes you find that predate 1994 as older recipes may not have researched-backed pressure settings or adequate process times.

If pressure canning is peaking your curiosity, we highly recommend checking out the So Easy to Preserve book put out by the University of Georgia’s Faculty of Extension.

Drying or dehydrating your bounty is a great option that has a centuries old tradition behind it.

Dehydrated foods are convenient, store easily and have a long shelf life when properly stored in airtight containers in a cool, dry, dark location. Dehydrating your veggies simply removes enough moisture from the food so moulds, bacteria, and yeast do not grow.

In terms of supplies required, if you like dehydrating your veggies for storage, investing in a dehydrator is a great move. Dehydrators are versatile, dry evenly with the best quality and are efficient using less power than your oven. However, you can use your oven as well. Be prepared though, drying food in a conventional oven does require time, patience, and accurate scheduling.

Preparing the Vegetables

Use vegetables at peak flavor for dehydrating. Always wash vegetables thoroughly in cold water, lifting them out of the water as grit settles to the bottom of the washing container. Slice, dice, or shred into desired shape. Most vegetables should be thinly sliced (~⅛” thick) or cut into small pieces. Some veggies like corn, peas, and spinach don’t need to be cut at all.

Blanching

Blanching is just a fancy way of saying that veggies need to be cooked in water or steam for a very short period of time before dehydrating. Blanching slows or stops the action of enzymes that can cause loss of flavor, color, and texture so don’t forget this step. Blanching also cleanses the surface of dirt and organisms, it brightens the color, and helps slow the loss of vitamins. Blanched veggies are also softer and easier to pack.

Blanching time is crucial and varies with the vegetable and its size. Underblanching stimulates the activity of enzymes and is worse than no blanching. Overblanching causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins, and minerals. Check out this chart for each individual vegetable for the correct blanching times.

When dehydrating, the easiest way to blanch all vegetables is in boiling water. Fill a large pot 2/3 full of water, cover, and bring to a rolling boil. Place the vegetables in a wire basket or a colander and submerge them in the water. Cover and begin timing when water returns to boiling. (If it takes longer than one minute for the water to come back to boiling, too many vegetables were added. Reduce the amount in the next batch.)

As soon as blanching is complete, cool vegetables quickly to stop the cooking process. The best way to cool them is to briefly dip the veggies in a pot of very cold water or ice bath. After blanching, when they feel only slightly hot to the touch, drain them and pat them dry. The heat left in the vegetables from blanching will cause the drying process to begin more quickly.

Into the oven/dehydrator

Arrange the vegetables in a single layer on a prepared baking sheet or dehydrator trays. Place immediately in the dehydrator or oven. Set oven temperature at 60ºC (140ºF). Prop the oven door open for the entire drying time. Rotate and turn trays every hour. Drying time depends on type of vegetables and the size of the pieces. Watch the vegetables closely at the end of the drying period. They dry much more quickly at the end and could scorch.

Most dehydrators come with a manual that indicates an approximate drying time for each vegetable. However, dehydrating in the oven is more of an art and depending on the veggie or size and shape, this can take anywhere from 4 to 12 hours. Keeping the temperature low, drying slow, and checking frequently are your best bet here. Each veggie will have a different kind of “done-ness” test when dehydrated. Some will be tough and leathery, others will be brittle or crisp. Check out this chart to see what to be looking for.

Storing Dehydrated Veggies

Once dehydrated veggies are out of the oven/dehydrator and cooled, it’s best to pack them in small amounts in dry glass jars (preferably with dark glass or in a dark, cool spot) or in moisture- and vapor-proof freezer containers, boxes, or bags.

Storage Life

When properly stored, dried vegetables keep well for six to 12 months. Discard all foods that develop off-odors or flavors or show signs of mold.

Rehydrating Veggies

Dried vegetables can be used in soups, dips, stews, and sauces with no rehydration necessary.

When reconstituting, soak dehydrated vegetables for up to 2 hours in water to rehydrate, using a ratio of two-parts water to one-part dried product: 1 cup of dried vegetables becomes 2 cups. When reconstituting leafy greens (kale, spinach), cover the dried vegetables with hot water and simmer to desired tenderness. When reconstituting root or seed vegetables (beans, corn, carrots), cover with cold water and soak for about an hour, then simmer until tender and use as desired.

Freezing your bounty is a great option in the modern kitchen.

Other than a freezer in good working condition, few other supplies are needed and the process for freezing veggies is simple and straightforward.

Many veggies freeze really well and while their consistency may change, once in their frozen form they’re versatile for all different kinds of delicious future meals.

Freezing does not sterilize food; the extreme cold simply slows the growth of microorganisms and slows down changes that affect quality or cause spoilage in food. The quality of frozen vegetables depends on the quality of the fresh products and how they are handled from the time they are picked until they are ready to eat. It is important to start with high-quality vegetables because freezing will not magically improve the product’s quality!

Selecting Freezer Containers

The first thing you need to do when choosing to preserve a vegetable by freezing, is choose the freezer container that’s going to work best for you. Containers should be moisture-vapor resistant, durable, easy to seal and should not become brittle at low temperatures. Some of our favourite containers for freezing vegetables are:

• plastic freezer containers
• flexible freezer bags
• glass canning jars (foods packed in wide-mouth jars are easier to remove than those packed in narrow-mouth jars)

Containers you should definitely not freeze veggies in include:

• Cardboard cartons (not even the kind milk and ice cream come in as they’re not moisture-vapor resistant)
• Regular (not canning) jars (they break too easily at freezer temperatures)

Preparing the Vegetables

Use vegetables at peak flavor and texture for freezing. Always wash vegetables thoroughly in cold water, lifting them out of the water as grit settles to the bottom of the washing container. Slice, dice, or shred into desired shape and sort according to size for blanching and packing.

Blanching

Blanching is just a fancy way of saying that veggies need to be cooked in water or steam for a very short period of time before freezing. Blanching slows or stops the action of enzymes that can cause loss of flavor, color, and texture so don’t forget this step. Blanching also cleanses the surface of dirt and organisms, it brightens the color, and helps slow the loss of vitamins. Blanched veggies are also softer and easier to pack.

Blanching time is crucial and varies with the vegetable and its size. Underblanching stimulates the activity of enzymes and is worse than no blanching. Overblanching causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins, and minerals. Check out this chart for each individual vegetable for the correct blanching times.

For home freezing, the easiest way to blanch all vegetables is in boiling water. Fill a large pot 2/3 full of water, cover, and bring to a rolling boil. Place the vegetables in a wire basket or a colander and submerge them in the water. Cover and begin timing when water returns to boiling. (If it takes longer than one minute for the water to come back to boiling, too many vegetables were added. Reduce the amount in the next batch.)

As soon as blanching is complete, cool vegetables quickly to stop the cooking process. The best way to cool them is to put the veggies in a pot of very cold water or ice bath. Cooling the vegetables should take about the same amount of time as blanching. Once cool, drain vegetables very well as any extra moisture can cause a loss of quality when the veggies are frozen.

Packing Veggies for Freezing

You have two main options when it comes to packing veggies for freezing. You can either freeze them in meal-sized portions that you’ll use all at once (aka you don’t care if they freeze in a solid block) or you can freeze them loose so you can just take what you need when you need it.

Dry Pack

Simply place the blanched and drained vegetables into meal-size freezer bags or containers. Pack tightly to cut down on the amount of air in the package but if using a rigid container like a plastic freezer container or glass canning jar, make sure to leave 1⁄2-inch headspace at the top! Frozen veggies expand and if you forget this, you may end up with broken glass jars littering your freezer. Trust us. Not good.

For freezer bags, fill to within three inches of the top, twist and fold back the top of the bag; tie with a twist or rubber band about 1⁄2- to 3⁄4-inch from the food. This will allow space for the food to expand too.

For veggies that don’t pack tightly into containers (like broccoli or Brussels sprouts) you don’t have to worry about this.

Tray Pack

Place chilled, well-drained vegetables in a single layer on shallow trays and put them in the freezer. Once the veggies are firm, just put them into bags or containers. Tray-packed foods stay loose (not in a block).

Storage Life

Most frozen vegetables maintain high quality for 8 to 12 months. After that point they’re still fine to consume, they just will be lower quality. Remember, frozen vegetables should always be cooked without thawing!

Pickling and fermenting is a whole category of preservation that has a long history because it is reliable, easy, and tasty.

The key with pickling is all about acidity levels.

The level of acidity in a pickled product is incredibly important to its safety, taste, and texture. Do no alter the ratios of vinegar to water to veggie in a recipe. Make sure to follow the recipe closely as there must be a minimum, uniform level of acid throughout the product in order to prevent the growth of botulinum bacteria.

Choosing your Veggies

Select fresh, firm vegetables free of spoilage. Measure or weigh amounts carefully, because the proportion of fresh food to other ingredients will affect flavor and, in many instances, safety.

About Salts, Sugar, & Vinegar

Always use canning or pickling salt. Noncaking material added to other salts may make the brine cloudy. Since flake salt varies in density, it is not recommended for making pickled and fermented foods.

When using sweeteners, white granulated and brown sugars are most often used. Corn syrup and honey, unless called for in reliable recipes, may produce undesirable flavors in the pickling process.

White distilled and cider vinegar of 5 percent acidity (50 grain) are recommended. White vinegar is usually preferred when a light color is desirable.

Materials Needed

Pickles are subject to spoilage from microorganisms, particularly yeasts, and molds, as well as enzymes that may affect flavor, color, and texture so processing jarred pickles in a boiling water canner will prevent both of these problems.

Standard canning jars and self-sealing lids will also be required for most pickling recipes.

For all boiling water canner processing, the prep work is the same:

1. Sterilize canning jars and lids in hot water. The best seal comes from keeping the jars and lids hot throughout the process. An easy and safe way to do this is by using a sterilization cycle on a dishwasher and taking jars out of the hot dishwasher as needed just before filling.
2. Canning disc lids should be kept in hot (not boiling) water until placed upon the jars after they’re filled.
3. Fill your water bath canner 2/3rds full and heat to just below boiling so that it’s hot and ready to go when your jars are filled and ready.
4. Processing times will vary according to food acidity and the size of jars so make sure you double-check your recipes and follow accordingly.

Fridge or quick pickles don’t require processing as they live their entire lives in the fridge.

Storage Life

The best place to store your canned pickle jars is in a cool, dry, dark place. If the brine gets cloudy, develops an off flavour or loses texture, they are no longer good. Once a jar is opened, it should be kept in the fridge and is good for several weeks.