The Art of Preserving: Capture Nature’s Bounty
There’s something truly magical about opening a jar of tomato sauce in the dead of winter or gifting homemade preserves to friends and family. Discover how this rewarding practice brings sustainability, savings, and incredible flavour to your kitchen!
From water bath canning vibrant jams and pickles to pressure canning hearty soups and sauces, I guide you through safe, tested methods to store nature’s bounty. Learn how simple techniques like freezing and fermenting can transform fresh produce into pantry treasures that last for months.
Beginners will find step-by-step instructions that take the mystery out of preserving, while experienced canners can explore unique flavour combinations and international preserving traditions.
Fermented asparagus with spruce tips
For quite a long time, I only ate asparagus with sauce hollandaise and young potatoes, topped with some bacon if I felt adventurous. Not because I like asparagus best that way but because I didn't know it in any other way. So, when a short while ago, I tasted raw...
Spruce tip honey
Every spring, the firs and spruces grow new, light green tips. Spruce tips start growing in April and, depending on the weather, you can forage them until the end of May, just as long as they are still light green. Spruce tips contain essential oils, but not as much...
Woodruff syrup
When I was a kid, woodruff sherbet powder was totally en vogue! Sometimes, when my friends and I were walking back from school, we went to the local store and bought some of it as a treat. There was also a "woodruff" jelly of a light green colour and overly sweet...
Dandelion honey
A meadow full of blooming dandelions looks like the sun is shining from the ground upwards. It's such a pretty sight! Thinking about the lifeforce and vitality of dandelions, however, I have seen gardeners go crazy: no matter how often you cut them off, they'll always...
Fermented radishes
Radishes are one of the earliest vegetables to be harvested in spring. With a cultivation time of just 3 - 4 weeks, they can be ready to eat by beginning to mid-April, if we sowed them early enough, maybe even in the greenhouse. One of my greatest delights in spring...
Fermented lemons
When I first heard about fermented lemons, I wondered what you could use them for. After all, if you wanted to taste something salty, you'd simply add salt, wouldn't you? And if you wanted a dish to taste more lemony, you'd add lemons, right? But like so often, you...
What is fermentation and how does it work?
Do you remember your granny going down into the basement and getting sauerkraut from a larger crock? No? Me neither – although I’ve grown up on a farm in rural Germany. Fermentation wasn’t „cool“anymore at that time and it was far more common to can your vegetables or...
Fermentation equipment
You wanna start fermenting and dread what you have to buy for it? No worries! The cool thing about fermentation is that you don’t need any fancy fermentation equipment. A bowl, a cutting knife and board, glass jars or other containers as well as a weight to press the...
Fermentation problems and what to do
Fermenting your vegetables is a marvellous way to preserve your harvest. Not only that but it can also be easily done. You don’t need any fancy equipment or ingredients, just your vegetables (or fruit) and a bit of salt. But although it’s easy for you to initiate...
12 uses for orange peel
As you know – at least if you’ve read my About Me Page – I work at a school. There, we have a contract with a local grocery distributor who delivers organic fruit or vegetables once a week for the pupils in primary school. Depending on the produce and size, some moms...