Homesteading and Sustainable Living
on Northern Vancouver Island
Canned peaches from the Okanagan
Sweet pickles, pickled carrots, pickled beans
Making salsa with tomatoes, peppers and onions
So sweet and delicious!
I dehydrate a lot of what we grow and use them for spicing things up in the winter. My favourite teas to make are Nettle & Rose Petal, Lemongrass and Chamomile/Pineapple Weed.
I clean, cut, blanch and freeze a lot of veggies and we use them throughout the winter. Here we have carrots, peas, french beans, broccoflower, beets, zucchini and pumpkin.
Never ending supply of pickles...
One of my favourite things to do with my extra produce is make pickles. It is truly amazing the deliciousness you can produce from home grown vegetables, vinegar and salt.
I remember when I was growing up in Northern Alberta, my parents built a root cellar into our home. The first room was lined with shelves and held everything that my mother would can and preserve. The second room was an underground cold room that stored our potatoes, carrots and onions throughout the cold winters. I loved going into the canning room after dinner and selecting canned peaches, plums or cherries for dessert. I remember watching my mom jar up the summer's harvest to save for the winter's feasts. I enjoyed hearing the rings spin on top and the lids pop as the jars would seal. All you need to get started is a large pot for a hot water bath, jars, lids and rings... and a lot of energy and time to try different things.
Favourites that I do every year...
Pickled Carrots
Pickled Beans
Balsamic Pickled Sea Asparagus.
I've tried pickling almost everything, but some things are always better than others. I have pickled rhubarb, turnips, cucumbers, cauliflower, peppers, nasturtium seeds, garlic, and daikon radish.
WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD TRY TO PICKLE NEXT?
Canned fruit from the Okanagan? Yes please!
I have some friends that travel to the interior of BC every year and thankfully bring me back the goodness that grows in the sun.
Jarring peaches, cherries, pears is a great way to preserve fruit for the winter. I have even had some "peach packing parties" with friends to help keep cases of peaches from going to waste. They are packed in a simple syrup made with sugar and water that keeps them sweet and juicy until you open the lid.
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We should have a lot of plums, pears, cherries and apples coming up in three years from our orchard, so we can preserve our own!
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WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO MAKE YOUR OWN FRUIT CUPS WITH SMALL RECYCLABLE GLASS JARS?
Dehydration really takes the juice out of things…
... but allows you to save the food for a later date!
My husband bought me a dehydrator years ago, and during the summer it is going almost constantly. Dehydrating vegetables and fruit means that you are taking the water or moisture out of the food so that you can store it to use later on. We dehydrate carrots, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, herbs, garlic, apples, crabapples and plums.
These cherry tomatoes are the best. The dehydration makes them sweeter than when they are fresh. We use them in soups, stews, chillis and spaghetti sauces.
Fruit leather, kale chips and broccoli chips are super yummy too!
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HAVE YOU EVERY TRIED TO MAKE YOUR OWN FRUIT LEATHER?
Freezing Vegetables
As long as you have space in your freezer, freezing vegetables is another great way to store your harvest. They need to be cleaned and cut, then blanched (dropped in boiling water for 3 minutes then plunged into cold) and packaged. A lot of our peas from the summer get frozen because then we can enjoy them year round.
Marvelous Mixtures
Another one of my favourite things to do wth all my produce is figure out which flavours go together and make something amazing!
Salsas, chutneys, stewed veggies, antipasto, meals in a jar... rarely do I use a recipe and rarely does it ever taste the same twice! Its always a gamble, but I enjoy tasting what comes out in the end.
Some canning requires a pressure cooker to safely preserve foods like tomatoes that have a high acid content.
Jams and Jellies
The more I experiment with jams and jellies, the more I love trying the less traditional fruits to preserve.
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I will always preserve what is plentiful and bountiful. Living on Northern Vancouver Island has a bounty of berries to be picked in the summer and they make the best jams and jellies. You just need the right recipe and some great little pickers (Merritt and Ocean) to help you.
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Salmonberry Jam
Thimbleberry Jam
Huckleberry Jam
Blackberry Jam
Salal Jelly
Rose Petal Jelly
Dandelion Jelly
Spruce Tip Jelly
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WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE KIND OF JAM? DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE THAT MAKES JAM?
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Fermentation
Fermentation is a method of food preservation that I've been trying a lot more since Bryce bought me a crock for my birthday. Fermentation is a metabolic process where an organism like bacteria converts a carbohydrate, such as starch or a sugar (vegetable), into a lactic acid. I grow a lot of cabbage and make different kinds of sauerkraut every year. I have also tried different kinds of pickles with cucumbers or peppers, as well as a Korean pickle called Kimchi.