Freezing the bounty (and other forms of preservation)

Hello everyone! We have had some questions about freezing items in your weekly share for future consumption. Resources abound with information on preserving the harvest and your shares will include a wide variety of produce, so rather than go into detail on ways of freezing (or drying, fermenting, or pickling) the varied surplus items in your CSA share, I will point you to a useful site and a couple of books where you can find lots of information to get you started.

Web

1. National Center for Home Food Preservation. It has very useful information on freezing with instructions by vegetable. Also has info on drying, curing/smoking, fermenting, pickling and "jamming" fruits and veggies.

Books

1. Ball Blue Book of Preserving. (Jarden Home Brands, editor) A classic with many different editions. I refer to it all the time for a variety of recipes. Available in local libraries, book stores and supermarkets.
2. Making Sauerkraut and Pickled Vegetables at Home. (by Klaus Kaufmann and Annelies Schoneck) A terrific primer on my favorite method of preserving many of the veggies you will receive: lacto-fermentation. I purchased my copy at the Honest Weigh Food Coop in Albany.
   

I hope these provide you with a starting point. Many all-purpose cookbooks (older editions of the Joy of Cooking, for example) also include a section on food preservation and the library system is full of tomes on the subject. Do keep in mind that older books may not follow current standards in safe food preservation.

Happy preserving!