My favorite food preservation books

These two books are a virtual treasure trove of information on stocking up or preserving anything from dairy, to produce, to meat.  The book on the right is really nice because the recipes come from the French countryside where the old ways are still being used for preservation.  Believe it or not food wasn't always preserved via the canning jar and hot water bath or pressure cooker.   This book has many recipes that are based on fermentation, ground preservation, Salt brining, etc.  I like this book and the recipes because I don't have to waste energy and time preserving our food.  Not to mention they taste good.  We have not tried all the recipes in this book but are working toward trying most of them once just to see if we like the end product.

Talking about the family liking the end product...... if you spend a lot of time preserving food and the family won't eat the food, you have wasted a lot of time, energy, and money.  I learned a few years ago that I needed to have test batches of food in order to prevent this.  I will make a recipe and have a taste test to see if it is a thumbs up or a thumbs down then I will proceed to making more or crossing off the recipe.

The book on the left called Stocking Up is a huge resource for anyone wanting to produce their own food and preserve it.  It has veggies, fruit, fish and meat, dairy, and nuts, seed, and grain techniques.  It has canning, drying, underground storage, curing, cheese making, and how to cut meat.  There are all kinds of recipes and diagrams that explain building, canning, and so much more.  This book would be in my suitcase wherever I was to move.

You may ask why preserving food and learning to grow our food is so important to our family.  There are many reasons but a couple would be that we know what we are eating if we grow it and feed it.  We cannot afford to buy completely organic foods and this helps tremendously with our budget and with our health.  I believe that we are going to be entering a time where we are going to have to support ourselves (maybe only partially) by eating off our land and the more we learn every year as we try new things, the better off we will be in a situation where we may have to grow our own food to live.  The last reason is that it has been a fun experience and rewarding to see and eat the fruits of our labor.