Books & Music...

In our shrinking global world, it's easy to forget that food isn't in season year round in your neck of the woods. But you wouldn't know that from a quick visit to the produce section of your grocery store. Every fruit or vegetable seems to be in season 365 days a year.

My wife has a chart on our refrigerator that lets us know what's in season locally and when. (To find out what's local in your area, check out this site.) However, when you grow your own fruits and vegetables in your backyard garden but still want those same foods year round, can you have them?

Yes, you can ... as in, canning your fruits and vegetables (Barack Obama would be proud that I ripped off his campaign slogan for a sustainable living blog.)

In Abigail Gehring's book Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, she shares some tips on canning so you can enjoy those favorite fruits and veggies all year round without buying the imported produce that traveled halfway around the world:

"When 80 to 90 percent of the moisture in food is removed, the growth of spoilage bacteria is halted and the food can be stopped for long periods of time. By exposing your produce to a flow of hot, dry air, you will not only remove moisture quickly but also concentrate natural sugars for a delicious, sweet flavor while reducing volume for easy storage. In addition, proper drying can preserve many of the natural nutrients in foods.

"Careful preliminary treatment is an important contributor to high vitamin retention, good flavor, and attractive appearance. To fix the natural color in sliced fruits, dip the pieces of fruits in pure lemon juice or a solution of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as soon as they are out. You will need about a cup of lemon juice to produce 5 quarts of cut fruit, or mix 3 teaspoons of pure ascorbic acid with 1 cup of water. Vitamin C tablets in the proportion of 9,000 milligrams per cup of water can also be used to prepare the dipping solution, but the tablets are expensive and difficult to dissolve."