Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, 19 Jun 2007
I grow a lot of organic fruit and vegetables as well as doing a lot of plain home cooking and this book will undoubtedly take pride of place on my bookshelf. I would go as far as saying that I cannot envisage not having it to refer to at any point in my life.
This book is an inspiration to all of us to return to a more natural way of eating and move away from foods that employ modern denatured preservation techniques, such as freezing and canning, removing the life from our food. It encourages organic homegrown or locally produced fresh produce employing traditional methods of food preservation which, the book says, " ... preserve more flavor and nutritional content, are less costly, and use less energy." Amen to that.
The book contains 250 recipes, most of them previously unpublished, using many different preservation methods including preserving in the ground/root cellar, drying, the use of lactic fermentation as well as preservation in oil, vinegar, salt, sugar and alcohol.
Whilst there is a slight American bias to the writing, it does not cause any distraction, certainly for me, and whilst there are some foods that we may not be growing in the UK, such as bananas, others are becoming increasing popular e.g. blueberries and olives. We eat all our blueberries but would love to preserve our olives (the tree is fruiting for the second year running) and now I can.
The first section 'Preserving in the Ground or in a Root Cellar' provides a useful way of storing chestnuts until Easter by soaking them for two days (removing those that float), drying them for a day and storing in layers of dry sand. This section also gives a good technique for storing tomatoes by picking them green, wrapping individually in paper and storing them in a cool dark place. They can be ripened as needed by exposing to warmth and light. Fantastic.
The section 'Preserving by Drying' tells how to dry fruits including apples, bananas, blackcurrants, blueberries, cherries, chestnuts, figs, grapes, pears, persimmon, plums, raspberries, redcurrants and strawberries. Whilst in the vegetable section it tells you how to dry artichoke, aubergine, cardoon, courgettes, sweet peppers, tomatoes, wild vegetables and turnips plus instructions on drying some herbs, flowers, mushrooms and bread! It also gives a recipe for making a (vegan) Vegetable Bouillon Powder.
It might be worth saying at this point, certainly for the vegans or vegetarians amongst us, there are references to honey, cheese, eggs, meat and fish. Whilst I don't condone the use, the recipes and instructions are largely animal-free.
The next chapter is 'Preserving by Lactic Fermentation' and provides a good selection of sauerkraut recipes plus details on how to bottle Swiss Chard Ribs without salt, how to make tomato paste balls (which sound wonderful) and coleslaw which I shall definitely be making.
The next chapter, 'Preserving in Oil', tells me how to store my olives, amongst other things, and gives an interesting series of recipes for condiments and seasoned oils which includes a hot pepper puree, a tomato puree and a seasoned oil.
Chapter 5 is entitled 'Preserving in Vinegar'. I am not a huge fan of vinegar but I think even I could eat the brussels sprouts stored in wine vinegar. There were useful techniques for storing cherry tomatoes, gherkins, green peppers and white button mushrooms. It tells you how to keep basil fresh for salads and pickle garlic plus how to make sage or rosemary scented vinegar. There is also a section on fruits in vinegar, which included the use of cherries, grapes and plums.
Chapter 6, entitled 'Preserving with Salt', gives very useful instructions for preserving vine leaves, green beans, whole tomatoes (with brine which is one-quarter cup of salt to one quart of water brought to the boil) and a mixed vegetable stock which you can use for soups, etc. Lemons and rose petals can also be preserved in salt.
Chapter 7 is entitled 'Preserving with Sugar' and may be far more familiar to many of us containing the usual jams, jellies and syrups. I was much taken with the Carob 'Honey' recipe (which, incidentally, does not contain bee honey) and find it is used mainly by people living in Mediterranean countries (who presumably have their own carob trees). Some of us do have carob in the UK and if mine ever produces carob beans I shall know what to do with them.
The last two chapters cover 'Sweet and Sour Preserves' and 'Preserving in Alcohol' and contain recipes for chutney, ketchup and piccalilli plus sweet and sour fruit recipes including the use of whole plums, cherries and pears. Those of us who make our own wine will be interested in the Dandelion Wine, Elderberry Wine, Elderflower Wine, May Wine which incidentally is made with Sweet woodruff (Asperula odorata) and Walnut Wine. There are also some instructions for bottling whole fruits in brandy and wine.
OK, that's it, I've said enough. Not only is this book inspirational, it is packed to the brim with tried and tested instructions for preserving fruits and vegetables. Don't leave home without it.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
dont buy it, 21 Jun 2006
I was looking for help with storing my garden crops. this book is not an instructinal manual to help you preserve your fruit and vegetables, unfortuanatley it is an annecdotal, practically instructionless collection of 'what I do with my vegetables' gathered from the readers of an otherwise sensible organic magazine.
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