138 comments on The Oil Intensity of Food
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138 comments on The Oil Intensity of Food
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Canning is very energy intensive and takes place at a time of year when the extra heat is unwelcome. I wonder if food destined for canning could be frozen until cooler weather and then canned when the waste heat could warm the house.
A lot of canning happens in a rush, while the fresh food has it's nutrition most intact. We just packed up a bunch of Strawberries this weekend, and I worked a couple late nights to get them before they got skanky. Organic, self-picked at $2/lb.. Hope that Freezer is as efficient as it claims! We just ate the last baggie from last summer, too!
It's not too hard to envision some Autumn Canning using a bunch of Mirrors and Sun to offer a lot of process heat.. but in either case, I'd be interested in seeing the comparison of Storebought, Processed Fridge Food with one-use containers, as compared to our old Glass Jars, Garden Produce, a bit of StoveTime and TapWater, and a few boxes of rubber seals every year. Then, the mirrors go to work sending heat in your windows come winter.
Sauerkraut is a good low-energy method of canning.. and very healthy, so I keep hearing!
Bob
Right Jokuhl!
Krauts, and their Korean equivalents, Kimchis, require NO heating. The raw, fresh food straight from the garden is preserved, using sparing amounts of salt, and sometimes vinegar, to cut salt quantities even further.
The classic preservation process is a lactic acid ferment, done at low temperature. Food is never cooked or heat-treated.
The resulting gravies, as the krauts/kimchis mature, are reckoned to be health foods in their own right.
Literally all sorts of vegs and fruits can be included, together with all sorts of flavouring herbs and spices. Kimchis in particular are hugely varied, with a wide range of flavours, going from savoury to sweet.
This is my second year at practical preservation of food by krauting/kimchiing. Google Sandorkraut's site for a good intro. Sharon Astyk also has a good deal of practical information on traditional low-energy, low-tech methods of preservation. I'm also in my second year of drying in a passive drying cabinet, driven only by sun power. (No mirrors or lenses needed. Just a regular air-flow, and fine-grained excluder meshes to keep small creatures out while the sliced food dessicates.)
My experience is that this has huge potential for cheap, lowtech/energy storage, with excellent food-value preservation. But of course, traditional ways of storing root crops, such as clamping, plus the other way that I use a lot -- just letting hardy leaf-food vegetables continue to stand in the garden through the Winter, picking a little as needed, also works well. Always something fresh, to go with something cheaply preserved.
Next year, as my duck flock expands to the poit where culling becomes essential: smoke-dried pemmican/jerky/biltong. Jesus, I can't wait, especially with the delicious flavour of Muscovy-Duck meat, even before it gets the spiced salting and smoke flavour! Some biltongs are sold as savoury treat-snacks hereabouts, and no wonder!
Has anyone attempted solar canning?
It's doable but only recommended with high-acid foods:
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Canning
Canning plums in a solar oven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n41_lSRd1fg
I'll remind people of the link in my profile to the Scheffer style dish.
http://www.geocities.com/%7Edmdelaney/scheffler-precis/scheffler-precis....
And repost the link from last week.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/OddProjects/odd_project_refs.htm
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/OddProjects/AutoClaveFirstplace_2.pdf
Yes, a solar powered veggie canner.
As to canning and the time of year vs temperatures.
Well the simple, easy way to can your vegetables is to do it all outside. Under a shade tree or a porch overhang. I do mine in the aisle of the barn,,which is oriented that a nice breeze is caught thereby.
Currently I use a propane tank tapped into my large two castiron burners on my fish cooker. Easy to move, handy as well.
Tomatoes are easy. You only need to water bath can them IF your using good heirloom varieties with sufficient acid to keep extremely well. The cabbages I turn into sauerkraut. No heat required. Shred and pack with salt in a airtight container with a water trap on the top. Then just store the whole contain(like a gallon or larger jar) and really easy to do.
So what to can? Thats about it for me. I no longer freeze corn. I might can some cucumbers to make pickles.
Corn is extremely easy. I leave it on the ears and hang in large sacks from the rafters to keep vermin out. Grind it as I need it.
Important: I have found the hard way that ground corn meal even brought fresh and stored in plastic freezer bags will still allow the insect eggs in it to hatch. I have moths trapped in double lock freezer bags where a full 3 lbs of store brought meal sits.
So one must never grind more meal from his own corn crop until its needed. Say 3 or 4 lbs at a time. Corn will keep extremely well on the cob or in the kernel. But I never shell mine all at once. I have corn in bags(pillow cases) that was harvested over 3 years ago. Wheat as well......so to prevent weevils and the rest do NOT grind you corn into meal until necessary.
All the rest I dry. Potatoes and onions on a shelf in the barn then hung up. Peas and beans left in the pod or shelled and stored in large 1 gallon glass jars..think pickle jars. Or large mayo jars. Perfect storage.
So I once canned green beans. No more. I can get by with just purple hulled peas, pinto beans and great northern beans. Never much cared for green beans anyway.
So yeah tomatoes are work and you use heat but if I can stay away from the pressure canner I am a happier camper. And believe me good home canned tomatoes are really worth the effort. Really.
I have tried canning potatoes. Lot of work for nothing. Stored right they will last most of the winter and you then have your seed stock for the very early spring planting.
Had no fruit this year but I like to dry it when I got it. Dried apples and peaches make excellent 'fried pies'. Easy to do with a solar dryer.
Take that back. My blackberries are coming in right now and a bumper crop. I cook them down to syrup and store in jars after water bath. Don't need a lot of jelly really. A quart jar will last me almost two months.
Airdale
PS. A well built root cellar is a godsend BTW. I don't have one as yet but plans are afoot.