In the book, How to Store Your Garden Produce: The key to self-sufficiency, author Piers Warren contends that, with less than an acre of garden, you can grow enough produce to feed a family of four for a year. However, without the proper storage, most of it will go to waste since much of the produce ripens simultaneously in the summer. So, this book teaches you simple techniques for storing your produce so you can enjoy your home grown produce year round.
Piers starts out by describing the various methods of storage beginning with basic methods and covering the whole gamut including clamping, freezing, drying, vacuum-packing, salting, canning and fermenting and ending with pickles, relishes, sauces, jams and jellies. In the second part of the book, the author goes into detail on how to preserve various kinds of produce from fruits to vegetables - including such unusual items like chicory and salsify. Celeriac wine, anyone?
I'm not sure if I'd use many of the recipes included in the book (the British have an inordinate fondness for gooseberries), but if you are wondering how to preserve a certain type of fruit or vegetable, this book gives you some good suggestions. And, even though this book is a little light on in-depth techniques, you'll still want to cuddle up with Piers in bed this winter to learn about and plan how you'll store next year's garden bounty.
If you are interested in signing up for this book giveaway, add your name to the comments of this post. The giveaway ends this Thursday, December 11th at 6:00 pm PST. I'll be doing a random drawing and announcing a winner shortly thereafter. If you've won a book (or blanket) from me recently, I haven't forgotten about you... since my back went out I haven't been able to lift the boxes to take to the post office, but I'll get them out this Friday.
Related posts:
Fresh Food from Small Spaces
Preserving food for the winter
132 comments:
This topic is of great interest to me as I am aware that I have the best fed garbage bin in my cornerof Australia. I am always amazed at the gems you find.
mmmm gooseberries are yum!! me and my brothers used to pick wild ones.
anyway, I so could do with some tips on storing and preserving my garden produce so please to put me in the draw.
Madz in NZ
I grew up in South King County and we always had gooseberry bushes. I wish I had some right now, they're delicious frozen. I would love this book!
I need some answers and would love this book. I'm tired of "feeding" my compost bin.
Sign me up! I need some storage techniques!
No need to include my name in the draw, I'm in Australia. I've spent the last 4 days madly preserving 23kg of cherries from my single tree. And there's still more to pick. The single best thing I could've done was find a cherry stone removing gadget in time for the avalanche of fruit... but I didn't and all the jam recipes in the world won't save me now.
< sob! >
gooseberries, huh? None of those here, but I would love to be in the drawing! :D
I'm just learning to can/preserve foods and this book sounds very interesting to me. I'd love to be included in the drawing. Thanks!
I am always interested in learning how to preserve my produce so please add me to the list. Storage without refrigeration or freezing is of special interest.
I am working on increasing our garden to be large enough to provide for our family of 6 year-round. It sounds like this would be an awesome book to have.
This book sounds pefect for us; we would love to have it! Please put us in.
I'm planning a simple canning/freezing garden this year, tomatoes, beans, peppers, peas, etc and a book like this would be invaluable to us!
Another great givaway! I am throwing my name into the hat this time! I am planning a permaculture designed garden for my reclaimed driveway, this book would really help with the yield.
Why doesn't my local public library have titles like this one? They have lots of popular fiction and nonfiction but not much in the way of practical gardening and food preservation.
--Ave
Me, me, me! =D
I love the idea of this book and I think if well executed it could become a "go-to" in my house
I definitely need some help in this area! I have a relatively new property. The first summer was terribly dry and hot, but this past summer was near perfect! But I overreacted to the hot/dry year and over-planted everything. When the produce started coming in fast and furiously, I was at a loss!
Help!
I'd love to be in the drawing -- I definitely need more ideas on preserving my harvest!
This would be a great book for us! We're on a third of an acre, most of it rock ledge, but we do have a productive little garden where we grow extra veggies for storing: squashes, strawberries (ok, those don't often get stored, or even make it indoors), tomatoes and more...Mostly I use my dehydrater, though I am hoping to get a pressure canner for xmas (I just don't trust my water canning. Must have had a bad experience with botulism in a past life, LOL)
I'd love to have this book.
Yes! Yes! to the book! This year was my first embarking on this project of growing and planting. Started toying around with canning, freezing and dehydrating but I've just begun. Surely we would starve by December if it were left to this years effort. Much to learn. -Sandy
Wow! This is a timely book. I was just asking a group of older ladies about root cellars (they were of the age that they had lots of information about canning, root cellars, porch lockers). Thanks!
Beth G.
Yes sign me up for this drawing.
I'm really interested in low energy ways of doing things.
Amy
I am sorely in need of a book like this. Thanks for doing this giveaway!
Gooseberries are yummy! And to boot, they are rather funny looking. They look like tiny, slightly fuzzy watermelons. I'd never had them before marrying my Swedish husband, so I have no idea if they can be found in the U.S., but I have found gooseberry jam (also yummy) over here. My mother is an avid gardener and does a lot of canning, but maybe this book would have some less labor-intensive ideas!
sounds like a great resources! please add me
oooh - me!me! I'd love this book (and may well buy it in the likely event that I don't win it)
Mmm! Sounds like another book I need! Thanks for all the fun giveaways!
Ooh, what a fabulous book. I'd love to have it.
I've thought about planting some gooseberry bushes.
Just what I need! Right now I'm "storing" my carrots, turnips, etc. in place in the ground, but if we have a hard freeze, I'm SOL. Definitely a book for me; sign me up, please!
sounds good to me! we are planning on starting our first garden next year!
Looks interesting! I'm in! Thank you.
Nifty (And I happily grow piles of gooseberries here in the states!). I can aways use some more info on what to do with what I've got - and maybe help plan what I'll grow.
Tossing my name into the hat.
We're working on freezing and canning a fair bit, but I know we can be doing more. (I want a root cellar in the worst way...) I would love this book.
Sign me up!
My family could definitely could use some help in this area.
This looks so interesting...count me in:)
Sounds interesting!
Sign me up! I need this info!
Sign me up for the drawing please :)
Sign me up, my crunchy dear.
OOOh! I would love this book!
Ooooh! Me! Me! Pick me! :) *she says, delurking for perhaps the second time in a year*
I got my very first hot water canner this year (not counting the one I use for dye work, so, yeah -- not preserving anything in that one) too late to really help me, BUT my FIL is sending us their hot water one AND a pressure canner. I have the Ball Blue Book for recipes/instructions, but would LOVE help planning my itty bitty city lot garden this year. (Only the side yard gets full sun, so that's where the tomatoes go. The peppers were disappointing. :( I'm working on stealth gardening in the front, though, and can use all the help I can get.)
Char.
Sounds like a great book. I would love to be added to the list.
I'd love to get this book. I had vegetables I grew over the summer that I held off picking because I couldn't use them right then, and then they spoiled. What a waste.
My problem with my garden each summer is the preservation part. This book would be a great help to our family!
Sign me up! Even with the canning I do now there just is too much going to waste.
Sounds like book everyone should have!
cool! i'd like to be put in the draw please.
Great looking book, please add me to the giveaway. Today is my birthday!
Can you add me to the drawing?
I too am like a few of your followers. I have many questions in regards to storing and preserving. I am getting tired of freezing what I can and tossing what I can't.
Please include me too. This book sounds perfect.
Count me in!! I've looking a book for those things in order of eat more seasonally and use less the fridge!
this looks like just what we need. we are trying to grow 50% next year... and i worry mostly that we CAN do it, and that it will just all go to waste. count me in!
I feel like I'm surrounded by people who will need a lot of help in the coming days. A book like this will be hugely helpful.
Sign me up!
Kerri in AK
I'd love to be included. We just joined a winter share and could use some advice about storing this bounty.
That sounds like such a useful book- especially because I'm starting a garden this year, and expect a lot of food!
Sign me up please Crunchy! I could really use some help in this area.
Thanks for the cool giveaway!
Started with pickles and applesauce this year but would love to expand my canning horizons. Please put my name in. Thanks!
We have a huge garden but don't put up nearly what we should. Maybe this book would give us the incentive we need! Please count me in. Thanks!
I have some canning supplies I picked up at a yard sale, gathering dust in my shed. I have always been afraid to use them. Maybe with the right book, it wouldn't seem so scary. Count me in.
This would make a great gift for my husband! Sign me up.
Crunchy, I come and read alot but seldom leave any comments. I love your site, and content. I have been canning for a long time, but still would like to be included in this drawing, after I read the book (if I were to be chosen), I would pass it on to my daughter and daughter in law. If not chosen, I might get this book anyway, it looks like it has oodles of great info.
Thank you,
Gracie
This book would be extremely useful to me, so I will ask to be included in the draw this time. Thank you Crunchy.
So Crunchy?
Getting into canning are ya??
You need to come to the little house during apple and pear harvest and get your hands on bushels of beyond organic (ABSOLUTELY no spray) apples and pears.
Pressed 60 gallons of cider this year!
It looks like a great book. Please include me in the draw.
I really need to get on the ball with food preservation...sign me up!
we are doing the whole "splendid table" locavore thing - would be nice to have some additional resources!
Sign me up, this is just what I've been looking for! Love the blog, crunchy!
I'm always interested in learning about how I can save my food--sign me up, please!
Would love to check this book out! I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. What an inspiration. Too bad I read it in December. I can't wait for the summer to roll around again. We canned quite a few tomatoes and such last summer, and the most delish peaches that I am sad to say will not last us till the next harvest. Hope I win it! Thanks for all you do.
This is a book I've had on my wish list for a while, so I'm adding my name to the contest too :)
This sounds like a great winter bedtime reading. please throw my name into the drawing.
Eileen
Sign me up, Crunch!
Does it have anything on preserving garlic scapes? :-)
Put me in the drawing please!
Please include me. I'd love to know how to store my harvest. Right now I just freeze it all.
Thanks, Judy N.
Hey neat! I'd love to get in on this drawing. Thanks!
Oh, I'm so into this right now....
I learned some of this stuff as a kid, but haven't had a chance to use it in the last few years of city-livin'. Help me get it back?
Put me in the draw!
Audrey
I would love to win this book. I've been really into preserving food recently, and this will help.
Sounds interesting.
What a great looking book I hope to have a garden large enough to Put Up next summer, and am already planning it.
Oh, Crunch, I could sure use that book! :D
I'm deep in the planning stages for next year's garden and I am determined to preserve more of what we grow ... and grow more too!
Thanks for adding me to the list!
Wow, this is cool! Thanks!
Oh, PLEASE let me win this one. PLEASE, please, please.
I have a pint of mystery berries on my counter I can't bear to throw away, yet am terrified to eat. Not that I want to preserve them...
Oh I would love this one. I am dying to learn how to can and preserve. Its on my to do list.
Oh me me me!
We're converting our 2000 sq ft front and back yard into an edible landscape and a book on preservation is on my list of things to get before we start planting in the spring.
One thing I must add is that an acre of food can provide for more than one family if planted right! John Jeavons book "How to Grow More Vegetables" is great for learning high-density techniques.
Count me in! This is the first year we will actually have somewhere to put a garden, though with having a two year old and our second due in Feb, this year's garden might have to be small.
I can always use another book on how to store our garden produce! Great giveaway! Thanks!
Send that book my way!! I would LOVE to feed myself and my boyfriend off of our lil' patch of dirt.
-Kelsie
I love preserving food, and my parents have a nice acre of land just waiting to planted with food. sounds like a good match for the book :)
I could always use another book!
I could use lot of help in the preserving/storing dept. It's such a waste when things I'm trying to figure out what to do with end up feeding the compost. Thanks for the chance.
I really could use this one! Please put my name in!
We just planted a gooseberry bush!
me, me, me, please put me in!
Jo
Hi I'd like to enter, yum!
Amanda in Ottawa
I'd like to enter. Thanks.
I got a root cellaring book, but I still don't quiet have the knack. I just had to bake off 20 sweet potatoes that didn't keep well. So I can use another book!
I learned to can this year,froze a bunch of stuff and have piles of squash in the basement, but could still use some more ideas. Hope your back is feeling better.
Please oh please oh please! I took a canning class at a local organic farm last year, and it is one of my resolutions for next year to only eat locally and ideally, only in season. This book would help!
What can I say, I'd love it and I love gooseberries too. They are absolutely delicious in crumble or with a meringue topping (kind of like lemon meringue pie). I'm growing a little more in my garden each year but I've no clue about how to store, which holds me back from doing more.
xx Fingers crossed for a female winner this time and let it be me (or someone even more deserving)!
This sounds like an awesome book! I love trying to grow new foods, but am stumped when it comes to preserving many of them... especially since I have an obsession with hard to can stuff, like squash. I'd love to store our produce in a way other than canning or the giant mound of pumpkins and acorn squash sitting in my dining room (freezin' my buns also alleviates the problem of no root cellar).
Count me in!
Thanks!
--Erika
ooo i'd love to win! thanks
Throw me on the enter list! I'm planning my first garden for next summer and would love to start to learn what to do with anything that I have leftover!
I had so many tomatoes this year I ran out of ideas of what to do with them. So I bought a deep freezer and made lots 'o salsa. Cha-cha-cha.
But what else can be done with tomaters? Spaghetti sauce and...? I would love to read your giveaway book and be prepared for our next summer bounty.
Tammy Lorraine
Knowing Piers Warren personally, I can highly recommend this book . . . won or bought. You can count on whatever Piers suggests you do . . . from canning tomatoes to trekking through the Tanzanian bush with Maasai by your side . . . he'll never steer you wrong.
Sheilagh a/k/a Mama Africa
Wow, the odds look slim but please sign me up for the giveaway.
Oh, sign me up to win!
I'm in again! We have been tinkering with several ideas for root cellars, but once you have the structure, the vegetables get picky about temperature and humidity... Would love this book, thanks Crunchy!
This book looks great! We have a very short growing season, so I'm hoping to grow more and preserve more next year.
I already do some preserving but want to do it better!!!! Please include me in the draw.
(I've been doing my own version of crossed-fingers for your husband's recovery.)
I'm always looking for new ways to preserve my food so sign me up for the drawing.
count me in, please!
would love to to be in the drawing
next year i want to expand the garden and planted 6 fruit trees. now i am just canning and freezing them because i don't trust my canning skills.
This is something I always struggle with, count me in!
I would have to successfully grown more than I ruin but I'd love this book for future reference. :)
Please add me to your drawing for " How to Store Your Garden Produce: The key to self-sufficiency".
Lindy Barnes, AZ
That looks like a great book. After the dastardly failure of my two lonely tomato plants last year (well, the failure was really mine in forgetting to water them, but the end result was still dead plants) I am determined to raise a successful garden next year! Please add me to your drawing.
I've canned and dried, and am ready now for a root cellar. Does the book cover that? Still, it would be a great resource, as I always end up feeding a lot of leftover harvest to the chickens....
Love your blog!
Liz in NoCal
growing enough to preserve a lot is my goal for this summer.
Produce preservation- practically perfect! Maybe then I'll get all the mystery projects of the kitchen counters... eowyn (at) bigpanda -dot- com
Count me in! I manage to keep up with eating the output of my garden for a while each summer...then the beans, tomatoes and squash explode and I'm overwhelmed. And my compost pile gets fed more than it should.
I'm interested, too. I haven't done much canning yet, but its in my plan for this spring.
Well, learning more about preserving my home-grown food is on my to-do list right now, so this book would come in handy! I'd love to curl up with it this winter ... and then I'd pass it along to another fellow Produce Preserver.
Please enter me. This is a topic I have had so many questions on!
Katie
I would love this, my husband dreams of having a large garden and yet we have trouble caring for the produce we bring home from the store each week!
Sign me up! Just dug the garden this fall and need ideas for storage next year. Thanks!
Sign me up! I already preserve a lot of food, but this year I'm expanding our garden and could use all the help I can get.
Thanks!
KristenM
Please count me in on the drawing for this book. Thx!
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