One of the nice things about farming is tuning in to the cycle of the seasons. Being outdoors all the time, observing farm crops and other plants on a daily basis, and paying attention to the weather have connected me to the flow of one season to the next.
Every week or so I notice a subtle shift, in the vegetable patch or the wildflowers along the road, with one plant winding down while another comes into full bloom. In my office job I always felt like I was missing out on the summer, that it was out there while I was in here, wearing a sweater against the air conditioning and trying to cram all my summer into frantic weekends. But in the field, the summer has felt rich, full of detail and variety.
So instead of wondering ‘where did the summer go?’, it feels perfectly natural now that it’s making way for fall. Summer crops like peas and beans are done, pulled up and replanted with cold-hardy fall spinach and lettuce. As the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, the vegetable plants are growing more slowly. With no more planting to do, my days in the farm field are getting shorter, and we’re spending the extra time in the kitchen, preserving the harvest for winter.
We’ve been putting food away for years, out of our backyard gardens and purchased in season at farmer’s markets. But growing so much of our own produce this year has turned food preservation into a full-time job, dehydrating, canning and freezing the bounty.
Our favourite home canning is tomato salsa, which Brad and I first made together 8 years ago (woah, that makes me feel old) and have made every year since. Salsa starts by chopping fresh tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic.
The veggies go into a big pot with a little sugar and salt, vinegar, and tomato paste, and cook for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, we sterilize mason jars by placing them in a canner filled with water and bringing it to a rolling boil.
When the salsa is ready, it is removed from heat. The sterile jars are removed from the water bath, filled with salsa, and sealed with a snap lid and screw ring.
The filled jars then go back into the water bath to boil for another 15 minutes, to remove any remaining bacteria or microorganisms that could spoil the food. When removed from the water bath, the jars cool down and the air pocket at the top condenses, creating a vacuum seal. This allows the jars to be stored at room temperature for up to a year.
In addition to salsa, we’ve canned mustard beans, zucchini relish, dill pickles, and red onion jelly with veggies from our farm. We’ve made jam with rhubarb from our garden and canned Ontario peaches. These are all high-acid canning recipes, which contain enough vinegar, lemon juice, sugar and/or pectin to preserve the food at room temperature after processing in boiling water. Low-acid foods, such as soups and plain vegetables, need a pressure canner to heat them above the boiling point in order to preserve them safely.
We don’t have a pressure canner, but we also dehydrate and freeze a lot of food. Our dehydrator has been put to work making kale chips, zucchini chips and sundried tomatoes (and proving that swiss chard chips are not the tastiest!). When we get lazy, we throw stuff into the freezer. Quebec strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are washed and frozen on cookie sheets before being bagged; tomatoes and peppers are chopped and bagged; beans, swiss chard and kale are blanched in boiling water, drained and bagged before freezing. We also freeze soups and soup stock, applesauce, pasta sauce, pesto, and pies.
Applesauce is one of the easiest things to preserve: Just core the apples (I don’t even peel these little guys), cook in a big pot on medium heat, stir often to prevent burning, add raisins, cinnamon and/or sugar to taste. If you add lemon juice it can be canned in boiling water; otherwise it can be kept in the fridge or freezer.
Preserving food takes some effort, and often requires you to have your stove on all night on the hottest day of the year. But in all the years I’ve been doing it, I’ve never regretted being able to open a jar of homegrown, homemade, local organic tastiness in the middle of winter. And I must admit, after a summer of farming and a fall of preserving, I’ve never looked forward to winter so much in my life!
If you’re inspired to do some canning yourself, you’ll find my beloved salsa recipe below. Bernardin’s website has good canning tips, and you can find all kinds of canning recipes online. I’ll also be demonstrating how to make salsa at a canning workshop organized by Just Food on Thursday September 29, at the Rochester Community House in Ottawa. For details or to register, contact Terri at communitygardening@justfood.ca or call 613-699-6850 x12.
Enjoy the last days of summer and the arrival of fall, and all the food that comes with the season!
Tomato Salsa (for canning)
8 cups tomatoes, diced2 green peppers, diced
1 red pepper, diced
6-7 jalapenos, diced and seeded
1 cup diced onion
3-4 cloves chopped garlic
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp salt
5 oz can tomato paste
¾ cup vinegar
Chop all veggies or blend in food processor. Add them with remaining ingredients into a large saucepan and boil for 20 minutes. Combine ¼ cup cornstarch with another ¼ cup vinegar, add to salsa and boil for another 5 minutes.
Ladle salsa into hot sterilized jars, seal, and process filled jars for 15 minutes in boiling water canner. Makes 8-10 250 mL jars. Once cooled, check the jars to be sure they have sealed. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature (in a cool, dry, dark place) for up to a year.
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