This class will look at how we process and handle crops for long-term storage. We will cover principles for canning, pickling, freezing, dehydrating, root-cellaring and simple cold-storage solutions. 

AdAgrA 2020: A Living Parable

<p>This class will look at how we process and handle crops for long-term storage. We will cover principles for canning, pickling, freezing, dehydrating, root-cellaring and simple cold-storage solutions. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Intensive: Bagging the Bounty

Bob Gregory

Lynnita Gregory

Bagging the Bounty Part 1

This class is basically going to be discussing what we do with the crop that we don't use immediately.

And the idea here is that we want to give you some information about how we keep our crops for the long term.

How do we preserve, dry, dehydrate, we do cellaring, some cold storage, and we'll be talking a little bit about canning, freezing, and dehydrating, and some pickling too.

And 1 of the things that we really try to emphasize on our farm is that fresh is best.

When you can use fresh product, you're far better off than using any kind of a preserved product in any 1 of these forms.

And the basis for our agriculture program is to show you how to do those things.

We talked about season extension in the last class this morning, and we try to take that to its full extreme, meaning that we grow crops year-round on our farm in a part of the country that that's typically not done.

And unless you're above about 45 degrees latitude, that's a real possibility for you.

And I'm gonna maybe share a little bit about how we kinda get that far into the growing season with things.

We had a lady here this morning that was talking about crops in her high tunnel that you know are doing just fine at those far northern latitudes, but that things aren't growing this time of year.

That's the case because the length of the days is so short.

The timing of our crop becomes important because you want it to reach full maturity before it stops growing.

But even a crop that's at full maturity at around the first of the year, you can harvest on through the succeeding months because the plant's really not growing.

So you've got essentially field cold storage at that point.

Things are stored right in the field for you and then you harvest them as you need them.

This is true of things like our carrots and our beets and some of the other things that we have in the ground.

Right now they're mature, they're ready to harvest, but I don't have to harvest them because if I pull them out of the ground and put them in a refrigerator, it's no different than leaving them where they are because they're refrigerated anyway So fresh is best.

I'm gonna spend some time talking to you about curing crops Most of you probably don't know what that involves but to give you a quick short definition, it's how do we manage the crops before we harvest them for storage?

We had a friend over on Sabbath that had a Sabbath meal with us, and he was complaining because he had a beautiful crop of butternut squash this year.

And he picked those butternut squash, and they're all rotting on him right now.

And it's not what he did after he harvested them, It's what he did before he harvested them that was the reason for that.

So I'm gonna touch on that and that is part of what we're gonna be talking about as far as curing the crops for harvest and for storage too.

Showed you this slide earlier this morning too, but what I want to emphasize here is that we want to use as much fresh product as possible.

So let's plan our gardens, organize our gardens in such a way, using a combination of low tunnels, high tunnels, low tunnels inside high tunnels, to extend our growing season so that we can manage our crops.

Most people are not aware that there are a lot of crops that can tolerate being frozen.

I actually grow a couple of varieties of red leaf lettuce, even down to single digit temperatures.

Now at night, these are unheated high tunnels and low tunnels.

And at night, by dawn anyway, The temperature inside the season extension device is just the same as it is outside.

I mean if it's a 5 degree morning and I measure the temperature of that lettuce under a low tunnel like this, at that time of the day, it's going to be 5 degrees too.

And if you flick your finger on a lettuce leaf, it's going to shatter, just like a fine glass would.

But by using the low tunnels, it does retain the heat once the sun comes up and creates temperatures in there that are warm enough not just to thaw the lettuce out, but to actually keep it alive and let it grow on for a while more.

Now after a lettuce goes through a cycle of maybe 10 times freezing and thawing, it starts to get a little bit bitter, but it's still good quality lettuce and you can harvest that lettuce in the afternoon after it's thawed out, you'd never know that it was frozen in most instances.

So we do apply this to crops that are tolerant of being frozen.

The crops that we store and what we're going to talk about today are kind of in 2 categories.

I'm going to handle the first category here and then Lenita is going to share with you what she does for the second category.

But the crops that we store are largely corn in the way of cornmeal.

Now where we live, growing small grains is a real challenge.

Things like wheat, rye, barley, that type of thing.

And it's partly because we have such a humid climate, it's difficult to grow those to a point where they can be harvested without fungal disease damage.

And corn is 1 of our primary staple crops.

We try to grow as much of our own food as possible.

We like avocados, we like pineapples, we like bananas, we like a variety of things in our diet.

But at the end of the day, if, you know, if the end of the day comes and we no longer have access beyond our farm, we are perfectly capable of being totally 100% self-sustained right on our farm.

You know, that's a feeling that is just amazing.

I've only had that feeling twice in my life as far as being aware that I can feed my family no matter what.

And the other time that I had that feeling was when I paid off a mortgage and nobody else had any strings on my land anymore.

The independence, the sense of independence that comes with being able to supply your food needs and your family's food needs is really a profound experience.

And I say that because from my perspective, a lot of the problems that we see on the planet today stem from fear.

I think the enemy's greatest avenue into disrupting God's order on this earth is to instill fear in us.

And whether you realize it or not right now, you have a fear inside of you that's affecting every decision that you make that you're probably not even aware of.

And that decision is, where's my food gonna come from?

If you're not growing it yourself, you're relying or you are dependent on a system of bringing food to you, right?

Okay, now you're probably not giving this a lot of conscious thought, but your subconscious certainly is aware of that.

That creates a sense of anxiety in our minds that can manifest itself in all kinds of different aspects of aberration in our thinking.

When we have the capacity to feed ourselves as well as to draw breath ourselves without having to get that from someone else, as well as being able to have the water that we need for our physical needs, we've met all of our physical needs.

And that fear dissipates and goes away and the channels of our thinking are far clearer and far more capable of dealing with the real issues at hand, which we know to be the great controversy and the issues surrounding that.

So I really want to encourage you to take as much time and effort as necessary to put yourself in a position where you can meet that need and no longer be dependent on a system over which you have no control.

Buying your food at Whole Foods, even if you're all organic and non-GMO and blah blah blah, is not the same as growing it yourself.

It's not the same quality, it's not the same nutritional value, and it's not the same spiritual food that you'll find if you've used your efforts, your hands, your family, your land to accomplish that.

Corn In the form of cornmeal is 1 of our staples.

And we use those on a very frequent basis as a protein source.

I'm gonna include those 2 together because they're very similar.

In fact, a pumpkin is nothing but a winter squash with a different name.

Squash and pumpkin are basically the same thing when we're talking about the winter squash now.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs are all things that we store.

And I'm going to address most of these, then Lenita will be talking to us about tomatoes, sweet corn, green beans, herbs, peppers, berries, fruits, and the last few on this list are things that we store short term, And that's cabbage, beets, carrots, and turnips.

And when I say short term, I'm talking about a period of 60 to 90 days.

You can prepare them for long term storage, too.

But since we have a constant input of food from our garden, we don't need to store them for a long period of time.

And my preference, instead of making things like sauerkraut or canned beets or canned carrots, is to simply store them for a brief period of time.

And then, you know, as we talked about the seasonal eating this morning, to eat whatever is next in the crop cycle, in compliance with that statement from Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

I want to talk about something regarding food preservation that very few of you have probably given consideration of.

And this is curing the crop before storage or before, even before harvest.

And basically this process of curing hardens the plants off, it builds sugars within the plant, and it prepares the plant for a long period of dormancy, or prepares the fruit of the plant for a long period of dormancy.

And this is precisely the reason why my neighbor's squash, butternut squash did not store this year, because it was not properly cured prior to him putting it into storage.

And curing involves primarily drawing the plant down and allowing the plant to harden off.

In this hardening off process, potassium levels rise in the plant, which makes the cell walls more durable and tougher, basically.

It allows sugars to increase within the plant so that you get better quality, better sweetness in things like squash, better mineral levels in things like corn and beans.

And it also raises the level of calcium, which is also involved in the cell wall structure within the plant to strengthen the cell walls and help it resist deterioration while it's in storage.

And field corn, dry beans, winter squash, pumpkins, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and garlic all go through this process prior and shortly after being harvested before we store them.

1 of our most important crops economically are the garlic and onions.

Those actually are things that are very marketable in our area.

But 1 of the challenges we have is storing them in our area.

And I am going to walk you through the process of what we do to accomplish that so that they don't rot after storage.

We're gonna start with a little discussion about field corn.

And field corn, if you're supplying all of your own food on that 2 3rds of an acre, working your half an hour a day, is gonna involve growing some field corn.

And by curing it, what I do is I stop all irrigation on the crop once the ears are fully filled out.

Once the corn cobs are fully shaped and the kernels of grain on the cobs are fully sized, stop watering.

Bagging the Bounty Part 2

A couple of things that Bob talked about that I'll mention also, when he was talking about preserving both garlic and onions, they can both be dehydrated.

They can be reconstituted and used in soups and stews.

You can even take your dehydrated vegetables and drop them down in the freezer for even longer.

Garlic can be ground up into a powder and you can use it, your own granulated garlic.

So there's a number of things that you can do to preserve your crops and after you've prayed about it, and the resources are amazing, just don't be afraid.

Pray, don't be afraid, experiment, use small amounts.

But you know just really I encourage you to learn, because I'm going to share with you, I've never done this before.

I'm a nurse, I speak 1 on 1 with people, and I'm terrified of being up front, And I thank you all for being my guinea pigs, my husband's encouragement.

Never worked all this, but I'm going to do it.

And the reason I say that isn't so much as a disclaimer, but to tell you you can do this.

I knew about gardening from my grandparents, but I never canned so when we moved to West Virginia in 2009 besides the fact that I was married to a grower and Of course conversationally other things I learned but I also spoke to local people and asked their opinion.

And not only are they helping you, but you are helping them and you're doing what God put us here for.

And so the country wisdom, when you all are looking for your homes, the country wisdom that you will run into is amazing.

I see Ayana nodding her head, because you'll find this to be true, you make friends, really strong friends, when you work together.

I think Bob cut a bunch of slides that I actually, not slides, but I had given him pictures at another point in time, but I have pictures of working with an elderly woman that was in our neighborhood Very poverty stricken she had many years of country Experience and I never tried to teach her about vinegar or anything else I just learned from her And I gave all the produce she could use to her.

And she helped me learn the practical side of canning and preserving.

And those principles were really powerful.

And then when I do research, then I can apply what she showed me, and I knew what she had done wrong and what she had done right, but more than that, I was able to actually really do things on a level and with a level of confidence that I wouldn't have had so we were both helped and That's something you can do a young lady came up during the break and she asked me was I going to cover canning and and I will because Bob's an amazing grower and he's been blessed.

He mentioned that we don't always work parallel.

First of all, we have over 100 acres, so you can't always work parallel because there's so many things to do.

But because of a number of injuries and accidents and whatnot that has really restricted his ability to do a lot of bending and kneeling and things like that, my daughter and I and now myself Do the majority of the harvest and or much of it except for the big pumpkins and the manly stuff he does all that But we do the harvest and we preserve the harvest and I've had to do a lot of learning and growing in the way I think about food and the farm and all of those things.

But the Ball Blue Book for anybody, this has everything.

It has pictorial directories, it's laid out beautifully, it has step by step, It's up here on the board as well.

And then this National Center for Home Food Preservation, I put their website up there.

They have everything according to the standards that you would be held to because over and over again your canning books are going to tell you don't deviate from the recipes because it's dangerous.

Because there's a number of considerations in food preservation that you want to make safety first.

1, we're going to bring it up to a high enough heat that it can be preserved by killing off the microorganisms and other things that cause harm to us and the other thing is to stop enzyme activity primarily because that affects the flavor and the quality of the food.

So for those 2 reasons, canning meets those needs.

So when you're thinking about what you're going to can, you have to really think about what is the pH of that food.

That's a huge consideration because your high acid foods and your low acid foods, and I'm going to find this arrow.

So the purpose of our canning, oops, now see, I see it, but you don't.

The purpose of our canning is to preserve your harvest by the application of a high enough heat to do these 2 things.

There's many, many different things, but this is probably the 1 that terrified me, because when I was a girl, my sister cleaned out the refrigerator and threw out the spoils in the fridge, green beans in particular.

They went into seizures, very active seizures, flopping around in the yard.

Left a huge impression on a 12-year-old girl.

Now the spores, the bacteria itself can be killed at the boiling level of water, which is 212 degrees.

But the spores themselves don't die off, and so they can continue to grow in a closed, moist environment, which is where you're going to store your canned food.

So you want to pressure can all your low acid foods up to, typically, the spores are destroyed at 240 degrees.

But pressure canning, generally, by the guidelines, and I'm not going to go through all of it because it's in these books, but is up to about 250 degrees.

And that will kill off that, those spores that then create this horrible toxin.

And both in nursing with, I'm a nurse, in nursing with IV sites, but also with your food, when in doubt, throw it out.

If it looks not right, if it smells not right, and bear in mind botulism has no smell.

Now these particular green beans I put dill and garlic And I put a little piece of red pepper.

Once you follow the outlined principles that you need to follow very carefully, then the next thing is it's up to you how artistic, how creative, or what you want to do with it.

With green beans, you can, I have been in a hurry where all I do is take off the stem end and I leave the little tails because the tails don't bother me?

And I've laid them on a big cutting board with a chopping knife and just whacked them up and shoved as many in there as I wanted because I was running low on lids.

Stuffed as many as I could and poured boiling water over, went with it.

You can cut the, you know, the little tail off.

But remember that this is up to you after you follow the basic Principles it's really up to you your time your resource Your artistic flair to do it how how you want to do it, but remember is green beans high acid or low acid?

Now recently I canned green beans with potatoes and onions because that's how we like to eat them in the spring and I did it as an experiment.

But you have to take the longest processing time for any 1 of those ingredients and do it that way to do it safely.

And when I say experiment, I read a lot of things before I did that.

I'm not going to go into detail about the canning processes because It would take up more time than we have, and I think you'd be better off going to a canning class where you see the equipment.

And I, you know, and really each of you are going to do it at a different volume, and So you're going to have to look at what you have and works.

I know some people that with their home gardens, they'll actually just take, say for example, a big stock pot that 3 or 4 quart jars will fit inside.

And when they can their low acid foods, I'm sorry, high acid, they could just do that right in the kitchen.

Right there and use your stock pot and you never have to even have any canning equipment.

You probably will need a lifter, a jar lifter.

But a few simple things and you can get those at a farm store, at Walmart.

A lot of my equipment, and I don't know, again, some of the slides are kind of cut, but When we do tomatoes, I've had as many as 26 bushels.

And I had them dripping across the floor.

1 of the mistakes I made, or learning things I did, was I had to learn to let some things go and realize that it wasn't a waste if it was going to the compost because it's coming back to nourish our farm the following year.

And I could not, as a working nurse and on the farm with a producer, keep up with the volume.

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Series

Intensive: Bagging the Bounty

Bagging the Bounty Part 2

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Bagging the Bounty Part 1

46m

Bagging the Bounty Part 2

44m

Sound Doctrine