Customer Reviews

Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques

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This book is a collection of 'recipies' from folks who still know how to preserve food the way it done before fridges, pressure canning, big industry food, etc.

This is how they put up food to get them through the seasons.

Ever thought about letting tomatoes rot for a week ( stirred daily ), then putting them in a wine bottle with some salt and pepper, sticking it in a closet for a few months, pouring off the mold, then eating it? It is delicious, and I am still alive to tell the tale.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in preserving food, reducing energy usage, living and raw food ( uh... what's that term Kraft is marketing now... bioactive or something like that? ), and generally trying to do the right thing, not the easy thing.

I'll need to give context here before starting this review. I bought this book with other books of the same kind, one about cold storage, another about preserving seeds. I read them all during spring and summer, thinking about now, in autumn and ready for the harvest and what to do with the produce coming out of my garden.

This book is the one I ended up using most because, unlike cold storage (which was also an excellent book I'm sure to use eventually), it is not time consuming to set up. It also always surprised me with gems of recipes to do with produces I didn't plan on preserving for the winter (nasturtium capers, rosehips in all forms, wines of all kinds...). The little piece of story at the beginning of the chapters are inspiring and well written. The recipes come from around the world, it is not just the experience of the writer. This book is a gold mine for someone who has too much of a produce and no cold storage in place and it's easy and fast to use ; pop the book at the end in the index and check what you can do with your surplus of peppers!

This is a great book for people who want to go beyond common home-canning techniques. The best part - many of the techniques in here are actually less work than slaving over a hot canner all day, AND have more nutritional value and flavour! What could be better!?

I'm an avid urban farmer and this book has been huge help in making sure none of the harvest goes to waste. Many of the recipes require low or no energy, which is a concern that is often forgotten in the new food movement.

I'd recommend this for anyone who loves to garden and values the importance of whole, living, delicious foods.

Ce livre contient non seulement des recettes, mais aussi l'explication de la logique de la recette. C'est à dire pourquoi la recette fait que le légume/fruit se conservera. C'est très rassurant. Plusieurs méthodes de conservation que je n'aurais pas osé essayer sans ce livre!

This book is so well written. And keeps it "SO PERSONAL" as well.
I've been looking for a long time for recipes that can bring back to simplicity and no "artificial additives".
This book has done that! And more!
With extra recipes for "rose hip jam"......how wonderful.....I'll be trying it!
And then to top it all off......"dandelion wine". Again.....how wonderful........I'll be trying it!

The biggest gift was how to make fruit jam WITHOUT sugar! That is what I've been looking for and with such great detailed explanations. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the sharing. This is a MUST have book for all of us "naturalists".