Getting Pickled

My lovely and charming wife has been setting family records for food preservation this summer.  In  recent years -- make that decades -- this time of year has been too busy for her to commit the time needed to can, freeze, dry, or pickle things.  So, I think she's making up for lost time.  Or thyme.  Or something.

Here's something we figured out: if you're freezing things, it really pays to put individual meal quantities into a small sealed bag, and put those bags inside a gallon size freezer bag.  It takes away the "freezer taste" that frozen vegetables can get.

There are only two of us at home now, so in many cases freezing makes more sense than canning, but she's done that too.  We haven't gotten the dehydrator out yet, but I'm sure we will.

She's also become fond of fermenting things.  Yogurt is fermented, as is sauerkraut and a bunch of other food.  It is said to be good for us, which it probably is.  There is some art that goes with the science, though, and I was taken aback when she said, about some corn relish she had fermented, "I'll try some.  See what happens to me before you try it."

She's been watching all sorts of podcasts and Youtube videos about food preservation, and I think she's having fun experimenting.  The thing is, you don't really know how it's going to taste until later.  We'll see.

The big trick is actually using all this food in the next year so it doesn't go to waste.  It's going to take planning, because once it is in the freezer or on the shelf, it's like it doesn't exist anymore. 

I feel the need to end this with something amusing, so let me just say that freezing, drying, and fermenting are all un-canny.

Sorry.