Preserve a Million Calories - Food Preservation with Austin!

Howdy, Permies!

I'm looking forward to putting up some food with you!

Fermentation is my specialty, but of course there are many ways to preserve food with little or no electricity. I'll be taking you through some of those.

I'm particularly excited to try out the solar dehydrator, for making jerky, pemmican, fruits, herbs, and even some fermented crossovers like vegan jerky (made with kombucha SCOBY)!

And, if we are lucky enough to get a properly raised animal, we will explore whole muscle curing.

What do you want to learn how to "put up"?

Oooooo, know what Wheaton Labs needs more than anything?

An old wooden wine barrel we can ferment sauerkraut in! I did this a few years ago, when we made about 20 gallons of kraut.

It will only get better with age, as the microbes take residence in the wood fibers over the years...

Yes!  Perennial Barrel kraut!

Reminds me of watching Jeong Kwan on Chef's Table, and spontaneously bursting into tears as she described her 100-year-old ferments in the monastery's in-ground fermentation pots.

Oh I'm definitely curious about the vegan jerky! I would love to learn more preservation techniques for high calorie vegetarian foods.

The meat curing and smoking are very exciting! And I'm definately interested in solar dehydrating.
I'm curious, the dairy mentioned in the curing bullet, is that aged cheeses or the dairy products used in sausages, etc.? Or some other dairy product entirely I'm not familiar with? (I tried looking up 'cured dairy' but just got a bunch of articles on curing dairy intolerances. )
Thank you!

Hi Jo, Welcome to Permies!

Jo Craig wrote:I'm curious, the dairy mentioned in the curing bullet, is that aged cheeses or the dairy products used in sausages, etc.?

I think it must refer to hard cheese:

Gouda or manchego are two kinds of cured cheese. However, gouda is usually exported after half a year of cure, while in the South of the Netherlands it can be found more aged, even reaching 2 years of cure.

Grana padano and parmesan cheese are also cured, even reaching 3 years of cure. Their texture is extremely hard, so it’s easier to consume them grated, as a condiment or as a pasta filler.

fromsource.

Interestingly, I couldn't find any info on Permies either, just a few mentions in food preservation and kitchen. Hopefully someone will share their experiences of the workshop for us. I've made soft cheese like ricotta, but hard cheeses I gather require pressing the iiquids out before drying to ensure they don't go rancid. I found this simple cheese press idea: https://permies.com/t/162817/Cheese-Press-Cents on Permies and there is a cheese forum, so maybe I just missed the hard cheese posts.

Yes!  +1 for curing dairy.

We've been making frash farm cheese with our goats milk.  Aged varieties have been on the horizon for a while now.  

Beau Davidson wrote:Yes!  Perennial Barrel kraut!
Reminds me of watching Jeong Kwan on Chef's Table, and spontaneously bursting into tears as she described her 100-year-old ferments in the monastery's in-ground fermentation pots.

I'll have to check that out, Beau!
Hmm, perhaps when they're building their root cellar at PTJ, we can convince them to half-bury a fermentation barrel!

Hey ! In not to long there will be cherries and plums on our trees, and this year i am determined to preserve as many i can fit in the jars we have.
Does anyone have any good recipes to suggest, for preserving fruit, we don't eat meat so the curing doesn't interest me much, but i am curious, does that work with some vegetables?

All,
Here is a detailed list of the projects we will undertake in the Food Preservation track! It will be loads of fun, as we will be working in different locations, using some fun permie tech!

Activity	Description
Pressure canning	Preserving seasonal fruits into juices and jams
Water bath canning	Preserving vegetables like beans and cucumbers into pickles
Making miso	Creating koji from rice (in haybox cooker), then putting up miso paste; dehydrating koji for long-term storage
Curing meats	Making coppa and a ham leg into prosciutto
Pickle Barrel (Fermentation)	Preparing a wine or whiskey barrel for fermenting; filling with brine and cucumber pickles; storing in root cellar
Solar dehydrator	Measuring & monitoring the solar dehydrator(s); making a variety of products in the dehydrator for long-term storage, including nuts, jerky, fruits, sourdough starter and granola
Nuts	Properly preparing nuts and seeds for maximum nutrition and shelf life
Smoker	Smoking meats in a smoker
Cheesemaking	Making cheeses to age in the root cellar
Sourdough Baking	Baking naturally leavened (sourdough) products in the rocket stove
Kombucha	Setting up a “continuous brewing” kombucha container; making seasonally flavored fermented tea (kombucha)

Austin Durant wrote:All,
Here is a detailed list of the projects we will undertake in the Food Preservation track! It will be loads of fun, as we will be working in different locations, using some fun permie tech!

Activity	Description
Pressure canning	Preserving seasonal fruits into juices and jams
Water bath canning	Preserving vegetables like beans and cucumbers into pickles

I'm curious about your use of pressure canning for fruit jams and juices, as they are perfectly safe to water bath/steam can. Pickles also are fine for water bath, but any other vegetables need to be pressure canned... Did these just get switched about?

Valan Anthos wrote:Oh I'm definitely curious about the vegan jerky! I would love to learn more preservation techniques for high calorie vegetarian foods.

VERY interested in vegan jerky and preservation techniques for vegetarian foods!!

Austin will it be possible to get the recipe for the scoby jerky after you've done the workshop?  Will it be posted on your website?  (I just went there and a search did not find it.)  How about nutritional information on it?  Sounds like an awesome way to use excess scobies!  Might just get me to start growing my own.