Farm Share Time

I’m now entering into my second season as the proud owner of a farm share. The idea of a farm share is that you pay up front a certain amount, which then entitles you to part of the harvest each week at a local farm. My farm even picks most of the veggies for us, and has them available for convenient pick up. The veggies are organically grown, and it gets you eating seasonally for most of the year. The downside is that it’s all organic, and the produce spoils, especially on weeks when there are abundant crops. I ended up wasting far too much food last year. One of the main reasons that people who have farm shares don’t continue after the first year is that they feel guilty about the amount of food they don’t use.

This year, my hope is to try to can, freeze, or dry around half of the share. I really want to make it last for later in the year, and to keep from wasting as much. Plus, it will help me to eat healthier and avoid foods stored with plastics. There are plastics inside of canned foods! They use it to seal off the metal.

Knowing very little about canning, I have bought a couple of books to help me along.
Put ‘em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling
by Sherri Brooks Vinton
I picked this book up because the recipes inside looked super creative. I get some funky veggies, including mega radishes, and it seemed to have tasty recipes that could handle even the odd ones.

Canning and Preserving For Dummies
by Karen Ward
What could be better than a “For Dummies” book when you don’t know what the heck you’re doing? This one seemed to have a lot of really clear instructions, as well as recipes. Hopefully, with its help I will manage to not make anybody sick with my canned creations.

Does anybody else do canning? Have a farm share and a good idea on how to deal with all those veggies? I’m open to ideas :-)

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One Response to Farm Share Time

  1. Hi! I am a new GFC follower. We actually live in the country and my husband loves to have a HUGE garden. It’s too much to maintain by himself with all of the rest of the activities that take up his time. He has tried to find people who would enjoy gardening to help out. Around where we live, people prefer fast food to good home grown food. You are quite lucky. Loved the post. I am posting a review, author interview, and giveaway on my blog tomorrow. I would love a follow visit and entry. The book is really good. I also post stories about my crazy life. Thanks. Donna

    http://mylife-in-stories.blogspot.com

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