Blogs

Well the kids at Well Preserved have announced the winners of this year's Pimp That Preserve contest, and we see some familiar faces in there. Congrats to all!  

In case you didn't manage to get an entry of your own in, or just generally are looking to punk up your jars a skosh, we've got some bitchintastic ready-to-print labels right here, perfectly formatted for Avery 5294 round labels. Slap these puppies on, and give your jars a dose of attitude. Your recipients will know right away that these preserves and pickles are positively rockin'. Read More >

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Today is the inaugural Food Day, an occasion to focus on the very stuff that sustains us -- and how to improve it and access to it for all. Events are happening all across the country to celebrate and promote awareness for six major objectives:

1. Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy food.
2. Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness.

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For the third year running, Andrew of Eating Rules has kicked off the Unprocessed challenge. The goal is to go one entire month without eating or using any processed foods. Sounds simple, right? After all, as DIY food enthusiasts, we are constantly taking matters into our own hands so that we can avoid icky things like preservatives, additives and chemicals with names a hundred syllables long. 

But. When you dig into it, and realize that to be truly unprocessed, you need to avoid things like white sugar, kosher salt and possibly even some kinds of vinegar, it throws a little wrench in the plans. Preserving recipes are exacting, and tinkering too much with your ingredients can produce results that can range from unexpected to undesirable to outright dangerous. 

On the other hand, to my mind, there's room for argument on exactly how far down the chain of unprocessed one needs to go. After all, Andrew himself gives a pass on baking powder and baking soda, though one could technically work around it by using, um, antlers. I use granulated sugar in my preserves and kosher salt in my pickles because it produces consistent and predictable results. It's not that I couldn't find alternatives, but that I haven't made an effort to.

All that said, I feel that I more or less live the lifestyle that Andrew is espousing. After all, I just now turned off the burner on the last of our annual 100 pound tomato canning extravaganza. Inside the cans: Tomatoes. That is all. 

So, I want to know from you: How do you work around things like refined sugar, kosher salt and other technically processed foods in your preserved goods? Alternatively, when do you feel it's appropriate to use a modicum of processed foods when putting your own stuff up? Tell me all about it in the comments. 

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On Saturday, September 24, an esteemed grouping of panel judges evaluated dozens of entries in the Punk Domestics DIY Contests at the Eat Real Fest in Jack London Square in Oakland, CA.

Submissions were accepted across five major categories with up to five subcategories within each. Judges were given criteria against which to evaluate each submission, and weighted scores were tallied. 

Each subcategory winner received a golden chicken statuette inscribed with their winning, and one grand prize winner within each category received a gift bag furnished with prizes from participating sponsors. 

The winners were announce on the Master Craft Stage at 6:30 pm on Saturday, September 24. The winners are: Read More >

With peaches, tomatoes and plums in season right now, you’re probably preparing to do some serious canning and preserving. But, what to do about those pesky thin skins that can add a bitter taste to your food and are so difficult to remove? An experienced canner or pie maker will be able to give you the answer right away: Blanching. It’s the sure fire way to get those skins off without driving yourself crazy.

Trying to scrape off the skins with a traditional peeler can end up removing a lot of the fruit along with the skin or worse, leave you with a hand full squashed, mushy fruit. Blanching can also be used to remove the tough skins from nuts and even prepare certain vegetables, like green beans, for freezing. In this case, the blanching stops the action of the enzymes and bacteria present in the vegetables that can eventually sap their nutrients and noticeably modify the color, taste and texture of your frozen produce.

While blanching isn’t an exact science as the processing times can vary fruit to fruit, there are some very important steps you want to be sure to remember. Here is a breakdown of the blanching process for easy fruit skin removal.Read More >