What is the real truth about preserving food? Preserving food is nothing new, passed down from generation to generation until recently. And by recently, I mean the last 100 years.
I grew up in a convenient culture. The 80’s were filled with boxed foods, formula, and cheap hot n’ now burgers. We should have been questioning the meat when hot n’ now was selling burgers for less than 50 cents.
Commercials convinced people that it was all about quick and easy, never mind that it lacked important nutrients for the body. The microwave, the quick way to reheat food, graced almost every American countertop, zapping all the nutrients out of food.
Fast forward to today and there has been resurgence in people wanting to pick up the traditional ways forgotten by several generations. Thank goodness for YouTube!
But, as exciting as it sounds to preserve your own food, one thing that people don’t talk about is the hard work of preserving.
Wait, Amanda, you’re always convincing us to use quality ingredients, grow our own food, put up food for the winter. Yep, I still stand by that, but what many people don’t understand is that this lifestyle that our great, great grandparents had was hard.
Unfortunately, along with the quick and easy meals they advertised, came a lack of responsibility. Our culture has become more and more separated from the preserving food generation. Why would you put hard work into your food when you could just buy it?
The problem is many of us have grown up learning that hard work=bad. I am here to bust that myth. It is time to take back the pride of sweating to grow our own food. Working all summer long to preserve a harvest for winter. Milking cows early in the morning to provide raw milk for our families. Taking care of chickens for fresh eggs. You get the idea.
Yes, there is no doubt, growing and preserving your own food is hard work. By the end of summer my body is fully ready for those winter months of shorter days, sitting by the fire, and enjoying the fruits of my labor. There are days when I just don’t want to can another jar! Everything seems to be ready at the same time, the peaches, blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, and corn are all shouting at me to preserve them. Sometimes it can be down right overwhelming!
But nothing can trade the pride of knowing where my food comes from.
With each jar of food on that shelf, I know exactly what is going into our bodies. So I push through those thoughts of wanting to abandon it all, and I set my hands to work preserving God’s harvest, because this is what it is all about. Those hard days are proof of self sufficiency, hey I grew that and preserved that! I don’t have to rely on the grocery store. My pantry isn’t devastated by supply chain issues. My pantry also isn’t filled with junk. Instead, it is filled with all the natural goodness God gave us. Foods that actually feed and nourish our body well. Foods that give us life and longevity.
I can pull a jar of pears off the shelf and remember the day my neighbor dropped off buckets full, just because. When I drink blueberry tea from the blueberries I dehydrated in our orchard, I am reminded of how we would rush out there almost daily in June, checking to see if they were ready yet.
Or when I slather my strawberry honey jam on a piece of homemade bread, I am reminded of how we went with a friend to go pick strawberries and our kids got in trouble for throwing them (true story). With each jar I pull off my pantry shelf, there is a fond memory of the summer and the pride of knowing, I did this.
Preserving food isn’t just about having food, it is about the memories made. It’s also about the tools I am passing down to my children. And, it is about celebrating what God gives us from the land. He delights in seeing us enjoy what He created.
It’s about being a homemaker, like really being a homemaker. I am responsible for the health of my family and it doesn’t start in the kitchen, it starts on the land. It all begins in the garden, moves to the kitchen and then to our shelves. It’s time to take back our food system, one jar at a time.
~Amanda
Want to learn how to preserve food, but don’t know where to start? Check out my page on preserving the harvest.
