What are you preserving by less common methods?

[enjoy the ride]

When I buy ginger, I always put some in a garden pot with potting soil and keep it growing- there have been times where I grew my own ginger enough so that I did have to buy any for years.

 

[me&thegals]

ETR--Can you tell us more about that? Does it sprout branches and leaves? Do you just dig under the soil and break off hunks?

 

[FarmerDenise]

I remember reading somewhere that the reason the French used so much seasoning on there food, started with trying to disguise the fact that the food was going bad, back in the days before refridgeration etc.
A lot of old time cooking takes a lot of time to prepare. I know my grandmother would often start a dish or meal several days in advance.
I grew up with a wood stove and we often had a pot of soup sitting on the stove for days, adding a littel water now and then and fresh tidbits.
Think of the song:

Peas porrigde hot
Peas porridge cold
Peas porridge nine days old

I used to aquire that personal winter storage on a regular basis also, now I have to work on it :/

 

[ORChick]

My grandmother used to have a huge crock in her kitchen where she preserved beans in salt. I don't know all the details, but mom says they sued todip into the crock for the beans and heat them up for suppers. I don't know how nutritious they would be, but mom said they ate them all winter.

miss_thenorth, have you been peeking in my kitchen? I put some beans down in salt just the other day. I've never done it before, so we'll see how they turn out. I got the idea from "Keeping Food Fresh" - http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Food-Fresh-Techniques-Recipes/dp/1890132101 - a compilation of recipes for preserving the harvest from readers of the French equivelant of "Organic Gardening". Unfortunately my book has disappeared (no doubt under all my other books ), but the man who sent this one in said that the result "was not as good as fresh, but much better than frozen"! Just salt, cleaned green beans, salt, beans, etc. They will form their own brine (he says). When ready to use, soak the beans in fresh water for 2 hours, and cook as usual. I am doing this as an experiment, but admit to scepticism; I have a very low tolerance for salt, and rarely use it at all. But, in the name of curiosity, I am sacrificing a couple of pounds of beans, and, you never know, I might like the result. (Though I fancy these beans, if edible, will end up in caseroles and such, where some salt won't come amiss, rather than just plain green beans)

 

[FarmerDenise]

I might join in the salted bean experiment. I read about it in Carla Emery's book. We have sooo many beans. I already froze them and dried them, why not salt them.

 

[ORChick]

When I buy ginger, I always put some in a garden pot with potting soil and keep it growing- there have been times where I grew my own ginger enough so that I did have to buy any for years.

ETR, I have done this before, but more for the novelty of it than anything else. I don't think I actually ever harvested any ginger. However, earlier this year, when at my favorite (sub-continental) Indian market, buying my yearly batch of ginger, I also found fresh turmeric. Never having seen this before I bought some, used some fresh for curry, put most of the rest in vodka, and planted up a small piece. It took a long while to do anything, but now has produced a handsome looking plant - much prettier, IMO, than the ginger plant. I hope it will adjust to being an indoor plant when the weather turns colder. I'm thinking actually of transplanting it to a larger pot, and putting some lemon grass in there as well (and maybe trying the ginger again), and having a potted "tropical garden"

 

[Wifezilla]

Do you just drop the balls in a jar of olive oil? I've never heard of that before.

I packed the balls in a jar and poured the olive oil over the top. I found a paper on this at one time but now I can't find it. They gave the case of yogurt cheese balls in oil being out in middle eastern markets under high heat for years and staying fresh.

It looks like from the google summary this book has it...
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15080615/Yogurt-Production?autodown=pdf

If you join scribd, you can download it for free.

 

[enjoy the ride]

Me@thegals- yes- just like any other plant inside. I use a broad, shallow pot because the roots grow outwards and are pretty shallow. It forms bamboo like shoots to about 1-2 feet- it likes bright, indirect sun and damp but well drained soil (at least that's what worked best for me and I've done this for years.) Eventually the roots branch and those I just kind of brush off the soil to reach and break off for the most part. Easy to grow on . The old roots wither away like Iris.
I usually get lazy and don't keep well watered at some point- that does them in fast and I have to start again. The longest I ever kept a pot going was about 5 years.

 

[miss_thenorth]

My grandmother used to have a huge crock in her kitchen where she preserved beans in salt. I don't know all the details, but mom says they sued todip into the crock for the beans and heat them up for suppers. I don't know how nutritious they would be, but mom said they ate them all winter.

miss_thenorth, have you been peeking in my kitchen? I put some beans down in salt just the other day. I've never done it before, so we'll see how they turn out. I got the idea from "Keeping Food Fresh" - http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Food-Fresh-Techniques-Recipes/dp/1890132101 - a compilation of recipes for preserving the harvest from readers of the French equivelant of "Organic Gardening". Unfortunately my book has disappeared (no doubt under all my other books ), but the man who sent this one in said that the result "was not as good as fresh, but much better than frozen"! Just salt, cleaned green beans, salt, beans, etc. They will form their own brine (he says). When ready to use, soak the beans in fresh water for 2 hours, and cook as usual. I am doing this as an experiment, but admit to scepticism; I have a very low tolerance for salt, and rarely use it at all. But, in the name of curiosity, I am sacrificing a couple of pounds of beans, and, you never know, I might like the result. (Though I fancy these beans, if edible, will end up in caseroles and such, where some salt won't come amiss, rather than just plain green beans)

From what my mom says--they will be salty. Apparent;y my other g'ma did it too, and for the longest time whenever she cooked beans--she overalted them, cuz that's how she and dad were used to eating them. She has since switched to low salt cooking, and dad either eats them or doesn't.--no complaining.

Wife--I joined scribd last year. I got my canning book and a few others form there. I love free books, even if they are on the computer.

 

[FarmerDenise]

We plant the ginger root also. They get beautiful and wonderfull smelling flowers too. We keep ours outside all year, but two years ago the ginger burst the pot it was in and then we had a freeze and lost it all. So now we're about to start a new pot.
I'll have to keep a look out for some tumeric root. I bet stores around here sell it.