With a few simple skills and a little planning you can extend the local harvest in small batches at home. There are countless ways to preserve: drying, freezing, fermenting, in oil, with salt, with sugar, with acid, in alcohol, and many combinations of these. While these strategies are no longer necessary to ensure enough food to get through a hard winter, they can fill your larder with unique and delicious foods at a fraction of their supermarket cost - and those beets pickled in June will be most welcome on the Thanksgiving table.
A basic understanding of some of the factors influencing spoilage, flavor, and texture - moisture, enzymes, bacteria - helps clarify how each process works and when it's safe to innovate.
June is the time for local strawberry jam, and making a small batch of sauerkraut to ferment in time for July barbecues. Blueberries and cherries ripen next, and both can be easily frozen for later pies and cobblers. August is prime time for peaches, dried and in jam; tomatoes, frozen, canned, and dried; basil pesto by the gallon; dilly beans; pepper spreads. Early September is great for pickling cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, and beets, but also for making applesauce and pear butter.
Throughout the season try to harvest herbs at their peak just before they flower and dry some laid out on screens, or tied loosely in bundles in an airy, but shady spot. Some herbs such as tarragon, thyme, and chives are great to flavor vinegar. Simply stick a few sprigs of fresh herbs - just before or while they are in flower - into a bottle and cover with vinegar.
Puree basil or cilantro, with or without garlic, in good olive oil and freeze in ice cube trays. Once frozen these can be popped out and bagged and used as needed on noodles, chili, stews, or soups.
