New National Center for Home Food Preservation Blog: Preserving Food at Home

...the blog of the National Center for Home Food Preservation. When I’ve got food preservation questions–about food safety or I need a reliable recipe–I go to the National Center for Home Food Preservation. The Center provides science based food preservation advice and is funded by the USDA. They launched a blog in November, Preserving Food at Home that is now in my blog reader. Recent holiday-centric posts have covered tips on freezing leftovers, h...

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Day to day, our decisions count

...an’t get at a farmers’ market. In the kitchen We can commit to not wasting food. We waste about 1/3 of the food calories we grow, worldwide. Not only is that a waste of our soil wealth, water, money and fuel–not to mention a huge injustice to those who are hungry– but almost all of our food waste ends up in landfills, releasing methane gas into the atmosphere. How much food we actually waste is a complex question. There are losses at the agricultu...

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What’s the Best Solar Food Dryer?

...oil before enough moisture is removed. That’s why you should build a solar food dryer. Brace Direct Food Dryer. Image: FAO. There are two basic designs for solar food dryers: direct and indirect. Direct dryers are just a box with a piece of glass on the top. Indirect dryers use a box to collect the heat of the sun and then, thanks to the fact that hot air rises, take that heat up into an enclosed box that contains the food you want to dry. The Poi...

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Food Preservation Disasters

...us websites. Some sources I’ve come to trust: The National Center for Home Food Preservation’s website. Kevin West’s book Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving . Between those two sources I’ve got just about all the recipes I need. One Ring to rule them all When you’re done processing jars and they’ve cooled down, remove the screw bands. Why? So you can clean underneath the band to prevent spoilage and bugs. T...

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New Health Food Trends at the Natural Products Food Expo West

...hundreds of booths I went past, most were peddling heavily processed junk foods with a “natural” label. And we wonder why the U.S. has an obesity epidemic? The Ugly The bizarre booth spectacle award goes to the weight lifting supplement producer that had a scantily clad nurse, an examination table and a ultrasound machine. Retail reps with pot bellies could have themselves oiled up and examined to find their “hidden abs” that would, presumably, b...

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