We CAN Do It: A Story of Storing Up for the Winter Like Chipmunks

One of the biggest components of the BFJYAV program is the local eating challenge. We are challenged to eat only food that is locally sourced for the first half of our year here- now until the end of February. “Locally sourced” for us is defined as anything that grows in New England (Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut) and in New York. That means the lovely fresh bread that is baked daily at the bakery next store doesn’t count if the wheat is from a far away land. It also means that King Arthur Flour, which is milled in Vermont, doesn’t count because some of their wheat is grown in the Midwest. Other large disappointments were Ben and Jerry’s and Sam Adams, which are both produced very near us but get most of their ingredients from all over.

We spent a day during our week of Boston orientation researching what we could get and where, and found numerous farmer’s markets, farms we can order from, and a funky local family owned grocery store called Russo’s. Above all, our CSA has been the saving grace. We pick up a large basket of fresh fruits and veggies every Monday, all grown by our new favorite friend (whom we have yet to meet), Farmer Dave. We are going to be quite dependent on our CSA the next few months, but will be horrified when it ends in November. The only solution is to preserve the massive quantities of fresh fruits and veggies we are picking up each Monday, which leads us to our largest project this season: canning and freezing.

The bounty of our first CSA pickup!

Canning, if done wrong, can result in botulism. This can KILL you. I learned this fact in microbiology a few semesters ago and vowed never to try it. I didn’t have any reason to until Audrey, the friendly BFJYAV from last year, showed up at our house to give us a canning lesson last Saturday afternoon. I love doing things I said I would never do; it was pretty exciting. And very, very hot. Boiling three large pots of hot water on our second floor kitchen in our air-conditioning-less house is nothing but hot and drippy. We cranked out 10 quart jars of tomatoes: blanched, peeled, and chopped. The jars were sterilized, lemon juice was added, tomatoes were ladled in, tops salted. They were sealed, processed, left to sit, and finally stored under the sink.

Ten jars of tomatoes.

It was very labor intensive, science focused, and clean. (And hot. Did I say hot?) We probably won’t die of botulism, but if we do, call Audrey in for questioning.* With all of these potential pitfalls, you may wonder why we aren’t just freezing everything. The answer to that is freezer space constraints. Even though a nice church lady has graciously donated half of the space in her deep freeze, we cannot possibly have room to store all of the produce we want to preserve unless some goes in the cabinet. Also, it’s really fun to play Grandma and can our own food!

Even after we packed away 2 ½ gallons of tomatoes last weekend, we got a huge box of tomatoes from our CSA a few days later. They started going bad after being in our house-that-does-not-have-A/C so they needed to be preserved ASAP. Despite our sweaty first attempt, I was ready to give it another go. I thought it would be the most practical to can them as a useful, real food, so I turned half of them into pasta sauce and half into peach salsa. If you’re mentally prepared for the heat, it isn’t as bad. We brought an extra fan into the kitchen window, and with half the warm bodies in the kitchen, it wasn’t even miserable. We finished processing the last jars at 11pm. This is why chipmunks treat their food preservation as a full time job!

*Disclaimer: We were very grateful Audrey donated her Saturday afternoon to show us that we can can. We had a lot of fun talking to her and hearing about their misadventures of last year. We also appreciated hearing her suggestions about how to make our year easier. No, she did not give us all the answers on how to do it– she left some mysteries for our own discovery.