Storing and Preserving

Host: Kristina Staley

Participants: Chris Rowland, Elena Eliott, Alan Wyle, David Harvey, Jenny Webb, Sean Williams

Main points:

  • A lot of skills have been lost, but are still out there. Where can you learn the skills? You need to experience and see it being done – not just read it in a book. Needs to be part of cooking classes in schools. Could run workshops for adults – pickling weekends.
  • On a small scale, people will preserve and store their own food. Need information about which veg store well, how to store food in sand, boxes etc to preserve over winter – onions, apples etc. As well as how to treat the food so it will last longer, smoking, curing, salting, chutney, pickles, wine, juice.
  • Making sauerkraut is a healthy, easy way to store food. Done in Germany and Poland – we need to learn how to do it in the UK.
  • Grow veg for storage – e.g. beans for drying.
  • Will we still have freezers and fridges – if we do how can we use them best?
  • Could develop central resource with recipes, instructions etc
  • Could have central co-ops where exchange knowledge and skills as well as produce or people bring their apples/pears etc to be pressed.
  • Lots of produce is wasted in gardens – set up teams to harvest apples and make juice/cider or wild fruit e.g. blackberries.
  • Could have small businesses which offer to can, preserve people’s produce for them. Would need small communities – built on trust and knowing the people producing the food to know they are reliable and have done it well (e.g. used good food hygiene).
  • New houses are too hot – all central heated – where so we store our produce? Bring back larders and make them part of all new builds.

Get involved: contact hello [at] TransitionTownLewes.org.uk