Tuesday 2 November 2010

P is for...

Provisions

We are (for the most part anyway) blessed nowadays with large supermarkets on nearly every corner that sell everything all the time. But that wasn't always the case. In the past people were depending on their own gardens and vegetable patches to help them through the winter, when (as most of you will know) not a lot grows.

People had to conservate their summer grown food, so they could eat during the winter. You could salt your food (fish, vegetables), you could smoke it (meat and fish), boil it and add sugar (jams, jellies, preserves), leave it in a cool and dry place (potatoes, apples), use it to make something else (milk to butter or cheese), ferment it (cabbage to sauerkraut) or pickle it (pickle), but the taste would always be different.

Enter the Mason Jar (US), Kilner Jar (UK) or Weck bottle (Netherlands, Germany). If properly used (ie good sterilisation, good boiling, good pressure, well closed), you could keep food fresh for the whole winter. Jars have been found that date from the twenties and the food is still good! Who is talking about a 'best before...' date?

For more P-words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

Photo taken in July 2009 in Open Air Museum Arnhem

26 comments:

  1. We did some preserves -- ONCE!!

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  2. OH, YES, I REMEMBER THOSE DAYS!!! We had 5 children and my husband and myself, so a lot of canning was done in the summer months, so we could eat in the winter. But, now it is just my husband and myself, so no more canning. YIPPEE !!! I now freeze almost everything.

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  3. Provisions are something we can’t do without. They look so pretty on the shelves that they remind me of colourful containers of paint. :)

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  4. Oh gee, I can remember my mother sweating over a hot stove pickling and preserving vegetables and fruit from the garden my Dad built. I'm not so good at that sort of thing as I tend to buy frozen. However, I do remember taking my girls out picking berries and making jams when they were little.

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  5. I remember my grandmother making preserves, and my mother helping, but Mom wasn't much interested in the whole process after Nanny moved away. Unfortunately, the whole thing scared me to bits. Boiling water and lifting and carrying and the potential for accidents and my vivid imagination...
    Nope, not for me. One year here we had a cold spell before my cherry tomatoes were all ripened, and one of my friends was visiting from BC. A devoted farmer, she insisted we pickle the green tomatoes. What a tortuous procedure. I donated some to the bake and craft sale at church but nobody bought them, although they looked pretty, so now we have dozens of frozen containers of pickled tomatoes.
    Sigh.
    But a good choice for the letter P, Mara, and very pretty colors for pictures.
    -- K
    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  6. So, true so true how we take our accessibility to provisions for granted.
    What an ingenious post!

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  7. Oh man. I MISS preserves. I should learn how.

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  8. Provisions is a great idea for the letter P. I used to freeze a lot of vegetables from my garden when I was more energetic than I am now.

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  9. YIKES! I didn't know food could stay good all that many years!

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  10. Ah, home grown provisions. I love the taste of home grown veggies and fruit.
    Nice photo and information too Mara.

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  11. I have a ton of herbal remedies I have made that will last forever too if found way down the road. It's the only thing I make. Is it still like this where you live that you have to save up, or can you go to the stores throughout the winter with no problems?

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  12. I'd love to be able to garden and can- It's one of my lifetime goals. BTW- I got your calendar today and I love love love it! Thank You!

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  13. Can't say that the current way is PREFERABLE. Your PRESERVES make sense.

    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  14. Yes, I grew up with a mother that canned everything. We had Ball jars, Mason jars, and Kerr jars.

    Wish my pantry looked like that now!

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  15. Oh, I remember canning so much food - sorry to say I'm lazy now. Wonderful post!

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  16. Lots of compotes, I imagine they are delicious! Cool idea for this theme, very well done!
    Léia

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  17. I have never done it but I am happy some friends do and they are generous :)
    Great take on the theme!!
    P is for poncho

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  18. I love preserving! I do up a couple hundred jars every year and open each and every one with lots of pride and a big goofy grin.

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  19. We had plum trees in our backyard growing up, and my mom would make wonderful plum jelly! She also made homemade dill pickles...they tasted much better than store bought pickles.

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  20. I am thankful for the grocery stores :) I have never canned anything but it is still on my to do list someday!

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  21. I haven't made any preserves for YEARS! And yet I remember my mother and grandmother making jam and bottling things. Before my time, my grandfather kept chickens (and knew how to preserve eggs in isinglass) and a pig which was slaughtered towards the end of autumn and made into sausages, brawn, ham, faggots, black pudding etc, after all the fresh meat was eaten or traded. We've lost the art, haven't we, as individuals?

    The freezer made things easier though, and most of us use one of those!

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  22. Love this post Mara. It reminded me of a visit around this time of year many moons ago to Bulgaria. I'd never seen so many preserves and pickles in my life.

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  23. I'd never have thought you could store so many jars in your loo ;-)

    I'd love to be one of those people who make preserves and pickles and culinary things like that. I'd be so proud of myself. Perhaps one day...

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  24. Talk about preserving food: Archeologists found honey in the pharao mummy chambers in Egypt, thousands of years old. It was said it was still safe to eat.

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!