Now that the Garden is Finally Paying Off

The dog days of summer are almost gone, and all those long hours spent caring for the garden is finally paying off. It seems like yesterday when we were planting the spring garden. Now, just a few months later, we’re ready to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

New gardeners are often amazed that, once the harvest starts coming in, it often comes in all at once – leaving them with bushels and bushels of produce. So much produce in fact, that they can’t possibly eat it all at once.

Mountains of tomatoes, piles of beans, and more squash than you can count are common at this time of the season. When my garden hit its peak last summer, I found myself with buckets and buckets of tomatoes – over 47 pounds of tomatoes from my own garden!

Don’t let the fruits of your labor go to waste

I don’t know about you, but I just cannot bear to waste one bit of my hard earned fruits and veggies. So, I did what any southern gardener would do—I enjoyed a quick tomato sandwich, filled up some “treat” bags for neighbors and family, and then promptly got started working to preserve my harvest.

My bounty of tomatoes yielded quarts upon quarts of homemade salsa, tomato puree, pizza sauce, and the best creamy tomato soup you’ve ever tasted. (I’m locally famous for my creamy tomato soup!) I also dried a healthy amount of them to make sun-dried tomatoes for my family to enjoy all winter long.

Don’t make the mistake that so many new gardeners make by letting the “fruits of your labor” go to waste. Instead, extend the garden-fresh season by learning how to preserve your produce so that you can relax and enjoy your harvest all year long. I mean, wouldn’t it be great to eat fresh produce in the dead of winter?

Well, you can.

Canning, dehydrating, and preserving food are not outdated practices we should forget about. In fact, I believe the opposite is true— it’s time to bring back these basics and have a food preservation revolution. Food that you preserve for your family:

• Tastes better
• Costs less
• Is more nutrient-dense
• Is not packaged with chemicals and other preservatives

Perhaps the thing I like best about preserving my own foods at home is the fact I know absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my food has been handled safely. My pantry is loaded with jars of only the freshest quality produce. My foods are not full of nasty chemicals, additives, and other preservatives you’ll find in store-bought counterparts. Even better, I know my food is safe. There were no rats or bugs crawling around at the processing facility where these jars were canned. And, the processor's hands were washed frequently during their shift.

I know, because I did all the work!

Spend a few hours in the kitchen now and reap the benefits for months to come.

Sweet peas, flavorful green beans, carrots unlike any you’ve ever had before, and jars of tender, tasty beans … your family will be feasting on these “fresh from the garden” foods while everyone else is eating the bland and nutritionally void store varieties this winter. Not only will your home preserved foods taste better, they’ll cost less too.  

As an added bonus, home-canned foods make some of the very best Christmas or birthday gifts you can give to loved ones. In fact, most of my relatives now request my salsas, soups, jams, and jellies at Christmastime!

Food preservation is so easy, anyone can do it. I promise.

If you didn’t have a grandma to teach you these domestic arts, don’t let that stop you. There’s simply no reason to be intimidated.  Food preservation skills are easy to learn, even in today’s fast paced, busy society. And, the skills stick with you for a lifetime. Learning how to preserve food is much like learning how to tie your shoes or ride a bike—once you know how to do it, you’ll never forget how.

Food Storage Secrets from Solutions From Science is a DVD crash course in preserving food and saving the harvest. This DVD course teaches you everything you need to know so that you can get started putting up food right away...all from the comfort of your living room chair.  You’ll learn how to can, freeze, pickle, and dehydrate food without ever leaving your home. Gather the family together and teach your children these arts too!

Food Storage Secrets will cover everything you need to know to get started right away. You can literally watch the DVD and begin canning your food on the very same day.

The DVD course covers how to best process and prepare all kinds of foods at home. You’ll learn what equipment is necessary, and what’s not. The course covers safety basics and the common mistakes people make when trying to preserve their own food. You’ll also pick up some handy tricks about how to make your canned foods taste better and look fresher than anything you’d find in the grocery store.

The DVD course also covers:

• What you must know about vegetable acidity
• Why vinegar is important
• The one food you should never can
• How to produce potent “canned medicines”
• How to short cut your learning — by half!
• The right kind of salt to use when canning (it’s NOT table salt!)
• How to protect your family against food poisoning
• And much, much more.

These DVDs are like having your very own food storage professional or mentor at home. They take you through every step of the process, giving you wisdom and tips that you’ll use for a lifetime. They’re better than taking a class at an extension office or local community college because you can stop and pause the DVDs and actually work as you learn! If you need to review a section, it’s no problem. And these DVDs will be there, year after year, in case you need a refresher or if you’d like to teach other family members the secrets of saving the harvest.  After all, once you become a pro, you’ll know that…

Canning makes you feel more capable than Martha Stewart!

Food Storage Secrets will quickly pay for itself as you begin to put away your fresh garden produce. In fact, I’d venture to say that Food Storage Secrets will actually make you money in the long run with all the money you’ll save from preserving your own instead of buying from the store.

By now I think you know food preservation is a smart idea. It will save you time and money in the long run. But beyond that, it’s also a great deal of fun. One summer a bunch of my friends gathered together to have a canning day. We laughed, cried, and fellowshipped as we worked together to put up over one hundred quarts of beans, tomatoes, and okra. At the end of the day, each mom took home over twenty quarts of food…and some good memories.

You can make those kinds of memories with family and friends too. Everything you need to know is covered in these amazing food storage DVDs. They truly are like having your own private lessons for a fraction of the cost. Time is growing shorter for the harvest of Summer 2011. You don’t have time to waste. Order your Food Storage Secrets today and begin putting up food for your family to enjoy all fall and winter long.

Click here to order your copy of Food Storage Secrets today.