September 4(for) Green Acres Challenge

These monthly challenges are your opportunity to cultivate your own acres. They are designed to challenge your creativity, test your will power, and pull your awareness to the footstep you are leaving behind.

By participating in these challenges and sharing them with others you are spreading the message. Over time, those around us will be making better choices as well. The goal is not to change how you live your life, but rather think about the implications of those choices and tweek them for the best outcome.

SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE: FOOD PRESERVATION

There are four vital components to survival.  Air, shelter, water, and food.  While it's true that Americans are eating too much food, the problem lies in what they are eating.  Can most of it really be considered food in the first place?  Modern food is not meant for survival.

Today the grocery store aisles are packed with every fresh and processed food available.  There is a restaurant on every corner.  Unless you are in a food desert, it is readily available.  Imagine living in a world without grocery stores, and restaurants.  Yes, you'd have to cook, but what about the non-growing seasons?  Where would your food come from?    In reality the supermarket is not that old, but our culture has made such a major swing towards convenient, processed food, it feels like the art of food preservation is almost extinct.

I grew up preserving corn and beans.  My brother and I had our jobs in the work chain. We shucked the corn and snapped the beans on the porch.  Then my mom and grandma took over the rest.  While preserving my food is no longer necessary for my survival, it is an important component in living a 4(for) green acres life.  Purchasing or growing local food doesn't last year round, so finding a way to preserve for the winter months is vital, and it's not as difficult as you might think.

Most people think of canning (sealing food in jars) first, but there are several methods including: 

• Pickling
• Refrigeration and freezing
• Pasteurizing
• Jellying
• Curing & Smoking
• Dehydration
• Freeze-drying
• Salting
• Fermentation
• Carbonation
• Cheese-making
• Chemical preservation

The challenge this month is to try one of these methods with food you have grown or purchased from your local farmers market.  Of course there will be recipes and resources throughout the month to show you how.  The goal is try one project.  You can start by reading some basics on food preservation.