Suburban Homesteads LLC

Preserving food is one of the oldest and most practical traditions of homesteading. Canning and Drying food was the only way to store and preserve the harvest for use in winter months. The family needed to be thrifty with its resources and every bit of food needed to be used to keep families alive.

Refrigeration

Did you know refrigeration used to be a near by creek or river, and “in the 1800’s natural refrigeration was a vibrant part of the economy. Natural ice harvested from the pristine rivers and lakes of the northern United States, particularly those in New England, was in demand. Harvested ice was stored in large quantities in ice houses and covered with sawdust for insulation” (Donaldson, B., & Nagengast, B., 1994).

“The early refrigeration systems designed between 1850 and 1920 produced ice year-round to compete with harvested ice” (Donaldson, B., & Nagengast, B., 1994). I’m so grateful for modern technology, innovation is one of mankind’s greatest gifts. And now I believe we must use it wisely.

Refrigeration was not meant for long term storage, it was meant for foods that spoil in room temperature conditions. Butter, milk, cream, these were items put in an ice box daily/weekly until they were needed in a recipe.

Leftovers would have been a foreign concept to our ancestors. My great grandparents probably would have never thought there would be so much food in the refrigerator that it would spoil before it could be eaten.

In my opinion, we use the refrigerator for items that we plan to use within a week or at least a short period of time. I just spent some time figuring out what really needed to be in the fridge and what I could vacuum seal and put in the freezer for meal planning. I got tired of seeing food spoil in the fridge before my family could eat it.

Now, we use the fridge for the fruit my kids eat regularly, butter, cream, and milk, and other beverages. We also store the homemade sauces, salsa’s, and other items that we plan on eating within a week.

Freezer Preservation

The method of freezer preservation is actually older than most of us thought. It’s typically seen as a 19th century invention that modernized the frozen food business less than 125 years ago. However, “salted ice allowed small scale creation of frozen products in the 17th century”, so the idea of foods being frozen to preserve them is not a modern idea (Cleland, D. J., 2020).

The early frozen food trade contributed to economic development of many European colonies, assisted urbanization, improved nutrition via lower cost protein, reduced seasonality of food supply and was an attractive alternative to drying, salting, smoking and canning” (Cleland, D. J., 2020).

The freezer preservation method is now a household convenience, where people purchase frozen foods and are able to take them home and keep them frozen for use when needed. Going to the grocery store or market was no longer and daily or even weekly task.

The freezer preservation method has advance significantly affecting how families eat, cook, and spend their time together. Since then we have seen the the frozen food industry go from bulk ingredients to complete T.V. dinners and other ready-to-eat products by the 1970’s (Cleland D. J., 2020).

I’m learning about the best ways to preserve everything I grow and make plus all the foods I spend hard earned money on. So rather than filling my fridge with food that ends up spoiled, I’m filling my freezer with ingredients and leftovers, rotating meals for my family and learning to extend the life of our food.

I’ve transformed the way I feed my family and the results have been surprising. Reducing my grocery bill by 100’s of dollars and making sure my family is eating whole food meals.

I learned a lot about the freezer method of preserving from the book Freeze Fresh by Crystal Schmidt. She has step by step instruction on blanching, flash freezing, and how to preserve a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. It really helped me figure out how to freeze certain types of fruits and vegetables as well as the texture changes that occur with certain produce and how best to cook with frozen ingredients.

This book also provides some nice pairings and recipes for the frozen ingredients. The pie fillings and cole-slaw recipe’s were my favorite. And I loved that I could make the cole-slaw and then stick it straight in the freezer.

Picking

Before refrigeration, families relied on time-tested methods like pickling, drying, fermenting, and canning to make the most of each season’s harvest. Today, these practices continue to help the suburban homesteader reduce waste, save money, and enjoy homegrown food during the colder seasons.

Pickling vegetables in vinegar is a practice that started early in civilized cultures. According to “Pickles: A Global History by Jan Davidson. Pickling in vinegar was practiced by Mesopotamians’, into middle eastern cultures, through Europe, and into the Americas.

Vinegar has a high acidity which inhibits the growth of microbes and acts as a natural preservative. I learned to pickle vegetables by stacking vegetables in a mason jar, heating vinegar with herbs and spices, then pouring the vinegar over the vegetables and covering them completely. You place the lid on the jar and store in a pantry or in the fridge for use.

Another way to pickle vegetables is soaking them in brine, which crisps and firms them, and allows limited fermentation, and then cover with cold vinegar that has been pre-boiled with herbs and spices. Some common foods pickled includes, pineapple, cucumber, carrots asparagus, tomato, bamboo shoots, gooseberry, cabbage, onions, eggs, meat, and fish. (Davison, J., 2018).

Pickling produce allows for long term storage without spoilage. If the pickling is done right, the contents can remain edible for centuries (Davison, J., 2018)

“The oldest umeboshi, which is a pickled Japanese plum, is still in existence and was pickled in the late sixteenth century” (Davison, J., 2018).

I enjoy pickled vegetables as a side dish or in soups. Its a simple way to preserve some of my garden harvest.

Drying

Dehydrating or drying foods is another ancient form of food preservation. It has been modernized through the centuries, but the purpose has remained the same. The method of drying has been used for preserving food from spoilage for winter, on-the-go snacks, and creating medicines for common ailments. These medicines have been transformed through science, although it may be time to take a step back.

There are several types of drying methods, but sun drying is the oldest method and the most difficult to get consistent due to constant weather changes. Mechanical drying methods were developed in the late 19th and early 20th century. Drying techniques that were efficient and consistent became available after 1950 (Hayashi, H.,1989).

I was fortunate to have purchased a dehydrator this year, and it has been a game changer in reducing food waste in my house. My kids are constantly asking for fruit, but there are occasions when they can’t finish it and its been great to be able to make fruit snacks out of the fruit before it spoils.

If your interested in exploring my snack adventures with drying method of preservation check out my post on dehydrating fruit, and how to make fruit leather.

This method is also wonderful for making soup mixes and dry rubs for meats. I love being able to add dried onion, tomato, mushrooms and many other ingredients in my soups without needing to store it in my fridge.

Canning

Canning is the term used for the process in which foods are placed in jars or cans and heated to a temperature that destroys microorganisms and inactivates enzymes. Heating the contents and then cooling it forms a vacuum seal that prevents microorganisms from contaminating the food” (Nummer, B.A., 2002).

Developed in the late 1700’s Nicolas Appert discovered the canning method of preservation first using sealed glass bottles then commercializing with tin cans. (Nummer, B.A., 2002).

“Canning is the art of preserving food in a hermetically sealed tin-plated container that was invented around 1810. Canning was considered costly and only used for expediency on special occasions by those you could afford it.” (Bell, 1965).

The canning method of preservation has advanced with canning technologies being available in the home. Previously the method to preserve foods in this manner was only available in the commercial industry. But now we are able to take our garden fresh vegetables and can them for a shelf life of one year or more. Allowing us to have organic home grown foods as part of our meal prepping throughout winter.

The shelf life of home canned food can last longer than a year, but the taste and nutrients of the food will decrease. You also want to keep your goods in a cool, dark, dry place. I don’t have a root cellar or basement so my bottom cupboards are reserved for my canned goods. It’s important to keep the canned foods in a dark place and away from direct sunlight. “Sunlight will cause the color and flavor of your preserves to change, and it can also deplete nutrients from the canned goods” (Thurow, 2017).

Fermenting

Fermentation is used to preserve a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and includes popular beverages including wine, and beer. The fermentation process is fairly simple and made at room temperature.

Wild fermentation is the term for the natural process of fermenting, not using any additional ingredients but rather the foods natural sugar than produces lactic acid. Lactic acid allows good bacteria to thrive and and prevents bad bacterial growth.

Surprisingly enough some of my favorite foods are fermented foods like, applesauce, cranberry sauce, salsa, spaghetti sauce, and much more. Stephanie Thurow has a great book on canning and fermenting with recipes. I have looked forward to creating some of these recipes with my garden produce. I hope you will as well.

Thoughts

When you learn to preserve, you learn to see food differently: not as a burden, but as something that can be extended, shared, and celebrated. A basket of cucumbers becomes jars of crisp pickles. A bundle of herbs becomes fragrant seasoning you can enjoy for months.

Even small-batch preservation has a place in suburban homesteads. You don’t need acres of crops or a root cellar, just a few clean jars, basic ingredients, and a willingness to experiment. Start simple: quick-pickled vegetables, dehydrated fruits, or a batch of herbal salt. Each project deepens your connection to your food and your environment.

The art of preservation teaches patience and appreciation. Whether you’re stocking shelves for winter or crafting gifts from your garden, these simple acts remind us that self-sufficiency can be beautiful, flavorful, and deeply fulfilling.

I hope you enjoyed the information about preservation methods and i hope you add them to your to do list on your own suburban homestead.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are ‘affiliate links’. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.

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Credits: Donaldson, Barry, and Bernard Nagengast. Heat & Cold: Mastering the Great Indoors: A Selective History of Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration from the Ancients to the 1930s. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, 1994.

Cleland, D. J. (2020). The history of food freezing. ASHRAE Transactions, 126(1), 616–621.

Hayashi, H. (1989). Drying Technologies of Foods -Their History and Future. Drying Technology, 7(2), 315–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/07373938908916590

Bell, R. A. (1965). Origins of the Canning Industry. Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 38(1), 145–151. https://doi.org/10.1179/tns.1965.011

Nummer, B. A. (2002, May). Historical origins of food preservation. National Center for Home Food Preservation, The University of Georgia. Retrieved from http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/factsheets/food_pres_hist.html

Sethi, S., Arora, B., Lekshmi, S.G., Gunjan, P. (2025). Canning of Fruits and Vegetables. In: Chauhan, O. (eds) Fruits and Vegetables Technologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-8433-5_8

Thurow, S. (2017). Can It & Ferment It: More than 75 satisfying small-batch canning and fermentation recipes for the whole year. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1510717428.