The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest by Ann Accetta-Scott

The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest

by Ann Accetta-Scott

Food preservation is one of the most intimidating aspects of homesteading, yet one of the most important. Although there is a plethora of websites, books and blogs dedicated to learning how to preserve the harvest, people must search multiple places in order to gather the necessary information. For a beginner new to the world of preserving this leaves them frustrated and quite discouraged. The ideal tool for a newbie is a detailed reference guide, one such as The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest, that shares the basics on canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking, and how to use the right tools for each method.

Homesteader and blogger Ann Accetta-Scott guides readers at the beginning, moderate or advanced levels of preserving. Newcomers to the world of preserving can start with a simple jam and jelly recipe using a hot water bath canner, while others may be advanced enough to have mastered the pressure canner and are ready to move onto curing and smoking meat and fish. The progression in this book will help the home preserver build confidence in the most common methods of preserving.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest is a new reference volume on preserving shelf stable food at home.

Due out 1st May 2019 from Lyons Press, it's 224 pages and available in paperback format. Author Ann Accetta-Scott is a well known homesteading lifestyle blogger who has chronicled her family's shift from suburbanites to self sufficient homesteaders.

There are a few books which have become truly indispensable for the homesteading library. For our family, these include the Ball 'blue' book, a selection of John Seymour's books, Storey's Country Wisdom, Sanders' Self Reliant Homestead and a very few others. This book will definitely join those classics.

I was very impressed with the scientifically accurate and up to date information contained in this book. The author clearly and accurately describes the different methods of creating safe shelf stable food. The different types of vegetables, meats, and fruits are clearly delineated and the methods for preserving each of them (or combinations of) are described step by step. There are loads of tutorial photos.

Equipment is also discussed in detail. The author lists the everything necessary for each type of preservation and also lists extra labor saving equipment in the procedures; saving the reader from having to flip back and forth to different sections of the book.

There are a huge number of really nice recipes outside of the normal 'green beans & succotash' tried and true staples from years past. There's a recipe for maple bourbon bacon jam that didn't last a week at our house. My kids put it on their baked potatoes. They put it on toast. They put it on pancakes. They haven't stopped asking to make another batch of it. The jalapeño pickled eggs are another huge hit with my family. I never even liked pickled eggs before.

Five stars. Well written, scientifically accurate, comprehensive. A new classic.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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  • 26 January, 2019: Reviewed