Preseved Menu Planning: The Importance of Being Realistic

This will be the last installment of the "Preserved Menu Planning" series and perhaps the most important one as well. I know I can be pedantic so, for the sake of ending with a clear message, I'll give it to you straight: in all things food preservation, realistic expectations are a must.

First, don't expect that you'll enjoy the taste of a food more once it's been processed. I don't really like cooked greens. They're okay in soup, but other than that I'm not a huge fan. Last year I froze potstickers filled with chard (a cooking green)... now the three gallon-sized bags of them are some of the few items remaining in the chest freezer. Hopefully Josh is into them... like really into them.

Second, preserving does not improve the quality of the raw ingredient. Every year we have at least one batch of pole beans that goes just a few days too long, making the beans stringy and bitter. It feels like such defeat to let a one-day overgrown batch of beans go to waste, so I always want to find a way to use them. Then I remember that there's almost nothing worse than taking the time to preserve a dish only to pull it out for use several months later and have it be relatively inedible. In other words, though you don't have to use the cream of the crop per se, it's important that all ingredients for preserving are fresh and in their prime (if you don't want to waste the rest - and really who does? - compost it!).

Finally, do what you can. Let's face it: nearly everyone reading this has priorities that do not include food preservation. And that's okay. Just because you can't preserve enough to completely replace November to June food with local Michigan produce doesn't mean that you can't supplement with 5%. Or 15%. Or 47%. It's easy to get wrapped up in the process (something I'm more than guilty of), but if you set aside just a couple of weekends each summer to dedicate to a new preserving recipe, well then you're on your way.

So, in recapitulation, to be successful in creating a year-round menu of preserved foods:

• Plan ahead.
• Record successes and failures.
• Incorporate as much variety as possible.
• Be realistic.

 With only 6 days until the official start of spring, better get to it!