When you can't trust the ingredients make your own

With fall just around the corner, the harvesting has begun. I have an abundance of beets, cucumbers, and herbs galore. Since we are in Wisconsin, we are not blessed to have a long harvest season, so preserving what we can while we can let us enjoy them all year long.

The dehydrator has been running all summer, drying out all the herbs for seasoning foods and making teas. I like to keep both my dehydrators in the garage so it does not create too much heat in the house during the warmer months. I have dried bee balm, lemon balm, oregano, cilantro, and rose petals. The bee and lemon balm is great for tea and rose petals.

I currently have 8-quart jars filled with bee balm and lemon balm. We will utilize these all winter long with a pinch of honey. Bee balm is excellent for colds and cases of flu has anti-inflammatory benefits and can aid in relieving depression symptoms. Lemon balm is good for digestion and aids in sleep. Rose petals aid in alleviating menstrual symptoms.

During the summer months, when we have an abundance of fruit, we cut them up into chunks and freeze them for smoothies. I was unsure if I wanted to can the beets, dehydrate them, and turn them into a powder to add to smoothies or chunk them up and just freeze them for smoothies. I decided on freezing so that I do not get overwhelmed by the amount of produce to can or dehydrate.

As my tomatoes continue to ripen, I will be making some salsa and marinara. There is nothing better than making your own salsa and sauces. This ensures there are no extras in there that shouldn't be. With all the preservatives and excessive sodium in most canned items, I make most of my own sauces from scratch. Preserving them at home lets us enjoy them all winter long.

A few other things I try to preserve when I can, are jams and pickles. We love pickles and I can never preserve enough for the entire winter. Jams are another story. I was blessed last year to get several crates full of berries, and my rhubarb was exceedingly abundant, so we still have several jars of jam for this coming winter.If you have never done any preserving before, don't fret. It is much easier than you think and, you can find an abundance of youtube videos to walk you through the process. Freezing is one of the easiest ways to preserve foods if you have the space for it.

We line a baking sheet with parchment paper, lay out the cut-up produce, set it in the freezer for a couple hours to freeze, and then move it to a zip lock bag for long-term storage in the freezer.

Dehydrating is another super easy process. You simply put the herbs or produce in the dehydrator and store them in an airtight container when they have dried out all the way. If you do not have a dehydrator you can just tie them together and hang them to dry.

Preserving your own jams or jellies and high-acid foods, in my mind, is the easiest way to learn to can. Because they are high-acid foods, your likelihood of getting botulism is unlikely. As you become more familiar with the processes, you can preserve stuff all year.

I want to know. What do you think?