Canning is an easy, fun, and affordable way to enjoy fresh-grown local foods all year long. The Fresh Girl’s Guide to Easy Canning and Preserving provides all the information you need to know to start canning today, including basic steps to canning foods safely and easily; recipes for preserving everything from the standard tomatoes and jams to soups, sauces, and other hearty meals; and tips on where to find the freshest local produce.

In one concise volume, you can learn—and master like a pro—all the ways to put up food in jars, from water-bath canning to pressure canning, from pickling to jam-making, and beyond! Whether you are a gardener, a fan of farmers’ markets, or just someone who likes to browse the bountiful produce at the supermarket, canning and preserving are easy, fun, and affordable ways to enjoy fresh-grown foods all year long. This book provides all the information you need to know to get started today, including basic steps to canning foods safely and easily; recipes for preserving everything from tomatoes and jams to soups, sauces, and other hearty meals; and tips on how to find the freshest local produce. Clear, easy-to-follow instructions with color photographs make this a must-have book. The recipes include lots of preparations, both savory and sweet, and they range from blue-ribbon classics like dilly beans, sweet gherkins, applesauce, strawberry jam, and sauerkraut to new creations like Lavender Apple Butter, Raspberry-Rhubarb Sauce, Green Tomato Chutney, and Hibiscus Lime Jelly. A special chapter introduces readers to jam- and jelly-making using Pomona’s pectin, which requires little to no added sugar—thereby letting the natural sweetness of the fruit shine through beautifully. This comprehensive book teaches beginners how to get started and gives seasoned veterans new techniques and recipes to try.

"The Complete Illustrated Guide to Farming" explains farming from start to finish. It's an encyclopedia for the beginning farmer, hobby farmer, small-scale family farmer, or dreamer.

This new edition of the best-selling classic Dressing & Cooking Wild Game is the complete guide to field dressing and cooking great-tasting dishes with big game, small game, upland birds, and waterfowl. Compared to domestic meat, wild game is richer in flavor and lower in fat and calories. It also provides the ultimate expression of local food and a self-sufficient lifestyle. However, wild game requires unique care. The extremely low-fat meats of elk and pheasant, for example, become dry and tough if handled improperly. Fortunately, Dressing & Cooking Wild Game has all of the answers you need. This book is the complete guide to field dressing, portioning, and cooking great-tasting dishes with big game, small game, upland birds, and waterfowl. This book is filled with more than 150 recipes for wild game, from elk to squirrel to pheasant. More than 300 full-color photographs illustrate step-by-step directions and show finished dishes, making it easy to master the art of preparing wild game. With useful tips on butchering, dressing, and portioning, as well as information on cooking techniques and nutritional content, Dressing & Cooking Wild Game teaches you how to make your wild game dishes as memorable as the hunts that made them possible.

Preserving food can be one of the most intimidating aspects of homesteading and cooking. Luckily, no one makes it as easy and as much fun as farm-girl-in-the-making Ann Acetta-Scott. For a beginner new to the world of preserving, the ideal tool is a detailed reference guide, and in The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest, Ann covers all the basics on canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking, including how to select and use the right tools for each method. This guide takes home preservers through the beginning, moderate, and advanced stages of preserving. Newcomers 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. With more than 30 delicious and healthy recipesand Ann's expertise and encouragement, the home preserver will build confidence in the most common methods of preserving.