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Welcome to WFAEats — a fun adventure where we explore all things tasty and interesting in the Charlotte food scene. We want to share stories, recipes and culinary escapades and hear about yours!

The Last of Summer: Preserving the Flavor to Savor

freakinflamingo.com

It’s human nature: All season, we complained about too many tomatoes, an overflow of okra, the surplus of squash. But in the winter months ahead, we’ll be longing for those very same summer flavors.

There’s still time to preserve, pickle, and put up jars of your favorite foods.

For advice, we asked artisan jam maker Renee Joslyn to get us started. “Preserving isn't difficult - in fact it's easy, fun and creative - but you need to know the safety basics so you won't make yourself or you loved ones sick,” she says. “Someone who's new to canning and preserving should always use a trusted source for their first projects. Don't use Great-Grandma's notes, or recipes/methods over 25 years old.”

“The Ball Blue Book and Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving are bibles to the home canner,” Joslyn adds.

The resurgence in popularity of traditional preserving means new books on the topic are coming to the table. Sherri Brooks Vinton is the author of the popular Put ‘Em Up! series. Her newest title, thePut ‘Em Up Preserving Answer Book, explains everything from how to stock your pantry to setting up your own old-school canning porch, and includes recipes for each preserving method demonstrated.

What if instead of things to sink your teeth into, you prefer something to sip? Check out Drink the Harvest: Making and Preserving Juices, Wines, Meads, Teas, and Ciders, by Nan K. Chase and DeNeice C. Guest. Bright color photos will make readers thirsty, and eager to try their hand at creating Spiced Ginger-Bay Syrup or Luscious Limoncello.

Almost anything can be preserved or pickled, frozen or dried, turned into jam or wine. Joslyn says, “A customer challenged me to make a jam out of gorgeous local organic oyster mushrooms at the farmers market. So, I did. Another time, there was a blogger challenge involving watermelon. I made a spicy watermelon jam with fire-roasted jalapeños, lime, and cilantro.”

If you need more inspiration, consider this: “I always like to say that some people paint or draw, but I play with my food. It's my creative outlet,” Joslyn states.

Vinton writes: “For me, it’s all about connection. Preserving my own food keeps me connected to my local farms during the fallow season….It’s a way to feed some of the people I wish I could have around my table more often.”

Amy Rogers is the author of Hungry for Home: Stories of Food from Across the Carolinas and Red Pepper Fudge and Blue Ribbon Biscuits. Her writing has also been featured in Cornbread Nation 1: The Best of Southern Food Writing, the Oxford American, and the Charlotte Observer. She is founding publisher of the award-winning Novello Festival Press. She received a Creative Artist Fellowship from the Arts and Science Council, and was the first person to receive the award for non-fiction writing. Her reporting has also won multiple awards from the N.C. Working Press Association. She has been Writer in Residence at the Wildacres Center, and a program presenter at dozens of events, festivals, arts centers, schools, and other venues. Amy Rogers considers herself “Southern by choice,” and is a food and culture commentator for NPR station WFAE.