The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest

I am a long time canner, food preserver. I figured I would look through this book but never thought I would learn anything. Well I was wrong I learned quite a few things and there are quite a few things that have been updated through the years. I plan to get my sister this book since she is learning to can food.

#TheFarmGirlsGuideToPreservingTheHarvest #NetGalley

Great book for new or seasoned persons who want to learn about preserving food. Many useful tools, some you may know, some you may not. Everyone could learn something from this author.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

This might just be the most complete book on preserving food that I have ever seen. The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest starts at the simplest point, introducing all of the ways that food can be preserved and the tools necessary to do that. It then takes you thru each method, telling how to do it, what items you specifically need, and the types of foods that can be preserved in that method. It also includes a few recipes in each section. The different methods listed in the book are Water Canning, Pressure Canning, Dehydrating, Curing and Smoking, Fermentation, Root Cellar and Cold Storage, Freezing, and Freeze-Drying. I cannot wait until I can get my hands on this publication.

The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest by Ann Accetta-Scott is definitely a how to guide. It is chock-a-block full of sage advise regarding multiple preserving methods. The book is meant to take the fear our of preserving food. Usually most preservers do not have a mentor that lives next door. This book explains everything the author could think of to help the reader be successful. There are many recipes, dos and don'ts, how to and whys.. If you have a question about preserving this book probably has the answer. Some of the types of preserving that are covered are water canning, pressure canning, dehydration, curing and smoking, cold storage and freezing. There are many usable charts like the weight of your fresh produce and how many jars it will make once processed. If you are even remotely interested in having healthy food for your family this book is a great incentive.
I would like to thank the publisher, author and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An approachable guide for anyone interested in canning and preserving their own food, whether you're a city or country mouse. Accessible instructions for beginners and a variety of recipes for more advanced preservers. Includes glossary of terms, description of equipment needed, and lots of photos.

An impressive collection of creative food storage ideas. As a novice canner, I am overwhelmed by all the information in this book. However, it is exciting to look forward to trying some of these suggested methods of preserving this summer!

Thanks to #NetGalley, I had an advanced PDF to read and review.

*All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review. *

I really enjoyed reading about Accetta-Scott's journey into homesteading. It was a very authentic experience and made me appreciate the stories she shares on how she navigated such a big transition with her family. The instructions for preservation were very simple and easy to follow.

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.

Fantastic overview of how to make the most of your homesteading rewards and then how to preserve it all! As a brand new homesteader, some of it was a little over my head but definitely gives me something to work towards. I am on the east coast of Canada so I like that this book wasn't just written for someone who is gardening year-round in the southern US. It is much closer to the information that I am looking for in a homesteading guide.

The images sprinkled throughout the pages are beautiful as well and everything tied together nicely with the theme. A lovely book to give as a gift for someone who enjoys canning and being as self-sustaining as possible.

Thanks #NetGalley for the review copy of this e-book!

This is a great book for anyone new to canning/preserving and for people, like me, who have used one method, but have been nervous to try another. Directions are very clear and detailed and are easy to follow. Lists of approximate yield of product per # of pounds of fruit are included for quick reference. Recipes in the book include items that I would love to store in my pantry including, apple butter, maple bourbon bacon jam, apple rings, stewed tomatoes, etc.

I used to love canning and preserving food when I was a new mother. Not sure why I stopped, but it’s been awhile and I saw this title and figured it might spark the interest again. It did FAR more than that and opened up more doors and things for me to try.

A good overview many ways to put food up, this book makes it simple and provides recipes as well. It’s not just jellies and pickles, this book covers Ricotta, fruit roll ups, jerky, kombucha, Apple cider vinegar, Irish cream, and more.

A solid book for the amateur as well and experienced cook. Looking forward to getting a hard copy and putting up some of this Summer’s bounty.

This is a fabulous reference for canning, dehydrating, curing and smoking fish, fermenting, root cellar and cold storage, freezing and freeze-drying
Not only includes recipes but also the description of the tools needed. Many handy charts with pint and quart size processing times for different food items. Extra boxes explain rare questions and do-nots. Pictures galore!

Having relatives that can and having made a few things myself, I found this book to cover basics well and still teach me something new.

However, there were references to pages that weren't finished yet (XXX) and an empty spot with a note for a picture. The index wasn't finished. For a few things, the process was explained but not exact measurements/amounts.

I received a free ARC from Netgalley. Above is my opinion.

This book would be a fantastic resource for anyone who is interested in creating and preserving foods. It covers so much and goes so in depth that it makes things that seem complicated, quite easy to follow and tempting. This book covers the basic canning and freezing but also goes into other forms of preserving food such as smoking, fermenting, and free-drying. I loved that this book contains a plethora of preserving techniques and because everything is together, you would really only need this one book in your kitchen. I feel like this book offers more up-to-date instructions on preserving while incorporating techniques and products that you just don't see in older references. This book is a must-have for preserving food!

This is well laid-out, clear, concise and also beautiful. Now there are only two of us and we live in the city but oh, I so wish I had such a book when I was young.

Everything is explained. All of those things that died with so many of our grandmothers. Every list is available of how much to buy to be able to can a certain amount. I mean just everything is here. The pictures keep the reading flowing and the organization makes it as easy to use and it is easy to read.It's like a garden bible.

I think this should be on any cook's shelf if they have a garden or even buy produce at the farmer's markets each summer. It is a good book to begin to call a stand-by. This is just so interesting and even though it may no longer be the way I live or cook, it is something I loved reading.

A wonderful guide to preserving the harvest. I had the privilege of reviewing this book through net galley. I intend to purchase and add it to my library.

The best time to read this book is when you are planning your garden and your farmer's market trips. before you are looking at a bushel basket of tomatoes with no idea of how to keep them. I'm always curious on how gardeners manage to plan their harvests and work towards a goal of keeping the crop that has matured all at once so they do not lose their efforts to Mother nature's whimsy.
The book gives practical information and guidance to anyone who is thinking of preserving. It covers several different methods with out making the reader/ user feel overwhelmed by information and technique. I have used all of these methods a little bit but feel I can apply the information provided to make my family's meals not only better but much safer too. A great book to read and refer to often.

This was such a thorough, yet manageable guide to everything preservation! Ann clearly explains many different methods of canning, drying, fermenting, and guides you through the entire process. It is much less scary now, and I'm excited to start preserving some of my own harvest!

This book is great for beginners. This walks you through preserving food in a few different ways and is quite helpful if you are just starting out. Thank you to Netgalley fro the ARC.

Ann Accetta-Scott tells us that preserving the harvest is the scariest part of homesteading. I can't say she is wrong about that but with her guide to follow, it's a much more doable series of chores. The Farm Girls Guide to Preserving the Harvest is an excellent look into your options when/if that garden really starts to be viable. I retired a couple of years ago, and have time now to garden. I grew up on a farm in the 1950s with a large harvest - and a large extended family to handle the chores. My memories of a house full of Aunts and Grandma and Mom all laughing, peeling, giggling, chopping, are the best.

That world has passed, however, and gardening by myself is intimidating. My husband worked outdoors for 40 years and he has no interest in anything past the rocker on the back porch. My children have lives. But I really want to find again that sense of complete self-reliance and contentment that we had when I was a girl. It goes past food security. I think it is grounded in your sense of self-worth and perhaps self-confidence. I need to feel that, again.

My first two years after I retired, I grew only a bit more than we could eat over the course of the summer growing season. Last year I had vegetables to dehydrate which lasted most of the winter season. And last February, I lost my mother at 88. I need the garden now, more than ever.

Reading this excellent offering from Ms. Accetta-Scott has gotten me fired up - I will at the very least have plenty of tomatoes and peppers if I get started right away. And fermenting - my grandmother always had 6-gallon crocks of pickles and sauerkraut bubbling in the back of the pantry. And nobody made bread and butter pickles as crisp and sweet as hers. For we kids, the best part of autumn was getting involved in making chow-chow - basically pickling every green thing in the garden on the last Indian summer days before that first hard frost. We got to help - gather, wash, chop, spice. It felt so good to be a part of that, providing bits of summer to brighten winter days.

I will never be as good at food preservation as Grandma, who spent her 92 years of life taking care of her family, feeding them well balanced, wholesome meals. But with this little book, I might make it through one more summer of gardening. Sauerkraut may be beyond me, but I KNOW I can handle chow-chow!

I received a free electronic copy of this how-to book from Netgalley, Ann Accetta-Scott, and Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Thank you for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this book of my own volition, and this review is my honest opinion of this work.

Completely fabulous! I've canned produce before, using the water bath method as well as a pressure canner, and I'm always interested in learning more about preserving my own food. This book is loaded - and I mean LOADED - with information on a variety of food preservation methods. Initially, I was thinking "get on with the recipes already!" but I quickly realized that there is nothing that should have been cut out of the beginning of the book; it's all important.

The author's enthusiasm for the topic is clear, and that makes the reader enthusiastic, as well. There's really no reason to be afraid to just jump in and start canning!

Sadly, with this being an ARC copy (thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me to review this title!) it will go away in a few weeks. I plan to purchase a copy for myself and to recommend the title for my library. It's that good!

I grew up on a farm canning every summer with my grandma so this book really hit home for me. I loved the pictures and I loved the detailed how tos on preserving food. I live in a much more highly populated area now but still can't go a summer without at least making up some homemade jam to can. Food preservation is such an important skill as well as growing a garden to harvest. Beautiful book with wonderful content!

This is a great how-to guide for those who are new to preservation methods like pressure canning, water bath canning, drying, dehydrating and fermenting. These are all things that we have been doing for years but I am always open for more information and ideas. There are great photos and charts, plus very detailed information to get you started. I was hoping for more actual recipes and instructions, along the lines of "here are our favorite ways to put tomatoes, here are our favorite beet recipes, here are the basics on how to can, pickle or freeze green beans" and things like that. This isn't that kind of book and I already am pretty proficient at preservation, so it's not a book that I feel the need to buy for my own shelves. If I were new to all of this, it would definitely be on my short list.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

I loved this book - this year was the first year I had a truly successful garden and I've been putting up produce as it comes in!

As someone who has never canned anything in her life I was excited about this book. I have always been more than a little intimated about trying this. My younger sister does it every year and she acts like it is no big deal. This book is the ideal tool for someone like me.

I would love to say it is perfect for someone who has more experience for the recipes alone.Which by the way are awesome! This book gives you all the basics on canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking, plus how to use the right tools for each method. If you want to learn more about preserving this this book needs to be in your collection.

Cute book! I even learned some new things about preserving!! My friends were so jealous and want this book now!