Freezing, bottling, pickling, preserving, clamping, fermenting, brewing… the options for storing your annual crop are manifold, but it’s not immediately obvious either how you should go about it, or which is the best to choose.

The trouble with self sufficiency is that unless you’re very careful you’re going to swing back and forth between famine and feast. The winter months can be quiet and barren on the plot, while late summer and early autumn can see a positive glut of produce, with home-grown tomatoes, beans, potatoes, carrots and all manner of fruit fighting for space in your kitchen cupboards.

To make them last through the winter months you’re going to have to plan ahead, which is where this slim book comes into its own. It’s a no-nonsense guide for the uninitiated, taking you crop by crop through preparing and preserving the most common vegetables and fruits grown in the self-sufficient garden.

There’s no getting away from the fact that this is anything but a thin book, but that doesn’t limit its value or usefulness. By splitting it into two sections, and concentrating on a general overview of key concepts in the first half (clamping, drying, bottling and so on), and specifics in the second – including recipes – author Piers Warren gives far more information than you first think, making this a book you’ll want to keep handy throughout the year.

Like The Allotment Cookbook, it bypasses the whole choosing, sowing and growing process and skips straight to harvest time, and it also includes some recipes, notably for cider, chutney and so on, but it is both better presented and more useful than that thicker book, and a better buy as a result.

It’s UK written by a self-confessed self-sufficiency fanatic from Norfolk, so you know that the advice he gives is relevant to this part of the world. But because he deals with generalised preservation techniques, rather than advising on what and when to sow, its appeal is almost universal, even for international readers. As such, it comes highly recommended.

Price £4.95
ISBN 1-903998-25-5
Author Piers Warren
ProsFocused and relevant, it presents far more information than you first think.
Cons None.
Verdict A gem of a book that gives plenty of no-nonsense advice. Even if your idea of preservation stretches only so far as the freezer it would be a valuable addition to the self-sufficiency bookshelf.

Technorati Tags:
self sufficiency, self+sufficiency, vegetables

Related posts:

1. The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: review
2. The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour: review
3. The Allotment Cookbook : review