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Canning, Pickling, and Freezing with Irma Harding: Recipes to Preserve Food, Family and the American Way

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Preserving your own food is a fundamental part of a healthy lifestyle. Canning and pickling is a way of doing this. Not only do you source produce from your garden, farmer s market, or local shop, you can also ensure the preparation is wholesome and the ingredients are pure. In this detailed guide, 1950s icon Irma Harding offers her firm guidance on how to properly prepare and preserve your own foods. The book explains how to preserve foods by canning, pickling, freezing, smoking and curing fresh vegetables and meats. Step-by-step techniques and tasty recipes from food artisans in Austin, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan and other places are included. Along the way, Irma Harding provides her no-nonsense advice and some colorful images and a brief history of her checkered red cloth past. This colorful book delivers both the techniques and recipes necessary to keep their food local and fresh and the life path direct and true.

262 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2013

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About the author

Marilyn McCray

3 books1 follower

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5 stars
53 (26%)
4 stars
62 (31%)
3 stars
53 (26%)
2 stars
24 (12%)
1 star
7 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Emma.
768 reviews24 followers
January 17, 2018
He loves Irma Harding...I love Marilyn McCray

Read the book, my title makes sense.

I cannot rave enough about this book. From the forward, with the loving description of Irma Harding, through the in-depth discussion of pressure vs. water bath canning, into the recipes and techniques, Marilyn takes the reader through precise and detailed instructions to preserve our bounty from harvest to table.

I would caution the reader that you WILL get excited to grow some food just so you can "put it up" and then maybe share with your friends and family.
Profile Image for Gemma.
283 reviews3 followers
April 26, 2020
This would be good for a beginner, I found the explanations clear. Quantities are in US measurements rather than Euro and US so I’ve taken a star away as I’ll have to convert recipes.

All in all I like this book.
Profile Image for Donna Hutt Stapfer Bell.
236 reviews2 followers
September 8, 2015
Relevant, useful but dated

Manufacturers of large home appliances often included recipes and helpful hints on using their products in the forties, fifties and sixties. Often introduced by a fictional "home economist," they were also slices of popular culture of the day that looking back, are irresistible - with tongue firmly in cheek. There aren't many places where a woman's place was more firmly fixed in the home...without a single man in sight...than in the cookbooks and guides published for this market. However, they are still gold mines of good recipes for foods that needed handling then that are rarely come across today. But with the advent of farmers markets, self sufficient shopping and home canning becoming useful again, these resources are relevant again. If you can hold your nose at the images of women serving food from the freezer in heels, of course.
Author 44 books3 followers
December 25, 2015
Harken to a bygone era

I especially enjoyed this short book for the reminiscent factor. Before box stores and major food chains most rural or farming families had to find ways to make their summer crops last throughout the year. I wrote about some of these techniques in my books Buckshot Pie and Dismounted Liberty.

The illustrations also take me back to my childhood. There are several techniques for canning, pickling, and freezing foods, but this is generally more of a story of times gone by rather than a recipe book. Enjoy!
Profile Image for Maria Miaoulis.
377 reviews
February 2, 2016
A thorough and well-organized guide to preserving food by canning, pickling, freezing, etc. The author also includes a charming account of food preservation evolution throughout the years. Especially helpful were the illustrations and excellent formatting that tends to result in ebooks reading like huge blobs. Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Snufkin.
564 reviews7 followers
December 18, 2015
Whilst this may be great for some keen cookers, a lot of the methods are specialised and consumes much time and effort. The step-by-step guides are very repetitive, a lot of copy-and-paste, and could be condensed in some way to avoid this...
Profile Image for Nancy.
533 reviews12 followers
September 18, 2015
Just ok

Three stars only because it was free. Just a few cranberry recipes I would like to try sometime. I don't think I've seen cranberry canning recipes before
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews

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