Since buying or growing organic produce tends to be a seasonal affair, you will want to be able to preserve your fruits and vegetables to use later in the year. There are several great food preservation methods that you can use to keep food for many months, all still retaining the organic standards you are looking for. The most common are canning, freezing and drying.

Canning
Canning is a bit of a misnomer since you are really storing your food in glass jars rather than cans. You can can things like pickles and tomatoes (high acidity) foods in just a boiling water bath but for all other foods, you will need to invest in a pressure canner. Food is packed into proper canning jars, made by Ball or Mason (not old jam jars) and heated under pressure long enough to kill any bacteria. When they are removed from the canner and cooled, a vacuum is created which seals down the lids.

This is how many past generations preserved their foods and though it takes more work than these other methods, the sealed jars can be stored anywhere once finished. Your food retains much of its nutrients but the texture will be softer since everything you can gets a good cooking in the canner.

Freezing
Freezing is the simplest method here but does require the ongoing use of your freezer to keep everything nicely frozen. This can be a problem if your home is subject to power outages. Some vegetables can just be cleaned up and frozen just as-is but you will get better preservation if you blanch most first. That’s a quick bath is boiling hot water to stop the natural enzyme actions that would degrade your food, even in the freezer. When thawed, your food will be the closest to fresh of most preservation methods.

For large gardens, you may need to invest in a second chest freezer if you want to use this method to preserve most of your harvest.

Drying
Drying is not ideal for all your fruits and veggies but it can be a great option to use as part of your overall preservation plan. Like canning, you can stored your finished foods without any special conditions (unlike freezing). All you need is a dehydrator, which isn’t much more than a small heater with a fan. Most commercial dehydrators will hold several trays of sliced food and have them thoroughly dry in an afternoon or overnight. For large harvests, you will want a large unit or even build your own drying racks.

Food that is dried for preservation needs to be completely dry or it can become moldy while in storage. Depending on the type of food, that can be tough and leathery or even dry enough to snap when bent. The food will shrink quite a bit once dehydrated making for better storage. The downside is that the consistency of the food once it’s rehydrated isn’t as good as the other methods.

None of these methods involving using artificial or chemical preservatives, making them perfect for the organic shopper or gardener.

About the Author
Adrian Michaels loves organic food and is a writer for Organic Food Lovers, a site for people with a passion for food that’s organic.
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Today is Earth Hour day (March 29, 2008)

Approximately in an hour (Brisbane time), cities across the world will turn off their lights for just one hour. This is a very strong and powerful movement to show that it is possible to take action on global warming.

You can actually make a difference NOW to help to reduce the effect of global warming. Simple actions like switching off can make a difference and it sends a powerful message that the people of the world care about the future of the planet.

To make things happen, sign up for Earth Hour and commit to turning off your lights on March 29th from 8pm to 9pm. If you are currently residing in Brisbane, you still have another 40 minutes to commit.

To the rest of the people at other part of the world, please check out Earth Hour to find out what you can do to make a difference. You can make a huge difference by unplugging any appliances – mobile phone charger, TV, microwave, MP3 player, computer monitor, printer that are not being used and are on standby. By doing so, you are doing yourself and your wallet a big favor! This is because appliances left on standby account for up to 10% of the average household’s electricity use.

Up to now, there are 19,914 businesses and 283,357 people have signed up to take action! Be one of them!

You will see the world in a whole new light.

… but I have not tasted the best water in the world yet.

A UN report on the world’s water situation says that the best water in the world is to be found in Finland.

A report published at the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto listed 122 countries in order from the best to the worst in terms of the quality of their water.

After Finland came Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain and Japan.

I wonder how would the taste of the best water in the world be like. Hmm….

I feel frustrated. I just finished reading yet another article on the benefits of natural/organic cosmetics and skincare products. It is always encouraging to see an article on this subject in a mainstream magazine, that is until you start reading. Most often they turn out to be misleading if not downright wrong.

A popular beauty magazine that I read regularly ran an article for their October issue on natural products and stated that “organic products” are the way to go because they “exclude chemical pesticides and certain synthetics purported to have health risks”. The true story here would be that the manufacturers of organic cosmetic and skincare products exclude harmful chemicals only if they choose to exclude them. The organic ingredients they use may have been grown without the use of pesticides but just because they include organically grown ingredients does not mean that they are automatically free from all harmful ingredients. Organically grown broccoli is good for you but if you cook it in butter and cover it in cheese and salt it detracts from the healthy benefits. So if you are using an “organic product” on your face, hair or body that contains parabens, harmful sulphates or fragrances, the organically-grown ingredients are not really doing you that much good.

The article goes on to recommend several organic product lines, some of which contain the above mentioned synthetic ingredients. They also gave a hit and miss description of terms, stating that “natural” ingredients are those that are derived from a plant source that have not been altered or processed and implied that the US government actually regulates ingredient that go into cosmetics. The reality is that cosmetics manufacturers can use pretty much any ingredient they wish (with a few, albeit flimsy, restrictions) without approval from the FDA. And as for the term “natural”, when applied to cosmetics this simply means that the product contains ingredient(s) which are derived from nature whether they have been produced using chemicals or not. More or less just a marketing tool.

Most often these publications list an array of organic cosmetics lines, most of which are not safe, the majority of which are designer. This may be part of the problem. If a celebrity puts their name on a product people will buy it, trusting its safety and quality.

But there are celebrities out there endorsing their own safe organic line or those of others. Such as Jo Wood of Jo Wood Organics (as in the wife of Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones) and Debra Messing who is the American face for the German brand Lavera.

I have seen many articles like this one in many publications over the past couple of years and while it is exciting that organic cosmetics are getting more attention, it is frustrating that the ultimate goal of using products with organic ingredients is being overlooked. The benefit to our own bodies is the obvious factor here, but what about the health and safety of our earth? While toxic ingredients are being used they are being absorbed by our earth as well as our skin, as they are washed down our drains and into our soil and water supply.

There are many safe, effective, high-quality organic products being made today, you just have to know where to look and what you are looking (or not looking) for. Find an organic cosmetics source you trust, follow their recommendations and you will be healthier and happier because of it.

The bottom line is to always be sure the manufacturer of the cosmetics products you use are dedicated to creating safe organic cosmetics. The word “organic” on the label is not a guarantee of a product’s safety.

About the Author
Elizabeth Thompson began OrganicBeautySource.com, a directory of safe organic
cosmetics, in 2006 as a means for the conscientious consumer to easily locate organic personal care products free from harmful ingredients. Visit www.organicbeautysource.com to shop for effective, high-quality organic products that are always free from toxins.

When I clicked on it, I had a pleasant surprise… I won a Blogger of the Day Award! How cool is that!

Thanks, Jennifer for such a lovely award ! :)

This is indeed motivational for me to post more quality posts..:D