Book Review "Everything Worth Preserving" Book written by Melissa Norris

This book is about different ways to preserve food. She explains different forms of preservation like canning, dehydration, freezing, fermenting, root cellar, freeze-drying, infusion, salt and smoking. She explains how to preserve in a safe manner, how to use general equipment, different jar sizes. Also, includes recipes to preserve vegetables, fruits, meat, soups and stews. Melissa Norris ends by saying " While this may be the end of this book, it is just the beginning of your journey."

She has been preserving foods for about twenty years and counting. Her tactics are very practical. I tried to make a root cellar, and it worked really well. I have cabbage, squash, potato's, apples and most of my foods lasts for months. Technically it's going to last most of the winter until I am able to start my gardening again. I learned "for everything there is a season". It begins with gardening during the spring and summer, then harvesting summer and fall, preserving in the winter. I also learned apples last three to four months in a root cellar (under certain conditions), giving me more time to preserve during the winter. There is never a dull moment around here. In result, I had more time to preserve my apples. I was able to make Applesauce Fruit Leather (like Fruit Roll Ups) Yummy!

This book is like a dictionary it tells you what to preserve and how to do it. A potato in a root cellar could last four to six months, but pears could only last about two to three weeks. You have to also take into consideration what your family likes and dislikes. If nobody likes pears, I will not recommend storing pears in your root cellar. I made my own root cellar in my basement, out of insulation panels in a corner of my basement which has a window. I did not want to spend too much money because I wanted to test it out first. I really liked my setup, but there are fancier root cellars out there, which could be turned into a dream cellar.

I think this book is a great resource. It's organized and has a lot of charts, making it easy to find different ways to preserve foods. For example, "Seasonal Harvest Chart," dehydration and fermenting charts. This book is very informative. The only flaw I noticed, it was too broad, leaving lots of room to add more cinnamon or nutmeg. I personally like the flexibility to add my own touch, but as a beginner I need more specific instructions. What I did was follow the recipe exactly the way it is in the book, the second time I added my own personal touch. Overall, it's a great resource of information all cramped into one book. I'm definitely keeping this book with my dictionary and encyclopedias.