Waste not, want not!
I remember as a child going with my family in early morning to a nearby orchard to buy (at a very low price) a bushel of “culls” – peaches that had fallen from the tree during the night and were beginning to bruise making them unfit for sending to stores. We had to hurry home to begin a long day of washing, peeling, dicing, adding sugar and spices (and not pectin), and cooking the mixture down to produce my Charleston-born grandmother’s spiced peach conserve, which we then “put up” in jars for later use.
I was delighted to meet a group at the Charlottesville City Market that is dedicated to the same idea of increasing the shelf life of local produce.
The Vinegar Hill Project Women’s Canning Cooperative is a worker’s cooperative made up of women who will produce local canned fruits and vegetables that are to be sold in the Charlottesville community. Using surplus, locally-grown food procured at little or no cost, members of the cooperative preserve food that might otherwise spoil or be turned into compost. Canning this food increases the shelf life.
Continue reading …. http://www.cvillepedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Vinegar_Hill_Women%27s_Canning_Cooperative
Live & Learn! 