I'm so happy that I got an advance copy of Harriet Fasenfest's DVD Preserving with Friends (190 minutes, watch the trailer here) but I do have one gripe -- I wish it had been available when I started my journey into the wide world of food and drink preservation. My hand holders were books -- Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation and Linda Ziedrich's The Joy of Pickling. So I'm very pleased to now own Preserving with Friends, which features both Ziedrich AND Katz, along with host Harriet Fasenfest (author of A Householder's Guide to the Universe) and another guest who I haven't had the pleasure of meeting -- Marge Braker.
The DVD takes you through demos of everything from homemade jam/jelly/preserve making, home pickling (with Linda Ziedrich), home fermenting sauerkrauts and kimchi (with Sandor Ellix Katz) and home food dehydration and more (with Marge Braker). It's really nice to be able to watch, listen and learn the techniques from seasoned home food preservers.
I do a lot of home food and drink preservation -- everything from homemade fruit wines, hard cider, and miso, to sauerkraut, beef jerky and kimchi -- and I can tell you from experience that this video is invaluable if you're just setting off into this territory. It'll save you a lot of grief and give you loads of great ideas.
Purchase Preserving with Friends directly online as well as in Portland at Mirador Community Store. Check out clips from the video here as well as over at the Facebook page.
Preserving with Friends DVD $24.95 Purchase directly