Highlights Archives
Pickles, Preserves and Produce on Parade
Spoiled as we are today, when we can pop a frozen entrée into a microwave oven and have a hot lunch ready three minutes later, it is easy to lose sight of how vital a skill food preservation was for settlers in 19th- and early 20th-century Wisconsin. Refrigeration didn't become a practical means of preserving food until well into the 1920s, and home freezers did not become commonplace until after World War II. To put the importance of food preservation in pioneer Wisconsin into perspective, Old World Wisconsin will present a special event called Pickles, Preserves and Produce on Saturday, August 25.
Visitors will have the opportunity to see firsthand some of the methods used for preserving food prior to the advent of modern refrigeration:
- See a Finnish sauna used as a smoker for preserving fish, or visit a root cellar and discover the different types of foodstuffs stored inside.
- Learn the secret for making sunshine preserves.
- See how salt is used to keep items from spoiling.
- Explore some of the different ways that eggs were preserved in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Smell the aroma of beets slowly simmering on a wood-fired stove.
- Discover some old-fashioned recipes for making scrumptious jams and jellies.
- See pumpkins and apples being dried over low heat so they can be easily stored over the winter months and reconstituted for items such as pies and stews.
- Learn how to make honey vinegar, a useful item for every household.
- Watch as pickles are put up in crocks for later use.
- See more up-to-date techniques for preserving food, such as water-bath canning, a method still used by home canners today.
- Take a turn at "smashing" cabbage for making sauerkraut.
For complete details on admission, hours, a map, distances from various cities, and other information, see Old World Wisconsin's visitor information page.
:: Posted August 20, 2007
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