Does anyone have a good method for preserving fresh asparagus so it's still crunchy when you open it a few months later? Thanks for any help. Mary
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Does anyone have a good method for preserving fresh asparagus so it's still crunchy when you open it a few months later? Thanks for any help. Mary
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That is a really good question Mary. I wonder if lacto fermentation would work - using horseradish, nasturtium or grape leaves? I have frozen and canned them and they are always 'soft' either way.
Deane loves our asparagus and I'm always looking for ways to prepare them, so you got me thinking here.
You may have something on the lacto fermenting idea Catherine. I found a couple of articles that were useful. Basically, it's difficult to preserve asparagus and retain crispness. Flash freezing sounds like the best method, if one can accomplish that! ;-)
I decided to change the Word document to a pdf and lost the Upload Files button so had to start a new Reply. Here's the two articles that I found helpful. m
Asparagus - How to Lacto Ferment Asparagus.pdf
Asparagus - Freezing It Without It Turning to Mush.pdf
Mary good LF article - that is kind of what I was thinking of. You have given me a good option for preserving our asparagus when they start up again. Thanks for posting all of this.
I would suggest if you go with LF that you give the horseradish, grape, or nasturtium leaf 'crisper' a try to. Put them in the bottom of the jar before loading it.
BTW - I got 'pickle weights' which are glass discs for weighing down the ingredients to keep them under water. The producer said he was trying to get a slightly larger size - and I need to go to his site and see if he did - because I need 2-3 in my wide mouth jars (my preferred size) to keep them down. The other option is using a pine or quart wide mouth jar and a cup size jar filled with a bit of water 'inside' the quart on top of the ingredients - works well. Other people have used a ziplock partially filled with water to weight them down. The challenge with the ziplock is you may create an air seal and you don't want that, the gasses have to escape, e.g. the glass weights or smaller jar.
Mary, here is the glass weight site - I did email him just now and asked if they got a larger size in (bigger than the 2 now listed). I like the idea these are made particularly for LF. I also found a glass candle holder that would 'just' fit inside my quart size jar, but I would prefer a real 'food safe' glass.
http://home.beeline-online.net/revrick/jarweights.htm
Thanks Catherine. I'm looking at this for a friend in northern Michigan and I don't think she has any horseradish. My asparagus is still a 2 year wait. Wahhh.
Ah, okay. Yeah I know it takes a long time to get going, but it will be worth it, really :-)