By now, you’ve probably heard about the multiple benefits of
eating locally and seasonally—more nutritious food, better
prices and better flavor, not to mention supporting local
farmers over the industrial farming complex. And while eating
seasonally during summer may not present too much of a
challenge, things get a bit more difficult as autumn and winter
set in. One of the best ways to eat a local, seasonal diet year-
round is to preserve some foods during their most abundant time
(just look at what’s piled up at the farmer’s market). We humans
have preserved food for the lean months for eons as a matter of
necessity, and thus we’ve invented a wide array of time-tested
ways to keep food around longer, many of them very basic. Here
are our top six simple ways to preserve food for winter. Try the
recipes we’ve provided as a jumping-off point for
experimentation, then look to the extensive resources at the end
of this article to learn much more in-depth information on the
many methods of food preservation. 1. P