Season’s bounty: 4 methods for preserving seasonal fruit and veg

Preserving is one of my favourite pastimes – my fridge is packed with jars of pickles, jams and marmalades that I reach for almost every day. Right now, for example, my top shelf is populated with bergamot-and-Stoney marmalade, giardiniera, pickled red onions and umsobo preserve.

But preserving isn’t only about storing. It’s a method for mitigating waste, too. Pickling or canning makes produce last longer and helps maintain and, in some cases, enhance flavour and texture. The oldest methods of preservation include drying, refrigeration and fermentation. Modern preserving methods include canning, pasteurisation, freezing, irradiation and the addition of chemicals.

ALSO READ: What’s in season this summer

Here, I focus on just four of the more old-school methods of preserving food, because I’m low-tech like that, and I also want this to be an easy hobby for you to get into. Preserves also make amazing gifts, I find. There’s nothing sweeter than someone giving you a jar of jam they made themselves. Here are a few great ways to give that delicious produce a new lease of life!

Preserving method 1: pickling

Frikkadel burgers with fridge-dive giardiniera recipe

This one is one of the easiest and quickest ways of preserving produce. I have tons of recipes that incorporate this method, but none better than giardiniera, which is my favourite way of using up the little bits and pieces of veggies that lurk in the corners of my fridge. Here’s a recipe for this Italian veggie pickle that’s very dear to me. I always have a jar of it in the fridge – the last batch I made included cauliflower I grew in my balcony garden. I cooked the florets and chopped the stem to pickle because I really wanted to make it last. I was super proud of that harvest and wanted to spread it across as many meals as I could! I sometimes stir giardiniera pickle into mayonnaise to mimic the deliciously tart flavours of old-school sandwich spread. Make this recipe in big batches to share with your peeps; it’s great on any plate as a little salad.

I also made these braaied pickled mushrooms a while back, and I don’t think I revisit this recipe often enough… it’s so good! They’re an incredible add-on to your braai offering, and your plant-based friends will be obsessed. Or try them on toast with a dollop of Woolies’ new truffle mayo.  Yum! And did I mention they’re also perfect alongside creamy scrambled eggs?

Pickled braaied mushrooms recipe

Preserving method 2: fermenting

The internet is flooded with videos of overflowing bottles of soda of all sorts of exotic flavours, and home-brewed kombucha and beer. Globally, we’ve been enjoying fermented foods for well over 10 000 years, although it seems like a new thing people are rediscovering right now. Fermentation has also gained a lot of traction in recent years as it improves digestive and brain health and boosts the immune system. It’s more popular than it’s ever been.

ALSO READ: How to make kombucha

Fermentation is one of the oldest methods of preserving. There are plenty of examples in South African cuisine, perhaps none quite as well-known as ting wa mabele and umqombothi, two very different preparations whose main ingredient is sorghum meal. When I was growing up, my granny would make a starter with maize meal porridge and water and keep it in a tightly sealed jar to ferment for a few days. As it spluttered on the stove, the funky smell would permeate through the house and kinda gross everyone out, but I loved the aroma and was the only one at home who would enjoy the sour porridge with her. Here’s a recipe for ting by the late Les Da Chef, which is delicious as a sweet breakfast porridge but can also be enjoyed stiffer as an accompaniment to stews and morogo.

Ting ya mabele recipe 

We’re not the only ones who enjoy umqombothi. Sometimes called African beer, it has many iterations all over the continent. Chibuku, as it’s known in Zimbabwe and Zambia, is sold commercially and is a thick, sour beer with a low alcohol content, about 2–5% at the most. It’s usually drunk straight out of the carton it comes in and is best enjoyed ice cold on a sweltering hot day. East African uji is a similar preparation of either sorghum or millet and has a sour taste, while in Burkina Faso it’s called bulu and is also brewed for and enjoyed at traditional ceremonies. The longer it ferments, the higher the volume of alcohol per serving! Mam’ Dorah Sitole herself supplied us with her recipe for umqombothi, which you can find here.

Umqombothi (African beer) recipe

Preserving method 3: making jam

Making jam is certainly one of the most widely practised forms of processing and preserving fruit. Cooking fruit with sugar preserves it for longer and intensifies its fruity flavour. Preserving food at its peak, or during its season, is best as it’s at its sweetest, so less sugar is necessary. I encourage you to read this brilliant jam-making guide by TASTE content producer Lesego Madisa who learned the craft from her grandmother and has since become a jam-making fiend!

ALSO READ: Making jam 101

Jam doesn’t even always have to be made using fruit: even if you’re not usually a “jammy” person, you might fancy this very tasty recipe for biltong jam by contributor Brita du Plessis. And you really should give my tamarind-and-tomato jam a bash too – it’s a regular fixture in my house whenever I have a glut of tomatoes.

Tomato tamarind jam recipe

Preserving method 4: drying

Drying or dehydrating foods is a time-honoured method of preserving fruit and vegetables. Drying dehydrates them, extracting the water content to slow down spoiling and intensify flavour.

Make Abi Donnelly’s version of sundried tomatoes using this handy recipe  – it’s such a rewarding exercise and they’re so easy to make, you’ll never want to use the shop-bought version again!

And finally, a non-DIY preserved treat. I'm not being paid to say this, but Woolies’ dried mangoes are among the best versions of anything dried I’ve ever tasted. Shop them here.

Tomato tamarind jam recipe