Preserving food can be a fun family project

If the current crop of cookbooks is any indication, food preservation is making a comeback. The spring harvest yielded a number of books on making pickles, jams, jellies and preserves, and preparing dried, smoked, salted and frozen foods.

This movement, if there actually is enough interest to be called a "movement," is fueled in large part by the growing interest in local and seasonal foods. Whether you grow your own or buy from a local farmer, one of the best ways to eat the foods you trust is to preserve them yourself.

But food preservation is a tricky business. Fears of spoilage, mold and worse - botulism - loom large. It is not for the uninformed.

The best way to inform yourself about safe food preservation is to take a course with your local extension service (yes, even big cities have them); or to immerse yourself in the U.S. Department of Agriculture food-preservation information online at the University of Georgia's National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu/nchfp); or to buy a trusty book on the subject.

I have long been a fan of the "Ball Blue Book of Preserving," published by the folks who make canning jars and equipment; it's available online at freshpreserving.com or call (800) 240-3340.

Another excellent volume is the hot-off-the-presses "The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home" by Janet Chadwick (Storey Publishing). This is a no-nonsense, confidence-building approach to canning, freezing, drying, brining and root-cellaring almost any fruit or vegetable you can think of.

Preserving food can be a fun family project as well as a way to use seasonal, fresh produce and keep it for your own delectation for the rest of the year.

Since "fresh and seasonal" are bywords for preserving, and since cherries are in season, here are two ways to preserve these once-a-year treats. The first is from the elegant "Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods" by Eugenia Bone (2009 Clarkson Potter). The second is from Chadwick's book.

• Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family." Get more information at marialisacalta.com.

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