This summer I learned to conserve vegetables, Ukrainian style. With the help of my friend Olga Fyodrovna and a couple others we canned over 30 liters of pickles and over 35 liters of tomatoes. Hopefully that will last Laura and I through the winter. I was also told that, using cucumbers from the greenhouse, the DCU cafeteria canned over 500 liters of pickles this summer. In the last couple of weeks they have also been canning a lot of tomatoes and salads (from the garden).
Canning here is very common because produce is so incredibly cheap in season and very expensive in the off-season. For example, tomatoes sell for around $0.05 per pound now and were around $1.35 per pound last winter. Therefore, fruits and vegetables (of the non-root variety) are not in the typical Ukrainian’s winter diet. By canning some fruits and vegetables they are able to supplement their diets a bit and save a little money.
Dave
