Escola Secundária Artur Gonçalves

How do we harvest, store and preserve our food?

COMENIUS

Return to our roots: from seed to table

Nowadays, machines make the harvesting job

much easier.

WHEAT HARVESTIn the past,harvesting was done by hand.

OLIVES HARVEST

In the Past people used to hit the branches of the tree with a stick.

Now there is a machine that shakes the olive tree.

However, in small farms, in which the food produced is for self-consumption, the harvesting is still done

by hand.

The crops have to be preserved in order to last as long as possible so that we can have them any time, even when they

are not produced. Each cereal and vegetable species needs special climate

conditions for its development.

However, over the time,

several ways to preserve the Food

Technology brought us

refrigeration, a process of conservation used at supermarkets, restaurants and in our

houses.

have been discovered

Another way ispasteurization. Dairy products and fruit juice are submitted to it. This process makes food safe to be eaten for a long time. It may last from a few days to several months.

Louis Pasteur

Cod fish, a typical fish in

Portuguese food, is salted.

Salting means putting the food in salt or in salty water. In the past, fish and meat were salted in wooden chests.

In the past … other ways of preserving the food were used and some are still used...

Another old technique which is still used in food preservation is vinegar. Cabbages, beets and onions may be preserved this way.

Finally, food can also be preserved

by smoking.

That’s what happens with all kind of Portuguese sausages.

Fruit, fish such as tuna and sardines, beans, tomatoes, and mushrooms, for example, can be preserved this way.

Another technique which is still used is preservation in tins or jars.