1. Escola Secundária Artur Gonçalves How do we harvest, store and preserve our food? COMENIUS Return to our roots: from seed to table
2. Nowadays, machines make the harvesting job much easier. WHEAT HARVEST In the past, harvesting was done by hand.
3. 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.
4. However, in small farms , in which the food produced is for self-consumption, the harvesting is still done by hand.
5. 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.
6. 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
7. Another way is pasteurization. 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
8. 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...
9. 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.
10. 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 .