Preserving the tastes of early spring

Food in Jars blogger Marisa McClellan has put ink to paper with Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces.

The book about seasonal canning is a godsend to city dwellers, in that it starts from the premise that you want to work in small batches and in a small space.

The TableMatters blog excerpts the book, and the timing couldn't be fresher: "The most meager time of year is very early spring," McClellan writes. "The storage apples are sad and good only for baking, and there are still weeks to go before the first stalks of asparagus arrive. It can be a challenge to keep up the weekly market visit when so little is new and truly fresh."

Click here for ideas on pickling some of the early spring crops.