Many starting gardener’s plant their garden hoping for that tasty vine ripe tomato or some zucchini only for their crop to have a wonderful year and no idea what to do with it all. Or you are the gardener that wants to try to preserve their fresh summer produce to make tomato sauce on a cold winter evening. With all of the time and love poured into your garden you never want any of it to go to waste. These five ways to preserve your garden harvest will allow you to enjoy your harvest bounty all year round.
Freezing
Freezing your produce is by far the easiest and also the most accessible to anyone because you don’t need any additional tools. Many people think freezing as a preserving method as the bag of peas stuffed in the back of your freezer but there are so many possibilities.
Direct Freezing
There is always the option to directly freeze your produce and you can use it just like you would if you purchased a bag of that vegetable or fruit in the store. Many fruits and vegetables require the produce to be blanched (placed in boiler water for a few minutes) and then put in an ice bath to quickly stop them from cooking. This will stop the enzymes actions from occurring or at least slow them down that will cause loss of flavor, color, and texture. Once they are blanched they can then be frozen. Some do best if they laid out on a cookie sheet and frozen loose then placed in a bag or other storage device. This is especially useful for items that you plan to use portions of at a time so they don’t freeze into one big block.
Freezing Recipes
My favorite use of freezing for preserving is to use my harvest to make a recipe and then freeze that for later use. The main use of this in my house is chicken and vegetable stock. I love having these in portioned out blocks in the freezer. I pop in the microwave to defrost or heat in the pot. The same goes for soups, tomato sauces, and recipes that you can make in bulk to store. In addition, there are some things that are too dense for home canning and are better to freeze such as pumpkin puree. I will normally make a large batch of pumpkin puree each year to use through the holidays in desserts and treats.
Freezing Tools
I have a few favorite items I use for freezing my produce. First, are the PrepWork Freezer Pods the allow you to freeze in portion controlled trays that when removed they have the size of the portion on the frozen food (ie 1 cup). They also will stack nicely on top of each other. I have the 2 cup, 1 cup, and 2 Tbsp Trays. I used the 2 cup and 1 cup for soups, pumpkin puree, broths, and refried beans and I use the 2 Tbsp for things like herbs or lemon juice. Next is my Geryon Vacuum Sealer. I have used this to store figs, vegetables and I also vacuum seal the frozen blocks from my freezer pods.
Dehydrating
Dehydrating your harvest is a versatile way to preserve your garden harvest. It can even enhance some of the flavors. Dehydrating can allow you to preserve your herbs and spices. Dehydrated fruits can make tasty treats. I am always experimenting with putting something new in my dehydrator. You don’t have to have a dehydrator either. If you oven goes low enough you can use it to dehydrate many things and you can also hang some things to dehydrate such as herbs.
Herbs and Spices
Using my dehydrator to stock my spice rack is my favorite use of my dehydrator. The easiest is dehydrating your fresh herbs from your garden such as basil, parsley, thyme etc. I had a huge batch of basil last summer and was able to get a good batch of basil for my spice rack.
You can dehydrate garlic and onions to make garlic or onion powders, salts, or minced. I was looking at a jar of garlic powder the other day and a jar ranged from five to seven dollars. I can get a large bag of garlic from Costco for four dollars and can make 2 to 3 bottles of garlic powder from it.
My other favorite to dehydrate are our peppers. There are a large variety of spices you can make from dehydrating peppers including chipotle powder, chili powder, and full chipotle peppers. One reason I love dehydrating my spicy peppers is I normally get a bumper crop at one time and cannot keep up with number of peppers. Drying them allow me to use them in recipes for months.
Fruits
Dehydrating fruit can be done as fruit pieces or you can also make fruit leather. Figs are one of the main fruits that I dehydrate. Figs have a very short storage time of only a few days when they are ripe. Dehydrating allow me to save them to either eat dried or use in other recipes later outside of fig season.
Vegetables
You can also dehydrate vegetables to use in recipes later. One of the most common vegetable to dehydrate are tomatoes. They are a very wet vegetable and can take a while to dehydrate but make a great “sun dried tomato” to use through the year. Vegetables for soups can also be dehydrate to make dry soup mixes. The best three to use for this are onions, celery, and carrots. I had a large crop of celery this year so I dehydrate some in addition to freezing some.
Dehydrating Tools
I love using a counter top dehydrator. Since most items take 8 to 12 hours to dehydrate I do not want to leave my gas oven on that long. Also the many trays allow me to get a large amount into the dehydrator. I currently use the Cosori 6 try dehydrator. I did a lot of research before purchasing one and I like that this dehydrator had temperature controls, a timer and good reviews. If you are going to make fruit leather then you also need a tray to put in your dehydrator. Mine came with one of these trays and have used it to make mango leather. Recently, I did purchase silicone mesh sheets to put on my shelfs for drying small items such as parsley leaves and garlic. Many times my garlic will shrink as it drys and will fall through the grates.
Pickling/Fermenting
Pickling and Fermenting is a way of preserving food that has been used for a very long term. It can provide great source of probiotics as well. I have done some basic pickling of cucumbers but want to dive deeper into this method of preserving this year. I have also used pickling to create hot sauces out of my serrano peppers. The most common known in this area of preserving are pickles, sauerkraut and yogurt but you can ferment a large number of vegetables or fruits. This year I want to try making my own apple cider vinegar and pickled onions.
Pickling and Fermenting Tools
Pickling supplies can range from simple small scale to large crocks. The key with fermentation is to ensure that your items you are fermenting stay below water mixture level. One easy way to do this is the Ball Fermentation springs and lids. These are to be used with ball canning jars and have a spring to keep the items submerged and also have a lid that let the gasses escape as the items ferment. These are great as a entry and small batch fermenting. I use these for my pickles.
More advanced fermenting uses a crock. These are normally ceramic and have a weight to keep the food submerged. Crocks are recommended for making sauerkraut but can be used to most forms of fermentation. They come in many sizes as well.
Water Bath Canning
Water bath canning is a method of preserving where you place the jars in boiling water for a certain amount of time. This type of canning is used for high-acid foods or a recipe that adds the correct amount of acid to safely preserve the foods. The list of foods that can be preserved with water bath canning are:
- Fruit
- Jams and Jellies
- Salsas
- Tomatoes
- Pickles and Relishes
- Sauces and Pie Fillings
- Vinegars
- Condiments
The USDA provides a Home Canning Guide that can be used as a guide for recipes for canning and also if hot water canning or pressure canning is suggested for what you are preserving. Hot water bath canning process is pretty simple. It uses a large pot where you place your jars into. You bring the water to a boil and boil for the prescribed time for your recipe.
I mainly use water bath canning for jams, tomatoes, pickled jalapeños and cowboy candy (sweet and spicy jalapeños). A strawberry jam is a great starter into water bath canning especially if you have kids. Taking them strawberry picking and then use them to make jam. It is a fun activity and a great learning opportunity.
Pressure Canning
Pressure canning is another form of home canning that uses a form of pressure cooker that allows the temperature to reach high enough to allow for lower acid foods to be processed at home. There are time requirements for the cans to be processed at certain levels of pressure. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a good breakdown of the steps Using a Pressure Canner.
Even with the high temperatures of pressure canning there are still some things that should not be canned at home. These are normally very dense foods such a pumpkin puree or refried beans. You can canned chunked pumpkin that you can drain and turn into puree though. I will normally freeze some pumpkin puree and then can the chunked pumpkin for longer storage.
Canning Tools
The basic tools for canning are the same if you water bath or pressure canning. The only difference between the two is the device you cook the cans in. For water bath canning you use a a water bath canner that is essentially a large pot with a glass lid and commonly has a rack to help raise and lower the cans in the hot water. The pressure canners are a pressure cooker made for canning.
The other basic tools needed are the Mason Jars, lids, and bands. The jars and bands are reusable but you need to use a new lid every time you can to ensure you get a proper seal. The remain tools that are helpful are a funnel, jar lifter, and bubble popper. There are many kits that also provide some other tools but I mainly use those three.
Happy Preserving
These five ways to preserve your garden harvest allow you to enjoy your harvest for many months. I love being able to open a jar of strawberry jam in the middle of winter or reaching into my spice rack for some chili powder. Without using these preserving methods I would have so much produce that I would not know what to do with. There are only so many jalapeños you can eat at one time. Which method would you love to try. Let me know if the comments!
Want to start your own garden but don’t know where to start. Try these posts:
- Empty Space to Flourishing Urban Homestead…How my Little Homestead Started
- How to Plant Your Own Seedlings
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