Saving garden harvest for later

Harvest time is here and for gardeners with an overabundance of fresh produce, there’s a way to pay that reward forward to the dinner table in winter. With a little work, gardeners and farmers market shoppers can preserve their garden treasures for later.

Whether to can, freeze or dry the produce, depends on what vegetable and how much effort and time a person wants to devote. Freezing vegetables is the fastest. Canning takes longer, but is better for maintaining vegetable texture. Canning is definitely best for salsa and pickles. Drying might be the easiest, but it has limited use, such as for herbs, mushrooms and fruit.

Easy freezing

It’s easy to freeze vegetables and fruits. Some don't even require cooking or blanching. For celery and rhubarb, just wash, chop, bag in serving sizes, label and freeze. To freeze zucchini for making bread: shred or grate and freeze without blanching. For peppers, just cut out the seeds, wash and let dry, then freeze in bags.The quality and texture is reduced after freezing, but the produce still has that garden fresh taste when used in cooking.

Blueberries

Blueberries can be put in the freezer with very little preparation. Remove stems and bad berries, wash in cold water, drain, then freeze in freezer bags or plastic containers.

Apples

For apples wash, peel and core apples. Slice, cut into chunks or quarter. As you prepare apples, dip the cut pieces in a solution of 1 tablespoon each salt and vinegar to 2 quarts of water, to prevent darkening. Drain well, rinse and drain again. Then you can either pack plain, with sugar or with syrup. Leave a ½ inch headspace for pint containers and 1 inch for quarts. When using liquid, place a piece of crumpled paper or plastic wrap on top to keep fruit under the liquid. For syrup, mix 1/14 cup sugar and 5-1/2 cup water top yield cups. Thaw fruit in refrigerator or bowl of cool water. If cooking, thaw only enough to separate.

Blanching

Most other vegetables and fruits require blanching, which is quick and easy. To blanch vegetables, you need a large porcelain or stainless steel pan with basket strainer and lid, 2/3 full of water, a large bowl in the sink filled with ice water and a colander. Also need bags or plastic containers.

Bring the water in the pan to boiling. Meanwhile, wash and trim the veggies. Place the veggies in boiling water, close lid and time. See chart below. Then remove from the pan and drain quickly. Next, place the vegetable in ice water for the same amount of time as boiled. When the time is up, remove and drain well in a colander. To remove more moisture, place clean towels on the counter and lay the veggies out for a few minutes before bagging in labeled freezer bags and placing in the freezer. Here are blanching and cooling times for vegetables:

Vegetable blanching times - equal time in boiling water, then ice water.

Asparagus, 2 to 3 minutes

Broccoli, 3 minutes

Cabbage, 3 minutes (cut into wedges)

Corn on the cob, 6 to 10 minutes

Green beans, 3 minutes

Peas, 1 to 2 minutes

Swiss chard and other tender greens, 1-1/2 to 2 minutes (avoid matting leaves)

Zucchini sliced, blanch 3 minutes

Tomatoes

Blanch 30-60 seconds, then shock in cold water and remove skins and freeze or

Slice tomatoes in half and bake on a cookie sheet, (350 degrees for 30 minutes for large tomatoes).

Canning is worth it

Canning takes some time. It’s more fun when you have friends or family to help, plus it’s less work. You will enjoy the rewards in the winter, it's so much better than commercially canned goods. You will thank yourself and your canning buddies. 

Hot water bath canning is good for high acid foods, like tomatoes, pickles and relishes. It’s also good for sugary spreads, jams and jellies. You need to buy jars, lids and a big stockpot with wire canning rack. The pan needs to be 3-5 inches deeper than your canning jars. For other foods, like green beans, a pressure canner is needed.

For further information, get the Ball Blue Book Guide to Home Canning, Freezing & Dehydration. It is a very good, easy-to-reference guide with photos and it costs less than $10. It is available at Meijer in the home canning section and online at freshpreserving.com

Blake’s Fresh Salsa

Combine the following and chill covered for 1/2 hour.

2-3 cups chopped Roma tomatoes (when canning salsa, its best to blanch and de-skin the tomatoes. This is not necessary for fresh salsa.)

½ cup red onion

½ cup green pepper

1 Jalapeno, 1 green chili and 1 Poblano or other pepper, (Use one Jalapeno pepper per two tomatoes, more or less.)

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. ground black pepper

¾ tsp. salt

1 Tbs. white vinegar or lime or lemon juice

2 pinches finely chopped cilantro