If you planted summer herb and vegetable gardens; or have fruit trees in full bloom, your family and friends have been enjoying fresh, flavorful and safe produce all season long. You’ve learned that produce picked and eaten the same day is more flavorful and nutritious than anything you can buy.
When edible summer gardening winds down, there’s no need to give up the advantages of home-grown produce. There are several vegetables that can be grown right through the winter months. Before you can plant your winter garden, however, you have to use the bounty of fruits and veggies from your summer garden. Preserve the fruits of your labor by freezing, drying, canning and storing your summer harvest. I do ALL of these things myself every year; Follow Me to watch the process from seed to harvest, harvest to pantry and pantry to table.
Which Method to Choose
Canning/Pickling | Pickling | Canning | Freezing | Drying
How to store your harvest depends on what you planted to begin with. Herbs are best stored by drying and placing in glass spice jars. Another option is to chop herbs and place them in ice cube trays with olive oil, freeze and use as needed.
Fruits and vegetables can be pickled, blanched and frozen or turned in to jams, jellies and sauces and preserved by canning.
Canning/Pickling
Canning is the process of placing foods in jars or cans and heating to a specified temperature as a way to preserve many different foods. Pickling is one of the oldest and easiest ways to preserve vegetables using a brine to preserve the food. In both cases, if the goal is to keep the food in a cupboard or pantry it requires the use of a canner to heat the filled jars. The high heat destroys microorganisms and inactivates enzymes to preserve the safety and quality of the food.
What you need:
- Mason jars
- Large stock pots
- Canning utensils
- Canning pot
You can find canning supplies at most general and department stores and even some grocery outlets. They are inexpensive tools that will last a lifetime. While you can reuse the rims, recycle or toss the lids as the seals are on
Pickling
Vegetables with a tougher skin; like cucumbers and peppers, or root vegetables from carrots to turnips also work well. Vinegar, salt, sugar and any number of spices and herbs can transform mature vegetables in to savory or sweet ingredients to enjoy all winter long.
You will need lots of vinegar, most recipes call for apple cider or distilled versions. Using some of your fresh herbs, rather than dried will provide great flavor.
e time use only . Finding recipes for pickling almost anything is as easy as the process.
A basic brine for pickles:
1 tbsp. mustard seeds
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 1/4 cups cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp. kosher salt
1 bay leaf
Add herbs and spices to suit your taste. Consider both sweet and salty when you make up your recipes. For spices and herbs, use what you have in your garden, like dill and garlic.
Start Pickling:
- Wash your vegetables thoroughly cut in to your favorite
shapes (slices, or spears). - Pack the vegetables in to sterilized mason jars.
- Pour the brine over the vegetables
- Seal the jars with sterilized lids
- Place jars in canning pot and boil for 10-15 minutes to seal.
- Carefully remove the jars with a jar lifter and place on a thick tea towel to cool
- You will hear each can pop as the lid cools and the seal secures.
Canning
Stocking the shelves of your pantry with home-canned preserves, pickles, and condiments, is a way to enjoy healthy farmers’ market peak produce all year long. For home farmers and gardeners, canning is a way to preserve our bountiful homegrown harvest. You don’t have to have a large plot of land or a huge harvest. You can also use this tradition of food preservation for small batch canning to capture the best flavors of the season.
Canning Tomatoes
Tomatoes require special care to preserve as the acid in the fruit is more susceptible to spoilage. Be extra careful with sterilizing the jars, lids and tools before starting.
Here’s how to can tomatoes:
- Prepare the jars. Wash and rinse mason jars and new lids and bands. Fill canner two-thirds full of water and heat to boiling. Place empty jars in oven 225F oven on rack to heat. Just a few minutes before filling jars boil the lids 5 minutes. Keep the lids hot in a pan of water in the oven with the jars.
- Drain and peal tomatoes.
In large pot of boiling water, blanch tomatoes, in batches. Blanching or parboiling is a quick bath in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds. After no more than one minute remove tomatoes and chill in cold water for another 30 seconds and drain. The peel should come off easily. - Cook the Fruit.
ln two large pots or in batches, over high heat, heat tomatoes through. After about 10 minutes the tomato juices
should be boiling. - Add lemon juice.
Using a jar funnel fill one jar at a time, packing tomatoes and juice into the jar, leaving 1/2-inch space at the top. For each 4-cup jar, add 2 tbsp. reconstituted lemon juice. - Clean and seal jars.
Using a clean, damp cloth carefully clean the rim and sides of the jars to ensure they are completely clean off any juice or fruit. Pick up the heated lids and bands with tongs, place on jar and screw bands on tightly – be careful not to over-tighten. - Boil to Preserve.
Place in rack set on edge of canner. Lower filled rack into water. Pour in enough simmering water, avoiding tops of jars, to cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Cover canner and bring to full rolling boil. Boil 4-cup jars for 45 minutes, 2-cup jars for 35 minutes. Turn off heat. - Cool and Store.
Using jar lifter, transfer jars to towel-lined surface. Let cool completely (some separation of juice in jar is natural). Do not retighten screw bands. Check for seal to ensure lids curve inward and don’t move when pressed with finger.- Refrigerate any improperly sealed jars; use within 3 days. Store in cool, dark dry place. Refrigerate after opening.
Freezing
You can store fruits by simply washing and freezing the entire fruit. If you freeze tomatoes you can just throw one in to your sauce or stew straight from the freezer.
For many vegetables, blanching them quickly in boiling water for 60 seconds then immersing them in a cool or iced water bath to stop the cooking, will preserve their color, flavor and nutrients. After draining, simply place them in a zip sealed bag and enjoy when you’re ready.
Drying
To dry fruits and vegetables you need a specific set of tools and a lot of time, space and patience. There are food dehydrators, solar food drying racks and hanging nets that can all be used to pull the moisture out of the food and preserve it. Dried foods have a shorter shelf life and are dependent upon the temperature of where they are stored. While this isn’t one of my favorite methods I do use an old fashioned and simple way of preserving my herbs and smaller peppers by simply hanging them upside down. Here’s how…
Drying Herbs
Think how delicious will your dishes taste this winter if you have your own garden fresh herbs to season them. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme among other low-moisture herbs can be easily cut and air dried and kept in your spice cabinet along with your store-bought spices.
The best time to harvest herbs for drying is just before they flower. At this stage the leaves have the most aromatic oils and will have the most flavor.
Hang Drying Herbs
Clip – Early in the morning, when the plant has the most moisture and oil. Use a garden clipper or sharp scissors to cut mature stems. If they have already flowered include the flowers, they have flavor too.
Wash – Gently sprinkle vegetable wash over the branches and rinse with cold water. Lay the branches out on paper towels to dry.
Tie – Gather six or seven stems of similar length together in a small bunch. Tie the stems together with a cotton kitchen string, wrapping the string around twice and leaving a long loop at the end for hanging.
Hang – You can purchase a herb drying rack online or use a clothes pin and attach the end of the string to another twine in your kitchen windowsill. You want to ensure that your herbs are in a warm, dry place where they will be clean and undisturbed for about two weeks.
Strip and Store – After a few weeks your herbs should be completely dry. Be sure to check and discard any batches that may have molded. (This is why you want to dry the washed herbs thoroughly before hanging.)
- Gently strip the dried leaves from the stems in to an airtight container.(Plastic bags, glass jars or plastic storage containers work fine.) Discard the stems.
No matter what method you choose, preserving the fruits (and vegetables) of your gardening labor is easy and fun. Be sure to label and date every batch and use them within a year of preserving to ensure full flavor.
Learn more about How to Start Your Own Garden…
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