Preserve the Vegetable Bounty of Summer

Summer is nearing its end and if your garden is overflowing you might be looking for ways to save some of those vegetables for the winter months. Canning is the method of choice for long-term storage, but the heat, mess, and labor involved makes that a challenging option. Instead, the freezer is ideal for storing veggies for six months or more. Methods to prepare the veggies before storage help prevent freezer burn and simplify use when you need them.

Zucchini for Baking

Frozen zucchini looses a bit of its texture and water content so it is best used in recipes that include baking such as casseroles, breads, and cookies, or hidden in meatloaf or a soup. These recipes utilize shredded zucchini so take a moment and shred up your extra stash of the squash, measure it into one-cup amounts, and mound these units onto a cookie sheet. Keep the piles separate and place the whole thing in the freezer. After an hour or two they are frozen into lumps and ready to place in a zippered freezer bag. You can then use them as needed, pre shredded and pre measured.

Garden Herbs on Ice

Garden herbs are in great form and plentiful at the end of summer. Pick your basil, mint, or oregano before it bolts, prepare the leaves as you would for any meal, and place a tablespoon or so in the bottom of each partition of an ice cube tray. Cover the herbs with water and freeze. Once frozen you can pop the cubes out and store in a zippered bag. They can be added directly into cooking dishes such as a sauce or crock-pot recipe or allowed to defrost to free the herbs from the ice.

Tomatoes Frozen, not Canned

Canning tomatoes is a chore. An alternative method is to simply bag the tomatoes whole and freeze them. They do take up more space this way but with a deep freezer this is generally no problem. Another alternative is to blanch and skin the tomatoes, drain them a bit, then place on a cookie sheet and freeze for an hour or two. Place the individually frozen tomatoes into freezer bags and store until needed. Great for sauces, soups or tossing into the crock-pot.

Green Beans

If you can't keep up with the green bean supply, pick a pile, blanch them quickly and spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Freeze for an hour then slide them off into a freezer bag. You now have frozen green beans for all the soups, casseroles, and baked dishes of winter.

Frozen Dark Leafy Greens

You know you should eat them. But sometimes the end of the growing season leaves a row of kale, chard, or spinach you didn't manage to eat. Cut and wash a large bunch, chop finely, and freeze. Don't worry about blanching or further prep. If chopped finely enough you can easily separate out a handful from the bag as you need it. This is perfect for adding to soups, tomato based sauces, casseroles, or even fruit smoothies. Often, nobody will even know it is there but the nutrition will benefit them anyway! (Another method for spinach is to blanch first, drain, then gather into one cup amounts and flash freeze as described above.)

The veggies of summer are best eaten fresh but we all know winter is coming so why not stock up! Label the bags well with dates and contents and you'll