Preserving Your Garden Harvest

The garden is producing wonderfully this year. Your kitchen is overflowing with fresh produce. Perhaps the garden is too productive? No way! Save money and eat better by preserving your garden harvest. Putting up fruits, vegetables and herbs is easier than you think.

Selecting Produce to Preserve

Only put up the best fruits and vegetables. Canning, freezing and drying will safely preserve your food, but, only if you use the very best items to start with. Any fruits or vegetables that are past their prime can be pureed or used immediately but do not use them in preserving. They may contain mold spores. Fruits and veggies that are past their prime have started to break down and the quality of your canned and frozen goods will suffer.

Freezing

Anyone with a pot to boil water, two bowls for water and ice, and a freezer can freeze part of the garden harvest. Green vegetables like green beans, peas, broccoli and greens freeze well. Most vegetables require blanching before freezing. Many fruits freeze better if blanched first. To blanch produce bring a large pot of water to a full boil. Use a strainer and add produce in small batches to the boiling water. Remove after a minute or two and immediately plunge into ice water to stop the cooking process. Allow the produce to sit in the ice water until all produce is blanched.

Once blanched, spread the produce out onto a cookie sheet and place in the freezer until frozen. Remove the items from the cookie sheet and store in zippered freezer bags, vacuum bags, plastic freezer containers or canning jars.

There are downfalls to freezer storage. It costs money to keep the freezer running, so it is less green than other preservation methods. Produce can become freezer burned if not properly stored. Finally, if the power goes out for any length of time, your entire stash of frozen garden delights can be ruined if not thawed and eaten immediately.

Canning

There are two methods of canning. The first is hot water canning. Using the hot water method, jars are placed into a pot of boiling water and left there for a specified amount of time. The jars are lifted and cooled. This type of canning is suitable for tomatoes, cucumbers and fruit. Only high acid foods should be canned in a hot water canner. A hot water canning system complete with a large pot, canning tools and jars can be purchased for about $60.00

A pressure canner is used for low-acid foods. Most vegetables are low-acid. Green beans, peas, beets, asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower are all low-acid veggies. A pressure canner is used in order to get the water in the canner hotter than the boiling point. Pressure canners have either a dial gauge or a stopper. If yours has a dial gauge, it must be calibrated every year prior to using it. Your local Cooperative Extension Agency can tell you where to get the gauge calibrated. Pressure canners can be purchased for about $70.00.

Most canned goods have a shelf life of about 1 year. Once canned no additional energy is required to keep the items safe. Storage in a dark cool place is preferred. Once a canned item is opened, it must be used immediately or stored in the refrigerator. Canned items take up a lot of shelf space in a kitchen or pantry.

Drying

Herbs, vegetables and fruits are easily dried. A low cost food dryer can be constructed cheaply from a couple of cardboard boxes and plastic wrap. Your oven makes a suitable dryer for small batches. Food dehydrators can be purchased for about $30.00.

Drying your garden harvest is easy. Blanching most vegetables produces a better quality product. Some fruits and vegetables are prone to discoloration. Prevent this by giving them a quick dunk in a lemon juice and water solution before setting them out to dry.

Dry vegetables in your oven set at 170 degrees. Place the produce on a cake rack set into a cookie sheet. Depending on what you are drying it can take 3 or more hours. This is the least efficient way to dry food. If you live in a dry, arid climate; dry the food outdoors in the sun. Cover with cheesecloth to prevent insects from enjoying the food before it dries.

Dried foods require no additional energy to store. They take up very little shelf space. Dried foods do not require refrigeration after opening, they can be resealed.

Try these methods for preserving your garden harvest. It will save you money and the quality of home preserved food far exceeds that of store bought items.

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A Guide to Organic Gardening in Northwest Arkansas

Controlling Insects in Your Garden

Top Three Ways to Recycle Newspapers in Your Garden