Preserving Your Harvest

[BReeder!]

We have a garden that had produced very well this year. In fact, it's our best garden in 6 years and two homes. I have a real passion for growing food we can eat. It's always great to have a salad fresh picked form the garden or cook a meal with fruit and vegetables, and even meat, harvested right from our backyard. Over the years we found ourselves faced with small abundance that we sometimes gave away. With our first garden I started making homemade pickled cucumbers and zucchini and canning them. Then two years ago we got a killer deal on flats and boxes of berries and grapes at a local store, so I ventured into making jams and jellies and canned those. Now that our garden is producing incredibly well this year, we have (or "have had" in some case) abundance of peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, kale, radishes, potatoes, onions, garlic, peaches (less abundant, but still too many to eat within a few days) and herbs such as parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro/coriander and dill. We also expect to have a decent harvest of corn, brussel sprouts, and Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes, dried corn, dry beans as well as a few sunflower heads. I might even plant a lot crop of peas and radishes. We have so much harvest this year, we had to find ways to preserve the fruits of our labor. We began canning homemade salsa, pickled peppers, pickled cucumbers (whole, halves, spears, chips and relish), and I'm preparing to make pepper jelly for the first time ever. We also have hung onions and garlic to cure for dry storage for the first time ever. There's so much more food coming out of the garden still though. What to do with all this harvest? Certainly we could just give it away, but we want to keep as much as possible for those months when we cannot garden (we are in zone 5). So preserving has become our focus.

How do you preserve your harvest?

I want recipes, pics, ideas, etc. Whatever you have, tell me all about it!

 

[BReeder!]

Some pics of our preservations and harvests this year. This is just a sneak peak. I'll try to add recipes and more later.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have a lot more freezer space (1 big chest freezer, 2 smaller freezers) than I have shelf space, so I've been chopping mine up and freezing them in gallon sized ziploc bags. The only down side to this is that it isn't easy to separate out what I need without thawing out the whole bag.

We did can some salsa and make some jelly. I'm not completely against canning, but simply didn't have enough stuff to can. Also, I have a glass top stove which limits what I can do. I can do a water bath, but not pressure canning. We have a turkey deep fryer so I was thinking about putting a pressure canner on that, but there's some question about whether it can maintain heat properly and consistently for the purposes of pressure canning. Especially for something like meat or tomatoes which must reach a certain internal temperature to kill botulism spores and other nasties.

I am working on collecting enough hot banana peppers to make some hot mustard. I'm about halfway there. Still up for debate whether I want to can the results of this effort or simply pour it in a mustard bottle.

 

[BReeder!]

I have a lot more freezer space (1 big chest freezer, 2 smaller freezers) than I have shelf space, so I've been chopping mine up and freezing them in gallon sized ziploc bags. The only down side to this is that it isn't easy to separate out what I need without thawing out the whole bag.

We did can some salsa and make some jelly. I'm not completely against canning, but simply didn't have enough stuff to can. Also, I have a glass top stove which limits what I can do. I can do a water bath, but not pressure canning. We have a turkey deep fryer so I was thinking about putting a pressure canner on that, but there's some question about whether it can maintain heat properly and consistently for the purposes of pressure canning. Especially for something like meat or tomatoes which must reach a certain internal temperature to kill botulism spores and other nasties.

I am working on collecting enough hot banana peppers to make some hot mustard. I'm about halfway there. Still up for debate whether I want to can the results of this effort or simply pour it in a mustard bottle.

I have frozen jam in the past (it doesn't really freeze solid in a household freezer or even our standup deep freezer. So it leaked after succumbing to the weight of things being placed on top of it. Oops! What a mess that was. I also froze corn this year as we were gifted a whole case by a guest to our 4th of July BBQ. We blanched it first and then froze it. Do you blanch vegetables first? Are there any other techniques you use to ensure quality when freezing produce?

 

[Artichoke Lover]

We do a good bit of pressure canning and freezing. Winter squash are stored where ever they can fit though lol. Right they are sitting on the bookshelves in my bedroom

 

[BReeder!]

We do a good bit of pressure canning and freezing. Winter squash are stored where ever they can fit though lol. Right they are sitting on the bookshelves in my bedroom View attachment 2783002

Winter squash have really impressed me. We grew some small pumpkins last and I STILL have a few sitting in the pantry. We are growing pumpkins and butternut squash this year. We will keep them in the same fashion.

 

[Sally PB]

Cool new thread! Thanks, @BReeder! for starting it.

Also, I have a glass top stove which limits what I can do. I can do a water bath, but not pressure canning.

Ignorant question here... why can you do one but not the other? I'm glad to know this, as eventually, our 42 year old stove will die. I will not be getting a glass top stove for this reason.

Do you blanch vegetables first?

Two summers ago, I froze some beans without blanching them. Bleah. They may have been ok had I eaten them in a month, but I was "saving" them for the middle of winter. They were tough and had no flavor. I threw them out.

Last summer, I blanched them before I froze them. Night and day difference! They were very tasty.

I can tomatoes, about 55-60 quarts, in September. (My neighbor does 150 quarts!) We use them for spaghetti sauce, mostly. I tried canning spaghetti sauce, and we didn't think it tasted nearly as good.

My garlic, onions, potatoes, and butternut squash get put in cardboard boxes in the basement. I've found that the cardboard "breathes" enough and the basement is cool enough that those items keep pretty well. I do have to keep an eye out for anything that gets soft or starts molding or rotting, so it doesn't spoil the rest.

Looking forward to recipes!

 

[BReeder!]

I just made pepper jelly/jam for the first time. Supposedly it is a delicious snack or hors d'oeuvre with crackers and cream cheese and can be used as a glaze for meat or vegetables. At the least, I found it to be very tasty. I left the peppers in it and they are finely chopped (used a for processer). More life a jam I guess (I usually call it jam if it has pieces of fruit in it and jelly if it's strained). Also, this recipe is not very spicy even though I used jalapeños hot enough to make my ear burn for a half hour because I itches it after cutting and deseeding the peppers. If you want hotter jam, take out a portion of the sweet peppers and replace with equal amount of jalapeños or use a hotter pepper in place of the jalapeños.

Ingredients:
4 cups banana peppers, seeded and finely chopped (can substitute with any sweet pepper)
1 cup jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped (can substitute any hot pepper)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
5 cups sugar
1.75 oz pectin

Canning supplies
6 half pint jars
Canner (used a waterbath for this recipe)
Canning funnel, tongs and lid magnet wand

Bring the waterbath to a boil. Submerge washed jars in the waterbath to sterilize. Place lids in waterbath to sterilize also.

In a large pot on high heat combine all ingredients and bring to a boil stirring constantly. Once there's a rolling boil remove from heat. Skim off and discard any foam and jelly skin. Ladel into jars using canning funnel (keeps the outside and lid contact surface clean). Leave 1/2 inch head space. Apply lids using magnetic wand and follow up with rings. Process in waterbath for 10 minutes. Let cool and check lids for seal.

Note: If a few seeds make their way into the jam, don't freak out. It just proves its handmade.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have frozen jam in the past (it doesn't really freeze solid in a household freezer or even our standup deep freezer. So it leaked after succumbing to the weight of things being placed on top of it.

You could try making freezer jam, which freezes just fine in a regular household freezer. I don't can, but I do make strawberry and cherry/apricot freezer jam. The result is a looser, tart fruit spread, which I prefer over canned jams/jellies which I find too sweet and not "fruity" enough.

 

[BReeder!]

You could try making freezer jam, which freezes just fine in a regular household freezer. I don't can, but I do make strawberry and cherry/apricot freezer jam. The result is a looser, tart fruit spread, which I prefer over canned jams/jellies which I find too sweet and not "fruity" enough.

What do you freeze them in? I tried freezing in zip bags, but I found the Jam didn't freeze solid (sugar or pectin content maybe lowered the freezing point) and a bag hot popped open. I've heard of freezer lids for mason jars, but haven't ever tried them.