Preserving Your Harvest

[muddy75]

Spending most of the day today putting up veggies

 

[muddy75]

Spending most of the day today putting up veggies

6 pints of pickles and 4 pints of banana peppers…….getting the canner and more jars ready for squash. Haven’t even put a good dent in the 5 gal bucket of cucumbers and definitely need more jars

 

[muddy75]

Also vacuum sealed and froze the leftover ribs and turkey smoked on Sunday

 

[WIchickMama]

Strawberry syrup and the strawberry lemonade concentrate- 16 jars total. Thanks @wyoDreamer the lemonade smells amazing, can't wait to try it!

 

[wyoDreamer]

@WIchickMama Please let me know how it tastes!

 

[Swiss]

That's what I did past year...washed em and froze em whole.
But I've seen so much bout blanching and botchalism that I didn't know if they would be ok still since I didn't blanch em.
Any thoughts?

I've never blanched any of the veggies I've frozen (bell peppers, zucchini/summer squash), and I've never had a problem in almost 10 years of doing this. In fact, I just finished a bag of zucchini/squash I put in the freezer last summer.

I just looked it up, and this is what I found:
"Blanching is a must for most vegetables to be frozen. It slows or stops the enzyme action which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture."
"It stops the enzyme action that causes spoilage."
Again, I've never had a problem.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Some pics of our preservations and harvests this year. This is just a sneak peak. I'll try to add recipes and more later. View attachment 2782978View attachment 2782979View attachment 2782980View attachment 2782982View attachment 2782983View attachment 2782984View attachment 2782985View attachment 2782986View attachment 2782987View attachment 2782988View attachment 2782989View attachment 2782990

Wowzers! Your here looking for tips and i feel like your already killin' the game!, nice!

 

[wyoDreamer]

I made Preserved Garlic on Monday. I will start growing garlic, just so I can make more of this recipe, It is delicious. If you use caramelized garlic for cooking, you gotta try this!
Note: I used malt vinegar because I couldn't find sherry vinegar in our little country grocery store. And I love malt vinegar - I learned about malt vinegar at a Fish and Chips restaurant in Fort Collins, CO. So good on proper fries.
Definitely use 1/2 pint jars, there is alot of garlic in a half-pint. I used 1/4 pint jars, as I am the garlic fiend, DH not quite so much.

Ingredients
5 cups of peeled garlic cloves, about 2 pounds of whole garlic
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup sherry vinegar

Instructions
- Prepare jars for pressure canning.
- In a large saute pan, heat the oil and cook the garlic cloves over medium heat. Sprinkle the salt over them. Cook, stirring often, until they begin to brown. This can take anywhere from 8 to 20 minutes, depending on the heat you're using and how moist the garlic cloves are. Once they are starting to brown, mix the sugar into the pan and continue to cook until it begins to caramelize, about 2-5 minutes.
- Add the vinegar, turn up the heat to medium-high, and cook this down for a minute or two.
- Pack the garlic and the oil and juices into hot jars. Leave 1 inch of headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars and seal.
- Let the pressure build to 10 PSI before setting the timer. Process 10 minutes for half-pints, 20 minutes for pints. (If you are at altitude, you will need to go up to 15PSI. Follow the directions on your canner.)

From this web-page: https://honest-food.net/how-to-preserve-garlic/

 

[Sally PB]

I've never blanched any of the veggies I've frozen (bell peppers, zucchini/summer squash), and I've never had a problem in almost 10 years of doing this. In fact, I just finished a bag of zucchini/squash I put in the freezer last summer.

I just looked it up, and this is what I found:
"Blanching is a must for most vegetables to be frozen. It slows or stops the enzyme action which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture."
"It stops the enzyme action that causes spoilage."
Again, I've never had a problem.

I froze some green beans with out blanching them. When I tried to eat them a few months later, they were tough and tasteless. The next year I blanched them and they were much better. Maybe beans are a veg that needs to be blanched to preserve the flavor?

I freeze hot peppers without blanching, no problem. Most other veg I can or dehydrate, so I have no experience on freezing them. Potatoes, onions, and butternut squash all keep a long time for me, so I don't process them at all.

Maybe the zucchini/summer squash freeze well because they have such a high water content? We don't grow them because we're not big fans, so I don't know.

 

[TooCheep]

I freeze hot peppers without blanching, no problem. Most other veg I can or dehydrate, so I have no experience on freezing them. Potatoes, onions, and butternut squash all keep a long time for me, so I don't process them at all.

I've found that frozen sweet peppers work far better than dried if you want to use them as semi-fresh (as I do in scrambled eggs/omelets). Dried hot peppers are better if you want to turn them into a powder/spice for spicy foods.