? about saving harvest from garden

[DonnainME]

OK - How do you save what you have harvested from your garden? AND what item do you do it to?

Like potatoes - how do you save them? Corn?? any crop that you grow - I would appreciate it.

[Russ]

Green beans. We can them using the method in the Ball canning book.

I must say, I picked 4 small heads of broccoli yesterday (we had a very warm spring) and I have already decided next year we are putting in 20 plants. I think(HOPE) we will freeze a lot next year.

[shortstack]

I am also very interested in how to save my harvest since this is my first year gardening. I do plan to make zucchini pickles and cut up zucchini to freeze to cook over the winter but have no idea what else to do.
Andrea

[Russ]

To add.. I believe this book is considered the "must read" book of the canning world.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Canning-Book-21400/dp/B0000BYDPZ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1214786335&sr=8-4"]Ball Blue Canning Book[/ame]

[suki]

Indeed it is, Russ.

I freeze a lot of my harvest, can a lot and dry some. It just depends.

So far, I froze the sugar snap peas. I have the onions curing (sitting out to let the skins harden) and then I'll put them in panty hose and hang them in the pantry. The blueberries and blackberries have been rinsed, dried, placed on a cookie sheet to freeze, then bagged and kept frozen. Some of the blackberries will become jelly. Some will become fresh cobbler. I like to freeze most of the fruits.

The tomatoes will be eaten, canned or sun-dried.

The potatoes will be eaten or rinsed and cured and stored as long as possible... depending upon the size of the crop, I may dry some.

The green beans will be canned (frozen ones taste like rubber).

The wild plums will be jelly.

That's all I have plans for now. But, I'll try to remember to post on it as it comes up.

[Persimmon Lace]

Ball Blue book of canning is great and it includes freezing and drying foods! I highly recommend it.

[sunshine]

potatoes, cabbage, turnips, onions, some carrots go in the root cellar.

I freeze corn, shredded zucchini.

I can most everything else.

I dehydrate the odds and ends of each one, that isn't enough for another jar or baggie. I also make zucchini chips, dehydrated potatoes, etc.

[shortstack]

What do you do with shredded zucchini?
Andrea

potatoes, cabbage, turnips, onions, some carrots go in the root cellar.

I freeze corn, shredded zucchini.

I can most everything else.

I dehydrate the odds and ends of each one, that isn't enough for another jar or baggie. I also make zucchini chips, dehydrated potatoes, etc.

[shortstack]

Found this about how to make pumpkin puree. I like to put pumpkin in my kids waffles and pancakes to add vitamins to them.

Does anyone know if I can pick my pumpkins off the vine at the beginning of Oct., let them set on my porch till the day after Halloween and then make puree out of them?

Andrea

[sunshine]

What do you do with shredded zucchini?
Andrea

Zucchini bread, cake, pancakes. Add to meatloaf for extra nutrition and moisture, add to vegetable soup. . . . .

[Judi Dial]

There's several books about preserving the harvest. Go to bookfinder.com and do a search on "preseving the harvest." The last book I bought is about small batch preserving, as I don't have a farm, there's only 2 of us, and I have limited storage. That book is by Margaret Howard and is called "The Complete Book of Small-batch Preserving".

JD

[sunshine]

I like the book "Putting Food By" - I don't remember the author now, and I gave my copy away, many years after I read, reread and memorized most of the book.

[Russ]

I like the book "Putting Food By" - I don't remember the author now, and I gave my copy away, many years after I read, reread and memorized most of the book.

Is [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Putting-Food-Plume-Janet-Greene/dp/0452268990/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214826026&sr=8-1"]THIS[/ame] the book?

[missyali]

I like to blanch my soy beans, snow peas and green beans and then freeze. I plan on slicing/shredding my zucchini to freeze. I will blanch, peal and seed my tomatoes and freeze. I will dry some herbs and freeze some in ice cube trays. I want to can pears, apples, apple & pear sauce. Berries will be made into jam.

[IntlMom]

What do you do with shredded zucchini?
Andrea

I know that someone touched on this answer, but here are more details:
I shred mine up...I;m already getting more than I can use! (yea!)
Especially the ones that get too big to be tender before I can get to them. I shredd up a bunch of them (so thankful for my salad shooter on days like that!).
Anyway, then I measure them out and freeze them into ziploc biggies into 2 CUP PORTIONS. Nearly every recipe for zuch. bread, or zuch. chocolate cake or what-not calls for 2 cups of shredded zuch. I love being able to make fresh zuch. bread in Nov or Feb.....it just tastes like summer.

Corn, same way. I take a whole mess of corn off the cobs. Here is my very "high tech" (haha) way I do it:
I have a bundt pan that I ONlY use for this. I take the cob and stand it up on the "hole" of the pan. I then take my electric knife and run in down the corn. The corn then falls into the bundt pan. I do this and keep dumping full bundt pans into my giant stockpot till it's nearly full, or I simply cannot take doing it more!!
Anyway, I then put enough water in the pot to cover the corn, and turn the stove on. I cook it till it just begins to simmer, then I turn it off and take it off the heat. (Oh, and I add a bit of sugar to the pot too) After the corn has cooled, I also put it in baggies. I put enough for what I consider to be a meals worth for us. It is SOOOOO rewarding in Jan to taste fresh summer corn!!!