What To Do With What You Grew!

Meg suggested I cover this topic in an earlier message. Thanks, Meg!

The main section of our raised bed garden contains approximately 256 square feet. There's an additional 50 or so square feet near the house. The main section of 256 square feet produced nearly 300 pounds of produce, primarily vegetables. The smaller area produced another 15 pounds of strawberries and raspberries. It seems pretty obvious, even with a vegetarian in the house, 300 pounds of vegetables is more than can be eaten by a two person household in a single growing season. So, how did we handle all the excess?

Let me start by saying that we did put a pretty good dent in the fresh stuff, eating it as it was brought in. We also gave some to friends. But we worked hard to preserve, in some way, all the rest. So let's talk about canning, freezing and drying. And, let me add that we did not keep track of the number of pounds (except tomatoes) we preserved during the season. I'll do that this coming season just get get an idea of what we actually keep for over the winter.

Most of what we stored was frozen in some way. Several years ago we bought a small kitchen gadget that vacuum seals food in clear plastic bags that will be placed in the freezer for use over the winter. (The blackberry ice cream above was definitely frozen to start with, and some vacuum packed, but it certainly didn't last more than a few weeks, let alone into the winter.)  Storing vegetables and meats in this manner pretty much solves the longer term freezer burn problem.

The fruit and vegetables we froze without any cooking preparation were: tomatoes, some of the green and yellow zucchini, butternut squash, and strawberries. Tomatoes were washed and cored and placed in the bags whole (not skinned or quartered), about one pound per bag. Eventually, we had 32 pounds of tomatoes in the freezer. They were later used to make spaghetti sauce, tomato soup and salsa. Once thawed, the tomato skins just peel off by hand. The seeds can also be removed easily if necessary.

Just a note: The whole butternut squash needs to roasted or microwaved briefly in order to be skinned for use. You wouldn't believe how hard that skin\shell is!  As a reward for your work, just puree and cook some of the butternut and serve with salt, pepper & butter.

The strawberries were trimmed of their caps and frozen whole. Zucchini  was trimmed at the stem and blossom end, sliced thin and then frozen. The same was done with the butternut after it was skinned, seeded and cubed.

Green beans, snap peas, and spinach were all cleaned and parboiled before freezing. A lot of the zucchini was finely chopped after thawing and added as the main ingredient in Poor Man's Crab Cakes, which were fried, then frozen and used when needed.

Canning in a hot water bath canner was used to "put up" salsa and spaghetti sauce using frozen tomatoes from the freezer.  I'm guessing, but I think we canned about eight quarts of spaghetti sauce and 2 quarts of salsa. At then end of our tomato season in early August I picked all of the smaller green tomatoes. From those we made a batch of "green tomato relish" that we're still using as I write.  The last of the relish and salsa are shown below.

Much of the frozen butternut squash was used in a lasagna with cheese type dish as it came in or given whole to friends. The frozen butternut squash was thawed, and pureed and used to make more of the lasagna dish some of which was then re-frozen until used.

Asparagus, beets, bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, lima beans,onions, potatoes, and radishes were used as we brought them in.

Drying things we grew didn't really occur until the end of the summer season when we harvested batches of the herbs we had grown. We have a drying rack with special sheets that can be used in a microwave oven. We have basil, dill, marjoram, oregano,  parsley, rosemary and thyme dried and in containers. They come out bright green when processed this way...looking geat on your kitchen spice rack! Herbs can also be hung to dry in a airy spot. They do lose much of their color when dried this way, however.

We leave most of the herbs in the garden over the winter. Some are annuals that will not survive beyond their first year. Others, like sage, are periennals that will survive and return year after year. I bring the rosemary plant inside for the winter. It will survive in warmer areas over the winter, but doesn't do well here over the cold months. You can see in the picture that it stretches for the sun and has become leggy while inside, but a trimming next month, and return to the outdoors, will return its proper shape.