The Garden Guide: Part 6- Preserve the Harvest

So you’ve picked your varieties, sown the seeds, defended your plants from pests and disease and now all your efforts are finally starting to pay off; your crops are producing a bountiful harvest, but now you’re faced with a new problem: What to do with all of that produce? In this blog post we will be discussing the various ways you can preserve your hard earned harvest.

Drying/Dehydrating

One of the simplest ways to preserve a variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs is by drying them out. This can be achieved with a couple methods:

• • Food Dehydrator:
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  • Custom made for drying things out, dehydrators are probably the fastest and easiest way to dry out most things. They consist of a heating element and an fan that blows warm dry air up through layers of produce. The two concerns with these are that they take up a lot of space in your cabinet and they cost a bit more than some of the other options, but if you’re planning on dehydrating things frequently, then they’re definitely worth it.
  • Note: Don’t actually pack the dehydrator like shown above as overlapping slices will not dry fully. Make sure to leave a little space between each piece.
• Conventional Oven
  • With a little ingenuity, one can turn their traditional oven into a makeshift dehydrator by propping the door open about 1.5″ and setting the temperature at about 140-160F. This tends to be a little slower than a real dehydrator, but certainly works in a pinch.
• Air Drying
  • If you live in a relatively warm and dry climate you can successfully dry many herbs and some other produce (like thin-walled hot peppers) simply by hanging them from a string out of direct sunlight in a warm and well ventilated space. Be careful what you hang however, because certain crops like apples or tomatoes are simply too wet to hang dry and will rot away if you try this strategy.
• Smoker
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  • Another unique way to dry produce is using a smoker. Many traditional ingredients in Latin American cooking are made from peppers that have been smoked and dried (Chipotle peppers are smoked jalapenos). Just run the smoker at a low temperature until the moisture is totally gone from whatever you’re drying.

Canning:

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  • Another great method for preserving basically any fruit or vegetable is through canning. This works for everything from beans to jams and jellies to even pickles and hot sauce. Although it may seem like a complicated procedure, the basic process goes something like this: Pack whatever you’re canning into sterile glass canning jars, cover with lids, then submerge those jars into boiling water or a sealed pressure canner for a set amount of time, then remove and store on the shelf indefinitely.
  • Because the full process is actually a little more complicated than that, (and because I don’t want to be responsible for you getting botulism and dying if you mess up) I am going to direct you to two more comprehensive guides below:
    • Water bath canning (High acid foods like pickles, tomato sauce, hot sauce, jams and jellies)
    • Pressure canning (Low Acid foods like corn, beans and pumpkin, as well as meat and eggs)

Freezing:

Freezing is another easy method to quickly save produce. There is not much to it besides sealing the produce in an airtight bag and letting it freeze. Everything from the garden can be frozen, but it is important to remember that frozen then thawed produce tends to be rather mushy and should only be used in cooked dishes. Because of this, freezing things that are only really eaten fresh, like salad greens, is not recommended.

Foods that store on their own:

Some foods have remarkably good shelf life without any extra preservation:

• • Winter Squash
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    • Simply leaving most winter squash in a warm dry area for ~2 weeks can prepare them to sit in storage at room temperature for 6 months or more (depending on variety)
  • Garlic
    • Garlic that has been dried after harvesting can be stored in bags or baskets in a well ventilated space for at least 6 months
  • Potatoes
    • Harvested potatoes will keep for several months in bins in a cool moist environment like a basement, provided they are kept dark.

One final consideration is that most food banks will accept donations of fresh produce, so if you find yourself totally overwhelmed with more vegetables than you can handle, they will be more than happy to take them and give them to families in need. That’s all for this post, make sure to check out the linked resources for more information on each method.