Quick tip-freeze and dry in small batches

Daily summer harvest from small space garden

Sunday, July 23, 2023

To keep plants producing, you should harvest often.  I like to do a garden tour to start off my day, every day.  Some may be wondering how to preserve a handful a day.  I either dry or freeze in small batches what I don't eat that day to preserve the peak flavor.

To get the maximum production from your plants, pick the veggies as often as they are ready.  This does a couple things to stimulate more "fruit" production.  

I keep freezer bags going in my kitchen freezer so I can just process and add to them every time I have extras.  I like to freeze tomatoes, green beans, squash, okra, and berries in quart size bags.  Sweet peppers and hot peppers in pint size bags.  This is the quantity I use them in for cooking.  I label each bag with the vegetable or fruit type and the year.  You get the best flavor if you eat frozen goods within a year.

For tomatoes, I wash and slice and put into a quart bag about daily.  When it is full, I move them on to the chest freezer in the basement.  Same for green beans, I just wash, snap and put into a quart bag until it is full then move to the chest freezer.  I wash, slice off the stem, then slice each okra into about 3/8" slices and put in a quart freezer bag.  Berries are just washed, allowed to dry off, then frozen in quart bags.  If you make sure they have dried off before putting into freezer bags, you can easily remove just a few berries for your yogurt each morning.

The sweet peppers and hot peppers I want to use in salsa and cooking, I wash, remove the stems, slice and put into pint bags.  When a bag is full, I move from the kitchen freezer to the chest freezer.

For the peppers that I am going to use for chili powder, I slice in half and put outside on a screen to dry.  As they dry, I bring back inside and store in a quart jar with a paper towel over it until there are a few to go ahead and grind into chili powder.  

For our shiitake mushrooms, I just let those dry on a paper towel on the counter.  When completely dry, I put into a quart jar and cover with a paper towel or towel until ready to use.

For cucumbers, I use the extras for pickles and pickle relish.  It only takes 1-2 cucumbers for a quart jar of pickles.  I will wait until I have 4-6 fresh cucumbers and then make a few jars of pickles or relish. 

Squash has to be blanched or cooked to preserve the flavor.  For the extra summer squash like zucchini or Trombetta, I make these into zoodles and blanch before putting into quart bags to freeze.  For winter squash like spaghetti squash, I bake, scrape and put into quart bags.

The only way I have found to preserve eggplant where it maintains its taste is by making the dip, baba ghanoush.  I have tried baking and blanching but the taste wasn't good after a few months.

For herbs, I cut them back by about a third, put into paper bags loosely and put in an upstairs warm closet to dry.  You can dry outside or in the garage or attic as well.  After dried, I remove the leaves from the stems and put into quart or gallon ziplocks until I am ready to make a seasoning mix or refill a spice jar.

By preserving a little at a time, it makes it a much more manageable task and ensures you are preserving the flavor of your edibles at their peak.