I LOVE Summer. I love the heat, the green, fireflies, the pool, kids playing outside and gardens full of delicious produce!
Tomatoes, pesto and jalapenos we picked yesterday!
But it won’t last. Especially up North, we know what’s coming. One of my ways of fighting back is to save little bits of Summer for the cold months. We freeze tomatoes for soup and sauce (this is so much faster than canning!), freeze jalapenos to use in refried beans and black bean burgers, freeze pesto, rosemary and basil for salads and soups and can some green beans and pickles. We’ll end up with frozen bell peppers and berries and dried apples by the end of the season. When we have bumper crops these preserved goodies can put a nice dent in the grocery budget throughout the year, but even with a small garden or a few tomatoes and herbs in a pot you can save some for later.
Tips:
- Ice cube trays work great to freeze single-serving sizes of pesto or herbs.
- Peppers, tomatoes and berries freeze beautifully. Spread them out on the top of a cookie sheet, not touching, and freeze solid. Then pop into freezer bags for later use. If you skip the cookie sheet step you’ll end up with one big blob of produce that’s REALLY hard to use.
- Canning is obviously always an option if you have the time and storage space.
- Dehydrate! If you have a dehydrator you can save a lot of food with minimal effort. We have an apple slicer to make quick work of evenly slicing the fruit (we leave the peels on) and then pop them into the dehydrator in single layers. It takes 2-3 days to dry them out. Put apples in an airtight container and eat or freezer for later. Freezing will make them crunchier! You can also dehydrate cherry tomatoes and they taste like candy. 🙂 These are a wonderful snack for the kids all winter instead of sugar-filled treats. Here’s a link to the apple slicer we use…https://amzn.to/2Kzg7Qq
Potato chips? Nope…dried apples!
Recipe/preserving ideas:
- A great site with lots of general info about preserving food: http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm
- New to canning? This site has step-by-step pictures and common troubleshooting procedures: https://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/how-to-can-canning-pickling-preserving-ball-jars-materials-siphoning-recipes.html
- Not sure what you can freeze…and what will thaw out gooey, mushy or tough? Here’s a list of what’s good and what’s not: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/cooking/tips/a16211/guide-to-freezing-food/
