|
Post by brownrexx on May 31, 2019 7:40:47 GMT -5
Do you freeze, dry, can or otherwise save a lot of the bounty from your garden?
News reports predict a rise in food prices this year due to poor weather in many places and also tariffs on Mexico.
Will you preserve more than usual this year?
|
|
|
Post by spike on May 31, 2019 8:31:06 GMT -5
Nope! I am sure it is possible to can more than I do but not by much. What I grow or get at the local Amish I can/freeze etc. I buy very little at the grocery store.
|
|
|
Post by meandtk on May 31, 2019 8:31:52 GMT -5
Potato yield is low, but we have enough canned for another year. I am in hopes of freezing and canning much corn and beans and much from the mater patch.
|
|
|
Post by paulf on May 31, 2019 8:54:56 GMT -5
Most likely we will freeze tomatoes for use this coming winter, maybe some peppers, but that will be it.
|
|
|
Post by coppice on May 31, 2019 9:16:24 GMT -5
I will save seeds for others. Past that, all else will go in my pie hole.
|
|
|
Post by octave1 on May 31, 2019 9:17:05 GMT -5
We no longer eat much of what we preserve, so I will be doing the minimum. Maybe some canned tomatoes and such, but I always prefer fresh foods which means I will buy what's available at the grocery store this coming winter. For me the incentive is extending the season rather than preserving.
|
|
|
Post by ladymarmalade on May 31, 2019 9:41:39 GMT -5
Part of my garden planning this year is with that intention. I need some vegetables to add to our diet! Lol!
I always put up plenty of jams and pickles, as well as different salsas. Tomato products vanish fast, so I need to put up as many whole tomatoes and tomato sauce as I can.
I was just looking the other day at my 50 quarts of canned pears and 20 quarts of applesauce yet on the shelf. Fabulous to have, but it's a good thing those will be good for several years.
I'm hoping for a good harvest of carrots, peppers, kale, corn, and onions, all destined for the freezer. Oh, and green beans. If I don't get the garden bounty this year, I plan to purchase bulk produce from a farm 20 miles to the north of me that has reasonable prices. I have other veggies going that I'm hopeful for too, but those are the ones that I know I can easily freeze and they will be great to have on hand.
|
|
|
Post by meandtk on May 31, 2019 11:53:01 GMT -5
Speaking of green beans, ladymarmalade, I tilled mine under and planted anew. They were on the garden boundary and were precisely where the rabbits wanted them.
|
|
|
Post by ladymarmalade on May 31, 2019 12:13:32 GMT -5
Speaking of green beans, ladymarmalade, I tilled mine under and planted anew. They were on the garden boundary and were precisely where the rabbits wanted them. On the plus side, the roots of a bean plant are where a lot of the good stuff for the soil is hiding, so tilling them in will be great for the soil. How do you feel about rabbit stew? You'd still get to enjoy your beans, maybe not in the way you'd originally planned.
|
|
|
Post by meandtk on May 31, 2019 12:39:31 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by paquebot on May 31, 2019 13:03:19 GMT -5
Probably won't do much more than normal but also probably not much less. Definitely a lot of snap beans, peas, and carrots. Have to take stock of the tomato sauces but there will be some that are low.
Canned rabbit: One wild rabbit will make a pint using only back and hind legs. Cousin's grandson has 5 or 6 in his freezer that he was unable to give me at Christmas. Most will be canned when I get them.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
|
|
|
Post by carolyn on May 31, 2019 13:06:13 GMT -5
when Fall gets here we will see what I have to work with. I will also try to grow a few dwarf tomatoes in pots using grow lights in the little greenhouse that is kept above freezing all winter.
|
|
|
Post by september on May 31, 2019 22:23:17 GMT -5
I always freeze a lot of pint bags of corn, broccoli, peppers and various kinds of green beans. I don't enjoy canning, so have not used my canner in about ten years. I wish I could make myself do it, but even any tomato sauces are frozen. I sure envy people with shelves full of beautiful canned products.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on May 31, 2019 22:49:50 GMT -5
I don't can a lot - just a few B&B pickles, and some other water bath items. I freeze okra and fresh tomatoes, fresh chilis, roasted and peeled green chilis, and roasted eggplant purée. I dehydrate eggplants, tomatillos, and a bunch of different chili peppers. I dry the early ripened chili peppers, and freeze the later ones, so they are in the freezer less time.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jun 1, 2019 8:13:33 GMT -5
I won't preserve more than normal this year but I usually freeze lots of my garden's bounty. I buy very few veggies at the store. I don't do it as much to save money but more because I like that fact that my veggies are organic and they also taste better than what I can buy. I have not bought a jar of pasta sauce in years. Mine is so much better and has no additives.
I freeze bell peppers, whole tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, pasta sauce, stewed tomatoes with okra, peas, limas, beets, spinach and other greens, carrots, asparagus and corn.
I have never frozen okra before but will try it this year. I am also freezing bok choy for the first time.
Potatoes and garlic are stored in baskets in my basement and dry beans in my pantry. I no longer buy any canned beans.
I don't can pickles but in the summer I make refrigerator deli dills and zucchini pickles.
If we get a good pear harvest I will make and freeze pear chutney and sliced pears in light syrup. I will also dehydrate some pear slices if we get enough pears. They are really good.
In August I am very busy doing all of this preserving but I absolutely love saving my garden's bounty. Several years ago I bought a small chest freezer just for this purpose.
It gives me a feeling of satisfaction to put foods on the table that I have grown whether it is Winter or Summer.
|
|
|
Post by ahntjudy on Jun 2, 2019 6:46:20 GMT -5
I freeze stuff... Tomato flesh...Green Beans...Limas...Greens... All frozen in ziplocks...
|
|
solargeek
Junior Member
Posts: 34
Joined: May 2017
|
Post by solargeek on Jun 2, 2019 8:57:56 GMT -5
We had an almost nonexistent crop of brussels sprouts and green cabbage last year. Red cabbage was also scanty. This year I plan to increase all canning of tomato sauces, jams; also increasing roasted/frozen vegetables of all types, and making a frozen pie fillings. We have a 16 ft.³ stand up freezer dedicated to the vegetables and breads. Last year I ran out of time during the harvest to process everything and we pretty much ate as much as we could fresh and gave a lot away. This year I hope to do a lot better.
|
|
|
Post by paulf on Jun 2, 2019 12:11:54 GMT -5
Wild rabbit: since the bobcats have moved into the estate the rabbits are scarce but the squirrels keep trying to eat the birdseed. Is there a good recipe for squirrel stew? The little gray squirrel has figured out a way to bypass the cone on the feeder pole and he is going to suffer lead poisoning soon. Rummaging off the ground is OK, climbing onto the feeder is not.
|
|
caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
|
Post by caesg on Jun 2, 2019 12:42:15 GMT -5
Preservation is probably a bit ambitious for me this year. If I preserve anything, that'll be exciting.
I'm working, this year, on developing some cycle menus of recipes that I know we like, will eat, (ideally) dirty few dishes, and (ideally) don't take terribly long to prepare and/or are freezable for batch cooking.
With a cycle menu of "staple" recipes, I think that would help me plan a kitchen garden and have a sense of how much preservation would be worthwhile for us.
|
|
|
Post by mgulfcoastguy on Jun 2, 2019 20:06:34 GMT -5
I will probably pickle some jalapeños and maybe some okra depending on the yield. The cucumbers are Munchers and I don’t know how well they would pickle. A the garden planted at Dad’s they will probably freeze tomatoes and summer squash. Normally they would freeze blueberries but several late freezes really hurt this years crop. No idea what to do with eggplant other than to cook and eat it.
|
|
|
Post by spacecase0 on Jun 2, 2019 23:58:01 GMT -5
I keep dried flour corn for winter use also the winter squashes keep with no special work the potatoes last quite a while on there own, the green tomatoes will ripen slowly all the way till spring if I keep them somewhat over freezing temps. past that I don't preserve anything, just to much work and expense.
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on Jun 4, 2019 18:01:53 GMT -5
I have already started my 2019 preservation. I just put the final harvest of spinach in the freezer. It will join the early harvest of spinach, bok choy greens, asparagus and diced rhubarb.
I am hoping to get enough English peas to freeze a few but tonight we just ate the first harvest. It was not a big harvest so far.
I guess that my next harvestable crops will be 4 heads of green cabbage and some green beans but we do not like beans frozen so they will just be eaten fresh. The cabbage will also be eaten fresh as coleslaw or sauteed cabbage.
|
|
|
Post by Gianna on Jun 9, 2019 22:03:41 GMT -5
I'm planning on preserving about the same as usual. I no longer can things, and 'back then', I only did extra fruits, lots of tomatoes, and some jams. No more.
This year I'll dehydrate lots of tomatoes. I've come to really like those dry slices. So easy to add just a bit of tomato to a dish this way. I'll also dehydrate the culls (non straight) peppers for making lovely powders.
Most of the chilies will be flame roasted and frozen in packets - my favorite thing to preserve.
Since we can garden year round, there is almost something fresh out there. Right now I'm totally enjoying the Romano beans and zucchini.
Oh, I also partially dehydrate and freeze strips of zucchini and use them in place of lasagna noodles.
|
|
|
Post by mgulfcoastguy on Jun 9, 2019 23:18:02 GMT -5
Well SVBs wiped out the summer squash and zucchini crop but we can try again in late August. Dad was talking to our tenant next door and found out that she hadn’t been picking the blueberries that came with renting the house. So he picked 10 quarts. Cucumbers are going gang busters there and eggplant and tomatoes sound promising. Jalapeños are never a problem though this new variety seems smaller.
|
|