Canning & Preserving Your Harvest

Growing a bountiful harvest is reward enough on its own. All those gem-toned tomatoes, the snap of the beans, the beets and their earthy flavors make all the garden care and maintenance worth it. Try as you might to eat as many tomato sandwiches as you can, you often can’t keep up with all that produce!

 

Fortunately, you have the option of preserving so many of the different types of produce your garden gives you. Through canning, freezing, pickling and other techniques, you can enjoy the flavors of summer and fall long after the growing season has ended.

 

Humans have been preserving food for generations, turning seasonal abundance and over-production into shelf-stable, frozen, and flavorful pantry staples. Whether you're hoping to reduce food waste, save money on groceries, or simply enjoy your homegrown vegetables during the winter months, preserving is both a practical and simple skill worth learning.

 

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Why Preserve Your Harvest?

Avoiding waste is one of the biggest reasons gardeners preserve their harvests. You’ve invested time and effort into preparing the soil, choosing your crops and planting, watering, and caring for them, it's difficult to watch any extra produce spoil. Preservation allows you to capture vegetables at their peak quality and flavor and enjoy them months later.

 

Many gardeners also appreciate the self-sufficiency that comes with having shelves stocked with home-canned tomatoes, jars of pickles, and bags of frozen vegetables. Preserving food can also stretch your grocery budget by reducing the need to purchase vegetables and fruits out of season when prices are often higher. That last reason is becoming more and more important these days.

 

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Common Ways to Preserve

Your mom or grandmother may have spent hours in the kitchen tending the canner, but there are several other methods for preserving garden produce, too. Canning remains one of the most widely used techniques, with water-bath canning used for high-acid foods such as tomatoes and pickles, and pressure canning for low-acid vegetables like green beans and corn.

 

Freezing is another simple option that preserves flavor and nutrition with minimal equipment. Dehydrating removes moisture from fruits and vegetables, creating lightweight foods that store well for extended periods. Fermentation, used to make foods such as sauerkraut and fermented pickles, is another way to preserve vegetables while developing unique flavors with the bonus of supporting your gut health.

 

 

Preserving Popular Crops

We are listing a few of the crops that you may have in your own garden, with suggestions for ways you can preserve their peak flavor for later enjoyment.

 

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are often the first crop gardeners think about preserving. No matter the kind or stage of development, tomatoes can be canned, frozen, and dried. Home gardeners commonly preserve tomatoes as sauce, salsa, crushed tomatoes, or whole peeled tomatoes. If you're short on time, freezing may be the easiest option. Just wash the tomatoes, remove any damaged portions, and freeze them whole. The skins slip off easily once thawed, making them perfect for soups and sauces. For the best quality, harvest tomatoes when they are fully ripe but still firm.

 

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Peppers

Peppers are another garden crop that often produces a bumper crop. Good thing that they preserve exceptionally well! Sweet peppers can be chopped and frozen for use in soups, stir-fries, and casseroles throughout the year. Hot peppers can be dehydrated and ground into powders or used to make hot sauces and pepper jellies. Roasting peppers before freezing enhances their flavor and makes them easy to incorporate into future meals. When preserving peppers, select fruits that are fully colored and free of blemishes.

 

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Green Beans

Green beans are a classic crop for preservation. Many gardeners pressure can green beans, creating loads of pantry-ready side dishes that can be enjoyed year-round. Freezing is often the simplest method for beginners. To maintain quality, blanch beans briefly in boiling water before cooling them in ice water and freezing. This process helps preserve color, texture, and flavor. Harvest beans when they are young and tender before their seeds become overly developed.

 

Summer Squashes

What gardener hasn’t eventually had way too many zucchini and yellow squashes? Fortunately, summer squashes can be preserved in several creative ways. Shredded zucchini freezes beautifully and can be added directly to breads, muffins, soups, and casseroles. Sliced zucchini can be dehydrated into chips or added to vegetable soup mixes. Some gardeners even make zucchini relish or pickles. The key is to harvest zucchini while fruits are still relatively small and tender, before they become oversized and seedy.

 

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are another crop that can often produce way more than expected. Pickling is the most common preservation method, transforming fresh cucumbers into crisp dill pickles, bread-and-butter pickles, relish … so many possibilities! For best results, harvest cucumbers early in the day and process them as soon as possible after picking. Freshly harvested cucumbers produce the crispiest pickles.

 

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Corn

Corn is also worth preserving when harvests are abundant. Sweet corn can be pressure canned, but many gardeners prefer freezing because it better maintains flavor and texture. Just cut kernels from the cob and freeze. They will be at the ready for adding to soups and side dishes. Blanching before freezing helps preserve quality and color.

 

Regardless of the crop you're preserving, a few basic practices can improve your results.

·      Use the freshest produce possible.

·      Process it soon after harvest.

·      Wash vegetables thoroughly.

·      Discard any damaged or diseased portions.

·      Follow tested preservation recipes and food safety guidelines, especially when canning.

·      Label your jars and freezer bags! This makes it easier to track storage dates and rotate older products first.

 

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Whether you're stocking pantry shelves with canned tomatoes, freezing peppers for winter meals, or finding creative uses for an abundance of zucchini, preserving food helps ensure that none of your hard-earned harvest goes to waste. With a little planning and practice, you'll be able to enjoy the flavors of your garden throughout the year.

Preserving Resources

The Internet has a tremendous amount of information available on how to can, preserve, freeze, pickle and dehydrate. We found a few resources to get you started. 

Canning for Beginners from Almanac.com

Food Preservations - Jams from Purdue Food Science Extension

The Quickest Way to Store Your Vegetables from Alabama Public Television

Pickling - General Information from University of Georgia

Preserve It: Dehydrating Garden Vegetables from the Square Foot Gardening Foundation

 

Too Much? Donate!

There are all too many people experiencing food insecurity at the moment. Donating a portion of your harvest is the kind and compassionate thing to do. Whether you plant an extra row for sharing or just planted too much, your extra produce will be welcome at a local food bank, soup kitchen or shelter. The non-profit organization Feeding America can help you locate your nearest food bank.