Garden to Table and Beyond
How to Preserve Your GardenHarvest
Freezing Many foods can go directly into the freezer for long-term storage. Place summer berries on a tray to flash freeze thembefore transferring into containers or bags. You can also use this technique for other fruits such as pineapple, mango, and peaches. Simply peel, core and cut them into chunks before freezing. Frozen fruits are perfect for smoothies or compotes. Avocados can be frozen in peeled halves or mashed and stored in a bag or container to use for guacamole at a later date. You can
also freeze bananas with or without their peels to use in banana bread or smoothies. Vegetables and freezers make great partners, too. Some foods first need to be blanched in order to kill the enzymes that promote decay. This simply means steaming or boiling them for a fewminutes. Blanching also produces a more vibrant-looking vegetable. Think about the vegetables available in the freezer section of the supermarket. Everything from corn to green beans and spinach can be frozen.
If you spent your spring days pulling weeds and preparing raised beds, followed by a summer of planting and nurturing your garden, harvest time is the ultimate reward for your hard work. But that joy can be fleeting when everything seems to abundantly produce faster than you can consume it. When your tomatoes and cucumbers take over, think ahead into the winter months and beyond. By preserving fruits, vegetables and herbs, you can enjoy your bountiful crops in soups, desserts, and casseroles until the planting season comes around again.
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