Preserving your Vegetable Garden Harvest - Eat Garden-fresh for 4-6 Months!
Everyone should be working to save your harvest, either by storing or preserving. Canning, drying, and freezing, are good ways of preserving your crops such as beans, corn, peas, peppers, summer squash, and tomatoes. They need to be done immediately after picking, while crops are fresh and tasty. Whether you cold-store or preserve your produce depends on the type of food you've grown, your facilities, and your family's eating preferences.
Cold storage of vegetables such as cabbage, beets, carrots, potatoes, squash, and turnips can give you the best tasting and healthiest food of the four methods, and may even be the least expensive in the long run. And you can eat every one of these garden-fresh even 4 to 6 months after they've been harvested! This requires some careful preparation, so let's discuss how best to prepare for and store your fall harvest.
Remember grow what your family will eat, you can always donate or preserve the rest.
Cold storage and preservation of vegetables part two
Your basement might just be perfect
Since tomatoes are many peoples' favorite garden produce, let's discuss them first. Before the first frost, pick all your tomatoes, including the green ones. Handle them gently, because cuts or bruises will cause them to spoil quickly. Fruit that's close to ripe can be placed on a kitchen counter, out of direct sunlight, and it will ripen in a few days. Green fruit should be placed on a shelf in a cool, dry place, such as your basement or garage. As they begin to ripen you can bring them into the kitchen. Always remove any fruit that is beginning to spoil. We eat tomatoes into January this way. Food for Everyone Foundation
The Food For Everyone Foundation's mission is to teach and assist families everywhere to grow successful and sustainable vegetable gardens, and really enjoy the experience.
Tender vegetables and preservation part three.
What about the tender veggies how do I store them?
You can set it into the side of a hill or dig a hole 4' to 5' deep in a corner of the yard, build the cellar, and cover it with the excess dirt. This will help insulate it and maintain the low, but not freezing temperatures you need. Provide yourself a small door and insulate it well.
Harvest your crops at peak maturity and store only those which are free of disease or damage. Don't harvest for storage until late fall, since more starches are converted to sugars by the cool weather. Root crops should be picked fresh and stored immediately. Potatoes and squash, on the other hand, first need to be cured at 60-75 degrees for 7 to 14 days. Most produce should be stored at just above freezing temperatures, except winter squash, which does better at or above 50 degrees.
Purchase the Mittleider digital gardening manuals and save over 40% compared to the printed versions.
100% of the income earned goes to support the Foundation.Preserving Root crops part four.
Root crops store rather easily
Your root crops will stay fresh and sweet for months if you harvest them with roots intact and pack them in wet sawdust. Cabbage and other brassicas also need their roots. Remove outer leaves, then pack the roots in wet sawdust, leaving the cabbage exposed. Provide separation between crops to avoid mixing flavors, and to keep squash dry.Potatoes should not be as wet as the root crops. They will do well in temperatures below 40 degrees, but pack them in slightly moist, rather than wet sawdust. Peat moss and sand, or combinations of all three, can be substituted for straight sawdust, but are not as ideal. I recommend you work with your neighbors to find a sawmill, and obtain a truckload.
Onions and garlic also store well. They can handle cold temperatures but, like winter squash, they do better with humidity only 60 to 70 percent. Therefore these should be up off the damp floor, on shelves or hung from the ceiling. A cold basement can also work, but be sure to provide separation from living areas to avoid the strong smell.
Remember, cold temperatures are essential for good long-term storage of vegetables, but do not let them freeze! Insulate your root cellar well. Good healthy eating to you
Veggies
Row covers for growb...
Greenhouse rafters
Almost ready to repl...
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Tomatoes
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Grow boxes
Mini Greenhouses
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Starting seedlings
Do you preserve your vegetables?
Do you can or dry your vegetables?
Are you new to preserving vegetables or an old timer (Pro)
100% of the income earned by this lens goes to help fund the Food for Everyone Foundations efforts.
Do you preserve your vegetable harvest?
Do you can, freeze or dry your vegetables say hello please
If you have a Vegetable based site or just want to say hi drop me a note and let me know about your lenses and websites.
I will visit them also.
I have a garden and am very interested in learning how to perserve as much of it as possible. I also can many of the vegetables but not much luck with freezing. Can you tell me where to start and any suggestions you may have
Posted April 24, 2008
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estories
I'm sure there is much interest in this lens topic. An informative lens to promote a healthy lifestyle! When everyone has preserved their produce,I hope they will visit my lens Labels With Love for all their label needs for their canning and freezing.Holiday labels! www.squidoo.com/labelswithlove Posted August 10, 2007 |
Preserve your vegetables correctly for year round good eats
Purchase the Mittleider digital gardening manuals and save over 40% compared to the printed versions.
100% of the income earned goes to support the Foundation.
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 10/13/2008)
Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling
Amazon Price: $8.76 (as of 10/13/2008)
Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation
Amazon Price: $16.50 (as of 10/13/2008)
Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 10/13/2008)
Canning & Preserving for Dummies
Amazon Price: $11.55 (as of 10/13/2008)
Do you can, dry or freeze your produce?
If you have a favorite Vegetable preservation site please add it
Preserving your vegetables is a healthy and frugal way to improve your health and save some money.
National Center for Home Food Preservation | How Do I? Can Vegetables
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Educational resources about Preserving vegetables and fruits
- Freezing fruits and vegetables correctly
- Excellent PDF on how to freeze fruits safely.
Vegetables
The term "vegetable" generally means the edible parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however. Therefore the usage is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation.
Generally speaking, a herbaceous plant or plant part which is regularly eaten as unsweetened or salted food by humans is considered to be a vegetable.
Mushrooms belong to the biological kingdom Fungi, not the plant kingdom, and yet they are also generally considered to be vegetables, at least in the retail industry.[http://www.sainsburys.com/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1204364272863 Sainsbury's vegetable offering.][http://www.ocado.com/webshop/getCategories.do?categoryId=000117519 Ocado's vegetable offering.]
Nuts, seeds, grains, herbs, spices and culinary fruits are usually not considered to be vegetables, even though all of them are edible parts of plants.
In general, vegetables are those plant parts that are regarded as being suitable to be part of savory or salted dishes, rather than sweet dishes. However there are many exceptions, such as for example the pumpkin, which can be eaten as a savory dish, a vegetable, but which can also be sweetened and served in a pie as a dessert.
Some vegetables, such as carrots, bell peppers and celery, are eaten either raw or cooked; while others, such as potatoes, are eaten only when cooked.
For many different kinds of vegetables, please see the list of vegetables.
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