"Canning Squash Is Dangerous!", says Gran

Gran always had a garden. Her home wasn't complete without her garden. I've realized the importance of a garden only recently; but being the sustainable modern woman I am, my garden is very out of the ordinary. For one, it's a never-ending garden meaning it never stops producing food. How can that be?

My garden is an aquaponic one cloistered within a greenhouse. Aquaponics is the marriage between hydroponics (growing veggies without soil) and aquaculture (raising food fish). This is a cross-linked symbiotic system where the fish waste fertilizes the plants and the plants clean the water for the fish. All the water is continuously recirculated. This is the most water conservative form of gardening on the planet today. And I'm not only growing beautiful, organic vegetables, I'm also growing my own protein in the form of Tilapia, a mild, tasty white-meat food fish. You can visit this site at by clicking on the New Link List below. You'll see live web cams of both the greenhouse and the fish. We are also selling complete, compact aquaponics systems just like the ones you see on our site. Watch for the complete series on aquaponics coming soon.

Back to Squash. Because I've never planted a garden before (not even a traditional soil garden), I had no idea what summer squash were up to; and I planted way too many in my aquaponic grow beds. It's everywhere. The picture you see here, is one grow bed full of squash. My tomatoes are peeking up out of the middle of that bed.

But here's something very important I've only recently realized. Even though there are recipes for canning summer squash all over the net, it can't be trusted even when you Pressure Can it. That explains why I never saw Gran canning squash. Remember, she lived in the days when a freezer was a tiny little box at the top of her refrigerator--real tiny. So she didn't even have the option of freezing her excess summer squash. Instead, she sent me to peddle it to the neighbors for free. I knew she'd gotten carried away with her summer squash plants when the neighbors ran when they saw me coming.

Explaining pH in detail here is beyond the scope of this lens. If you're real curious, go to my home site at www.aquaponicsusa.com and click on the "Water" page. You'll see lots of details about pH there.

Suffice it to say, in the canning world, acids are the good guys because they counter the ill-effects of disease-causing micro-organisms. There are high acid foods and low acid foods; and most vegetables are low-acid foods. Now, that makes them great foods to eat because you want to have your system in an alkaline (low-acid) state. But when it comes to canning, there's more to consider.

Our grandmothers knew what was safe to can and what was not. This knowledge was passed down through the generations. But modern women just embarking on their new sustainable lifestyles are at a big disadvantage because these wisdoms have been lost or forgotten. For the past fifty years or so, we've been buying our canned goods from the grocery store. No wisdom in that.

Low acid foods, like vegetables, will not spoil nor harbor harmful bacteria only if they are processed at temperatures high enough to destroy those nasty predators. That's why you need to use your Pressure Canner. I've just found a wonderful tutorial by the University of Wisconsin called "Canning Vegetables Safely" written by Barbara H. Ingham. You can access that free tutorial below:

Right on page 1, up came a word I hadn't heard since my Gran last spoke it. That word is "Botulism". Now, please don't can your plan to start canning because I just spoke the big, bad "B" word. Canning is perfectly safe as long as you have access to the old tried and true wisdom. And now you do.

Besides vegetables like peas, carrots, corn and potatoes, foods with acid levels low enough to support the growth of C.botulinum include meats, milk and eggs. That's why all these low-acid foods must be processed in a Pressure Canner and not just a boiling water canner.

There are a number foods with sufficient enough acid levels that they do not support the growth of C.botulinum. These are fruits like apples, peaches and pears. That's why it's perfectly safe to can them in a boiling water canner. Where is the separation point? At the pH level of 4.6. In the "Canning Vegetables Safely" report, there's a handy pH chart on page 2.

Back to summer squash. Notice it isn't on the above list; and, you can take my word for it, it isn't on the pH chart in the "Canning Vegetables Safely" tutorial. Why? Because it's pH is too low to even trust your Pressure Canner to take care of business.

Unlike Gran and her itsy-bitsy freezer, us modern women have huge long-term food storage freezers in our homes. Sometimes they're attached to the refrigerator and sometimes they're free-standing freezers of immense sizes in our dens, garages and patios. Most of us have them chocked full of pre-packaged, and therefore, processed foods.

That's the place to store your healthy, home-created frozen summer squash. The following Steps will tell you exactly how to do it.

1. Just like you were canning, you need to start with the freshest summer squash you can find. It's also good if it's fairly young with thin skins. If you can't pick it out of your own garden, try to purchase it from a farmer's market. You can be sure farmer's markets are selling fresher food than your supermarket.
2. Then you wash your squash in cold or lukewarm water. If you use a vegetable brush, make sure it's a soft one. Wash them well but don't peel them. All you need to do is cut off the ends and slice them into 1/2 inch slices. Sometimes, Gran would cut them into chunks instead of slices as she used these different shapes in different recipes. She often served the slices as stand-alone side dishes but placed the chunks in stews and soups. She only cooked with fresh, unfrozen squash, however.
3.Work quickly so your squash doesn't start to discolor.

4. Zucchini is great for baking if you grate them instead of slice them. You could divide up your crop into two parts, slicing some and grating others.
5. Because fruits and vegetables have enzymes and bacteria that eventually break down causing nutrient destruction, discoloration, loss of flavor and texture of food during frozen storage, you need to blanch your squash before freezing it.
6. Blanching is a simple process that involves briefly boiling your squash in a pot full of boiling water before freezing it. This 3 minute boil destroys the enzymes that would otherwise break down over time. If you've chosen to grate your zucchini, instead of water blanching, steam blanch them in small quantities 1 to 2 minutes until they are translucent. Make sure you are boiling or steaming for only the 3 or 1 to 2 minutes with a covered pot.
7. Remove the squash from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and place it in ice water to cool for about 5 minutes (until cold). Cooling them quickly prevents overcooking. Keep adding more ice as needed. Take them out of the ice water and drain them thoroughly for about 2 or 3 minutes.
8. If you have a vacuum Food Saver, it's time to get it out, place your squash in one of the bags and seal it tight. These things are great. They really work to prevent drying and freezer burn. Second best, Zip Lock Bags; but they just don't get all the air out. Here's a helpful hint on how to make Zip Locks work almost as well as a vacuum Food Savers. Place your squash in the Zip Lock Bag zipping it up leaving only as much opening as it takes to place a straw inside. Then suck the air out using the straw. You can do this with just your mouth if you don't have any straws. Press the straw closed where it's inserted and then zip the bag closed as you remove the straw. This is a little awkward and time-consuming, but it's better that going through all the steps to freeze food and have it go bad.

9. If your squash is still very wet after you drain it, place it in and unsealed, upright food-saver bag and freeze it for several hours. You could even wait until the next day to seal it with no wet mess.
10. Place all of your sealed summer squash into your freezer using the fastest freezing equipment you own.

That's it. You've got summer squash to eat anytime of the year even Christmas dinner, which is already peeking at us around this Fall corner. Don't be disappointed when you thaw your squash and find it to be a little mushy. This is summer squash to be used in preparing other things like sautees, soups, stews rather than to be placed as a side dish alone on a plate. Just make sure you discard any liquid left after your squash thaws.