Freezing

Think of Thanksgiving dinner with all the vegetables being from your own garden. Some fresh (parsley, chives, Brussels sprouts and carrots), some from the cool spot in the basement (cabbage, onions and celery), some canned (salsa, bread and butter pickles, green beans) and others frozen (corn, snap peas and summer squash made to taste like apple sauce). Leftover turkey sandwiches taste even better with homemade horseradish, pickled peppers and/or dill pickles. This is a reality for many home gardeners. Maybe not all this the first year, but it is certainly attainable.
Houses used to have “root cellars.” These were little rooms in the basement built to keep the house heat out but not cold enough to freeze. These were used to store vegetables whole for a few weeks. Crops like cabbage, carrots, Brussels sprouts, celery, potatoes and peppers were picked right before the first frost. Some are stored as they are on a shelf, some tied and hung and others require some sort of container. Garlic and onions can be hung where it is room temperature. It is not unusual for these crops to keep until Thanksgiving in most areas of the country.
Most of our Thanksgiving guests look forward to our homegrown corn – yellow or white – your choice. We like our corn frozen rather than canned. It requires less work than canning! We also have the advantage of a large freezer. The freezer is the big expense for this method of preserving. It’s well worth it if you can make good use of it. A freezer is also good for storing meat, fruit and leftovers.

Here are a few things to consider when planning to freeze your surplus crops:
1. Harvest to freezer in three hours or less. Vegetables loose nutrients and flavor rather quickly after being picked. Have everything ready before hand. Gardening takes some planning. It’s part of the challenge. Make room in the freezer. Have freezing supplies on the table. Lineup a helper or two. Get the water on for blanching.
2. Almost all vegetables need blanched before freezing. Blanching is a quick boiling of the vegetable to be frozen. There is also a steam blanching procedure. Most of us use the boiling water method. The hot water (or steam) is required to greatly reduce the enzymes that cause loss of nutrients, color and flavor. Here is how it is done. Get a half filled pan of water boiling. Add vegetables until they are covered with water. When the water begins to boil again, dump the container into a colander in the sink or laundry tub. Quickly plunge the vegetables into a container of iced water. Hurry and get the original pot ready if necessary. Stir them around so they all cool. Pour again into the colander. Now you are ready to pack into containers.
3. There are a limited number of freezer coverings. These include freezer paper, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, vacuum-sealed laminated bags, zip lock freezer bags, plastic containers and even glass jars. Check your canning/freezing book for advantages and disadvantages of each. We use freezer bags for freezing our surplus produce, containers for leftovers and none of the others for long-term storage.

Examples:
Freezing corn isn’t a bad chore. We pick enough corn for about 25 quart bags. Experience helps here. While I’m “shucking” it, my helper (wife) is getting the water boiling. We put in about a dozen ears at a time. Meanwhile the iced water is getting ready in a big canner. We remove the corn after it boils about five minutes. We take them out an ear at a time to keep the hot water for the next batch. I cut off the kernels and my wife fills the bags. She leaves a little room for the expansion of moisture. We also freeze several ears for a treat at the Memorial Day cook out. We spread out the filled bags in the freezer until they are frozen solid. Then we arrange then in some semblance of order.
With sauerkraut, we just clean up the top mess and place the good stuff in a colander to rinse off some of the salt required for processing, i.e., fermenting. We then pack the bags from the colander place in the freezer. We do not blanch sauerkraut. It works for us.

As stated above, gardening takes planning. Winter is a good time to plan your work. The growing seasons are when you work your plan.

canning (tomatoes)

Hot packing is our method of processing tomatoes (stewed, sauce and juice). Stewing involves skinning the tomatoes before cooking. We start water boiling in the canner. We wash the tomatoes and place then in the laundry tub spread evenly. Next the boiling water is poured over the tomatoes and allowed to set until the skins start splitting. In the meantime clean jars are places in the boiling water bath canner covered with an inch of water. By now the tomatoes are ready to peel. We “pull the plug” to let out the hot water and run cold water over them (easier to handle than hot).
The tomatoes are peeled and cut into quarters into a saucepan to cook. Once the tomatoes and the jars come to a boil, we begin filling the jars. As each jar is filled (leaving ½ inch head space) we wipe the rim, dip the lid with ring attached into the boiling jar water to soften the rubber ring on the lid. Now we apply the lid and tighten firmly. We place the jar back into the boiling water bath and repeat the process, using all the jars and/or tomatoes. Processing time starts when the last jar of tomatoes is in the boiling water. We use quarts so processing takes 45 minutes (35 for pints).
We remove the jars and place on a towel to cool. DO NOT retighten lids. By the time we are done cleaning up the jars are usually sealed. If they aren’t sealed by this time, we check them again in an hour. Any that aren’t sealed by then (very rare) are used within a few days. We then recheck the jar for defects. It’s easy to miss a small chip in the rim, but important to make your best effort. Naturally, we use only recommended canning jars.

Canning Tips

Enjoying preserved food from your home garden during the cold winter months is one of many delights of growing your own vegetables. The three main methods of preserving your surplus crops are by drying, canning and freezing.
Canning is probably the most used method of preserving. More vegetables taste better canned than dried. Refrigerator freezer compartments are too small to hold the regular frozen items and the garden surplus. This means the added expense of a separate freezer. Well worth it if your garden is big enough to warrant the expense. Not so good if it is running only half full in the fall and almost empty by spring.
Canning also has some disadvantages, especially the first year. Besides the initial cost of canning jars, there is also a cost of canning supplies. These supplies include the two types of canners. The boiling water bath canner is used to preserve the high acid food such as tomatoes and sauerkraut. It can also be used for certain kinds of pickles. The pressure canner is used for all other vegetables.
A good canning book, such as the Ball Blue Book of Preserving is a must. They provide all the details to make your canning a success. Make sure you don’t cut corners or deviate for the instructions. A large cooking pot is needed for “hot packing.” This method involves precooking the food for a short period prier to packing into the jars. Tomatoes are usually hot packed. “Cold packing” means you pack the food raw and adding water, vinegar water or juice before processing. Green beans stay firmer if cold packed.
Lids are an every year purchase. Rings can be reused. In fact, rings can be removed after the lids are sealed and the jars are cooled to room temperature. You will need the tool to remove the hot jars after processing, measuring spoons and cups, a jar funnel, tongs, Various spoons for stirring and transporting the food to the jars, especially during hot packing. These are all easy to find in a variety of stores.

Drying (parsley)

We dry our parsley in a dehydratorIt is about as large is a large soup pot and has seven interstacking trays. It gives off very little heat so it can be used about anywhere. It’s the kitchen for us. However, we do place a pizza pan under it – just in case. Wouldn’t want to discolor the countertop.
After harvesting the parsley, we trim off as much of the stalk as we can without spending a lot of time. Next we arrange the leaves around one tray evenly in thin layers.
Then do the same with the other six trays or until there are no more parsley leaves. The third step is to stack the seven trays. These are placed on the base of the dehydrator. The lid is then placed on the top tray and the dehydrator plugged into the power source.
After a twenty-four hour period, remove the lid and place it upside down. Remove the top tray and place it on the lid. Place the other six trays on top of what was the top tray (on the lid) as they are currently arranged, i.e., what was the top tray is now the bottom tray. What was the bottom tray is now one above the bottom. Replace the stacked trays on the base as before.
Continue this process for seven days. The parsley should be dry enough for storage. Test it by rubbing a few leaves between your palms. If it crumbles nicely, you can store it in a jar or freezer bag. If it isn’t as dry as you think it should be, dry it a few more days. Change the order of the racks more frequently. We like to use an empty Parmesan cheese container for storage and cooking use.
Parsley can also be dried in the oven. Convection ovens do the best job. A cookie sheet is ideal for drying. Place this on a rack in the middle of the over. Leave the door open a little – as in broiling. The oven temperature is set at your lowest setting - about 175 degrees. Again, spread evenly in thin layers. You’ll need to check for dryness daily. Crumble a few leaves between your fingers and thumb. Store when it is dry enough. Really dry is the key. You don’t want it molding in the storage container.
We crumble the dried leave onto a newspaper. Fold the newspaper in half and pour the crumbled leaves into your container. Neat and quick!
Dried parsley should last until your next crop in late spring. Good in soup and sauces. Let your imagination rule.

Let’s talk about the basics of home canning next time.

preserving the fruits of your labor

Winter is a real good time to enjoy the fruit of your garden work. The surplus from your crops taste mighty good while others are settling for “store bought.” Also think of the money you are saving.
Excess crop supplies are preserved by three main methods for home gardeners. These include drying, canning and freezing. The method you choose depends on individual preferance. However, some crops are more suited to one method over the others. Parsley is an ideal crop for drying. Tomatoes can well. Corn keeps its flavor well when frozen. Experimentation will be your key to choice.