preserving the harvest

I had planned for this to be my September installment but time just got away from me as I was busy preserving a variety of produce that came our way. We happen to have an apple tree that is sort of in our backyard - actually it is in the neighbor's yard and hangs over into ours. But I pretty much consider it ours as the neighbors do not harvest any fruit off of it as they just fall to the ground and rot. So, we glean as much off of it as we can from our side. We also get lots of apples from many friends in the area as apple trees tend to flourish around these parts. My favorite way to preserve them is to dry them. We snack on these delicious slices the rest of the year - they are so good. If you'd like more information on dehydrating apples here's a post about it.

apples going into the dehydrator

dehydrated apples

Pounds of wonderful organically-grown produce came our way this year as I had the wonderful opportunity to garden-sit for a few friends. Boy, was I busy. The fruits of my labor was all the fresh produce we got to eat, plus the stuff I packed away for this winter. I don't have the ability to do any canning right now so I turned to the dehydrator and freezer as a means to save all of this bounty for later.

I have no idea how many green beans I picked but it was far more than we could eat on a daily basis. I used the dehydrator on some and learned very quickly that they shrink down to such a small size that I need to cut them a bit on the longer side to keep them from falling through the screens! In reading up on dehydrating vegetables I learned that they have an enzyme that will degrade them quickly if you don't blanch them first - so that is what I did. I have yet to try any of them, but plan to do so in winter soups.

blanched green beans in dehydrator

dried green beans (long and shorter ones) & dried zucchini

I also blanched and froze LOTS of cut green beans. I placed the cut and blanched beans on cookie sheets in the freezer until hard - then popped them off into plastic bags for freezer storage. I have tried these and they are not as good as fresh green beans (they tend to be a little watery after they are cooked) - but I think they are better (or at least different) than canned beans. They weren't really all that much work to do - and I love the fact that I have pounds of organically-grown green beans to eat through the winter for cheap.

freezing green beans

As you might have noticed above I also dried some zucchini slices. These squash do about as well as the apples around here! Most everyone who grows them has a surplus to share and the gardens I was watching were no exception. I dried just a couple of batches of blanched zucchini slices with the winter intent to use them in a lasagna . . . we'll see how that turns out.

dried zucchini in the dehydrator

We just ate the smaller zucchini I harvested - and we ate lots of those. But I often found a couple of very large zucchinis that had been overlooked, and being someone who hates to waste, I got the grater out and got busy. If the squash had large seeds I would scoop them out first and discard them as they are usually tough. I made zucchini muffins for us on several occasions, and zucchini fritters (something we love but is not particularly low-fat so I don't make it too often).

zucchini muffins and grating zucchini

I also froze several cups of grated zucchini in various increments for winter use. I chose the amounts to match recipes (like the aforementioned muffins and fritters, and a delicious zucchini chocolate cake too.)

grated zucchini ready for the freezer

I didn't bother blanching the grated zucchini before freezing and it seems to be okay so far. Recently I made the zucchini chocolate cake with some of the frozen grated zucchini and it turned out excellent. I squeezed out much of the water (maybe about 2/3 of a cup?) and the batter seemed fine, and as I said it was as delicious as usual.

zucchini chocolate cake

These garden-sitting gigs also kept us well stocked with fresh raspberries, and being a rather fragile berry I had to do something quickly with the 1-2 quarts I picked daily. I froze several quarts just as they were as they make a nice berry-oats crisp in the middle of winter.

freshly picked raspberries

But I also made quite a few containers of freezer jam. Sometimes I added some wild blackberries from the back yard, and on a couple of batches I added some figs we were given. Very delicious on our breakfast toast I must say.

simmering raspberry-fig jam

I was late in my oregano harvesting this year as my neighbor captured a new honey bee swarm and they were frequent visitors to my flowering oregano. I just didn't have the heart to take away this food source as I thought they had much work to do getting ready for winter . . . but finally as the flowers waned I did harvest what was left of the usable leaves. We have pretty mild winters here in coastal southern Oregon so I can still pinch off a fresh sprig of oregano mid-winter, but my dried stash of herbs is just more convenient than going out in the rain sometimes.

drying oregano leaves

One of the surprise garden-gifts we were given this year was a huge amount of organically-grown basil!

fresh basil

 Oh my goodness. We ate so much of it fresh on vine-ripened tomatoes - so delicious. But there was so much that I made some freezer pesto too. We will really enjoy that taste of summer come winter!

making basil pesto

As we are now well into autumn, I hope you were able to preserve some of the harvest. And if you're not fortunate enough to grow some of your own produce, I hope you are able to enjoy some just the same through friends or a local farmer's market. Have a great fall, ya'll.