ARE YOU RUNNING MADLY AROUND like a squirrel, caching your foodstuffs before you-know-what arrives? Me, too. Red squirrels, in particular, know you have to store the stuff right, so they pile up green conifer cones while fresh, but first cure treasures like fungi and apples—putting them up in the crotch of a tree to dry a bit before adding them to the larder. From potatoes to tomatoes, peppers and herbs and more, a fast review of how we humans can store it for later.
I’m gathering green herbs—parsley, basil, sage, cilantro, chives, you name it—and freezing them in various ways.
Have you put your white potatoes into storage? I leave mine in the dark, insulated ground awhile longer, but sooner or later…
With sweet potatoes, what to do when it’s time to dig and store.
Where to stash onions and garlic (and soon we’ll be planting the latter—along with multiplier onions—so have you ordered your bulbs?).
Freeze some peppers while they’re plentiful and cheap.
I’m ripening all the tomatoes I can (the tactics, on and off the vine)…
…then I’m freezing or canning not just fast red sauce, but also some whole tomatoes for anytime a recipes calls for “whole canned” (I just use “whole frozen,” which is much less work now).
If you fail to ripen some, no worry: green tomato and apple mincemeat (which doubles as chutney) to the rescue.
Leftovers? With all the good bits and bobs—the tops of turnips or carrots, and the other tasty trimmings—why not make stock? Or what I call “tomato junk,” a sort of all-purpose base to stews and heartier soups.
Are you gathering or buying apples for applesauce? Windfalls, or seconds, are cheaper and plenty good enough.
If there are ripe peaches still to be found, what about freezing some?
Still have cucumbers? Refrigerator pickles are always an easy way to make use of them.
Browse for all my food-related tips in the Edibles-Recipes& Cooking category.
I have been running the dehydrator none stop. No electicity is needed to store. The nutrition keeps too. Vaccume sealing everything in site. We will have all the fresh produce all winter long. Today a pot of veggie soup is on the stove…some for supper and some to freeze…….yummy garden soup
I made peach butter with a recipe from Smitten Kitchen.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/09/peach-butter/
It looks beautiful in Weck jars, and it tastes YUMMY!
I saw the squirrels in Alaska drying their mushrooms – nature is amazing!
Here’s my grandma’s recipe for Green Tomato Pie. It tastes a lot like apple pie, and it’s made almost the same way too. Bear in mind, this is a Nebraska farmer’s wife’s recipe… not a lot of detail. :)
Green Tomato Pie
Line pan with pastry. Fill 1/2 full with thinly sliced small green tomatoes. Sprinkle with sugar–1 cup for 9″ pan, 3/4 cup for 8″ pan, 1/2 cup for 7″ pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon, dot with butter. Cover with top crust.
Bake 15 minutes in 450 degree oven, or 45 minutes in 320 degree oven.
I’ve been begging for extra tomatoes from friends. I’ve canned salsa, pizza/pasta sauce, and roasted tomato soup. We also froze sweet corn, shredded zuchinni, peas, and green beans. It’s all so good during the long cold winter!
I froze organic peach pie filling http://delightfulrepast.blogspot.com/2011/04/peach-pie-freezing-peach-pie-filling.html and peach freezer jam. Did NOT get around to pickling cucumbers OR drying tomatoes, so I am vowing here and now to get my act together before NEXT summer blows right past me! I think, Margaret, if I keep visiting your site it will rub off on me!
I’m almost out of my green tomato chutney from several years ago, so maybe I’ll give this recipe a try. I made it in part to thank a woman who had bestowed upon me her fabulous and famous mango chutney.
Keeping up with the good energy of your blog Margaret. Living in this sesonless place I am always in awe of the people who live in such close intimacy with their land, and the fruits that come from it and the holy labor that must be doing what they (you) do. Thank you for spreading the good news. Meanwhile I bless my proximity to Whole Foods. All the best,daisy marshall.