5 Ways to Preserve the Summer Harvest

It’s easy enough to eat local in spring and summer. Your garden is booming, CSA’s are in full effect, and farmers markets abound! So how can you make that bounty last into the winter, when fresh produce is a little more scarce? Here are some DIY solutions!

Start canning! Directions and videos can be found here.
If you’ve got bunches of extra fruit (even tomatoes) try dehydrating fruit…in your car!.
Turn that abundance into convenience! Patrick Donnelly talks about making your own fast food.
Garden Guides has a great list of guidelines for freezing your veggies.
Get pickling! Just a warning: I did some pickling of my own and am finding that I now look at every food item and wonder if it can also be pickled.

What I love most about things like pickling and canning is that feeling that I’m taking part in food traditions that have been around for almost as long as people have been preparing food. It makes you feel really connected to the food and to history. What do you all do to make that great spring and summer produce last a little longer?

Green Options Media is a network of environmentally-focused blogs providing users with the information needed to make sustainable choices. Written by experienced professionals, Green Options Media’s blogs engage visitors with authoritative content, compelling discussions, and actionable advice. We invite anyone with questions, or simply curiosity, to add their voices to the community, and share their approaches to achieving abundance.

Read more: Food, preserving summer harvest

By Becky Striepe, Green Options

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Nils Anders L.

2:25AM PDT on May 9, 2013

May 9
send a green star

Carole K.

11:57AM PDT on Jul 22, 2012

Re-read/ review this favored article today. We're right in the midst of all the garden produce preservation right now. I could not recall off the top of my head what the 5th method might might be so I referred back to this article. We do a large amount of food preservation; but not much pickling which is what I could not remember specifically. Our family does not much care for pickled food taste & pickling often involves salt, sugar, & spices as well as other preservatives that are not so much good for your health status. In our estimation, pickling is not as good of a preservative method as the others..................

July 22
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Michele W.

8:57AM PDT on Jul 22, 2012

Thank you

Tim C.

10:26AM PDT on Mar 13, 2012

March 13
send a green star

Sonny H.

7:36PM PST on Nov 30, 2011

The videos on canning are no longer accessible. Thanks.

November 30
send a green star

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