What have you been preserving?

dipat2005

I froze 2 flats of Strawberries and 10 pounds of blueberries so far this year.

I have green beans (2 different varieties) coming in strong. I have been picking for a week. I did two plantings.

I planted peas this morning with another planting going in next week.

The greens, carrots etc are not doing as well as expected. Still getting massive leaves off the tall Kale plant that the bird planted.

Michelle D

Most of what I have preserved in the last few months has been fruit. Lots of strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and cherries. Many of them went in the freezer and the dehydrator. I also made jams.

Torey

I've frozen haskaps (16 lbs) and will pick up my raspberries (20 lbs) today or tomorrow for the freezer.

I made a small batch of apple jelly, mostly for hubby who likes it with pork.

8 jars of cherry juice.

Pickled beets are on my list of chores for the next couple of days.

tamib2000

I froze saskatoon berries last year and made some chokecherry syrup that I used on plain yogurt. Got some snap peas from a neighbour (whom we trade eggs with) but it was tough so I decided to grind the skins for the chickens for the wintertime and use the peas for ourselves. We have been thinking about making our own chicken feed since the ones from the store are getting expensive and it would be convenient.

Lisa K

For me it is lots and lots of Bay leaves!

Michelle D

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/923227#Comment_923227

Doing your chicken feed yourself can be very rewarding and cost affective! I encourage you to make that move.

kbmbillups1

I made pickled green beans tonight.

marjstratton

I always buy a flat of blueberries at the farmers market and freeze them. I've only done two flats so far, unlike previous years when I've gone to the u-pick and put up enough for the year. My husband and I do love our blueberries. I probably should concentrate on picking and freezing some of the blackberries which have taken over many parts of our yard. I kind of prefer the texture of frozen blue berries over frozen blackberries though and the blueberries keep better, I think.

Torey

@marjstratton Are your blackberries the invasive Himalayan variety? They are taking over in many spots in BC's Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. I have thought of digging some up and bringing them home. If they survive, they might not take over as easily as they do in warmer climates than mine. I love them and pick whenever I happen to be in that area when they are ripe. Which, unfortunately isn't often enough.

I got a few blueberries yesterday and they are freezing on trays at the moment. I didn't buy too many because of my haskap purchase. I think the haskaps have more flavour, but one of my daughter's prefers blueberries. Each to their own.

Torey

@tamib2000 Welcome to TGN's forum.

Our chokecherries are ripe right now. I might do a combination apple/chokecherry jelly if I have the time.

dipat2005

@Torey I have never heard of Haskap berries before. Are they like blueberries?

Torey

@dipat2005 Haskaps (Lonicera cerulea) are a member of the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. One of the only honeysuckles to produce edible fruit. They are like an elongated blueberry, with a similar greyish "bloom", but a bit more tart. Absolutely delicious in my opinion. Wonderful in muffins, loaves and pies. Excellent frozen and only slightly thawed with some heavy cream!

nicksamanda11

Those look tasty!

I am cutting and drying herb after herb after herb and making new and exciting tea blends.

Some of the herbs are: Motherwort, St.Johns Wort, Scullcap, apple mint, spearmint, chocolate mint, lemon mint, orange bergamot mint, peppermint, chamomile, sage, pineapple sage, catnip, catmint, marigold petals, saving all my citrus peels and dehydrating those, bee balm, echinacea, rudbeckia, lemon balm, feverfew, lobelia inflata, agrimony, holy basil, Thai basil, thyme, oregano, lavender-a few varieties, boneset, clary sage, lemongrass, stevia, and many more😂.

I dehydrated some chanterelles.

We just moved so none of my fruit is producing enough to put up. I foraged some blackberries to put up. I was traded peaches, blueberries, and strawberries so I froze those. We like smoothies!

I made bread and butter Fridge pickles.

I fermented differeng varieties of kraut, garlic dill carrot sticks, and garlic in honey so far.

I made a clove and milk thistle syrup that everyone is loving😍

We'll see how it ends up by fall time.

VermontCathy

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/923245#Comment_923245

I grow a couple of these honeyberry (haskap) bushes. It took at least 5 years for them to get well-established and produce a good berry crop, but now they seem fairly productive.

They would probably make excellent jam or preserves, but two small bushes doesn't yield nearly enough berries for that!

VermontCathy

So far I have frozen quite a few quart bags of blanched green beans and over two pounds of shelled peas.

I've also made 8 half-pints of blueberry jam, and am in the process of freezing several gallon bags full of fresh-picked blueberries.

We ate all of our strawberries fresh this year and didn't freeze or preserve them.

I froze several small bags of raspberries. The garden is finally getting to the point that it produces more than a small handful of raspberries. That really only started this year, after over 5 years of trying to get them going and spreading.

Next up will be picking the small pickling cucumbers to make sweet pickles for burgers. They are about ready to pick, so hopefully that will happen this week.

Then tomato sauce in quantity, if the tomatoes ever start producing enough to work with!

dipat2005

@Torey and @VermontCathy thank you for the information. I could grow them but I don't have a large enough garden plot.

I have never seen them here.

I had several pickings of green beans and from my one Kale plant more pickings.

I planted green peas for a fall crop. Two different plantings. The ones I planted last week are just barely coming up in the raised bed garden.

I actually have 2 cilantro plants that have survived the heat are still growing in the north garden.

lewis.mary.e

We've died basil and rosemary from our garden this year. Right now we're cooking down San Marzano tomatoes we grew, to can tomato sauce.

Torey

Corn relish. Pickled onions. I've been so busy, I'm surprised I have done that much. I'm hoping to get at antipasto today.

LaurieLovesLearning

Welcome to the forum @tamib2000! I noticed that you mentioned saskatoons. Are you somewhere in Canada? I'm from Manitoba.

If you don't mind, please share where you are from in our Introductions section. I left a link below.

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/categories/introductions

LaurieLovesLearning

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/923283#Comment_923283

A clove & milk thistle syrup? Would you mind posting a new thread with ingredients, instructions & the syrup's purpose?

Thanks!

LaurieLovesLearning

I've been busy also, doing up peaches, dill pickles, and drying various herbs for later use. Today, we are doing relish, pickles & more herbs. I should be digging some potatoes that are ready and some beets, but I'd like the moisture to dry up a little first and the higher humidity to disappear with it. That humidity just wouldn't help the potatoes cure well. I'm hoping to start on beets next week.

Our tiny bit of grapes are ripe. We will leave them for a bit to see if we might get a frost on them. There is a slight chance that could happen this week. I'm kind of hoping it doesn't, however, because my peas have decided to flower profusely finally (we finally got a touch of rain), and everything else is growing well. I'd like to see the garden get a few more weeks of good weather.

dipat2005

This is one year that I am eating out of the garden and so far have only frozen strawberries and blueberries. My GERD decided to kick in and I decided not to get any peaches this year. I got one nectarine and made a fruit smoothie.

The store didn't have organic apples (the kind I like) and so I paid a higher price and went somewhere else. The apples are huge and so I will cut them in half to make them last longer.

Thanks for posting about what you are preserving! I think it is fun to know what others are doing.

VermontCathy

I picked enough tomatoes to make two pints of tomato sauce. I had hoped for me, but it hasn't been a very good tomato year. Lots of rain, snails, slugs, tomato hornworms, and the plants turned brown and died early.

I also canned the hardneck garlic, and in the next few days plan to can the softneck garlic and the elephant garlic.

Lisa K

I have been getting organic strawberries, raspberries and blueberries and freezing them for smoothies. This afternoon I just had some frozen strawberries and raspberries on my ice cream (coconut milk & no sugar added), it was great! Other than that the main thing I have been preserving are bay leaves, lots of them!

VermontCathy

Next up, apples. It looks like it will be a good year for apples, and I have more ways to preserve and use apples than for most other garden items.

One idea I've read about, but haven't tried, is apple pie filling canned in season and opened in the winter when you want to bake a fresh holiday pie.

Marjory Wildcraft

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/923551#Comment_923551

I love how you did what you could with what you have. Those two pnts will be treasured for sure :)

Marjory Wildcraft

I've been freezing mangoes and breadfruit from my trees. I'm grabbing an extra half pound of butter whenever I go to the store and tossing that in the freezer too.

Visited a friend who was whacking down her curry bush - they grow back like crazy - so it's not as bad as it sounds. I dried all the leaves and powdered them. So I've got a lot of fresh curry powder. Enough to last a year or so. It will probably get old or moldy long before I use it up.

Torey

I managed to get the antipasto done. And another canner full of pickled beets. Still lots more beets to process.

I haven't managed to find many homes for my zucchini. It seems to be the year of the zucchini. Everyone has a bumper crop. So I will be making a variety of zucchini loaves for the freezer over the next few days.

kbmbillups1

I froze a bag of cherry tomatoes and a bag of large tomatoes. Then, my friend gave me a huge tromboncino squash. I baked some and now I've made 4 quarts of slightly spicy relish! Tomorrow night I'm going to cook the rest of it.

dipat2005

@VermontCathy I used to cut up apples, sprinkle them with lemon juice, place them in a pie pan and freeze them. I had a deep freezer at the time. I love yellow delicious or gravenstein apples for this.

Then make the pie crust and place the apples in the crust with the toppings and the top crust and bake. The pies turned out every time.

I have known a lot of people that have done the apple pie filling and were very successful too.

VermontCathy

@Marjory Wildcraft It's a variation on "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

I have made a batch of apple butter and one of apple chutney, and I'll be making apple jelly tomorrow. And I've barely touched my apple trees so far. It's going to be a good apple year, but it means a lot of work in the next few weeks.