Summer Garden Harvest

by Ken Textor

For nearly 75 years, Donald Grant of Addison, Maine, has practiced the pleasures of preserving a bountiful harvest. Having grown up on a working farm, he still is “putting by” enough fruits and vegetables each harvest season to supply family and friends with homegrown delectables until next spring.

Grant sums up his efforts with wry humor: “It’s nothing special that you’d find on the menus of fancy restaurants in New York City, but it does taste pretty good when you’ve got nothing else.”

At this time of year, home gardeners are indeed smiling at a bountiful harvest—gobbling up fruits, vegetables, and herbs that often taste better than anything most restaurants or supermarkets can offer. Why?

Because, as any food specialist will tell you, the time between harvest and consumption is critical. An ear of corn that goes from stalk to boiling pot to table in a matter of hours is far tastier than an identical ear which has been refrigerated overnight or for several days and then cooked. It’s that simple.

The nutritional value of homegrown food also is closely tied to freshness. Vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and all the other goodies we need to stay healthy are usually in their most potent and available form upon harvesting. Within hours of picking a cucumber or green beans, chemical changes are taking place, and most of these reduce the vegetable’s nutritional value.

How then do we preserve the taste and nutritional value of our hard-earned harvest? Or even the harvest of someone else? After all, many local farmers’ markets and roadside stands offer freshly picked fruits and produce.

“I’d do whatever’s easiest,” recommends farmer Grant, who at 75 claims he hasn’t “got time to fool with a lot of recipes and all that.”

Storage methods

These five preserving methods are the most common. In all cases, the best results are guaranteed by the shortest time between harvest and preservation procedures.

Freezing—This isn’t for everyone, or for all produce. Freezing can ruin many fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes and greens, turning the thawed version into a gloppy mess. But for produce such as corn, peppers, peas, beans, or tomatoes intended for stews and sauces, it’s perfect, and almost as easy as just tossing them in the freezer. Almost.

All items should be well protected from “freezer burn,” which can make any frozen food taste like the inside of a freezer. Always use locking bags or containers intended for use in a freezer, minimize the amount of air in the container, and date and label all containers.

Beans, broccoli, peas, cauliflower, okra, and Brussels sprouts all freeze well. Unlike corn, peppers and toma

toes, however, they first need to be blanched—which means partial cooking to stop the growth of decay enzymes. This entails a quick dip into boiling water for about two minutes, then chilling in ice water. Drip dry the vegetables and pop them into a container and freezer. Don’t skip the blanching or they turn rubbery when thawed.

Drying—For longtime harvest preservers like farmer Grant, dried produce is among the best ways to save food. “Once they’re dry, you can save them just about indefinitely,” he says of classic dried legumes such as pinto, kidney, and soldier beans, and black-eyed peas.

The same drying principles also can be applied to many fruits and vegetables, especially plums, apples, grapes, pears, and even tomatoes. The hot summer sun does the best job on these items. Lay them out well separated on trays, preferably where they’ll get the sun and good ventilation all day. For soggy items such as tomatoes, gently squeeze out or blot up some of the water before drying. Turn all items at least once a day and store in a dry place after they turn brittle. Always bring in drying produce during the night.

Cold storing—In the northernmost regions, this approach works year-round. Farther south, you may have to wait until late fall to try it.

A cool, dark, and dry room in a cellar is an easy place to keep root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, beets, turnips, and parsnips. Winter squash, apples, and tomatoes also are good candidates. When the room’s average temperature is between 35 and 55 degrees, storage can begin.

Some produce requires special treatment. For instance, carrots keep best if they’re laid and buried in dry, fine sand (not salty beach sand). Beets sleep well under a blanket of dry peat moss. Tomatoes will last more than the average four weeks if they are wrapped green in uncolored newspaper. Check regularly for ripening.

Winter squash is happiest when not in physical contact with other winter squash. Parsnips, rutabagas, and turnips can be packed in a dry version of the soil in which they grew. Or better yet, if you live in an area of light to moderate snows, cut the tops, mulch them heavily against ground freeze, and leave them in the ground, pulling them as needed.

Pickling—Most any vegetable benefits from pickling, but the No. 1 pickling candidate is the cucumber. Use small 3- to 5-inch cukes to keep the flavor rich and the work minimal. Then choose any recipe you like.

Despite thousands of pickling recipes to choose from, most require various amounts of cooking. I prefer convenience, so I stick with either cold-packing my cucumbers or canning them without cooking. Preparations are the same for both methods.

After picking and washing your cucumbers, which should be pickling variety, not a salad variety, soak them overnight in the refrigerator in a bath of ice water. This removes any bitter taste.

Then boil the water/vinegar/pickling salt in a ratio of 3 quarts/1 quart/1 cup. Use only pickling salt and pure white or cider vinegar. Then prepare plenty of fresh dill, a few garlic cloves, maybe a cayenne pepper, or other spices of your choice.

For cold-packed pickles, combine the cucumbers, hot brine, and spices in a dish with a cover, let cool, and put in the back of the refrigerator for three or four weeks. Then enjoy some of the snappiest, tastiest pickles you’ve ever had.

To can pickles, put the cucumbers in canning jars, add the boiling brine, seal, and let sit in a cool dark closet for six to eight weeks. Then open these jars throughout the winter and count your blessings as a home gardener.

Lots of other vegetables can be pickled. Cabbage becomes sauerkraut, tomatoes and apples become chutney, and asparagus becomes absolute heaven when subjected to various pickling processes. Do them all, if you can.

Canning—Last but not least is straightforward canning, a process perfected by French scientist Nicolas Appert in 1810. It hasn’t changed much since then.

First, cook the produce while simultaneously sterilizing the canning jars. All canning jars today (Mason, Kerr, Ball, etc.) are sold with strict instructions on sterilizing. To prevent food poisoning, follow the instructions. Then, put the cooked product in the jars, seal them, and cook them some more.

Alternatively, you can “raw pack” many fruits and some vegetables. This skips the first cooking step, but includes sterilizing and the second cooking.

Beyond the five basics of food storage lies another sea of possible preservation techniques. Smoking and salting can be used for both meats and some vegetables, while jams and jellies are confined to fruits and some spicy vegetables. (Ever had garlic jelly or cayenne jam?) Making wine is a way to preserve grape, apple, blueberry, and a host of other juices.

And the list goes on.

Ken Textor is a writer and home gardener in coastal Maine.

first appeared: 7/22/2001