Over the past few weeks, our garden has exploded with a daily yield that we had no way of consuming all at once before the produce started to go bad. To give you a refresher, this year we planted 8 large heirloom tomato varieties (all different) and two cherry tomato varieties. We also planted three jalapeno plants, four cayenne chili pepper plants, some basil, thyme, chives and four zucchini plants. Not to mention our two blackberry bushes and two raspberry bushes around the side of the house.
Since we detest letting things go to waste, I decided it was high time to start preserving some of the produce that was coming from our backyard.
First up: The Jalapenos!
I pickled 6 jars of jalapenos–four that were sandwich-slices, two that were chopped into relish. The little pink things you see floating in the jars are pink peppercorns, and I think they make the jalapenos look much happier!
Here on the left, I have one of my jars of roasted jalapeno pepper paste. I didn’t use a recipe for this, but I might create one because this is SO good. It adds a great, flavorful kick to so many dishes and keeps for a very long time. On the right are frozen roasted jalapenos, so I can make more paste when needed.
All in all, I’ve used about 130 jalapeno peppers so far in our preserving, and we still have more growing outside.
Next up: Zucchini!
I’ve mentioned before how much I love zucchini for its versatility. I’ve prepared a few zucchinis in our favorite ways and frozen them (raw).
Top left: Zucchini pasta, where I used my vegetable peeler to make “ribbons of pasta” with the zucchini. I also prepare this with a mandoline/julienne slicer, but the peeler was a bit easier (and safer!). If you saute it for a few minutes with some salt, pepper & garlic powder and add some sauce, delicious! Top and bottom right: sliced zucchini for chips. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese, roast @400 until golden, you have a healthy and delicious side dish! Bottom middle & left: shredded zucchini for zucchini cakes and zucchini bread.
These are the products of only 6 zucchini since we used up the zucchinis pretty quickly as they came out of the garden!
Next: The Tomatoes!
Two jars of tomato juice, ready for drinking, bloody mary’s, or adding to soups (I like it in veggie soup).
Left: What’s left of the salsa I made yesterday. Middle: Creamy Tomato Soup. Left: what’s left of the tomato sauce we made & used a few days ago.
And instead of canning tomatoes, I figured freezing would be just as effective, especially since we won’t be able to pack up our canned anythings with us to Spain. Since we’ll have to use them in the next couple of months, freezing seemed like the simple solution. So, I have whole roasted tomatoes (three bags), tomato sauce (two bags) and crushed tomatoes (two bags).
All in all, I probably used about 75 tomatoes just in what you see above, but we’ve used many more in sauces and soups that we’ve already consumed.
It’s almost August and we haven’t even gotten any ripe cayennes yet! I will tell you that we have HUNDREDS (no lie) of green cayennes hanging on our four bushes, waiting to turn bright red for us.
We’re always amazed at how much yield we get from just three 8′x2′ garden boxes! It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding!
Do you preserve extra food from your garden? Would you want to?
Anonymous Reply:
August 11th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Not a stupid question at all! I roasted the tomato halves at 400 until they started to caramelize (sorry, I never time it since it differs depending on the size of the tomatoes). I then let them cool enough to remove the skins (they toughen when they cook) and either drop them whole into a bag or puree/chop them. Good luck with your garden!
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