We all love farm-fresh, local produce. The rich taste of a sun-ripened tomato (salmonella free, of course) makes a grocery store tomato taste like cardboard. And who can resist freshly picked strawberries that are soft and sweet instead of firm and tasteless? Best of all, most farmer's market produce and pick-your-own farms are cheaper than their grocery store counterparts. So how can you make the inexpensive, delicious local produce season last? By canning, freezing, and dehydrating your fruits and vegetables.
Canning can seem very intimidating for a novice. But there are many foods which only require a hot water bath, not a full pressure cooking. You can even make jelly and jam in many bread makers! The Farmgal has an excellent introduction to canning which explains the basics of canning, the different types of canning, and what materials you will need.
If you are concerned about the initial expense of buying canning equipment, scour Craigslist, Freecycle or your local paper for used equipment (glass jars can be reused for years, but lids and bands should be purchased new each year), and borrow a friend's pressure cooker.
Some excellent vegetables to can are beans, tomatoes, peas, and beets.
Plain canned vegetables are usually as cheap if not cheaper than store-bought cans (and with a fresher, better tasting product), but specialty canned products, such as jams, jellies, preserves, sauces (applesauce), pickles, salsas and relishes are far cheaper to can than they are to buy.
Homecanning.com has a fabulous list of canning recipes.
Freezing is a less-intimidating approach to preserving fruits and vegetables and offers the best nutritional approach to preserving foods. Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy as opening the freezer door and tossing in a bag of veggies.
Most vegetables need to be blanched before they are frozen, and most fruits need to have some anti-darkening agent and/or sugar added.
Farmgal's Basics of Freezing instructions are a quick introduction to freezing produce, and Freshpreserving.com has some fabulous and exotic freezer recipes.
Because freezing foods requires almost no initial expense (you need produce, containers and a freezer), it is an incredibly frugal way to preserve your local harvest. Personally, I freeze almost all of my vegetables and fruits and only can sauces, pickles, jams and jellies.
Dehydrating food is another unique and inexpensive way to preserve foods, but it does take a bit of effort. If you happen to have a food dehydrator, thumbs up to you. But anyone can dry food with a few household items.
This article explains how to oven dry, sun dry or use a commercial dehydrator.
Budget 101 has a list of links to recipes and information on drying different types of fruits, vegetables and herbs.
If you love homemade granola, like we do, drying your own fruits can be an excellent way to save money. I also like the fact that I can control the sugar content, as most store-bought dried fruits are loaded with added sugars.
Other items that are excellent to dry include herbs, tomatoes and hot peppers.
Although preserving foods can be time-consuming, it is well worth the effort. And with grocery prices rising, taking the time to can, freeze or dry your produce now may save you major dollars throughout the months to come.
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Now this is an article that is right up my alley! To prevent berries from clumping when I freeze them, I first wash, then place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and pop them in the freezer for just 15 minutes to harden a bit. Then I pop my berries into freezer bags or plastic storage containers, date them and voila! Lovely fresh fruit that can be thawed good as new any time!
Thanks for compiling all of these resources. I'm very excited to give them a try.
I enjoyed this post so much I added it to my round up!