As the weather turns colder, the bounty your garden has produced during the late summer and early fall is starting to trail off. Since you’ve stuffed yourself on your own produce in August and September, the thought of eating more right now probably isn’t appealing. In January? Sure, bring it on.
Right now, the best value you can get out of that last bit of garden produce is to store it for the future, so you can have a delicious meal using that produce in the cold months of January and February.
When thinking about preserving vegetables, many people immediately think of complex procedures and huge time investments. That’s simply not true — many processes are as simple as spreading out vegetables on a baking sheet or dunking a jar in boiling water and pulling it out.
Here are four great strategies for storing the last of your garden produce for the winter.
[See: 20 Tips for Saving Money at the Grocery Store.]
If you want to save tomatoes or pickled vegetables, try canning in a water bath. Canning seems intimidating, as it can involve pressure cookers and other equipment, but water bath canning is a pretty simple process. You just pack a Mason jar full of the vegetables you want to save, put on a lid and a ring, and put the jars in boiling water — but it only works with produce with a fairly high acid level. Try tomatoes with a bit of lemon juice added — or dishes you make with a high tomato content, such as salsa. Or try anything that’s pickled with vinegar, such as cucumbers. You can then store these jars right in your cupboard and open them as desired.
[See: 12 Ways to Be a More Mindful Spender.]
If you have a freezer, freeze your vegetables. Most non-leafy garden produce actually freezes quite well. You can freeze anything from broccoli to green beans, from sweet corn kernels to whole tomatoes. Check out the freezer section of your local grocer for more examples, as almost anything found in a bag there can easily be done at home with a Ziploc bag. The trick is to thoroughly wash the vegetables and spread them out on a baking sheet, then pop them in the freezer. Once they’re frozen, remove them from the sheet and put them in a freezer container of your choice, label it appropriately, then stick the bag in there for future use.
If you want to save herbs, dry them out. The best way to save fresh herbs for a while is to thoroughly dry them, crush them to your desired consistency, and save them in bags or jars in your cupboard. If you have a dry home, you can do this by hanging them from a line or spreading them out on parchment paper to dry. In a humid environment, you can achieve this with a food dehydrator or by spreading them out on a baking sheet and baking them in an oven at a low temperature, around 175 degrees Fahrenheit, until very dry.
If you have root vegetables, they can be stored at room temperature if gently cleaned and left alone. Foods such as potatoes, carrots and turnips can easily be stored at room temperature for a long time if gently cleaned by brushing and left to dry. The skin will protect the deliciousness of the vegetable in most environments. Place them in containers or bags and stow them away in a cool, dry place, and you’ll be able to pull them out as needed throughout the winter months.
[See: 10 Money Leaks to Shut Down Now.]
Consider trading vegetables you don’t want to store. You may still find yourself with vegetables you don’t wish to store. For those, consider trading them with neighbors or friends for their last batches of produce, or even simply giving them to neighbors and friends who will use them. Either solution is far superior to just letting delicious garden produce go to waste.
These tactics together can help you to easily store almost everything that’s still coming out of your garden without a ton of extra work. What little work you do put in will be well worth it, though, when you pull some of those stored vegetables from the freezer in January for a delicious meal. You may pull out some potatoes and a turnip in February to make a delicious hearty soup or even add a dash of a fresh herb you grew and dried yourself to almost any dish. Good luck!
More from U.S. News
10 Things You Need to Stock a Frugal Kitchen
10 Tasty Tips for a Frugal Thanksgiving
Check, Please: Paying the Bill in 6 Awkward Situations
How to Store Your Last Garden Produce for the Winter originally appeared on usnews.com
