Right then... all that planting we did in the spring for our Covid-19 Victory Garden has... well... born fruit. A lot of it... and not just fruit, but vegetables as well. Right now, our fridge is bursting with parsnips, prune plums (Italian plums) and tomatoes. The question now becomes... what, oh what, do we do with it all??
Option 1 - Freezing - Easy
This is an easy option. Overwhelmed by dozens of zucchini the size of your forearm or calf? Shred them, squeeze out excess moisture and measure 1 cup amounts into freezer bags. (Cause zucchini loaves need 1 cup of shredded zucchini). Label (always, always label!) and then pop into the freezer. Easy peasy.
There can be more prep involved as well. Freezing tomatoes is easy but first they should be blanched and the skin stripped off. Actually... almost all vegetables benefit from some blanching before freezing.
Fruit is better - we flash freeze our raspberries and blackberries on cookie sheets and then toss them into freezer bags. But... freezer space is at a premium sooo...
We've done a fair bit of canning in the past - things like jams, jellies and chutneys which are all moderately easy. All of those can just be mixed up and processed in a pot, put into canning jars, sealed and once the seal goes "tunk" or "tink"... depending... you are good to go.
We've also canned some apple and/or pear sauce, as well as some tomatoes... all of which need a water bath after being sealed.
While we have a pressure canner... we have yet to use it. Too scarey... a friend told me too many stories about people missing chins and noses after prematurely opening a pressure cooker and/or pressure canner. Sigh...
And... as anyone looking for canning supplies right now (September 2020) knows... they are like hen's teeth thanks to Covid-19. I must admit, I saw this coming back in April and stocked up on some more canning jars so we are well equipped. We just need to get off our butts and do it... maybe some plum chutney again this year.... mmmm... so good.
Option 3 - Drying - Easy?
Our experience with drying things has been limited to herbs. Things like dill and oregano and thyme which we will cut, bundle with string and then hang in strategic locations around the house. We kind of end up looking like an herbalist's shop... We have tried drying them in the oven as well but that seems to take an awfully long time for very little output.
For a few years now, my partner has been rumbling about getting a dehydrator... and this year... I bit the bullet and bought a 10 tray dehydrator from Cabela's. Woo-hoo!
Now... we aren't going to be making any jerky or any other meat products but... there are all sorts of possibilities before us... we could dry zucchini... or parsnip... or plums... or herbs... or tomatoes!
That is going to be our first experiment... drying tomatoes... We had hoped to use our little cherry tomatoes, but... the manual recommends blanching and de-skinning the tomatoes... which I really don't want to do for cherry tomatoes. But... some other people online have success just cutting the cherry tomatoes in half and dehydrating them that way... so that may be one of our first experiments.
After that... we might do prune plums... and maybe even some parsnip chips...
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