Monday, October 12, 2009

Preserving

September was a month of preserving for us. At least, we probably presevered more in September than other months this year. In addition to the apples, we also took care of some tomatoes, beets, zuchhini, and peppers.

We had a lot of tomatoes between our neighbors, CSA, community garden, and who knows where else. Tis the season!



We didn't quite have enough so I picked another pound or two of cherry tomatoes from our neighbor. Here is a picture of me picking cherry tomatoes from the one tomato plant in the corner of his yard. He said we could pick whatever we could reach. Luckily I can fit my hands through the chain link fence.


(yes, I am in there!)

It takes a lot of tomatoes and a lot of boiling - and this is all we got! But Jeremy loves this stuff and it will probably last him most of the year.



Next we dealt with a ton of beets. We boiled them till they were soft (leaving the roots and tops on, which preserves the color), then I peeled them and grated them, measured them out in cup increments, and into the freezer they went! We have two excellent beet recipes (this coming from a person who hates beets!) so I'll have to share those when we dig these out during the winter.



No sooner were those done then I moved onto zuchhini. I believe we grated these then parboiled them for just a short bit before freezing them. Many vegetables have to be parboiled or cooked somehow before freezing because there is some enzyme in them that is not stopped by freezing. Apparently it will keep working and the veggies won't be as good. I can't recall the details but will post all about it (if anyone is interested) when I find out.



And then we bought a large box of peppers from our friends at Loon Organics.





We sliced and cored and cleaned all 20+ pounds then Jeremy roasted them in the oven. We peeled off the skins and tossed them in the freezer. So now we'll have roasted peppers any time we like. We did a couple peppers last year and found we really liked them and wished we done more. Hopefully 20 pounds is enough. =)

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