July Harvest (And Preservation)

Garden harvest is in full swing this month. Every day involves one or more of the 3 P's: picking, preparing, and preserving.

Cucumbers

Sweet bread & butters

The cucumbers are still producing, though they seem to get bitter quickly in our heat. I've got most of the pickles we need. Last month I started pickle making and finished up the sweet pickle chips this month.

Gallon of lacto-fermented dills

I also thought I might try my hand at pickles the old fashioned way. These are lacto-fermented sour dills, and boys howdy are they ever sour. I used the "Sour Pickle" recipe on pages 50-51 in Sandor Katz Wild Fermentation. I'm not particularly fond of pickles and only make them because Dan enjoys them. These have a lot of pucker power, even for him. Still, I've discovered they are quite tasty with a grilled hamburger.

Cucumbers preserved this month:

• sweet pickle chips, 6 pints canned
• sour dills, 1 gallon fermented 

Total canned pickles preserved so far this year:

• 11 pints dill pickles
• 16 pints sweet pickle chips
• 1 gallon sour fermented dills

Potatoes

Fingerling potatoes

I've harvested the fingerling salad potatoes, you know, the ones in my pretty marigold and petunia beds. I have to say that while cute, I haven't found them to be very productive. Of course if a bunch of volunteers pop up, I'll know I did a poor job with the harvest. They've made tasty potato salad however.

In addition to these, I've harvested some volunteer Red Pontiacs, along with some volunteer beets, carrots, and turnips. All of these we eaten fresh, the carrots in cole slaw and the others roasted. None preserved, but I've saved a lot of seed.

Slim pickin's, literally

Blueberries

Sadly the blueberries are about done. Last year I harvested them all July long and into the first week of August. Because of the goats however, we only got two weeks worth this summer. In spite of my best goat deterrent methods, they still continued to sneak in and help themselves. We had most of them fresh and I froze a few quarts. Jam making was from all the quarts I froze last year, but we didn't eat.

Blueberries preserved this month:

• frozen, 7 quarts
• jam, canned from last year's frozen quarts, 10 pints  

Melons 

Last year I planted Hale's Best cantaloupe, this year I decided to try something new, Green Nutmeg melons. I'm having trouble telling if they are ripe or not. They have a delicious flavor, spicy and sweet, but the flesh has been crisper than cantaloupe and I'm not sure if this is what to expect when they're ripe. Watermelons too, are just coming on. We will eat our fill of fresh melons and I will dehydrate and freeze the rest. We loved the dehydrated watermelon, and the frozen cantaloupe, while not so good for table use, was great in smoothies

Melon preserved this month:

• green nutmeg, dehydrated, 1 pint

Summer Squash

Sauteed in olive oil, yum

This year I decided to try a scallop type squash, Bennings Green. We especially enjoy summer squash freshly picked and sauteed in olive oil with a little salt and fresh sweet basil. Last year I decided to try freezing some of my abundance of yellow squash, but there are 6 quarts still sitting in the freezer because I really didn't care for them. Still, what does one do with one's summer squash once the neighbors have been inundated and have taking to running and hiding when they see me coming with more offerings in hand?

I decided to go ahead and freeze some, but try a different form. I shredded them with my King Kutter, laid the shreds out on cookie sheets to freeze, and then bagged them in quarts. I figure I can use these in soups and vegetable pancakes. Or at least try them these ways. We'll see.

Summer squash preserved this month:

• 2 quarts shredded & frozen

Cabbage

I started my cabbages indoors last winter, and I'm just now harvesting the heads. I showed you how I've been treating for cabbage moths in my July garden update, and pictured on right is how well the thyme sprinklings have worked. I haven't preserved any cabbage; we do love sauerkraut, but we've been enjoying these with carrots as cole slaw.

Tomatoes

Making pizza sauce

Pizza sauce is my tomato preservation priority. I call it pizza sauce, because that is how we usually use it, on pizza. (Spaghetti or lasagna occasionally). We used 21 of the 33 pints I canned last year, so that gives me an idea of what I'll need this year. At a minimum, I like to have at least 26 pints in the pantry. More would be better, either for increased use or if my tomatoes don't do well next year.

I make mine the easiest way possible. I wash, quarter, and cook down a potful of tomatoes. Then I run them through my Foley food mill. I cook this down in the slow cooker to about half the original volume.

Handful of garden fresh oregano,
thyme, & rosemary

Fresh herbs are an important ingredient. I used to carefully remove the leaves from the stems before using. Now I just cut a big handful and throw it all into the pot. The leaves cook off the stems, which are then easy to pick out. I add salt to taste last, and then can in pint jars. We prefer pints because of the way we use it.

Stewed tomatoes & okra

The other way I've been preserving tomatoes, has been as canned tomatoes and okra. I ended up with quite a bit of frozen okra from last year, about 12 quarts. Since frozen foods have a shorter shelf life than canned, I figured I'd cook the okra up with fresh tomatoes, and can that.

Frozen tomatoes peel easliy

I needed the tomatoes peeled for this. The reasons I don't can tomatoes (as tomatoes) is 1 - we rarely use them canned for one thing, and 2 - I find peeling them to be too hot and time consuming. I read though, about freezing whole tomatoes first, and then peeling. I tried this and discovered it works great. I just dip the frozen tomato in water and it peels beautifully. So much nice working with them this way than over a kettle of boiling water! I figure I'm probably saving on my electric bill too, because the freezer is running anyway. An added plus, is that I can pop them in the freezer when ripe, and come back to deal with them later, either for the okra, or to cook down for more sauce.

Okra. In addition to dealing with last year's frozen okra, fresh okra has been on the menu. Not in large quantities yet, but I've managed to put a few quarts by in the freezer.

Tomatoes and okra preserved so far this month:

• Pizza sauce, canned, 24 pints 
• Tomatoes & okra, canned, 16 quarts
• Okra, frozen, 2 quarts

The other thing I just got first pickings of, is green beans. That was an adventure in itself, so I'll tell you about it soon.

July Harvest (And Preservation) © July 2011

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/