Preserve Your Harvest

Let’s make it easy to preserve your harvest! Harvesting and eating from our garden is what we work so hard for. And there’s nothing like those sun warmed tomatoes, or is there? What about homemade tomato soup in February, or strawberry jam in January?

woman standing at a table cutting corn off the cob with a bowl full of kernels of corn. — Michelle prepping corn for canning

Being able to preserve your harvests to enjoy longer somehow tastes + feels even better. It also feels like the step between being a gardener and a modern day homesteader. Let’s get you capturing those flavors to savor throughout the seasons!

Many of us are getting back into preserving our own food for so many reasons—the better nutrition, reducing food waste and our carbon foot print, more control of ingredients. Not to mention most of these ways are easy and a great way to feel more connected to our food!

So let’s work on preserving those flavors and nutrients easily and quickly so we can make the most out of our gardens for months to come!

*This post contains affiliate links, which means I may get a small commission if you purchase through these links.*

Basic Ways to Preserve Your Harvest

Cold Storage, Freezing, Drying, Fermenting, Water Bath Canning, and Pressure Canning.

*We go over each of these methods more in depth in our chapter on Preserving the Harvest in our book, Small-Scale Homesteading.

Regardless of the way we preserve food, ALWAYS start with fresh, unblemished food. Those bruised or limp veggies aren’t going to get any better after preserving…

Also, as a safety net for myself. This article is intended to inform and educate, but is not meant to teach how to steps for pressure canning. There are so many shady resources out there. Please stick with trusted resources like the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia.

Cold Storage

I was amazed at how much longer and fresher my greens and other veggies stayed when I started paying attention to exactly how and when I harvested plus a few things in my refrigerator.

Refrigerator Tips:

short carrots with dirt still on them — Home grown Carrots after storing for 4 months in damp sand.

*Use those humidity controls.
*Re-use those plastic bags.
*Learn your refrigerators warm and cold zones

Food keeps on respiring (think breathing) after it is harvested. This exchange of oxygen is what eventually decomposes those beautiful tomatoes into compost. To slow the process, and keep food fresher longer – we want to keep it cool, and keep the humidity levels up.

For some best practices on harvesting from your garden check out my article HERE. The basics are to harvest when at it’s peak, cool quickly after harvesting, and to stay away from picking things (accept root veggies or things you’re taking the entire plant) when wet. And… not washing things like carrots or potatoes.

Even a basement closet will keep squash and garlic well into winter. If you want to get a little creative there are so many ways to keep your homegrown food longer! For the root cellar bible, check out this book, Root Cellaring, by Mike and Nancy Bubel.

I love getting as close as possible to root cellaring in my modern-day home. We’ve got a crawl space that stays quite damp and cool, that works great. We also keep carrots over winter in a bucket of damp sand.

Freezing

This is a great, well-known way to quickly and safely preserve so many of our favorite garden fruits and veggies.

I freeze everything from asparagus to zucchini. But some things require blanching before freezing. Blanching is simply adding the produce you’re going to freeze to a pot of steaming/boiling water for a few minutes (time depends of produce) and then removing and quickly cooling—often in an ice-bath.

pan of strawberries flash frozen (IQF Berries)

**Produce I blanche before freezing: Kale, collards, green beans, edamame, asparagus, broccoli

**Produce I don’t blanche before freezing: berries, tomatoes (because I’m usually freezing them for a short time before making sauce), peppers, zucchini shreds, herbs.

Flash Freezing– also called IQF, or Individual Quick Freezing

This is when you lay out a single layer of produce on a pan and freeze until frozen solid (usually 8–10 hours). Then put these individually frozen pieces into another freezer safe container or freezer bag.

I also love making frozen ‘herb cubes’. I’ll chop fresh herbs, and pack them into ice cube trays and drizzle olive oil over the tops, freeze solid and pop out into a freezer bag for the freshest soup and sauce starters all winter long. I have been loving these freezer containers, but will happily re-use those Ziploc bags too.

Someday I may invest in a ‘food saver’ freezer storage system, but for now, as long as I’m using my frozen goods within a year, I haven’t had any freezer burn (knock on wood). And using regular freezer bags helps me preserve my garden harvests.

If you are looking for next level freezing recipes – check out Crystal’s book, Freeze Fresh!

Drying/Dehydrating

Most of us think herbs when we start to think of drying—and this is such an easy way star! You’ll end up making endless jars of homegrown herbal tea, and slowly stock up a pantry’s worth of bottled spices!

If you only ever dry herbs and spices you’ll still be so ahead of the game! Think about how expensive those bottles of organic herbs are at the store… easily $6–$10 per jar. And now think about how easy it is to snip that basil, oregano, or thyme plant a few times a summer and either hang or lay them out to dry… or if you’re committed, going ahead and purchasing a dehydrator is a great investment! I love THIS ONE.

If you love herbs as much as I do, read THIS ARTICLE for more ways to preserve and use them!

Spice jars on wire shelving — Here’s my collection of homegrown herbs, spices + ground powders.

I’ve also experimented with drying garlic, onions and beets for long term storage and to grind into seasonings and powders. Air drying shell beans and popcorn are other easy family favorites. Dehydrating is a simple, age-old, shelf-stable way of preserving the color, flavor and nutrients.

Fermenting

So many people fear fermenting, but when you realize so many of the things we’re already eating are fermented—like yogurt, kombucha, pickles—it should feel much safer. Plus, fermenting makes food healthier by producing and easier for our bodies to digest and use the nutrients. When we ferment, we allow the existing good bacteria to grow while keeping the bad bacteria at bay. This creates those beneficial probiotics. We aid natural fermentation by adding enough salt or salt water solution (brine) to our raw vegetables and covering it so that no bacteria can get in, but gas that forms while fermenting can get out.

The flavors you get with a good fermented pickle, kimchi or sauerkraut are some of my favorites on the planet!

jar of kimchi fermenting — Here’s a jar of my Midwest Kimchi just starting to ferment.

Fermenting is kind of magical—as all you need is the produce you’re going to ferment and some salt, or a saltwater brine—and time. The trick to fermenting (although it’s not really a trick) is to keep everything in the fermenting jar below the brine level. We can add weights or cover with large cabbage leaves and watch the brine levels.

*For added crisp + crunch, add a grape leaf to the brine of pickles*

More Preserving Recipes like Midwest kimchi and carrot + Daikon pickles found HERE.

My co author on Small-Scale Homesteading has these other cookbooks all about fermenting and canning, Can It & Ferment It, Weck Small-Batch Preserving + Weck Home Preserving.

Water Bath Canning

Well, this is where I may lose some of you. But let me assure you that all the things you’d be water bath canning (canning in a pot of boiling water) are going to be safe as long as you follow a trusted + tested recipes. Plus this is a way to preserve your harvest, shelf-stable, for over year. Canning in a water bath is used for foods with a pH of 4.6 or lower. Think jams, jellies, chutneys, and vinegar pickles, along with my all-time favorite, the Crispy Crunchy Dilly Bean.

This process requires some preparation and a little learning curve, but is well worth that first time, because after that it gets so much easier. You need a very large stock pot to let the boiling water roll over the jars. Things like a ‘jar lifter’ (see picture) and canning funnel will make things much easier. Always start with clean (sterilized) jars and rings. You’ll need to use new lids each time if using the standard two-part metal system. A candy thermometer can help with those first-time jitters, although a ‘roiling boil’ which is what most recipes require is self-evident.

jars of pink applesauce and a few slices of apples. — Look at that pink apple sauce!

I love making apple sauce (and apple butter, apple jelly…) and go over all those recipes in this article.

Pressure Canning

Now we’re bringing out the big guns… but really this process is simple and easy to follow along. It does help to have someone there who has done it before with you as you’re working with a steaming, pressurized pot that has to reach 240F. Yes, that’s the temperature that botulism can be successfully killed at, and certain foods require staying at that temperature for a certain amount of time.

I prefer to do pressure canning outside on my grill burner, because it throws so much heat while it is coming to temperature and cooling back down. This method is used for low acid foods, like sweet corn, beans, soups and meat. You’ll end up preserving your harvests with a shelf stable product that will last up to 2 years.

We love canning our own corn, and we grab 2 or 3 boxes at a time and have a family day peeling and prepping the corn, then we’re set for the year.