Preserving the Harvest 2023

 Thanks to all my gardening, I really ramped up my food production this year. So with all that extra produce, I needed to do a better job preserving it. Thanks to some new cookbooks, recommended by the Seasonal Homesteader, I was able to do that.

This book was probably my favorite and I have used it a lot. I made the Vegetable Marinara Sauce recipe which we enjoy as a replacement for our favorite spaghetti sauce. It used up lots of tomatoes as well as other vegetables like squash, green beans, and onions. I also made Roasted Peach Jam which is an easy way to make jam with no pectin.

The author introduced me to the technique of flash freezing my peaches--we had a great harvest of  peaches this year and I had a lot to preserve. So I laid out peach slices on a big cookie sheet and froze them for 6-8 hours and then put them in a ziploc bag. I had done this before with raspberries but hadn't ever done it with peaches. We have really enjoyed those peaches on oatmeal, partially defrosting them so they don't get totally mushy.  I will be sad when those are gone. I also like her technique for steam blanching green beans then freezing them. They are much better tasting than frozen beans from the store.

She has this amazing recipe for Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce. It's a tomato puree that you add the appropriate spices to and then when you are ready to serve it, you add cream and mostly cooked chicken. We had it the other night and it was really good. 

I also made her green enchilada sauce with my tomatillos. I'm still looking for a good enchilada recipe to use with the sauce but I don't think the problem is with the sauce.

She only gives recipes for things that can be frozen which is a little limiting but I have ended up canning some of the recipes. I canned the Roasted Peach Jam. Recently I have also been canning the tomato puree recipe with all the ripened tomatoes that I picked green before the frost. It's not really much of a recipe. I just quarter the tomatoes, cook them for a while, blend in a blender, then cook them a little longer before canning them.

Not every recipe is a winner. I used her recipe for "Stewed Garlic Butter Zucchini" to use up some of our plentiful Lemon Squash. It was not terrible but not one I will be making again. I also didn't love her "Roasted Cherry Tomato Pizza Sauce," which was not terrible but I won't be making it again. The nice thing is those recipes were not a big investment of time or ingredients and we have eaten them so it wasn't a waste.

I definitely recommend this book.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I got it for the canning salsa recipe. I made several batches and I've been generally happy with how it tastes although it's not as good as fresh (my recipe for fresh roasted salsa is a post for a different day). I think next time I will use less cumin and sugar it calls for. Unfortunately I'm not that interested in the other recipes although I may be trying one of the pickle recipes next summer. I did use the fermenting jalapenos recipe and those have worked out okay as a substitute for diced chiles although I struggle to cut them small enough and I'm not sure how many to use as a substitute. Maybe next time I will cut the jalapenos smaller before I ferment them.

I also have mixed feelings about this cookbook although I like the look of those pancakes! I got it for the Roasted Tomato Pizza Sauce recipe which I canned. ( I didn't put in the sugar she called for, I added 1 tsp salt at the end and I added 4 tsp of lemon juice per pint jar to make it safely acidic.) I have liked the pizza sauce, especially how convenient it is for when I need pizza sauce. I should probably can some more because I think we will be using it. However, it seemed like a lot of book to buy for just one recipe. I hope to try more of her recipes someday...

I bought this book for the "Cajun Black-Eyed Peas" recipe. We tried the canned product last night and it was pretty good although a little spicy thanks to the sausage that it called for. Next time I'll try to buy less spicy sausage. I have also made the Chicken Broth as well as the Tomatillo Chickpea recipe which turned out okay. I also made some jars of "Garden Vegetable Spaghetti Sauce" which tastes good. I supplemented my spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce recipes with a little bit of commercial tomato paste since my tomato harvest was not quite what I was hoping.

I ended up buying a new pressure canner since the one I owned was about 50 years old. When I took it in to the extension service to see if it was still good, the extension agent told me this old canner needed some serious work. So I decided to buy a new one and I have used it several times this fall. I've been pretty happy with it. I hope to try several more of the recipes in this book. I plan to use it for convenience foods as well as preserving the harvest.

Generally I'm happy with the progress I made in preserving my harvest this summer. The real test is what will be left in my freezer and pantry next summer. I have to train myself to buy less at the store and use more of the food I already have.