I will explain the best vegetables and fruit to grow in your garden that you can preserve and how to preserve them.
This is a great way to save money, especially with inflation hitting and the rising cost of fruit and vegetables.
When you preserve your own fruit and vegetables you know what has been added to them and they are not loaded with chemicals, sugar, and salt making them much healthier for you and your family.
If you did not plant a garden you could still buy from Farmers to preserve them for this winter, and the biggest savings is by picking them yourself to save even more money.
Preserving vegetables can be done in several different ways through, blanching, roasting, freezing, or canning. It is critical to know how to do this safely so be sure to read the steps provided in the books I have listed or research online to make sure you are preserving them safely for you and your family.
What Vegetables and Fruit to Grow and Preserve
Below is a list of some vegetables and fruit you can grow and preserve.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes can be preserved in many ways making sauce, salsa or a blend with garlic, tomatoes and onions for use on pizza, or pasta by roasting or canning.
Onions
Onions can be dried or cooked for use in recipes.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are great to pickle to make sweet or dill pickles.
Zucchini Squash
Zucchini is great grated up and frozen for bread, cakes, or fried.
Winter Squash
Winter Squash can be stored in a cool location for several months to be used during the winter.
Beans
Beans can be blanched and frozen, pickled or canned.
Corn
Corn can be blanched and frozen or canned.
Carrots
Carrots can be harvested and stored for several months in a cool dry location.
Basil
Basil can be made into pesto and frozen or added with onions and tomatoes and frozen for use in pasta and on pizza.
Dill
Dill can be dried or added to pickles.
Blueberries
Blueberries are great to freeze for use in smoothies, blueberry crunch, other desserts, and jams by canning.
Strawberries
Strawberries are another good fruit to freeze for use in smoothies or made into jam.
Blackberries
Blackberries are great to freeze or make into jam by canning them.
Grapes
Grapes can be made into juice or used to make jam.
These are just a few of the uses for these fruits and vegetables out of season. There are many more uses and ways to preserve them if you have all the tools to can them.
When you grow a garden you will undoubtedly have more than you can use all at one time, this will be the time to preserve some of your harvests for use in the winter. Most of these can be preserved with little effort and the time spent will be more than worth it come winter.
Preserving Harvest
When preserving your harvest there are several safe ways to do this one is through blanching or roasting the vegetable before freezing in freezer bags, freezing directly in freezer bags without prepping and the last is more time-consuming to can the fruit or vegetable.
Canning Books
If you are going to preserve your harvest by canning here are some books to help you safely preserve your harvest.
- Preserving everything from pickles to fruit
- Preserving information from the experts
- 350 recipies for fruit and vegetables
- All new with updated information
Canning Tools
If you are going to preserve your fruits and vegetables by canning them, here are some essential tools you will need to safely preserve your harvest.
- Essential tools to use
- Vinyl coated handles for easy use
- Black vinyl handles
- Made in USA
- Wide mouth jars makes it easy to fill
- Recommended safe by the US Department of Agriculture for canning
- Doubles as a boiling-water canner for preserving
- Constructed of warp-resistant heavy-gauge aluminum
- Digital Dial for accuracy
- Extra-large size is great for big canning j
- Ideal For Canning -- Our racks are great for keeping jars off of the bottom of the pressure cooker / pressure canner
- Made For Large Pressure Cookers / Pressure Canners -- Measuring 11 in diameter
- High-Quality Material And Construction
Whichever option you choose to preserve your harvest the key is to do it safely so that you and your family continue the great flavors of your garden harvest through the winter and early spring.
I hope this post on What Vegetables and Fruit to Grow and Preserve has been helpful for you to get started.