What ways do you save produce?
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SilverStormi
Posts: 626 Member
Hey all,
I was just wondering what you do with your produce if you have to much that your not going to use before it goes bad. I get an organic CSA share that is meant to be enough for a family of 4 but its just me and my husband. We have a hard time using all of it before it goes bad. I dont want to keep feeding my compost pile all these tasty goodies that I can use later down the road. So im looking for easy ideas to save it before it goes bad. I do have a full size currently almost empty freezer in my basement so im thinking a lot of freezing is in my future. Which is fine my me.
Right now I made some herb butters and froze them in about tablespoon sized balls so I can pull them out for cooking as needed. Last night I chopped or diced a ton of onions to freeze for later use. Tonight Im going to shred some of the zucchini. I still have more to go but am open to ideas.
I was just wondering what you do with your produce if you have to much that your not going to use before it goes bad. I get an organic CSA share that is meant to be enough for a family of 4 but its just me and my husband. We have a hard time using all of it before it goes bad. I dont want to keep feeding my compost pile all these tasty goodies that I can use later down the road. So im looking for easy ideas to save it before it goes bad. I do have a full size currently almost empty freezer in my basement so im thinking a lot of freezing is in my future. Which is fine my me.
Right now I made some herb butters and froze them in about tablespoon sized balls so I can pull them out for cooking as needed. Last night I chopped or diced a ton of onions to freeze for later use. Tonight Im going to shred some of the zucchini. I still have more to go but am open to ideas.
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Replies
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What else do you have to preserve?0
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It probably depends on what kinds of veggies you're getting. Some freeze a lot better than others. I shred zucchini and carrots together into qt sized bags for use in all kinds of stuff (I skip blanching if I'm shredding because I don't care about the texture). I've done chopped bell peppers (red, yellow, green) and onions for stir frys and that works pretty well also. I froze broccoli last year and that was a little meh - I think I went a bit long when I blanched them so the texture was off. We have a pretty big garden but only about half of it is suitable for freezing, the rest would probably work better canned. Canning is my next big adventure if I can convince my wife I won't poison us all.0
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Right now I have peaches, apricots, zucchini, onions, peppers, potatoes and herbs. I know I will have tomatoes on the way since I will be getting them from the csa and I have 16 tomato plants in my own garden. Although a lot of those will become sauces and tomato bisque. I dont know what else will be coming down the line from the csa as this is my first year doing it.
Edit: And I went to volunteer this morning with harvesting onions so I have a lot more onions that I brought home today. Although someone was telling me about onion jam. I think I might be trying that with todays onions.
Walla Walla Onion Jam
there is a lot of onions, and this jam is a great way to use up a lot of them! it’s fantastic on burgers!
3 lb onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup honey
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tsp fresh rosemary
1 tsp fresh tarragon
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
Melt butter in a Dutch oven on low heat. Toss in onions, and cook, covered very low for about an hour, stirring occasionally so they don’t burn. You want them to cook low and slow so they get nice and golden. Stir in the honey, salt, pepper, and thyme. Turn up the heat and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed. Take the onions off the heat and stir in sherry vinegar and tarragon. Refrigerate and use within a month, or can in a boiling water bath!0 -
Walla Walla Onion Jam sounds tasty! It would also make a pretty good name for an indie band
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This is a good topic. I have recently worked through emptying my freezer (in preference to buying fresh meat etc.) and now have just a couple of containers of frozen blueberries left. The pantry is being tackled next. So for now I'm not going to make any preserves pr anything until I have made some headway there, however preserving and pickling is something I want to get into.
Silver, like you I often order through or equivalent of a CSA - I'm one person and I get the 2 person box. Luckily with mine it's a week-to-week proposition so I can skip a week if I have too much leftover. However I try to eat as much of the produce as I can so as to fill up and not feel the desire for meat or snack foods. Well that's the theory anyway 0 -
Hi there
I am new to clean eating (last 3 months) but loving it ... so after the initial expensive start up and seeming to get a handle on smart buying I have found a few ways to save a bit of money.
Buy in season
Buy bulk
Buy seconds and freeze it so in a ready-to-go state
Freeze your fruit if starting to turn bad so can freeze and use later ... like freeze bananas for smoothies or ice cream
Shop around as other places are cheaper
I had more but will have a think about it0 -
The start up was hardest for us (and still is). We just couldn't afford to throw out so much food even if it was not technically "clean". It has taken a great deal of time to work our way through our pantry. Our garden has done really well this year so we have plenty to freeze, dehydrate and maybe even preserve if I get brave enough. My teenage daughters to my delight will just stand out in the garden eating broccoli, lemon cucumbers, tomatoes etc... much better than the chicken nuggets whey would happily live on.0
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Is the food that you need to use processed/packaged food? I wouldn't throw it out either, I guess I just work it in until gone, too.
I like to roast tomatoes and peppers and freeze them. I also freeze whole tomatoes for use in sauce. I do can, as well, but freezing works so well I do more of that.0
