Tips and Tricks for homegrown garden produce

jb_2011
jb_2011 Posts: 1,029 Member
edited September 28 in Food and Nutrition
Hello fellow gardeners! Thought it might be fun to start a thread about how to use our garden produce this season. I have Greek oregano ready to harvest and dry, and have been picking large heads of broccoli over the last few days. Today I made a cream of broccoli soup with onion, carrot, garlic, chicken stock and fat-free half n half. Oh is it ever delicious!

When they're ready I'll harvest dozens of scallions, slice them and freeze using the FoodSaver. Great for soups and stir-fries later on in the year. Fresh spinach salads have been on our dinner plates the last couple of nights, along with French Breakfast radishes and fresh dill. Not much else is ready here in northern Oregon, but soon we'll have sugar-snap and snow peas coming out of our ears. The first planting of Romaine lettuce is ready to harvest.

Last year we had an abundance of eggplant, which we sliced and brushed lightly with olive oil, then grilled on the bbq. When cool, I put it in FoodSaver bags with wax paper inbetween the layers. Today I defrosted some and made the most delicious Eggplant Gratin, Ina Garten's recipe. I used the grilled eggplant instead of fried, and used fat-free ricotta and fat-free half and half. Great great great stuff and I'm soo glad we took the time to grill and freeze the eggplant last summer.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/eggplant-gratin-recipe/index.html

One trick I want to share is freezing herbs....since I rarely remember to buy cilantro and need it on occasion for a recipe, I learned last year to grow a huge patch of it, toss the leaves in the food processor with a small splash of olive oil, then freeze in wafer-thin layers in quart Zip-Locks. I just break off a little chunk then, and presto, cilantro! It doesn't keep its flavor when dried. I do the same freezer method with parsley and basil, and dry some, too.

That's all I can think of at the moment, what are some of the things you grow, and how do you use or save them?

Happy spring!

Replies

  • yodacho
    yodacho Posts: 90 Member
    I have a food dehydrator, and when my sister gave me a box of Asian pears from her trees, I dried most of them, and they are the yummiest snacks ever, though they did shrink quite a bit. I have in the past made gobs of spaghetti sauce and frozen it when the tomatoes go crazy, a sometimes rare occurance in Western WA. I also have done some canning - love homegrown canned pears, and made lots of freezer jam with strawberries. Nothing terribly unusual, but tasty and rewarding. I've also braided garlic and used that over the course of a year. Kale I just let go to seed, and have tons of volunteer kale to use almost year round. Gee, makes me want to go plant something!
  • Runnermadre
    Runnermadre Posts: 267 Member
    I wish that our deep freeze hadn't quit working. Our freezer with our refrigerator is too small to stock up on much, so we mainly have to keep just what we need on hand. Occasionally we have a few extra things in there, but there's just not a lot of room. In our very small "garden," if you can call it that we just grow the things we use the most and use them while we have them in the summer. This is mainly red and green peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, and tomatoes.

    I'm thinking about planting my herbs still, but I'm afraid it's so late that I won't have any until late summer.

    Anyhow, I love having fresh produce in my own yard where I know exactly what's been used or not used on it, and how fresh it is. :-)
  • jb_2011
    jb_2011 Posts: 1,029 Member
    Oh yes, garlic! I braid our garlic every year in July, we plant 200 cloves in late Oct. We cook a lot with it, give some away for gifts, and we're still using what we grew last year. It won't be long before we start harvesting again, maybe 2 weeks for the earlier maturing variety. It keeps at least 8 months.

    You let your kale go to seed, great idea! I might have to do that, too.
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