Zucchini is an amazing fruit. We planted one zucchini plant in our garden this year and it tried to feed our family of eight single-handedly. We had our first freeze in our little valley yesterday and sadly it looks like our friend and provider is on its last leg. That death is but a short separation though for next week we will have zucchini bread and maybe in January we will have that great chocolate zucchini cake that Tani makes. That is right, through the wonder of preserving we will be able to eat Britain’s 10th favorite culinary vegetable all winter and maybe even past the time for planting the next zucchini.

We have had a great summer. We have been blessed, and our neighbors have been blessed, with a bountiful harvest. We have green beans, tomatoes, peppers, corn, beets, chard, garlic and zucchini of course. We have purchased peaches, and tomatoes from local farmers and excellent potatoes from farmers in nearby Grace Idaho. We have also been able to pick apricots, apples and cherries from generous friends and neighbors. Of course you have to eat it fresh when you can, but canning and freezing allow you to enjoy the food and the low prices throughout the winter.

Potatoes

We have a small room that is about ten feet square that has walls all made of cement with a sand floor and only a small hole in one of the walls for access. Last year we started using it for a cold room and storing our potatoes in it. We made it about five months before the potatoes started sprouting and a month after that the few that we had left had shriveled up. This year we bought a few more than last year and will be able to use them more liberally during the winter. We also hope to prolong the storage by not storing the onions with the potatoes which I have been told is not a good thing.

The garlic has dried and some has been set aside to plant and the rest ready to store in the basement. I have thought about pickling some garlic and maybe trying to make some garlic powder. I have also read an article about freezing the garlic shortly after crushing it which sounded interesting so I may try that also.

The cherries, peaches, and beans have been bottled. The apricots have been made into yummy apricot syrup. Tani has also bottled pinto beans, black beans, and kidney beans which is great because you can go to the storage room and grab a bottle or two of beans to make chili or soup and not worry about soaking the beans the night before.

We have frozen chicken and bottles of chicken that we canned when we were able to buy it for a great deal. We have bottles of deer meat that Tani bottled when we were able to get deer meat from a friend. We bought more than 80 pounds of bananas a month or so ago when local stores had an awesome deal on them. They are now frozen, or dried and stored.

Why go through the work to can this food when you can go to the store and pick a can of beans off the shelf?  Why make all the effort to plan and freeze when you can get a “fresh” tomato at the store all year round? It saves us money by freeing us from trips to the store. It makes us more self reliant and less fearful in strange economic times. I think that it is environmentally friendly, reusable containers, no jet fuel used, less car fuel used in shipping. Preserving the harvest lets our family enjoy our bountiful harvest all winter.