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We're just getting started with harvesting our garden, but you know very soon we'll be
inundated with more tomatoes or squash or cucumbers than we can possibly use. Now, you
can can things but canning requires lots of equipment, precise recipes, and it's pretty
hot work. Freezing is simple and if you have the freezer space many things don't require
blanching. Tomatoes can be bagged and frozen as is. I like to put cherry tomatoes in a
plastic freezer bag, write on the variety and the date that you put it in, and that
makes great Margaritas and frozen Bloody Marys and sauces of all kinds. You can also dice
peppers and onions and freeze and store those. They work great for casseroles and curries
and soups. Okra can be sliced and breaded and then bagged up so you can do fried okra
any time you want through out the year, or you can just slice it and bag it for gumbos
and stews. Green beans, peas, and corn also freeze very well. If you have a surplus of
blackberries or strawberries, those are easy to freeze in a single layer on parchment paper
or on a Silpat sheet and then store them in bags in the freezer. For blanching you'll
need to put things in boiling water for two to three minutes and that's done for most
greens and broccoli because it destroys the enzymes that cause food to spoil. Then, you'll
immediately put those items in an ice water bath to cool them down quickly and drain them
well. That helps to keep the color of the food. Make sure you date and label the containers.
I like to use my P-Touch labeler because it works really well even in the freezer and
I don't write on my containers and make them look messy. I like to get all of the air out
of the bags and press them as flat as possible, that way I can stack more in the freezer.
Now I do dry a lot of things in a dehydrator. Some things can be dried in the oven, but
it's usually too humid here to get good results with solar drying. So a dehydrator is a good
investment. Some foods will need to be treated with a salt water dip or an ascorbic acid
dip, which is a type of vitamin c, or even fruit juice before drying to preserve their
flavor and color. But it's a terrific way to dry herbs to make teas throughout the year.
Spread them in thin layers. Most of these don't come with their own timers so I plug
my drier into my timer just to make it easier. You can get different trays for drying food.
This solid try works really well if you want to make your own fruit roll ups or fruit leather
and then the finer trays are great for drying herbs because they won't fall through. The
bigger openings in the trays are great for vegetables. And vegetables that are dried
can be added to soups and taken on camping trips and even kale really dries well as kale
chips. I love to dry my figs from my fig trees instead of making fig preserves which take
a lot of sugar, the dried figs are very versal and they're a great snack to have. So a dryer
of this kind can really be very versal in your kitchen and can help you have a lot of
great food all year long. For Backyard Basics I'm Trisha Shirey, thanks for watching.