Ripe (very, very ripe) pears waiting to be peeled and cut. I bought a 25 lb box of Bartlett pears several weeks ago and was surprised to come home from a couple days away to discover just how ripe my pears were (since they had still been green the week before)!

I sprang into action by peeling and cutting, then putting the slices into a bowl of cool water with lemon juice added in to help keep them from browning too much. Peeling and cutting over-ripe pears can be a bit challenging. As I went on, I discovered that it was easiest to peel them whole (holding them very gently), and then core and slice them after. This seemed to prevent them from bruising or smooshing (a very technical term, indeed) as I did it.

After sanitizing the jars in my dishwasher, I heat them up on a cookie tray in the oven. I usually turn the oven to around 200 F and let them stay there for a good 10 minutes (or until I suddenly remember them!). The point of this is to further sanitize and to have the jars warm enough so that they don't crack when being put into the hot water in the canner. 

I canned my pears in a light syrup. I used a scant 1 cup of sugar (a raw sugar like Rapdura or Sucanat is best) for every 1 litre (quart) of filtered water. I bring the water and sugar to a boil (stirring in the beginning to make sure the sugar dissolves completely). You could also use honey, and would only need about 1/2-3/4 of a cup to achieve the same sweetness of a light syrup.

After filling the clean, hot jars with pear slices, I filled them up with the hot syrup leaving a 1/2 inch of headroom.

Next, I wiped off the jar mouths with a clean cloth, and put sanitized jar lids on top, then screwed on the metal screw tops tightly. To sanitize your lids, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Once it has boiled, turn the water off and add the lids to the hot water (not while it's still at a rolling boil, as this can ruin the lid's sealing ability). Let them sit in the hot water for a couple of minutes before removing to put on top of the prepared jars.

In the boiling water bath, pears require:

Pints- 20 minutes

Quarts- 25 minutes

Make sure that you begin timing only once the water in the canner is at a rolling boil (it sometimes requires a few minutes with the lid back on after you have added all of the jars inside), and that there is at least 1 to 2 inches of water above the top of each jar to ensure sufficient pressure to seal the jar lids.

Once the timer has gone off, I carefully remove the hot jars using canning tongs and I set them on several folded kitchen towels on the counter (to protect the counter from the heat). Listen during the next 30 minutes for a "pop" sound, indicating that the jars have sealed. If you're unsure (and I often miss hearing them seal), go over afterwords and lightly tap on the center of the lid. If it doesn't move, then it's already sealed. If it moves up and down or you can feel it push down when you first tap it, then it wasn't sealed properly. You can re-process these jars in the boiling-water bath once more (do the full 20 or 25 minutes again), and it's a good idea to take the lid and screw top off and re-tighten them before doing so.

After the jars are completely cooled off, I remove the screw bands to use on other canning projects. This also gives me the chance to see whether there are any without a completed seal. I stick these jars in the fridge and we will use them up within a week or two. The rest I store in my pantry or some other cool, dark place, and they are thoroughly enjoyed throughout the rest of the year!

That's it! These pears are perfect for adding to a pancake or waffle breakfast, to add to yogurt, or to just put in a bowl and eat plain. My kids and husband adore them!

I also dehydrated some pear slices this year, as well as turning quite a few of them into fruit leather. They're such a versatile fruit!

What do you like to do with pears when they are ripe and in abundance? Any other questions on the canning process?

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Ripe (very, very ripe) pears waiting to be peeled and cut. I bought a 25 lb box of Bosch pears several weeks ago and was surprised to come home from a couple days away to discover just how ripe my pears were (since they had still been green the week before)!

I sprang into action by peeling and cutting, then putting the slices into a bowl of cool water with lemon juice added in to help keep them from browning too much. Peeling and cutting over-ripe pears can be a bit challenging. As I went on, I discovered that it was easiest to peel them whole (holding them very gently), and then core and slice them after. This seemed to prevent them from bruising or smooshing (a very technical term, indeed) as I did it.

After sanitizing the jars in my dishwasher, I heat them up on a cookie tray in the oven. I usually turn the oven to around 200 F and let them stay there for a good 10 minutes (or until I suddenly remember them!). The point of this is to further sanitize and to have the jars warm enough so that they don't crack when being put into the hot water in the canner. 

I canned my pears in a light syrup. I used a scant 1 cup of sugar (a raw sugar like Rapdura or Sucanat is best) for every 1 litre (quart) of filtered water. I bring the water and sugar to a boil (stirring in the beginning to make sure the sugar dissolves completely). You could also use honey, and would only need about 1/2-3/4 of a cup to achieve the same sweetness of a light syrup.

After filling the clean, hot jars with pear slices, I filled them up with the hot syrup leaving a 1/2 inch of headroom.

Next, I wiped off the jar mouths with a clean cloth, and put sanitized jar lids on top, then screwed on the metal screw tops tightly. To sanitize your lids, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Once it has boiled, turn the water off and add the lids to the hot water (not while it's still at a rolling boil, as this can ruin the lid's sealing ability). Let them sit in the hot water for a couple of minutes before removing to put on top of the prepared jars.

In the boiling water bath, pears require:

Pints- 20 minutes

Quarts- 25 minutes

Make sure that you begin timing only once the water in the canner is at a rolling boil (it sometimes requires a few minutes with the lid back on after you have added all of the jars inside), and that there is at least 1 to 2 inches of water above the top of each jar to ensure sufficient pressure to seal the jar lids.

Once the timer has gone off, I carefully remove the hot jars using canning tongs and I set them on several folded kitchen towels on the counter (to protect the counter from the heat). Listen during the next 30 minutes for a "pop" sound, indicating that the jars have sealed. If you're unsure (and I often miss hearing them seal), go over afterwords and lightly tap on the center of the lid. If it doesn't move, then it's already sealed. If it moves up and down or you can feel it push down when you first tap it, then it wasn't sealed properly. You can re-process these jars in the boiling-water bath once more (do the full 20 or 25 minutes again), and it's a good idea to take the lid and screw top off and re-tighten them before doing so.

After the jars are completely cooled off, I remove the screw bands to use on other canning projects. This also gives me the chance to see whether there are any without a completed seal. I stick these jars in the fridge and we will use them up within a week or two. The rest I store in my pantry or some other cool, dark place, and they are thoroughly enjoyed throughout the rest of the year!

That's it! These pears are perfect for adding to a pancake or waffle breakfast, to add to yogurt, or to just put in a bowl and eat plain. My kids and husband adore them!

I also dehydrated some pear slices this year, as well as turning quite a few of them into fruit leather. They're such a versatile fruit!

What do you like to do with pears when they are ripe and in abundance? Any other questions on the canning process?

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Sadly, my sweet pickles didn't turn out this year. For some very unknown reason, rather than staying wonderfully crisp, then turned soggy. Very soggy.

Since the recipe I use is pretty tried-and-true (I've done it before many times without fail), I decided to call my mother-in-law to brainstorm ideas of what went wrong. The recipe originates from her, so I thought she might have some clues to help solve my soggy pickle mystery. Together we came up with various thoughts... the extra pickling cucumbers I was given from a friend were too large, or they were the wrong kind of cucumber, or maybe they had some kind of bacteria on them, or maybe my fridge temperature wasn't cold enough... we still don't know and it's bugging me a bit, so if you have any thoughts to add in, send them my way!

However, my mother-in-law did come up with one fantastic solution to my main problem-- I just hated the thought of wasting so much food! All that organic apple cider vinegar, raw honey, onions from my garden, not to mention the cucumbers.

So why not make relish?

I did just that. I used a slotted spoon to scoop out all of the pickles, along with a bit of the onions and of course, some of the pickle liquid. I put it all in my food processor and chopped it up in several batches. It looked like relish. It smelled like relish. But not being a relish fan myself, I still wasn't quite sure. I called my hubby in for a taste test... and he loved it! Best relish he's ever had! Phew! 

Perfectly good food, saved from the trash can. That makes me really happy, and even happier to see my husband enjoying the relish on the hamburgers we ate the other night.

How have you made good use of food that would have otherwise been wasted? Any stories to share of how you transformed a kitchen disaster into a victory?

And, to help out a reader who left this comment:

Now, here
is a "pickle" for you: I made a large batch of the lacto-fermented
refrigerator pickles that you had posted a recipe for awhile ago. I
used 2T of salt, because I had no whey. They ended up being way too
salty. Even my husband who loves salty pickles had to admit that they
probably need to be tossed. They have since been in my refrigerator
because I do not want to throw them all. Any ideas on what to do with
these?

Any suggestions for Sheri?

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(Update: I didn't grow any of my own pumpkins this year, but I still intend to purchase some nice organic ones from my favorite produce market in the beginning of October and go through this same process with them. I was really happy with the pumpkin puree that I made last year and can't wait to have more of it this year!

It should also be noted that although I originally called this post "canning" pumpkins, I didn't actually can them in the typical sense. It was my intention to make puree and pressure can it, so that I could store the jars in my pantry. What I discovered as I researched was that it is NOT safe to can pumpkin or winter squash puree, and that it can only be done when the squash is in chunks, and still only with a pressure canner, not a boiling-water bath. My new favorite option is to still make the puree, but rather than can it I put it in canning jars and store it in the freezer instead. It is still almost as convenient as having actual canned pumpkin, but far safer!)

Phew... I think I might be done canning for the year! (Unless, of course, I decide to take advantage of borrowing a pressure canner to do up some dry beans for convenience sake, and I think I might have heard my husband mention pears this morning... oh well

I started out with those pumpkins on the left:

One of the smaller pumpkins went bad before I got to it, so I was left with six, good sized pie pumpkins.

In the morning, I cut each one in half, seeded it, and baked the halves (cut side down) on cookie sheets, at 350 F for about an hour. I was shocked at how much water they released, for being a smaller variety of pumpkin! I left them for several hours to cool off, and started to work on them again just after lunch.

This was an idea I got from Kimi's brilliant post on cooking pumpkins for puree. I'm not sure I would have known to do this otherwise, but it made such a huge difference! I must have spent over an hour, pureeing batches of pumpkin in my food processor, and then draining the water out.

I found the best way to drain the puree was to keep flipping the pumpkin over and over (but being careful not to bang the strainer on the bowl, because then the puree leaks out). I also rolled the pumpkin around and around in the strainer, and as more of the liquid drained out, it would sort of clump together in a tighter ball. It took a lot of effort, but I really think that it was worth it, to have puree that is thick and perfect for making breads, muffins, etc.

My original intention was to can the pumpkin using my MIL's pressure canner. Unfortunately, I didn't read ahead and discovered too late (after the pumpkin was already cooked) that you can't use puree for canning, only cubes (for safety reasons). So, at the last minute, I decided to still use my jars, go ahead and make puree, and then freeze it instead.

I actually think this was far easier in the end. No messing around with the canner, and much more convenient than still having to puree cubes when I want to use a can of pumpkin.

So there you have it- the relatively painless route to delicious, spiced pumpkin bread and pies all winter long (or have you seen Kimi's latest muffins? Mmmm...)

What do you do with pumpkins? Does anyone else like to make and preserve their own puree from fresh pumpkins?

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Despite my complete and utter lack of attention, my garden continues to produce (it's so forgiving, isn't it?). The other day, I noticed that though my spinach had been doing really well, some of it was beginning to bolt due to the late summer heat (I planted my fall spinach crop earlier than I really should have, to get it in before baby arrived so I knew this was a possibility). Not wanting to miss out on it, but knowing that we realistically wouldn't get to eating it fresh, I decided to just harvest and freeze it all at once.

Here it is, roots and all. I used my kitchen scissors to cut all of the good leaves off and tossed them in the salad spinner. I did a couple of batches, and with each one I simply gave it a quick wash while in the spinner and then spun it dry. When it was all cut, washed and dry, I set to chopping it all into smaller pieces.

With my large bowlful of chopped spinach, I got out a measuring cup and filled up small ziploc freezer bags with 2 heaping cupfuls of spinach.

I pressed all of the air out of the bags, sealed them shut, labelled them, and voila. Done. Easy as pie!

Next on my list of garden and fruit preserving to-do's (which is pretty much endless, these days!) was another big bowlful of cherry tomatoes I had picked that afternoon.

(Yes, there are some greenies in there. My 2 year old hasn't quite grasped the concept of ripe and not-ripe yet, but he loves to be my little helper!)

Based upon how well my cherry tomatoes did last year, I knew that I would have literally hundreds upon hundreds of them this summer. Far more than we can just eat, since only my husband and I enjoy them. It's not practical to can them, since I only get bowlfuls at a time. I opted this year for the much quicker and easier task of dehydrating them. Each time I get a nice little amount (about every 2-4 days), I take a few minutes to deal with them and this has by far been the easiest of my summer preserving tasks!

After a rinse in the sink, I pull off the green stems, and then grab a steak knife (my knife of choice for cutting any type of tomatoes). All I do is slice them in half, any old direction.

I lay them all out on dehydrating trays, with the cut side up at first (to prevent tomato juice from leaking inside the dehydrator). Then I dehydrate them for about a day, at a temperature somewhere around 105-115 F (I'm not precise, I just turn it on quickly and walk away).

About 6-12 hours in, I will take a few minutes to pull out the trays and flip them all over to the other side, then I stick them back in to finish dehydrating. I consider them done when they are no longer squishy feeling, but still a bit pliable (sort of like a raisin). It's important to make sure that the moisture is really gone, to ensure a good shelf life.

My little beauties, sealed up in a ziploc bag. I could also just keep them in a canning jar, but for whatever reason, I used a bag. This is from my first batch, not including the nice big batch you see in the pictures (or the one that I'm about to go out and pick!). Throughout the winter, when I want to use these I will just let them soak in a bit of olive oil for several hours, or even quickly re-hydrate them in hot water in a pinch. They will be perfect to add on top of pizza or in pasta dishes. Yum!

This was my last preserving task of the evening, blanching a couple cups of chopped green beans. Check out this post for detailed directions on blanching vegetables.

I think it's worth mentioning how long it took me to do all of the work shown in this post: just under 1 hour. Honestly! I chopped the cherry tomatoes and put them on trays while sitting at the kitchen table, nursing my newborn on a nursing pillow. The spinach was probably the most work intensive, taking about 30 minutes to cut, wash, chop and bag 6 packed cups of spinach. The green beans were a piece of cake, and I did them while I cleaned up the kitchen before bed.

Preserving food doesn't have to be an all-day ordeal. If you're determined enough, you can fit it in to daily life, even when life is hectic! Anyone can do stuff like this, and I probably don't have to tell you just how nice it is to have these sorts of conveniece foods stocked away in the pantry and freezer for us to eat this winter!

What types of quick and easy preserving do you like to do? Is anyone else up to their eyeballs in ripe veggies and fruits needing to be put away for the winter?

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Well, I've just finished preserving it all for this fall and winter! I've now dried all of the bulbs out completely. Just recently I did some sorting into piles: gorgeous and intended for planting this fall, good for storage, and not so good for storage.

I set aside any that had cracks or openings in the bulbs. I have read that those ones may not store well, and should be used quicker or else preserved in a different manner. 

After searching the web quite a bit and talking to a friend, I came to the conclusion that the way I wanted to go about it was to peel my cloves, mince them in olive oil, and then freeze the garlic in usable portions. This method was recommended to me by a friend as something that she does herself whenever she has too much garlic that's going to go bad, and though it is a bit of work up front, it will make using my garden garlic throughout the year a snap.

After peeling it, I put the cloves into my food processor with enough olive oil to make it run smoothly and mince them up well. It's not a puree, but a nice, fine mince that is quite smooth because of the added oil. The oil will help to preserve the texture and flavor, or so I've read.

Next I made little dollops onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper. I used a teaspoon to do it, and I figure that each dollop is about 2 cloves worth of minced garlic.

After I filled a couple of cookie sheets, I put them in the freezer so that they could freeze individually. Then I scraped them off of the parchment paper and put them all into a ziploc bag.

Voila! Instant minced garlic at my fingertips!

Of course, I will still have the other half of my bulbs which I will be keeping in dry storage (which you can see above- just a bin with air holes, and layers of dried garlic in newspaper which will be kept in the garage) and I will use the dried bulbs whenever possible. But I love having this frozen garlic as a really convenient option, and also a way to make sure that none of my garlic will go bad before I get to use it!

Has anyone tried this or a similar method before? How do you preserve excess garlic?

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Beautiful Blueberries (freezing)

Blanching and Freezing Vegetables

Also related are my Bread and Butter and Dill pickle recipes, the two ways that I preserve all my cucumbers, as well as my previous tutorial on making pumpkin puree to freeze.

More posts in this series to come will likely include freezing garlic, canning tomatoes, canning fruits (like peaches or pears), canning blackberry jam, canning applesauce and making dried apples, dry storage for long-term veggies (squash, onions, garlic, etc.) and whatever else I find myself up to!

Today, I just wanted to briefly show you what I do with my fresh herbs.

I should have taken a better photo of it, but you can still see some of my basil leaves sitting on my dehydrator tray behind the grinder. Immediately after I pick my herbs, I give them a good rinse (and a spin in the salad spinner, if they need it). I generally remove the stems and only put the leaves on the dehydrator trays. I dehydrate mine at around 95 F. You can do it a little higher than that, but a lower temperature helps to retain more of the oils in the herbs for better flavor.

For those who don't have a dehydrator, a tried and true method is to put the herbs into brown paper bags, and then seal and tie them upside down in a dark place with good air circulation. Once the herbs have fully dried (about 1-2 weeks), you can continue on grinding them as I do.

Once they're thoroughly dry, I pull out my trusty little coffee grinder (which has barely ever seen coffee, but sees a whole lot of herbs, nuts, seeds, etc.). I fill it up with dried leaves, and pulse it several times until I have a fine enough grind. I just continue doing little batches until it's done, and as I go along, I pour the ground herbs into either glass jars that I re-use, or sometimes little ziploc bags.

It's important to label them immediately, because although you might be able to tell what they are by the smell or sight, quite often ground green herbs look an awful lot like so many other types of ground green herbs!

I do this with pretty much any herbs I grow: basil, oregano, dill, mint, thyme, rosemary, parsley, etc. I can't really think of much that this wouldn't work with!

I store my dried herbs in my pantry, where it's dark, to help them retain their flavor longer. As my small glass jars on the counter are used up, I simply refill them from my pantry stash.

Though I haven't done so this year, one other method that I've used to preserve herbs was to take fresh oregano and basil leaves, and blend them up together. I froze this puree into ice cube trays, and then popped the herb cubes into a ziploc bag to keep in the freezer. This helped to retain a really nice flavor when I melted a cube into a spaghetti sauce or the like.

The wonderful thing about herbs is that anyone can grow them, no matter how small your home is or whether you have a yard or not! Growing your own fresh herbs makes such a difference in taste, whether you're using them fresh or dried.

Do you grow your own herbs? Which ones? What do you usually do with this excess herbs that you want to preserve?

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Blanching and then freezing veggies is a great way to preserve excess food from the garden or summer markets. The reason for the blanching (and not just simply freezing) is that it kills the enzymes in vegetables, which prevents them from continuing to be active once frozen, and would result in off-colors and flavors, toughness, etc. The technique basically involves putting the vegetables into boiling water for a couple of minutes, just enough to stop the enzyme process, but not long enough to fully cook them, which helps to maintain crisp texture and good flavor when you want to use them later on.

Especially for those who don't have the ability to create a root cellar or who would prefer not to do canning, this is an excellent way to store most garden veggies such as: turnips, green beans, broccoli, beets, cauliflower, carrots, corn, peas, spinach and summer squash. There are just a few exceptions, which don't require blanching: onions, peppers, and herbs.

Personally, I did freeze my zucchini last summer, grated and in little bags, without blanching. It kept just fine and was perfect for use in muffins and breads, and even pasta sauce. I also froze my spinach washed and chopped, but not blanched, earlier this summer and recently used (and enjoyed) it in a pasta dish. However, I might have lucked out in both of those instances, and am freezing the rest of my garden bounty with blanching. 

That said, here we go!

You'll need:

A large pot of water

Here are the last of my turnips. It's a bit of a motley looking bunch, since it's the end of my harvest (I processed a bunch of really nice ones a week or two ago). Nonetheless, they needed to be done.

One important thing to note is that any preserving should be done with as fresh of vegetables as possible. If it's coming from your own garden, don't pick it until you're ready to process it within an hour or two, or even better, within minutes. If it's coming from a market or farm, plan to do your preserving just as soon as you get it home. Produce that is preserved at it's peak of freshness yields a much better, tastier product.

First things first, I cut off the greens and rinsed them well in the sink. Next I chopped off their bottoms/roots, as you can see above.

If your veggie needs peeling, now is the time to do it. Obviously some will only need to be washed, like peas or broccoli. Cut your veggie of choice into whatever size pieces you think that you will want to have. With something like turnips, I like them diced in small chunks. Broccoli or cauliflower in nice size florets to add to a stir-fry or the like. Corn could be left on the ear, or else cut off into kernels.

While I'm peeling/cutting, I get my pot of water boiling on the stove. You want it at a full rolling boil.

Each vegetable has a different boiling time. For turnips, around 2 minutes is sufficient. Others will need less or more time. Here is a link to a great chart of the different vegetables and how long they need to boil in order to be blanched.

Once my timer has been set and my veggies are boiling away, I take this opportunity to add my tray of ice to a bowl of cold water, so that it's ready as soon as my timer goes off.

Use a slotted spoon and try to remove the veggies from the boiling water and get them into the ice cold water as quickly as possible.

My turnips, cooling off under the ice. Sounds nice on a roasting hot day like today!

In general, vegetables need to be cooled off in the water for the same amount of time that they are blanched in the boiling water. So, my turnips now get another 2 minutes in the cold water. The purpose is simply to cool them off completely to stop the cooking process.

Once the ice water bath is finished, I use the slotted spoon to scoop them onto a dry and clean dish towel. I like to cover them up for a while and let them dry off as much as possible before putting them in bags or containers to be frozen.

If you're creating packages of a size that will be used up in one meal, this isn't so important. With my turnips, I might use 1 cup for one casserole, and 1 cup for a stew, for example, so I'd like mine to not be completely frozen to eat other, but still be accessible if I only want some of them.

All finished, in a ziploc bag, ready for the freezer!

My total time in doing this small batch of turnips was under 30 minutes. When I did a larger batch the other week, it took me a little over 30 minutes (more peeling and chopping). I love that this isn't too time intensive, and in fact, it will pay off in the winter time when my washing, peeling and chopping has already been done!

Part of Kitchen Tip Tuesdays!

Have you tried blanching vegetables? What methods do you usually use for putting up summer's bounty?

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Not only are they just incredibly delicious, but blueberries are nutritional powerhouses (see this for more on the merits of this sweet little berry):

• High in Vitamins C and E, as well as manganese
• Chock full of antioxidants. Blueberries are rated one of the highest, as far as foods that supply these phytonutrients which reduce free-radical cell damage (this is very important, and helps to fight many conditions, including cancer)
• Promote better vision and protect against macular degeneration
• Help to protect the brain (specifically it's memory and learning functions) from oxidative stress and age-related conditions like Alzheimer's
• Very high in fiber, which encourages healthier elimination. A very good thing.

Here is a box with my first 20 lbs of the season (this picture isn't actually 20 lbs- I've already used up more than half of the box before taking the picture). Plump, juicy and oh-so-good! There were a lot of naughty little fingers dipping into the berries while I dealt with them (mine included)!

Here's my basic method:

Start by filling up strainers or colanders with berries. Fill one side of the sink with cool water, and preferably some type of fruit/veggie cleaner to help remove any pesticide, exhaust, etc. residues.

I let each strainer sit in the water for about 3-5 minutes, occasionally swishing it around. When it's done, I transfer it to the next sink, where I rinse it off with cool water from my sink sprayer hose. I try to let it sit for a couple minutes, to drain out as much of the excess water as possible.

Next, I lay out dish towels on the counter (it's best to pick ones that aren't your absolute favorites- they don't generally get really stained, but it is a possibility). I dump one strainer full onto one tea towel. As I spread them out, I pick out any stray leaves, stems, green berries, etc. Then I lay another towel over top of the berries, and let it sit for a good 5 minutes.

The point is to use the towels to soak up as much excess water as possible. I actually give my berries a bit of a gentle rub down with the top towel after letting them sit, just to dry them off as much as I can before putting them in bags. This helps the berries to freeze nicely without all clumping together. I used to lay them out nicely on cookie sheets, to prevent clumping, but found it was so much work. I find that this method is so much faster and easier, and works just as well!

Just pretend that you can tell that this is me pouring blueberries from a towel into a bag. I fold up the 4 corners of the towel to lift it up, then open up one side and they easily slide right into the bag.

Once you get used to doing this, you get into a real rhythm of filling
empty strainers, putting them in the soaking water, rinsing them,
laying berries out, and putting dry berries into ziplocs. I've been doing this for so many summers now that I think I could almost do it in my sleep. I washed and dried and put away all 20 lbs within 30 minutes!

And here are my lovely berries, ready for the freezer. I find that a large ziploc will take about 5 lbs of berries, give or take. I filled 4 of these bags, and we ate about a pound or so fresh as well.

It's probably also worth mentioning that I never, ever buy my berries from a store. The best way to get cheap and fresh berries is to go straight to the farm, if at all possible! We love to do u-pick berries, which is definitely the cheapest way to get them when you consider the cost per lb. Most farms will also sell them pre-picked for a slightly higher price, but I can almost guarantee you that it will still be cheaper than getting them anywhere else, and fresher, too!

And that's it! Blueberries have got to be the easiest of all fruits to put away for the winter! Now they will be made into blueberries smoothies, crumbles, syrups, muffins, etc. all year long.

Are you blueberry lovers like we are? Do you take advantage of summer to stock up on them? How do you preserve your berries?

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However, I am unsure of what I can do for long-term storage (since they generally need to be kept cool once the fermentation has taken place, so that they don't over-ferment, leading to soggy veggies, bad taste and possibly safety issues). I only have one fridge and cannot possibly store all of the pickles that I truly want to make this summer with my garden bounty (or anything else I decide to try, like lacto-fermented salsas, chutneys, etc.).

What's a nourishing foodie/frugal food preserver to do?!?

What other options have any of you tried for keeping these veggies when fridge room just wasn't available (and neither is a root cellar- a garage is the best I've got!)?

Along this topic, I am also planning to purchase a book on fermentation and food preserving, so that I have something even more in-depth than the chapter in Nourishing Traditions
(though that is a fantastic place to begin). Here are the two books I'm considering:

Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods

OR

Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation

Any thoughts on either book?

I've heard many rave reviews of Wild Fermenation and it was originally my first choice, although from what I've heard it includes just a little bit too much information on the author's alternative lifestyle. The Preserving Food book also sounds great, though perhaps lacks some detail in it's discussion of preserving safety and in some of the recipes. Other book suggestions (so long as they have plenty of recipes for making use of my garden produce!) would be appreciated!

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• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
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• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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