Preserving the glut of Summer

There is change in the air - do you feel it? Yip the seasons are changing! The glut of Summer is coming to an end - there are lots of vegetables coming out of the garden, as other things go to seed and other plants finish up for the Summer.

As Autumn is nearing, new plants are going in, old ones coming out, beds going to sleep for the Winter with green crops, or comfrey/manure coverings and preserving the last of the garden... if you are anything like me I feel like no fruit or vegetable can be left behind.

Below are a few of my go-to recipes this year for preserving tomatoes, zucchini, cabbages, plums, and peaches.

Tomatoes:

My go to’s this year have been;

• Freezing diced tomatoes for stews and soups

• Roasting tomatoes in oven with herbs and garlic

• Boiling and bottling, then blend if you like it smooth.

• Cherry tomatoes in salt brine (1c water to 1 teaspoon of salt)

• Tomato miso soup - tomatoes and onions boiled then added a tablespoon of miso and tahini and salt and blitzed and then freeze for the Winter (or whenever).

• Keep in mind when bottling - you need to make sure you fill the jars to the top to elimnate oxygen, and make sure the jars seal properly.

Zucchini:

We lurve zucchini, so many things you can do with it; zucchini fritters, zucchini chocolate cake, fried zucchini with butter and salt, roasted with eggplant and potatoes, stuffed marrows, grated and frozen for stews, diced and frozen for smoothies AND zucchini chutney - YUM!

Chutney recipe

Can add other veggies, or swap out zucchini for tomatoes, cauliflower etc and of course half or double, triple the recipe whatever.

- 2kilos zuccchini (in my case marrow )
- 3 c vinegar (Malt, white, white wine etc)
- 4 onions

Cut up zucchini fairly small and even (I used mums mandolin), sprinkle with 1tbspn salt and add 3c vinegar. Add the onions and boil all together for 1/2 hour.

Mix together in seperate bowl:

- 1c flour
- 2tbspn mustard
- 1tbspn curry powder
- 1tablespoon turmeric
- 400ml vinegar
- 1c sugar or honey

Add this to the other mixture on the boil and boil for a further 5mins, stirring all the time as it can catch on the bottom.

Sterilise jars and fill to the top with hot mixture, add lids (make sure no chutney anywhere near the lid, so give it a little wipe to make sure it seals properly.) I then turn the jars upside down and leave them overnight then check in the morning that they have sealed.

Cabbages

These ones are best planted in Winter and then harvesting early Summer as cabbages dont like high temps. We love coleslaw with all sorts of goodies added, and love a good fry up of cabbage with mustard seeds and some veggie stock…but our favorite way to preserve cabbages (and other veggies) is Sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut recipe

Make sure all the tools you are using are clean; knives, jars, chopping boards, hands etc so we can give the good bacteria the best start. Cut cabbage finely, grate any other vegetables you want e.g. zucchini, beetroot, carrot etc then add 1.5 tbsp of salt (to one cabbage). Massage the cabbage and squeeze until it becomes watery and limp - may take 5-10 mins.

Grab handfuls of the cabbage mixture and put into a glass jar, push it down in the jar either with your hands or a sauerkraut muddler until the liquid covers.

Weigh down the cabbage mixture so that it stays under the liquid - I use a couple of cabbage leaves and push them on top; then cover the lid with some cheesecloth.

Ferment for 4-12 days depending on the temperature, check it daily and press the vegetables under the liquid, if you see white stuff on top just scoop it off. You can either store like this or I like to put a lid on a store in the fridge.

Peaches and plums

We cut up and freeze lots for smoothies and homemade gelato, make plum chocolate cakes and plum or peach galettes.

Plum sauce is another favourite (Marco loves it on venison) … we have also in the past made peach chutney or bottled the peaches-haven’t had so many peaches this year!

And of course my favorite plum jam; the recipe I used this year was adapted from the Grown and Gathered cookbook “jam making with minimum sugar”.

There are soooo many more vegetables to preserve e.g. eggplant overload - try bottling some kasundi, cucumbers - pickled cucumbers-YUM!

Herbs: we dry them in our solar dryer, but you could also just pop onto a tray and put in the sun they will soon dry out…think lemon verbena, lemon balm, kawakawa, chamomile and calendula flowers for tea; sage, thyme, basil…all can be dried to be used later in the year.