Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow

About the Author Susan McClure is a trained botanist who has written articles on gardening for numerous publications and authored several previous books. She lives in Valparaiso, Indiana. Product Description Preserving Summer's Bounty Surefire techniques and great recipes for keeping the harvest! Review “Preserving Summer's Bounty takes a giant step ahead in preserving advice. This up-to-the-minute guide pays tribute to your grandmother's techniques for 'putting up' vegetables, but what I like best are the quick and easy modern methods using the microwave, the freezer and more. These fast answers should lure even the busiest among us into storing the precious harvest of the garden.” ―Marian Morash, Author of The Victory Garden Cookbook “Preserving Summer's Bounty is a treasure trove of sage advice and enticing recipes. It's a delightful book that will let you enjoy your garden's harvest all year long.” ―Carol Hupping, Editor of Stocking Up III From the Back Cover Preserving Summer's Bounty Surefire techniques and great recipes for keeping the harvest! "Preserving Summer's Bounty takes a giant step ahead in preserving advice. This up-to-the-minute guide pays tribute to your grandmother's techniques for 'putting up' vegetables, but what I like best are the quick and easy modern methods using the microwave, the freezer and more. These fast answers should lure even the busiest among us into storing the precious harvest of the garden."--Marian Morash, Author of The Victory Garden Cookbook "Preserving Summer's Bounty is a treasure trove of sage advice and enticing recipes. It's a delightful book that will let you enjoy your garden's harvest all year long."--Carol Hupping, Editor of Stocking Up III Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. • CHAPTER ONE A Guide to Harvesting Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs YOU'VE GOT your own garden, and that's great! Gardening provides fun, exercise, and, best of all, produce that you can use in hundreds of ways. You no longer need to be captive to the whims of the market--you can grow what you like best and eat it harvest-fresh, chemical-free, and untouched by additives. You can enjoy your favorite kinds of corn or beans as well as unusual things, such as Japanese pears or heirloom 'Moon and Stars' watermelons. Growing your own produce lets you take charge of the harvesting process. Pick fruits and vegetables when their quality is at its very best and they have reached the right stage of maturity for eating, canning, freezing, or drying. Then, you don't have to lose any time getting the food from the ground into safekeeping. Sometimes you can organize the garden so that produce will ripen when it is convenient for your use--and sometimes you can't. Most people can't control when their apples, berries, peaches, and pears will be mature. Once planted, fruit trees and berry plants will bear their fruit year after year when the time is right. You're at their mercy and must be prepared to harvest just when the pickings are ready if you want to get the fruit at its best. Growing for Harvest Vegetables are a different story. Because most are annuals and bear a certain number of weeks after they are planted, you can plan your garden to allow for succession plantings that extend the harvesting season and furnish you with a continuous supply of fresh food. This means that you can eat fresh vegetables over several smaller harvests if you wish (and the weather cooperates) and be able to preserve small batches as different waves of vegetables ripen. Time your harvests so you pick each fruit and vegetable at perfection. Zucchini (top) that has been left on the vine too long is unfit for anything but puree. Tender young zucchini are perfect for fresh eating sliced in salads or stir-fries and make delicious pickles. Beets (bottom) left in the ground too long become tough and woody, but baby beets are at the ideal stage for canning, freezing, or pickling. By planting three smaller cro