We've been talking a lot about peak harvest season these last couple weeks. The planning for the harvest begins way back with our crop planning and seed ordering in January. We do our best to project yields and carefully estimate the wants/ needs of our customers. Farming is unpredictable, so there is a sizeable buffer built in to ensure diversity throughout the season. We're thrilled with the yields of this season so far. There were a few spring disappointments, and inevitably there will be a few more, but overall we've been quite pleased. The planning is one piece of the puzzle, but now that the harvest has arrived, the new question is how do we preserve it?
As a farmer, I spend most of the hours of my day thinking about food - what crops are ready to harvest, what needs to be seeded, how many eggplants should we save for our Liverpool market, and what do I want to eat? This weekend, my thinking about food led me to ponder what I may want to eat this winter. Summer is a busy time, on the farm and in life generally, so I've been working to hone in the list of goods I'd like to preserve for winter. Some things are no brainers, like putting tomatoes in the freezer (whole, destemmed if we're lucky) and herbs in the dehydrator. As the season allows, I'll blanch beans, broccoli and chard, and clear space in the basement for squash and root crops. Where I've been getting really picky is with canning. It's labour intensive and a very hot job to stand over a boiling pot of water for hours when it's already 25 degrees. This year, I've narrowed down the canning list to: salsa, green tomato ginger jam, pickled jalapenos, chow chow, bread and butter pickles, ajvar (pepper and eggplant spread), zucchini relish and onion relish. The last two are prepped and ready to can when this heatwave passes. We'll see if all of these things get made, but I know that I'll enjoy the flavours of August in the depths of February.
With our hot crops coming on strong, we'll soon have bulk quantities of certain products available in our online store. If you're ever feeling inspired to preserve though, don't hesitate to reach out and ask about bulk options. We're so grateful to be able feed this community and as we're not yet growing through the winters, sharing our love of food and preserving while the harvest is abundant is our way of satiating the desire for farm produce once our markets end.
Below are some more tips about preserving, but there are so many ways to put away the harvest, I urge you to get creative. Canning, fermenting, freezing, drying - the options are endless. One of my favourite websites for preserves is Food in Jars.
Herbs
dill, parsley and cilantro all freeze and dry well. Toss them whole into a freezer bag!
basil - my go to preservation method is garlic scape pesto. Any type of pesto will freeze nicely. I always freeze my pesto in muffin tins for easy use.
Hardy greens
chard and spinach freeze well when blanched. Boil a pot of water and dip the greens into the pot just until the colour brightens, then immediately dunk them in ice water. Let the leaves dry off a bit and then freeze in clumps.
kale is super hardy and can be found at markets almost year round. It also freezes well for use in soup or smoothies. No blanching necessary.
Fruiting crops
zucchini is incredibly abundant in season and I've tried many many ways to preserve it. My main go to these days is to pre-make zucchini muffins and freeze them. This is my fave at the moment.
peppers freeze nicely and are tasty in lots of preserves.
tomatoes are the big one! I always freeze lots and lots, but also always can some tomato paste, some whole tomatoes, and lots of salsa. This is our go to salsa recipe - it rocks!
eggplants aren't something we often have in abundance, but I love having pre-roasted eggplants in the freezer. Char them whole in the oven or a grill, then remove the skin and freeze them. Baba ghanoush year round, yes please!
Other
in our house, there's always a freezer bag full of odds and ends for flavouring soup stock in the winter. Extra green onions, fennel, celery, herbs - they all go in one bag.
I hope you find some inspiration here! Let me know if you dabble with preserving or come across any fun recipes for any of our veg - we'd love to share them. Happy eating!
The beautiful photos are from last season and were taken by Meagan Hancock.
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