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Friday Favorite: Filling the Larder

September 8th, 2017

One of my favorite things time of of year is filling the freezer and the pantry with homegrown goodness. I’ve been making small batches of interesting things: pickled beans with garlic and basil, pickled garlic, pickled nasturtium pods, figs in brandy, minted onions, spiced peaches, and many more. The freezer is pretty much chocked full and the pantry shelves are starting to look lovely.


I have a few favorite canning books, most that provide small batch recipes, which are perfect for small amount of produce and small families. These books are constantly on my table, I leaf through them and read through recipes trying to decide what to make. A few recipes have become favorites and are used yearly, some are made every so often.

A few of my go-to books this time of year:
The River Cottage Preserves Handbook by Pam Corbin
Preserving the Taste by Edon Waycott
Well Preserved by Eugenia Bone

I don’t can much, but the things that I do are throughly enjoyed in the middle of our long winters here in Maine. Every time we crack open a jar of pickles or preserves we are reminded of the delicious bounty from the garden.

What are you preserving from the garden this year?

3 Comments to “Friday Favorite: Filling the Larder”
  1. kristin @ going country on September 8, 2017 at 6:10 am

    Mostly a ton of applesauce from the feral apples that are everywhere around here. 25 quarts and counting. Seems like a crazy amount, but there’s never too much come March.

    Also some sauerkraut and a very small amount of roasted tomato sauce. I’m really hoping for at least one more stretch of good tomato ripening weather so I can make more.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  2. Nebraska Dave on September 9, 2017 at 7:36 am

    Susy, this year I did preserve some things. The green beans were delightful so I canned a batch of five quarts. I also canned four quarts of dill pickles. I froze some sweet corn and froze some tomatoes. I’ve decided that Terra Nova Gardens has been developed big enough with 12 raised beds. Now I just need to manage the beds and concentrate on preserving more. I had so much produce this this I couldn’t give it all away. Next year will be the year of preservation. It’s been a really good year.

    Have a great small batch preservation day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  3. Kathy on September 19, 2017 at 2:47 pm

    Every year I put-up a couple of cases of roasted crushed tomatoes and salsa. The roasted tomatoes are used in everything from chili to curries and the salsa is a stand-by gift for our arborist that does work on our property every year. He loves it!

    I also love to make slow roasted tomatoes with herbs in a low oven (Alana Chernila recipe). They reduce down to an almost sun-dried tomato texture and they freeze amazingly. These get used from pizza sauces, pasta dishes, to even just being reheated and served with brie on homemade bread.

    I also like to make and freeze a lot of pesto sauces and compound butters. Casseroles with lots of vegetables are made and frozen too. I love having all these goodies at the ready for the rest of the year.

    Reply to Kathy's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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