Tips on Preserving Vegetables

When I first moved to my rural home, I only knew about city life. I wanted to blend into the country atmosphere, so I learned as much as possible about caring for a vegetable garden. While I tried to pick up information about preserving the harvest, I began to feel that the number of jars of canned goods equated somehow to real womanhood. I wanted to be included, so I learned how to do canning and preserving.

Everything has to be sterilized for the canning process. It's a lot of work, but there are some tasty rewards for the effort. Peppers, tomatoes, and anything acidic are the safest vegetables to can. Corn can be risky. Green beans need a long processing time, but they are really delicious. They are nothing like canned green beans in the store.

The jars need to be sterilized before packing the vegetables. This makes having a dishwasher a fabulous convenience in this process. Coordinating the heating vegetables with the dishwasher cycle beats washing them by hand, as the jars get heated to 140 degrees. Needless to say, it saves on the hands, too.

Keeping a big freezer for preserving vegetables has a lot to offer, too. This is the best way to preserve corn. Freezer bags need to be emptied of air, by vacuuming the air out using a straw, or dipping the bag in water up to the seal. Vegetables for freezing must be blanched, and quickly cooled to keep from getting a mushy texture. I like to freeze beans, peas, or corn by first laying it on a flat surface like a cookie sheet. After it's frozen, I put it into a freezer bag, and it's convenient and easy to remove.

A third method of preserving vegetables is dehydration. Back in the old days vegetables were often dried on the roof with screening over all to keep the insects off. Now we have electric dehydrators for that purpose. Dehydration as a means of preserving vegetable can also be done with a microwave, but this is a lengthy process, and the least desirable method.