Summer is the time of year when you have to lock your car to keep desperate gardeners from leaving excess zucchini in the back seat. But squash isn’t the only thing producing abundantly at this time of year. It’s peak season for fruits and vegetables, and high volume means lower prices for consumers.
Most of these items are as perishable as they are affordable. Luckily, there are workarounds.
Not everyone is (or wants to be) The Pioneer Woman. But you don’t have to be! For example, you can dehydrate produce in your air fryer, or make a quick pickle by slicing fresh veggies into spiced vinegar. Food preservation is a hobby you can eat.
Will this completely make up for grocery inflation? Of course not. But it will save you money. For example, if you can buy a basket of tomatoes at fire-sale prices, it’s simple to chop and freeze them for quick pasta sauces later on.
Use the following tactics to stock the pantry and freezer and provide a memory of summer in the depths of January.
1. Freeze it
Easy enough, right? Just throw it on ice! However, there are a few tricks worth knowing to ensure the longevity and flavor of your fruits and vegetables.
For example, maybe you’d planned on just freezing your first-ever garden peas in a bag. But immersing them in boiling water for 90 seconds and then cooling them rapidly will greatly improve flavor, texture, color and vitamin content.
Get advice from the experts on how to deal with that bag of green beans your sister just dropped off. A superb resource is the National Center for Home Food Preservation, out of the University of Georgia. You’ll learn all you need to know about everything from freezing to pickling to making jerky.
Pro tip: When possible, freeze produce flat in plastic zipper-type bags for easy stacking in the freezer.
2. Can it
Peak home canning in the U.S. was in 1943, when civilians processed more than 4 billion cans and jars of food in response to the government’s “Can All You Can” program. Canning fell off as better home refrigeration (and freezing) became available, but some of us have been doing it all along.
Those who grew up without home canning tend to think it’s a mystic art. It isn’t! Observing a few basic safety standards will let you preserve all those rock-bottom-priced vegetables and fruits.
The most essential thing to know is when to use a water bath canner (processing jars in boiling water) and when to use a pressure canner. The NCHFP has all the information you need.
If you’re just starting out and want to can jams, salsa or fruits (including tomatoes), a water bath canner will do. This is just a large pot with a rack to keep the jars from touching the bottom of the canner.
Look for canners at yard sales and thrift stores. Or make your own: Any stockpot deep enough to allow 2 inches of water above the jars’ tops will do. Create a rack by wiring some canning jar rings together, per instructions from ThePrairieHomestead.com.
Nice-to-have extras like a canning funnel and a jar lifter might also be available at yard sales and thrift stores or can be bought at a big-box store or from Amazon or other online retailers.
3. Ferment it
Sauerkraut, kimchi, and dill pickles are some of the most commonly fermented foods. However, foodies have taken this fizzy idea and run with it.
Sites like FermentersKitchen.com and FermentingForFoodies.com suggest fermenting things like apples, carrots, jalapeños, beets, onions, eggplant and even strawberries.
According to the NCHFP, fermented foods can be kept in their original fermenting jars or crocks for up to six months. If you want to keep them longer, consider canning.
Bonus: Fermented foods are natural probiotics. Your gut biome will thank you.
4. Pickle it
Pickling has also become a foodie obsession, used to preserve everything from lemons to jalapenos to spiralized pickled golden beets with ginger. (Wow.) Old favorites like dilly beans and pickled beets are also an option. The NCHFP has recipes, or you can do a search for “easy pickle recipes.”
Preserve them by canning — or don’t. Fermented pickles don’t necessarily have to be canned. Neither do “refrigerator pickles,” i.e., fruits or vegetables you plan to eat over the next few months. (I’ve kept pickled rhubarb for almost a year.)
And if you want to go the really hands-off route? Make pickles by slicing excess produce and dropping it into those half-finished jars of store-bought pickles lurking in the fridge. You’re welcome.
5. Make jam or jelly
This is surprisingly simple: Chop/crush fruit (or pulse it in the blender/food processor), add sugar and maybe some pectin (more on that below), then boil it for a few minutes. The result will impress everyone to whom you serve it.
Pectin is optional, by the way. The NCHFP provides no-pectin jam and jelly varieties in its extensive list of recipes, along with step-by-step directions for different fruits.
As noted above, you can make a DIY canner to can the result. Two other options:
- Opt for freezer jam, which is almost as easy as making Jello. It does require you to buy pectin, though.
- Make refrigerator jam, i.e., a product to be used over the next few months. Keep it in the coldest part of the fridge to ensure a longer shelf life.
Pro tip: Spread your homemade jam/jelly on pancakes/waffles or dollop it into hot cereal.
6. Juice it
Citrus fruits are the zucchini of the West and the South. Homeowners can’t eat these things fast enough. They bring shopping bags of oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruits to work, church or book club, hoping someone will take them.
That “someone” should be you if you don’t have trees of your own. You can make jam or marmalade, as noted above, but consider juicing and freezing some of this fruit as well. A juicer certainly helps, but this is something you can do by hand (in small batches so you don’t get discouraged and quit).
And if you must have a juicer? Start by checking thrift shops, since a juicer is one of those products people think they’ll use but don’t.
Freeze the juice in ice-cube trays and store those cubes in tightly sealed bags. They’ll be ready for cooking, baking or adding to cold drinks (including adult beverages). Oh, and if you’ve never had homemade lemonade or limeade, you are in for a treat.
Pro tip: Measure how much juice fits into a single section of the ice cube tray and write it down somewhere. When a recipe calls for a quarter of a cup of juice, you’ll know how many cubes to take out.
7. Dry it
Drying is one of the oldest food preservation methods, but modern technology has made it all shiny and new. Foodies (and preppers) love, love, love their dehydrators. It’s also possible to dehydrate food in an air fryer or in the oven on low.
You can dehydrate fruits and vegetables as-is or turn them into products like fruit leather or flavored chips. A dehydrating-focused site called The Purposeful Pantry offers loads of recipes and tips.
We dry apples, sliced strawberries and strips of sugared rhubarb, all of which make wonderfully chewy snacks. Lately we’ve branched out into “green powder,” a healthful mix-in for smoothies, stews, casseroles and other dishes, such as our homemade rustic bread.
Commercially produced green powders are expensive and may have issues such as allergens, according to The Washington Post. Making your own also lets you use more of what’s in your garden, such as carrot or radish greens or the leaves from plants like peas, squash, pumpkin (high in iron), cucumber, raspberries and strawberries.
Where to get cheap (or free) produce
Shop farmers markets — but do it late. If you show up half an hour before closing time, some growers might give you a discount rather than haul all that stuff back home. See if there’s a damaged/irregular section, such as misshapen tomatoes or slightly bruised apples; if you’re going to process them, who cares what they look like?
Use social media. If you’re in a Buy Nothing Facebook group, put out an ask: “Does anyone have extra produce they can’t use?” You could also put a note out via sites like NextDoor or Citizen. Surely somebody in your ZIP code is growing zucchini.
Go gleaning. This ancient tradition has gone digital, with nonprofit groups listing places to pick up unwanted produce. A clearinghouse called Food Forward offers gleaning opportunities in both the U.S. and Canada. Among them:
- Fallen Fruit offers maps of fruits/nuts in and around the city of Los Angeles.
- Urban Food Forestry provides links to “harvest initiatives.”
- Village Harvest offers info for 10 U.S. states and one Canadian province.
- Falling Fruit provides maps for gleanable produce in the U.S. and also in other countries, plus contact info for food distribution groups.
Knock on doors. Or leave a note, if you’re shy: “I noticed a lot of fruit has fallen from your front yard tree. If you aren’t going to eat it, may I take it off your hands?”
Buy at auction. Do a search for “produce auctions near (your city name).” The prices are super-low but the quantity might be scary-high; for example, if the tag says “6 to 12,” this means you must take at least six boxes (or as many as 12). This option works best for those who want to split the produce with friends. You could also enjoy the rock-bottom price and drop off what you can’t use at the food bank.
A few more tips
If you’ve never preserved food before, start slowly. Trying to do everything everywhere all at once could leave you frustrated and ready to give up. Small batches of refrigerator pickles or freezer jam will build confidence; so will reading information from the NCHFP and food blogs like FoodInJars.com.
Once you’ve preserved all this bounty, start thinking outside the box. For example, a few chunks of frozen zucchini will add nutrition and bulk to a smoothie and reduce the amount of fruit you have to buy.
Bits of dried apple and a little cinnamon sugar can help convince your kids to eat oatmeal. Instead of buying individual yogurts, get a quart of unflavored product and stir in homemade jam; you save money and throw away less plastic.
Finally, don’t rush out and buy a lot of expensive equipment. As noted earlier, a lot of food preservation items can be found secondhand. I’ve found jars, lids, canning funnels and jar lifters that way. Before purchasing at retail prices, use reputable shopping apps to make sure you’re getting the best prices and maybe even some cash back.
