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The Food Preserver’s Garden

One of the great things about food preservation is the freedom to choose both foods and methods that suit our lifestyle. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed pickling vegetables, especially cucumbers, but then they sit on the shelf because I’m not excited about eating them. Nor do I usually eat the jams, jellies, or relishes I make and can. This year, I am focusing on choosing vegetables that I am confident I can preserve in ways that will appeal to me during the winter months. In this post, I’ll share some tricks I’ve learned over the years to grow and preserve foods I like. The Resources section at the end of this post includes links to get thinking about your garden.

Some preserving methods I’ve used in the past include both boiling water bath and pressure canning, pickling, dehydrating, freezing, and fermenting. I know right away that I’ll skip fermenting this year. I know, I know—probiotics, gut health, etc. I’ll get with the program someday, but not someday this year. Pickling is a tad up in the air, too, but I know for sure I will freeze many vegetables, with some canning and dehydrating thrown in the mix.

Last year I planted herbs for the first time in many years, and I was glad to freeze them to spice up winter meals. I prefer freezing herbs because they taste fresher than dried herbs, although I do have some dill and sage hanging around in the kitchen. I tried freezing herbs in a silicon mold and then storing them in baggies. I found I preferred these because they were not as messy as the loose herbs, which stick to my fingers when I use them. Plus, herbs frozen in molds [or ice cube trays] can be pre-measured.

silicon mold
These herb flowers are very convenient to drop into soups and sauces. And they’re cute.

Although technically not a “preservation” method, I dug up and repotted basil and parsley plants, both of which did well in my kitchen window. Snipping fresh herbs for recipes and garnish feels very Martha-like. This year, I will plant basil, parsley, and probably oregano with the intention of repotting them to my windowsill.

potted parsley
This parsley plant has provided fresh flavor to many recipes over the winter.

I also like to freeze what I call “flavor packs”, usually for use in soups. I prepare one-pint portions of recipe ingredients, including the vegetables, and leave out anything that does not freeze well, such as potatoes, pasta, and beans. I add those along with any thickening sauce, roux, milk, or cream when making the actual soup. I grow vegetables to make flavor packs for soups such as:

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Getting Started Growing Tomatoes

For those new to gardening it can be hard to know where to begin. You may see a picture of a beautiful garden with all the different vegetables and wonder how you’ll learn to grow them all when they have different nutrient needs, spacing, diseases, etc. My recommendation is to focus your energy on growing one or two staple crops – a more achievable goal – and adding more once you feel more confident. This fact sheet will cover how to grow tomatoes, a popular and versatile crop you can enjoy fresh, processed into salsa or sauce, or canned for winter use. Here’s what you’ll need to know to successfully grow tomatoes in the North Country, starting with site prep and ending with frost protection.

 Site and layout

First consider the garden site and whether it is suitable for growing tomatoes.

  • Does it receive enough light? Tomato plants need at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day – the more the better.
  • Is the pH of the soil in the ideal range of 6.0-6.8? Contact CCE about soil testing services and interpretation of test results and recommendations at SLCGrowline@gmail.com.
  • Is there water at the site? Adequate water is essential, particularly when seedlings are young, and when the plant is fruiting.

A rule of thumb for estimating the number of plants needed is three to five tomato plants per family member. For a family of four, two dozen tomato plants would provide some extra tomatoes for canning and making sauce.  When planning the layout of a tomato planting, allow two to three feet between each plant within the row and three to four feet between rows. For example, two rows of twelve tomato plants spaced two feet apart with three feet between rows would be about eight feet by twenty-six feet, or 208 square feet. This includes a two-foot perimeter on all sides of the tomato plants for paths. Drawing up a sketch of the tomato patch will be helpful.

Tomatoes benefit from ample space for air circulation and sun penetration.

Culture

Timing: Tomatoes are in the “very tender” category of vegetables, which means they like warm weather and can be damaged or killed by frost. For this reason, tomatoes are generally planted in late May here in Northern New York, as transplants which were started from seed five to eight weeks earlier. 

Transplants: Ideal for the beginner, transplants are readily available from greenhouses or farm and garden supply outlets. Buying plants that are local is a good idea since plants from outside of the region have on occasion introduced plant diseases from other parts of the country. When selecting transplants, look for healthy, stocky plants with dark green leaves, healthy roots, and thick stems. Be sure to check the plants carefully for insects. Ideally, plants will be six to eight inches tall. Bigger is not necessarily better in tomato plants; tall, spindly tomato seedlings may be set back when transplanted.

tomato transplants before and after planting
Tomato seedlings give us a head start on a short growing season and on weed competition.

Varieties: While there are hundreds of tomato varieties, most retailers will have a far more limited selection divided into three categories: standard (or “slicers”), paste, or cherry. Standard varieties are meant for eating and canning; paste tomato varieties such as Roma or Amish paste are best for making tomato sauce; cherry tomatoes have small bite-size fruits that are great to eat fresh, enjoy in salads or dehydrate as halves. Ask the sales staff for assistance if it is not clear which varieties they have.

Note: The term “indeterminate” refers to tomatoes that continue to grow and produce fruit until they are killed by frost, whereas “determinate” tomatoes are varieties that reach a more modest height (though they still benefit from trellising) and have a much smaller harvest window.

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Vegetable Lover’s Shakshuka

Roisin Creedon-Carey chose to intern at Cornell Cooperative Extension to focus on sustainable agriculture practiced through community living. This is the final of three blog posts in her experience embracing seasonal eating as part of her student experience at St. Lawrence’s Adirondack Semester. Find the link to her recipe at the close of the article.

Yurt village in ADKS
Yurt village at Adirondack Semester, photo credit: St. Lawrence University

Every Friday, our assistant directors Will and Amanda, would leave the yurt village to do office work and run errands. The students would stay, attending classes and plugging away at woodworking projects, knowing that at 6:30 pm we would reconvene at the dinner table. Around 4:30, we would start to get antsy. We knew that they’d soon be back with mail, newspapers, and weather reports, but most importantly vegetables, meat, and eggs for the week ahead. A bell would ring, alerting us to their arrival. The ten of us would run to greet them and begin hauling in the boxes of goodies from the outside world.

As a group, we would divide and conquer. Some students would bring mail into the classroom, and others would trek vegetables from our Kent Family Growers share into the kitchen. We would shift the vegetables we still had on hand to the front of the pantry so they’d get used first. Read more Vegetable Lover’s Shakshuka