One of the great pleasures in life is being able to produce your own food.

Especially if you’re adopting a healthier lifestyle by making conscious decisions about what you eat. When you grow your own food, you know how it was grown and that’s its free of harmful chemicals and toxins.

Unfortunately, most crops are seasonal, so we can’t harvest most of our fruits and vegetables on a year-round basis. That’s why learning how to properly store certain foods will ensure that you have healthy, organic food available for you and your family, no matter what time of the year it is.

Tomatoes

One of the most popular foods to grow across the world, tomatoes are a staple in Italian, and Mexican cuisines. Eaten fresh or cooked, tomatoes are an ingredient in many popular dishes such as meatloaf, chili, and soups and of course salads.

There are several ways to preserve your tomatoes so that they will last. Canning is a popular method of preservation and tomatoes can be canned whole or turned into tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, or tomato paste. Properly canned tomatoes can keep for several years, although the flavor starts to decline after the first year.

As canning is not an easy process for home preserving, a popular option is to make sun-dried tomatoes. Simply cut your tomatoes into slices, place them on parchment paper in a tray, sprinkle salt over them, and pop the trays into an oven which as preheated at 150 degrees. Leave the oven door ajar, so the air can circulate. The tomatoes should be dry in 10-12 hours. Store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or place in a jar of olive oil and store in the refrigerator up to a month.

Or mix them up in a freshly made pesto, where they will be the main ingredient, then freeze the pesto in bags or jars and pull out at intervals during the year (fresh herbs like basil or mint will enhance these recipes!).

Green Beans

Green beans are a great addition to your garden growing because they can also be used in a variety of ways. They are delicious in stir-fry dishes, casseroles, salads or steamed. There are an excellent source of vitamin C, A, and K. Green beans will stay fresh for several months if you freeze them properly. Trim the green beans and boil them for 2 to 4 minutes. This will ensure that they stay crispy. Once you remove them from the boiling water, plunge them into a bowl of ice water and keep them there for the same amount of time as you boiled. Place them in a large resealable freezer bag. Label them and place them in the freezer.

Potatoes

Potatoes are pretty easy to store if you have some space, and will keep for about 3 to 5 weeks in your pantry. If you have a root cellar or basement where the temperature is around 50 degrees, then your potatoes can last for as long as 3 months. Just make sure to check them regularly and turn them since just one rotten potato will ruin the rest.

You can also store your crop by freezing or canning after cooking.

Winter Squash

Gardeners love winter squash not only for its taste and satisfaction in growing, but also because it keeps so well. In fact, the name “winter squash” refers to the time that the vegetable is stored. After harvesting it in fall, it is easy to prepare squash so that it will last through the winter. This will ensure that you’ll have enough squash to add to your soups, side dishes, and even desserts.

All you need to do is to store the squash in a warm place which gets plenty of air circulation for a period of 10-14 days. After you do that, you can then store them in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months.

Berries

Berries are many, and are versatile and easy to store. You can freeze them, dehydrate them, can them, or turn them into jellies and jams. A great source of vitamins and antioxidants, you’ll feel special when you serve berries to your family during the middle of winter.

Conclusion

in Summary then, this is only a brief article to encourage you to learn to how to properly store your garden’s harvest. Plan ahead this year and you’ll be guaranteed to have plentiful food throughout the whole year.

Practice this first year, keep track of your experiences and resulting crop success, and not only well you reap all of the health benefits, you will even save money too.

Plan, plant, nurture and harvest. Go for it!