The bounty of summer and fall produce raised outdoors locally will soon be done in Tennessee. You may be wondering how to take advantage of the last fresh veggies to start preparing for winter…read on!
Of course, we do import fruit and vegetables from around the world as well as having greenhouse and hydroponic “farms” now. It’s not like in “Little House on the Prairie” days where every single item had to be preserved a special way. But if you have a little garden of your own or see last minute sales at your store, why not stash away a little at better prices while you can?
Freezing
Freezing can be as easy as chopping the fresh item and freezing like I do berries (see that here) OR assembling into freezer meals OR cooking and then freezing like yummy fritters from Wholefoodfor7.com (see that recipe here).
All these methods are valuable in their own way. I’ve not done as much with the freezer meals but do freeze a lot of things ready to be used as ingredients. And when I have too many leftovers for just the two of us now that are at home, I often freeze the extra in 2-4 serving packets that make for easy reheating down the line.
I love the fritters mentioned before so much that so far, we haven’t had enough leftovers to freeze! That means that recipe is a keeper (see the riced butternut squash I froze to make them again later in the above photo). I’ve only tried butternut squash in that form so far, though they are similar to my grandmother’s potato pancakes (see those here).
Canning
I have made some jams and jellies in the past, but if you’re just getting started or have limited time or resources, I’d stick to freezing for now. Canning involves some specialized equipment, a LOT of produce to work at one time, and a good bit of time, too. Plus, dealing with hot jars and even hotter filling for those jars I found to be a little dangerous. Maybe I’m not as graceful as I once was!
Rework your meal plans…with soup!
Remember the cold chicken or tuna salads you had in meal plans for the summer? Time to swap those with soups to keep you warm!
Start now going through your old favorites and maybe consider adding a few new ones. I love this Stuffed Pepper Soup (though I simply cook mine on the stovetop), The Best Ever Hearty Beef Soup, and 30-minute Dairy Free Potato Soup…they’ll be in my rotation this winter for sure.
Over the holidays, if you have a free moment, go ahead and create the new meal plans substituting the soups and rework your shopping lists. Then set a date to begin using that new set of plans!
Feeling better about preparing for winter?
Whether you’re freezing the last of your gardening efforts, extra you found on sale, canning (if you’re braver than me!), or simply updating your meal plans to include some new AND old favorite soups, you’ll be ready for the cold in no time. You might even find you’re a little bit excited! If you have a great soup to pass along, please share in the comments!
Check out these posts for more prep for winter…
