Recipes for Preserving Your Garden Produce!

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Eating fresh produce from the garden is an amazing summer treat. At some point, though, you'll find that your garden is growing more food than you can eat in a week. You then run the risk of your food spoiling, shriveling, or rotting. What a waste! To help you fight this progression of time, we've created some recipes for you, so you can preserve your food!

Pickled Mustard Greens

Let's talk about mustard greens. Mustard greens make a great fall, winter, and spring crop. If you tear off the greens without pulling up the plant, you can continue to harvest greens throughout the season. At some point, though, you will find the need to save your mustard greens, and pickling is a great way to do that.

Americans don't eat a lot of pickled vegetables. We eat pickled cucumbers (pickles) and pickled cabbage (sauerkraut) but not much beyond that. However, in China and Korea, pickling is very popular. Looking to those countries, we find an easy way to preserve our mustard greens for several months.

Technically, pickled vegetables can be kept covered at room temperature and do just fine. Pickling has been around for over 4000 years as a method of food preservation. It involves either fermenting the food in salt or storing the food in vinegar. Both processes use acid which kills bacteria. With salt pickling, fermentation creates lactic acid. Vinegar contains acetic acid. Since the pickling solution kills the bacteria that cause food to spoil, cold storage is not necessary.

Nevertheless, we recommend storing your pickled vegetables in the refrigerator for a couple reasons. They will last far longer in your refrigerator than they will on your counter. Also, as far as our taste buds are concerned, pickled vegetables taste better cold.

The first recipe below uses salt and vinegar for pickling your greens. The second recipe only uses salt.

Pickled Mustard Greens

  • A large bunch of mustard greens
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1/4 cup of white vinegar, minimum 5% acid
  • 2 Tbsp white sugar
  • 1 Tbsp salt
  • 2 garlic cloves (optional)
  • hot peppers (optional)
  • You will also need a clean glass or ceramic jar. We are not canning the greens in this recipe, so you don't need special mason jars or canning equipment. We will be canning our produce in the fall though! We used an old applesauce jar for this recipe.

Rinse the mustard greens in a bowl of water. Pour the water on your garden. Tear the greens into pieces and pack them into your jar. Pack them as tightly as you can. Pour your water, vinegar, sugar, and salt into a pot. Add your garlic and peppers, if you are using them. Bring the mixture to a boil. Remove it from the heat, and let it cool for one minute. Pour it into the jar, over your greens. Let the greens sit for a minute or two. They will now be soft enough to pack in several more greens. Make sure the liquid completely covers the greens. Let them cool for an hour, then refrigerate them. After a couple hours, cover the jar with a piece of plastic wrap, a plate, or the lid, if you have it. After three days, the greens will be ready to eat. They will keep for three to four months in the refrigerator.

Salt Pickled Mustard Greens

  • A large bunch of mustard greens
  • 1/4 cup salt
  • 2 1/2 cups water
  • 1 Tbsp white vinegar
  • You will also need a clean glass or ceramic jar. We used an old applesauce jar for this recipe.

Rinse the mustard greens in a bowl of water. Pour the water on your garden. Tear the greens into pieces. Place several greens in the jar, then sprinkle them liberally with salt. Add several more greens to the jar and sprinkle them with salt. Continue this process until you reach the top of the jar. Pack them as tightly as you can. Fill the jar with cold water. Cover with a lid and shake the jar a couple times. Remove the lid, add a tablespoon of vinegar to the top. Cover the jar with cheesecloth or a towel and place on the counter to sit for several days, up to a week. The greens will turn yellowish brown and taste salty and sour when they are ready. Cover the jar with a lid again, shake, remove the lid, and drain half the water. Save the water for pickling more vegetables. Add fresh water to the jar to cover the pickled greens, cover the jar with a lid, and shake it. Remove the lid, add a tablespoon of vinegar to the top, cover with the lid again, and store in the refrigerator. These pickled greens will keep for several months in the refrigerator.

Pickled Dilled Beans

This next batch of recipes comes from our new friend Linda. She's a Master Food Preserver and Food Safety Advisor. Did you know there was a job like that? How much would you love that job? Linda says this is a really popular recipe. Sean, our COO, ate a lot of pickled dilled beans when he was a kid. He highly recommends them.

  • 4 lbs fresh tender green or yellow beans (5 to 6 inches long)
  • 8 to 16 heads fresh dill or use 1 T. dried dill weed or 1 T. dried dill seed per pint
  • 8 cloves garlic (optional)
  • 1/2 cup canning or pickling salt
  • 4 cups white vinegar (5 percent)
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 tsp hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Yield: About 8 pints

Procedure: Wash and trim ends from beans and cut to 4-inch lengths. In each sterile pint jar, place 1 to 2 dill heads and, if desired, 1 clove of garlic. Place whole beans upright in jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Trim beans to ensure proper fit, if necessary. Combine salt, vinegar water, and pepper flakes (if desired). Bring to a boil. Add hot solution to beans, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 min.

Note on substituting dill: For each quart try 3 heads of fresh dill or 1 to 2 tablespoons dill seed or 2 tablespoons dill weed.

Marinated Peppers

This is another very popular recipe. You cannot use this oil mixture on other vegetables. Each type of vegetable will vary in the way they absorb the acid, so some vegetables will not pickle with this solution and could be dangerous to eat.

  • 4 lbs firm peppers, Bell, Hungarian, Banana, or Jalapeno Peppers*
  • 1 cup bottled lemon juice
  • 2 cups white vinegar (5 percent)
  • 1 tbsp oregano leaves
  • 1 cup olive or salad oil
  • 1/2 cup chopped onions
  • 2 cloves garlic, quartered (optional)
  • 2 tbsp prepared horseradish (optional)

Yield: About 9 half-pints.

*Note: It is possible to adjust the intensity of pickled jalapeno peppers by using all hot jalapeno peppers (hot style), or blending with sweet and mild peppers (medium or mild style).

  • For hot style: Use 4 lbs jalapeno peppers.
  • For medium style: Use 2 lbs jalapeno peppers and 2 lbs sweet and mild peppers.
  • For mild style: Use 1 lb jalapeno peppers and 3 lbs sweet and mild peppers.

Procedure: Wear plastic or rubber gloves, and do not touch your face while handling or cutting hot peppers. If you do not wear gloves, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before touching your face or eyes. Select your favorite pepper. Peppers may be left whole. Large peppers may be quartered. Wash, slash two to four slits in each pepper, and blanch in boiling water or blister in order to peel tough-skinned hot peppers. Peppers may be blistered using one of the following methods:

  • Oven or broiler method: Place peppers in a 400 F degrees oven or broiler for 6-8 minutes or until skins blister.
  • Range-top method: Cover hot burner, either gas or electric, with heavy wire mesh. Place peppers on burner for several minutes until skins blister.

Allow peppers to cool. Place in pan and cover with a damp cloth. This will make peeling the peppers easier. After several minutes of cooling, peel each pepper. Flatten whole peppers. Mix all remaining ingredients in a saucepan and heat to boiling. Place 1/4 garlic clove (optional) and 1/4 teaspoon salt in each half pint or 1/2 teaspoon per pint. Fill jars with peppers, add hot, well-mixed oil/pickling solution over peppers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Process pints or half pint for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. For elevations over 1,000 feet, up to 6,000 feet, increase time to 20 minutes. If at 6,000 feet. or above, process 25 minutes.

Fruit Preserves

In the last section, we preserved food with salt and vinegar. Sugar is also excellent for preserving food. For hundreds of years, humans have used sugar to preserve their food by making candies, fruit preserves, jam, and jellies. It's even been used for preserving meat! Sugar kills the bacteria that attempt to invade your food by dehydrating them. Like food preserved with salt or vinegar, sugar preserved food can sit on your kitchen counter and remain just fine. Before the days of refrigeration, people covered preserves with cheesecloth to keep bugs and other pests away, and the sugar took care of everything else. However, food is still much safer when refrigerated, frozen, or canned after being preserved and will last far longer this way than it would resting on a shelf. Thus, we recommend canning, refrigerating, or freezing all of your sugar preserved food.

Fig Preserves

  • 3 pounds washed and quartered figs
  • 3 packed cups brown sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 lemons, thinly sliced, seeds removed
  • 1 pinch salt
Figs mixed with sugar

Toss the brown sugar and figs together. Rest in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours.

In a large, heavy pot, add all the above ingredients, except the lemons. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemons and cook on low for several hours (three or more), stirring occasionally so mixture does not stick or burn. Skim off all the yellowish foam from the surface of the mixture. DO NOT LEAVE POT UNATTENDED because burning happens quickly.

Figs, lemons, and sugar in crockpot.

Alternatively, cook the mixture in a crockpot for seven to eight hours, on high for the first hour, then on low for the remaining time. Cook the mixture with the cover removed for the last two hours.

Figs, lemons, and sugar after 3 hours in crockpot.

For either method, cook until very thick. If canning, cool the preserves and refrigerate for 24 hours. Heat to boiling then ladle hot preserves into hot jars, seal with hot lids and bands, and process in a hot water bath for 10 to 15 minutes.

Figs, lemons, and sugar after 7 hours in crockpot.

If not canning, the preserves may be stored in refrigerator for up to one month or in the freezer for six months.

The finished fig preserve after chilling 24 hours.

Pickled Watermelon Rind

Here's a good one for you. This is another pickle recipe, so you are preserving your produce by pickling, but preservation occurs with everything we've used so far, acid, salt, and sugar. This recipe also uses something that most people throw away, so you're extending your food. If you haven't had pickled watermelon rind, you're in for a treat. They are sweet and spicy with a nice zing to them. Pickled watermelon rind is eaten in the South in the United States and throughout Asia. In the South, recipes lean towards sweet, while in Asia, they are spicy, hot, and loaded with vinegar.

For this recipe, feel free to adjust the spices to your taste. These pickled rinds will keep for four months in the refrigerator and for several years if you can them.

  • 8 cups of watermelon rind, green skin removed
  • 1/2 cup pickling salt
  • 8 1/2 cups cold water
  • 3 cups white granulated sugar
  • 2 cups white vinegar, 5 percent acidity
  • 5 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 Tablespoon whole cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon mustard seed
  • 1/2 Tablespoon whole allspice
  • 1 inch by 1 inch slice of peeled ginger root (optional)
  • 2 or 3 whole hot chili peppers or to taste (optional)
  1. Cut the rind into 2 inch long by 1/2 inch wide strips.
  2. Add the pickling salt to the rind in a stainless steel, glass, or ceramic bowl. Do not use plastic.
  3. Place in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
  4. Rinse the rind thoroughly with cold water, then place the rind and 8 cups cold water into a stainless steel saucepan, bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
  5. Drain the rind.
  6. Blend vinegar, 1/2 cup water, sugar, and all the spices in your stainless steel saucepan.
  7. Heat the mixture to simmering.
  8. Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let the mixture rest for one hour.
  9. Next, add the drained watermelon rind to the spice mixture and simmer gently for two hours. Stir the rinds occasionally. After the first hour passes, watch to make sure too much liquid doesn't evaporate.
  10. After the rinds have finished simmering, if you are canning them, follow these steps.
    1. Pack hot rinds loosely into clean, hot pint jars. To each jar add a small piece of your cinnamon sticks, ginger, and chili peppers.
    2. Cover with boiling syrup, leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed.
    3. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel. Adjust two-piece metal canning lids.
    4. Process pints for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.
    5. Remove lid from the canner. Allow jars to sit for an additional 5 minutes before removing jars.
    6. Let the jars cool completely. They will store in your pantry for several years.
  11. If storing the rinds in another container, cool the mixture. Store in the refrigerator in glass or ceramic containers. Do not use plastic. These pickles will keep in the refrigerator for four months.

Check out the video, for a play by play account of putting together this recipe!