Preservation

I'm definitely at the point where the garden is producing more than we can eat on any given day. It's not an extreme overabundance, but unless we want to eat zucchini six times a day; We need to find ways to preserve it. The serious preservation project will come when the tomatoes start to come on a little stronger, but for now, we're doing a little bit of freezing, and a little bit of pickling.

The freezing was very simple. Some people online were suggesting doing a few things to the zucchini before freezing it, but a number of people said it can easily be shredded and froze, with no additional preparation. After picking and scrubbing all of the zucchini and yellow squash; I brought out the food processor, and attached the shredding blade. That made the process quite easy. I generally use the shredded zucchini to make zucchini pancakes. That's a savory dish that resembles hash browns more than zucchini bread, which is also an excellent use of shredded zucchini.
The turnip crop was another one that was starting to wear me down. I really like turnips, but it can be exhausting coming up with different ways to cook them. They were starting to get too big, and I didn't want them to start to get woody and flavorless, so I yanked them all out, and found a nice pickling recipe in my favorite cookbook, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. His recipe for Three-Day Pickles is a nice simple refrigerator pickle recipe. It can be used on just about anything. I used it on the turnips, and mom used a similar one on the cucumbers.

• 2 lbs. of vegetable
• 6 tbs. salt (kosher or sea)
• 2 c. white vinegar
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. pickling spice.

Slice the vegetables up, and put 2 tbs. salt on them; letting them sit for two hours. Rinse them, and pat them dry. Put remaining ingredients in a sauce pan and bring it to boil. Let it cool for a couple of minutes than pour it over the vegetables (I also included some fresh chillies for a little kick) and let it cool to room temperature. Transfer them to an airtight jar, and put them in the fridge. They can be eaten in three days, and will keep for three weeks.