GARDEN + GARDENING + GARDEN DESIGN + GARDENING TIPS & ADVICE

The long hot days of July bring with it the beginning of the harvest for certain garden fruits and vegetables. In fact, I pulled off my first zucchini last night. To preserve my hard earned produce, I’ll embark on a regular schedule of freezing and canning.

With the exception of tomatoes, vegetables must be processed using a pressure cooker process. Vegetables should not be canned in a cold-water bath canner due to the risk of botulism. Botulism is a colorless, odorless, tasteless organism that can be fatal if ingested.

Although it’s not quite tomato harvesting season, tomatoes may be processed in a cold-water bath, but must have acid added to them to insure that they have enough acidity. Current tested recipes require a considerably longer processing time than those used in the past. Consult current, tested recipes for proportions and bottling information.

Stay tuned for the next couple of week’s posts – tips for harvesting and freezing vegetables.

• Here comes the harvest!
• Freezing Your Veggies
• Essential Garden Guide Introduces - Gardening Blog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Gardening General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.