Yes, food preservation does take time, but it's fun. Besides, all the cleaning, slicing and dicing takes place up front, so the stored foods are often ready to eat. Today I'm making pickles.

We freeze peas, squash, broccoli and some other things, and dry most of the peppers and tomatoes (freeze a few, can one case of sauce). Garlic, potatoes, winter squash and onions store themselves when properly cured, so they're no problem at all when properly harvested.

The harvest forum is a great place to find ideas for preserving random crops.

I was just reflecting on this

Back in NJ we intensively gardened and did a lot of freezing/canning
so that we could have home-grown produce in the winter time

Here in SC, we have a much, much longer growing season,
so we're slowly scaling back

I am growing extra of our favorites just so I can learn how to can them this yr. The extra like zucchini I give away (who doesn't...haha) or shred and freeze for winter breads and muffins. My extra cucumbers and some zucchini will be given to our school summer food program. I plan to can salsa, tomatoes, pickled beets, pickles, jalapenos, and freeze the pumpkin and a few tomatoes.
Last yr I just dropped off my extra veggies at our tiny towns laundry mat. They were gone in an hour! If the watermelons produce more than we can keep up with, I want to juice them and possible freeze the juice. I don't have a "farm" sized garden but we have lots more room to make one. I gotta learn how to preserve before we make it any bigger. Garden is 33'x120'

Canning, freezing, drying (dehydrating), smoking, root cellar storage, etc. Takes some time sure but with practice you can quickly develop time-saving techniques. And it is well worth the effort involved.

As planatus suggested, check out the Harvest forum here (linked at the top of the page). It is starting to kick into high gear. ;)

Dave

I think I'm the perfect one to answer this question.

Yes, I am obsessed, really, with growing stuff. I overplant dramatically. I have a household of 3 people, a medium sized dog, and an increasing number of backyard poultry (about 2 dozen right now) that do clean up extras. I hope to add some rabbits yet this year.

So, the question is -- does a family of 3 NEED the results of 3000 onion plants, 100 plus hills of winter squash, 400 plus tomato plants? Will I get enough apples off of the now almost 50 trees I've got going to get me through the winter?
Will I get enough peaches this year from 20 trees to make jam? It's like my own little soap opera, I guess.

Well, yes and no. I will be the first to admit that most years, I am rolling in excess, and some of it goes to waste in the sense it isn't eaten. But, none of it ever really goes to waste, because I compost it all, and that makes for the best soil.

We do can and freeze large quantities -- this year, I need to do a lot of tomato products, and my goal is about 300 quarts total, including canned toms, salsa, tomato juice, spaghetti sauce. I have like 6 freezers going. It's definitely a lifestyle choice -- we almost never go out to eat, maybe twice a year, and perhaps once a month at most pick up takeout, usually something ethnic like Chinese or Thai or Indian that isn't as easy to do at home. We cook at home, from scratch, so we use a lot of our own food products and augment with things we cannot grow or make for ourselves, like meat, dairy, bulk flours, etc.

And, there are "dud" years. Last year, I planted like 400 tomato plants, too, and got about 5 bushels for my effort. This was due to a combination of things -- a really awful, cold, and dry summer, lack of time to garden and properly tend to the plants as I caught up on some home upkeep and improvement projects. Luckily, I still had a lot of canned tomato products from the past year.

I give a lot away, too, although there are mixed results from that as seen on other threads -- a lot of people stare at you with strange looks when you offer them produce -- they only eat from heat and serve containers and fast food places. But, I have some family members who still enjoy it, and they take a LOT (gave my one sister almost 100 quarts of blueberries in 2008 for her freezer).

It is definitely a lifestyle choice. The neighbors think I'm nuts. A little more lawn dies every year, and I get flack from the rest of the family about it. I haven't left the state of Michigan in 20 plus years, and the farthest away I've been from my house is about 150 miles. Haven't spent a night away from home in over 10 years, and at that, it was in the winter. But I love my lifestyle and frankly wish I could devote 24/7 to it. I guess I was really meant to be a farmer.

Not yet a big problem since my garden is much smaller than growinidaho :-) I try to use things fresh before resorting to canning since I'm short on storage space also. Give some away and be creative with the recipe helps a lot.

I've also learned to grow more variety with different maturity time and fewer of each. Our zone 8 weather also permits better succession planting.

Thanks to Dave who pointed out the harvest forum. I'm going to read up all the good ideas there.

I try to not plant too much more than my family can eat.

But we can eat a lot in a 12 month period and fruit and veg are frozen, dried, and stored to extend the time when we are eating home grown for as long as possible.

Seriously, I will usually have no more than 2 zucchini plants, 4 tomato plants (each one a different variety), 12 corn stalks, a little of this and a little of that, sequential plantings of lettuce and salad stuff.

Then, mid season, I start 2 new tomatoes and a couple of peppers in 5 gallon pots so that they can be moved inside under lights and we will have fresh tomatoes in the winter.

I plant more of things that store well and last over the winter: onions, garlic, winter squash, carrots, parsnips.

I grow a lot of fruit and that gets frozen, dried, stored for winter use. What we can't use gets bartered or given to the food bank, or delivered to the senior center.

Gardens and orchard are planned so that there is something or another coming ripe over a very long time period.

I'm just getting to the point of growing enough for year-round use. The storage freezer I bought last year was a great purchase, not very expensive and keeps much better than the freezer compartment of my fridge. So far, though, I've mostly used it to freeze prepared foods, like stews and sauces. Blanching and freezing fresh veggies is on my list. In the meantime, the excess goes to the food bank.

Local food banks would be happy to receive any excess produce from our gardens! I would enjoy knowing that folks who probably don't eat very healthily most of the time get the benefit of my wonderful vegetables.

I give some of the extra to friends and neighbors tend to overplant things though I realized this when served my family bok choy for breakfast after previous lunch and supper! It is an insurance policy tho to grow extra as some years things do not grow well for example last year in our area was very rainy and cool all summer.

I think that over time people who grow their own food know how much of what to plant for themselves, on the other hand new to veggie gardening (like myself) overplant somethings and get stuck with what to do with the extra. I over planted eggplant I planted 5 plants and they all are doing more than great by the way does anyone want some really pretty eggplants? they are twlight cultivar very mild and not bitter,lol. I have been doing a crash course in home canning. :o)Deanna