I am not an expert at preserving or canning, but I sure can dry and freeze with the best of ’em. There is still plenty of time for you to get some big tomatoes to make sauce, smaller ones to oven dry, and corn to freeze. And you don’t want all those herbs in your garden to go to waste, do you?
Most farm stands and markets have baskets of “seconds,” those less than perfect, perhaps lightly bruised tomatoes that are cheaper than the Instagram-worthy beauties that you buy for the ubiquitous tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad platter. Buy as many of these as you have time to cook and freeze.
This is the first year I have had a real garden. My yard in Sag Harbor gets a measly four to five hours of sun every day, which is dandy for ferns and hostas but not so much for growing herbs and food. I joined the community garden at Bridge Gardens, home of the famous Bridgehampton loam, and have been literally shocked and delighted at what “I” have grown. I is in quotes because it’s really Rick Bogusch, grand pooh-bah of Bridge Gardens, who does all the work. If a green thumb is the indication of a good gardener, his are chartreuse with sparkling emeralds shooting out of them.
In the past I have grown lemongrass, and the plant managed to reach one and a half feet with about four harvestable stalks. This year I grew three plants. They are four feet tall and I probably have enough stalks to supply many Thai restaurants for a year. Thank you, Rick!
I use fresh herbs all year round and find the prices very distressing. If one only needs a few sprigs of dill for a salad, what to do with the rest of the big bunch? I will use up to half a cup of cilantro for a salsa but there is still a lot left over. Dill, cilantro, and basil do not last long in the refrigerator and they are not particularly suitable for drying. These are known as tender herbs.
Depending on how you plan to use them in the future, it is recommended that you freeze them either in oil or water. Wash and dry if storing in oil, no need to dry if storing in water. Chop the herbs, pack into ice cube trays, pour over the water or oil (this can be a neutral or light olive oil) and freeze. Herbs frozen in water will be good for soups and stews but obviously not for salad dressings. They will not keep their vibrant color (unless you blanch them) but the flavor will remain true. The more oily, hardy herbs such as rosemary, oregano, marjoram, sage, and thyme can be dried successfully. Mint seems to be somewhere in the middle. I dry peppermint and spearmint and lemon verbena to make tisanes all year round, and they revive nicely in boiling water.
Corn is easy. Once again, do not expect it to defrost back into the lovely little kernels it once was; they will be a wee bit mushy and translucent. So what? You will have a taste memory flashback to August as the damp, chill winds of February are upon you. Use the corn in chowders and soups or sauté it with onions and lima beans.
If you are still experiencing an overload of eggplant and zucchini along with tomatoes, you can certainly make and freeze a lot of caponata and/or ratatouille.
When it comes to freezing containers, it is important to use good ones. I have found some excellent stackable, snap-on-lid plastic containers at Home Goods and Williams Sonoma. Of course you can use recycled deli containers as well, but I find that the lids tend to crack and snap off once frozen. Plastic Talenti gelato containers are also good for freezing soups and sauces. Remember to leave about an inch of space to allow for expansion once your sauce freezes. Another method is to use freezer bags, flattening them as you fill them, then squeezing out as much air as possible.
For industrial quantities of tomato sauce, I would recommend peeling and coring but not seeding. Did you know that this is the source of most of the tomato’s umami? According to Chris Kimball of America’s Test Kitchen “it turns out the seed in the tomato jelly has three times more flavor compounds called glutamates than the flesh, so when you seed the tomato you’re actually throwing out most of the flavor.”
To easily peel tomatoes, drop them into boiling water for about 30 seconds, then rinse in cold water or drop into an ice water bath. Peel and core and proceed with your favorite recipe. When I made a big batch yesterday, I started with onions, garlic, and oregano, then added the coarsely chopped tomatoes with a tin of tomato paste, then simmered for a few hours over low heat. When I defrost the sauce midwinter I shall add lots of fresh chopped basil and parsley or add one of my frozen pesto cubes.
Drying herbs takes no effort. Oven-drying tomatoes takes little effort. But blanching and chopping and simmering and stirring require some time commitment, rather like spending an afternoon over the smoker or roasting Hatch chilies for future use. I devoted my full Sunday to these activities as I thought about two friends lost this past week. Between the harvesting, sauce-making, oven-drying, and baking croutons, somehow two plum tortes also found their way into the oven and then the freezer.
These are not just economical and satisfying ways to save and store food, these are contemplative activities that encourage mindfulness. Just imagine the bounty in winter!