All about harvesting, preserving and enjoying the bounty from your garden
A few months ago, St. Joseph Public Library reviewed books on growing vegetables, so we only thought it was fair to also recommend some books related to harvesting, preserving, and enjoying the bounty. The books discussed here are available at the St. Joseph Public Library, at other Missouri Evergreen libraries, or from one of the SJPL eContent vendors. Visit the library’s catalog at https://sjpl.modiscovery.org to find these or other great books to enjoy.
Stocking Up: The Third Edition of the Classic Preserving Guide by Carol Hupping. This is THE classic preserving guide. When you harvest, how you harvest and handling your produce after harvest all make a difference in the quality of your results. Freezing, canning and drying methods are elaborated. Pickling, jams, jellies, fruit butters, juicing and recipes are included. Dairy products, meat, poultry and fish have sections. Nuts, seeds, grains and sprouts are covered. The appendix covers books, booklets and supplies.
Freeze Fresh: The Ultimate Guide to Preserving 55 Fruits and Vegetables for Maximum Flavor and Versatility by Crystal Schmidt. Freezing produce preserves more nutrients than other methods of keeping food for later use. Freezing is less time intensive than canning with less worry about contamination. Safe methods for washing, blanching, flash freezing, avoiding freezer burn and thawing are taught. The virtues for various types of containers and freezer types are discussed. Kitchen tools and supplies you will need are explained. Recipes and procedures for specific foods follow. The book is logically presented with clear directions
Garden Grown, Garden to Table Recipes to Make the Most of Your Bounty by Julia Dzafic. This book is organized by the fruits and vegetables from your garden. Included in each plants section are tips to make that plant more productive. Next are recipes with that plant as primary ingredient. Each recipe has pictorial symbols for other ingredients needed for the recipe that you may have in your garden. Each recipe has a full-page color picture of the finished product. Many of the recipes are not long or involved to prepare.
The Joy of Pickling: 200 Flavor-Packed Recipes for All Kinds of Produce from Graden or Market by Linda Ziedrich. From your garden, your neighbor’s garden or the farmers market there are times when you cannot eat it all. Ziedrich teaches making fermented pickles, fresh pickles, quick pickles, freezer pickles and pickled meat, fish and eggs. This is not a flashy book, just a thorough and useful book for putting foods by. Covering straight forward pickling, sweet gerkins or dill, to recipes for beets with red wine there are plenty of recipes to give you taste treats for months.
The Classic Zucchini Cookbook, 225 Recipes for All Kinds of Squash by Nancy C. Ralston, Marynor Jordan, and Andrea Chesman. Check out this book from the library and forget worrying about offloading your excess zucchini crop. Offered are recipes including the usual salads and soups, the main dishes are vegetarian, seafood, chicken and meat. Summer squash and winter squash side dishes add to the variety. Breads and desserts include zucchini-cheddar biscuits and zapple strudel (zucchini masquerading as apples). If you still have left over squash there is a section on pickling, preserving and freezing.
