Storing the harvest: Enjoy garden-grown veggies and herbs through the winter

During the summer months, gardeners typically have a bounty of vegetables and herbs to choose from their gardens -- sometimes more than they can eat or give away.

But with these freezing and storing tips, you can enjoy your garden-grown vegetable and herbs right through the winter months:

> Vegetables need to be blanched before you attempt to freeze them.

"Vegetables and fruits and living, breathing things, and to preserve them at their highest quality, most vegetables need to be blanched before freezing," says Susan McClanahan, administrator of the Cape Girardeau Senior Center and weekly food columnist for the Southeast Missourian. "This will stop the living function of the produce. Blanching is submerging the item in boiling water for a very short time."

> If you have a plentiful supply of a particular vegetable, get creative!

"For an abundance of certain items such as tomatoes, there is a wide variety of ways they can be processed and frozen," says McClanahan. "(You can make) ketchup, chili sauce, tomato sauce, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice -- the possibilities are only limited by your imagination!"

> Tomatoes can be frozen whole.

"Since tomatoes freeze so well, you can just cut the stems out and freeze them whole," says Ross Peterson, co-owner of The Laughing Stalk Farmstead, an organic vegetable farm in Cape. "They are great to use in soups or sauces."

> Home-grown herbs keep well if processed and frozen properly.

"Herbs can be frozen on a cookie sheet and then taken from the stems and put in containers or plastic freezer bags. Or, you can take herbs such as rosemary, sage or thyme from the stems and then chop and freeze them," says McClanahan. "You can also combine herbs with a small amount of olive oil or butter, mix together well, and then place teaspoons or desired amounts in ice cube trays and freeze them. (Once they are frozen), pop them out and (store) the 'cubes' in plastic bags or containers."

> Homemade pesto sauce is a great way to freeze abundant summer garden herbs.

"You can mix it up and freeze it in small servings for sandwiches or to use in pasta recipes," says Peterson, who also recommends the ice cube tray method of freezing home-grown herbs.

> Prep fresh vegetables before storing them in the refrigerator.

For better tasting home-grown veggies that are stored in the fridge, Peterson recommends cutting the stems of root crops before storing.

"For root crops such as carrots and beets, cut the stems, leaving only about one- to one-and-a-half inches of the stem before refrigerating. This will keep the longevity of the vegetable," says Peterson.

He also recommends soaking fresh picked vegetables in cold water before refrigerating.

"To cool vegetables down after picking them from your garden, soak them in cold water for about 10 minutes before you put them in the refrigerator," says Peterson.

He also recommends keeping an eye on them to maintain freshness.

"If vegetables get too moist in the refrigerator, open the bag (that they are stored in.) If they are too limp, soak vegetables,such as carrots in cold water to rejuvenate them."