Harvesting and Storing

There is nothing better than harvesting your crops and then using them straight away. However, this isn't always practical especially if you get home after dark.

Our houses are not designed to accommodate a root cellar nor huge amounts of pickles and preserves so a lot of what I store is frozen or made into a meal and then frozen.

Potatoes, chickpeas, peas, beans, onions and garlic are all dried off to varying degrees and stored.

When I was teaching I used a basketful of dried bean pods in a maths lesson about averages. My class managed to shell my bean harvest and I had a large kilner jar full of beans. They might have learned something too!

Freezing

There are many guides online which will tell you how and for how long you can freeze produce

Preserving

Herbs such as oregano, rosemary, thyme and sage leaves can be chopped up and frozen in oil. You can then use the cubes straight from the freezer to add flavour to onion based recipes. See Preserving

Drying

Herbs such as rosemary and thyme can be hung upside down somewhere warm and dry and can then be stored in pots.