Cooking and Eating on the Urban Homestead

Once you've grown that vegetable garden, you'll need some tasty recipes and a way to preserve your bounty.

I've just started canning again, having taken a break for a few years. This year I made chermoullah, applesauce and apple butter. I hope to do even more next year. I also use my freezer as a quick and easy way to deal with the garden's excess at various points, but I prefer canning due to the lack of energy used running the extra freezer. But you can quickly throw a bag of ripe tomatoes in the freezer, and pull them out later for use in chilies and stews and soups. Or peel and slice up a bunch of apples for pies, and freeze a pie's worth in each bag. Quick and easy apple pie when your fresh apples are history is a special treat!

I also use a dehydrator to dry apples and tomatoes, plus other fruit from time to time.

Here's a short article covering the basics of preserving your bounty!