One of the ways that I save my family money is by growing produce in our garden each summer. We don’t have a huge garden. It’s about a 15 ft. x 20 ft., but everything we grow saves us some money. We plant items that we know we are going to use and eat. I really like that I don’t have to go to the store to purchase tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, carrots, and more during the summer months. Plus, it’s fun to go out to the garden with the girls and pick the items we grow.
This month, I’ll be sharing with you ways that I store and preserve the items we grow in our garden so that we can continue to use them through the fall and winter.
Recently, we harvested onions from our garden. Since I can’t use them all up before they go bad, I freeze them to be able to use later when I cook a dish that has onions in it. You could also do this with a large bag of onions purchased from the store if you know you won’t be able to use them up fast enough.
To freeze the onions, first dice them up and place them on a large pan. Place the pan in the freezer for 2-3 hours to “flash freeze” it. Then take the pan out of the freezer and place the onions in a Ziplock freezer bag. Make sure to label the bag before placing it in the freezer. Now when you need chopped onions for your recipes, you have some already cut that you can quickly grab.
The hardest part about cutting up the onions is that they always make me cry! My mother-in-law told me that I should try placing a piece of bread in my mouth while cutting the onions, and it will help me not to cry. I’ll have to try it next time to see if it helps out. Have you tried anything like this while cutting onions? Feel free to share.
Other articles you might be interested in reading:
- Zesty Salsa
- Canning Tomatoes
- Canning Peaches
- Freezing Peaches
- Canning Jam
- Dill Pickles
- Cucumber Sandwich Pickles
- Bottled Apple Pie Filling
- Freezing Fresh Herbs
- Preserving Onions from the Garden
- Preserving Bell Peppers from the Garden
- Preserving Zucchini from the Garden
[…] articles you might be interested in reading: Preserving Onions from the Garden Turning Cucumbers into Dill Pickles Zesty Salsa Bottled Apple Pie […]