Give away or preserve

[Rhondi]

Will you be producing enough fruits and vegetables to give to family and neighbors or do you mainly store up for the winter by preserving the excess?
I will mainly be giving away to others. Once my fruiting plants mature to the point of producing enough, I will probably start some method of preserving them but as for the vegetables, I'll be giving away what we don't consume ourselves.

 

[limcid]

Don't forget about having emergency food supplies for yourself and your family. I wouldn't start giving all of the excess food away until a good reserve is in place. There are a lot ways to store vegetables while minimizing any loss of their nutritional value (dehydrating, freezing, canning, etc.).

 

[claudine]

We don't give away our fruits and vegetables. My mother stores them up for winter. She makes pickles, jams and syrups. Excess zucchinis and pumpkins will be frozen, apples will be dehydrated. I can't wait, I love apple chips!

 

[gata montes]

As I always land up having a quite a large surplus of fruit and vegetables - so much so - that even after eating an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the growing season and bottling, freezing and drying everything that I have space for - there are always plenty left over - so rather than let them go to waste - I generally give what I don't need away to those that are not as fortunate as me and would otherwise have to buy their own fruit and vegetables - as well to one of the local restaurants - who likes the novelty value of some of my more unusual fruits and vegetables and who in return gives me free meals every now again

 

[Stacy Springer]

I do both really. I'll freeze, store, can and pickle but I'll also trade. Yesterday I traded (2) quarts of blackberries for (2) quarts of blue berries.

 

[Whitewolf2578]

Well I have been taking my cucumbers and slicing them up to become pickled. That way I can have sandwiches all winter long and not have to worry about going to the store to get pickled chips to go on my sandwiches.

 

[Tommyotommy]

Composting is another idea too

 

[kammy]

I tend to do both and then again it's all down to much time i have on my hands as there instance where i've got no time to make preserves.