How to Use and Store Garden Produce

Ok, so in the last few weeks we’ve learned about why growing a garden is awesome, how to grow your amazing garden, and how to grow an abundance of herbs. Right about now (or very soon) you’re starting to see the fruits of all you labor. Now what? What do you do with your bountiful harvest?? In this final week of our 4 Weeks to Glorious Gardening series, we are going to talk about how to store and use your garden produce.

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How to Store Your Garden Produce

Lettuce

To clean: Working with a handful of leaves at a time, place in a bowl of lukewarm water and gently swish. Rinse with a light stream of cold water and lay out on a towel to dry. (I read somewhere once that the cold water rinse after the lukewarm bath shocks them back into a crisper state. I don’t know for sure if that’s scientifically true, but it has worked for me!)
To store: Wrap the leaves in a towel and put in a resealable plastic bag. They should stay fresh for several days in the fridge.

Zucchini & Cucumbers

To clean: Rinse under cold water. (A Master Gardener once told us not to rinse cucumbers if you’re going to use them for pickling, but rather to wipe them with a damp paper towel instead. However, I haven’t found that advice anywhere else in my research, so I don’t know.)
To store: Store in a cool spot in the kitchen. Most places online say that zucchini lasts longer in the fridge, while cucumbers prefer room temperature, but we always have WAY too many zucchini to fit in the fridge. I’ve stored them on the counter every year, and they last several days before I need to use them up.

Tomatoes

Store tomatoes on the counter in a single layer out of direct sunlight. Definitely do not store them in the refrigerator – they will lose that wonderful garden flavor!
If your tomatoes are not quite ripe, store them stem side down while they finish ripening.

Onions

After harvesting your onions, spread them in a single layer on a clean, dry surface.
Let them dry for 2-3 weeks.
Store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area. Make sure the location is low in humidity to prevent rotting. (As of yet, we have not found an ideal place in our house, so our onions have to be used up pretty quickly. However, I have heard of some people keeping their onions year-round!)

Peppers

Store in the vegetable crisper of your refrigerator.

Sweet Corn

You want your corn to stay as cool and damp as possible. Put your ears of corn in the fridge as soon as possible with the husks left on.

How to Use Your Garden Produce

5 Ways to Use Tomatoes

Salads – Slice or chop and put on a garden salad.
Sliced as a side or snack – For an added something special, sprinkle with garlic salt!
Fresh Salsas – I am in love with this Tomato, Corn, and Avocado Salsa! I could seriously eat this for days! It’s so fresh and yummy!
Cooked Salsa – My mom and I have been making our own salsa for several years now, and it is delicious!
Canned – Yep, I’ll be teaching you about how to can your tomatoes, too!

5 Ways to Use Zucchini

Grilled – This might be my favorite way to prepare zucchini. You can slice it into strips, into rounds, or simply in half length-wise. You can keep it simply with a little olive oil or butter and S&P, or you can great creative with a sauce. We usually keep it pretty simple, and it’s delicious no matter what!
Muffins & breads – I make a lot of zucchini bread and muffins during the summer. Sometimes I make a giant batch and freeze the loaves, and sometimes I shred the zucchini and freeze into pre-measured bags to bake with later.
Salads – Chop and enjoy in a fresh lettuce salad.
Stir-fry – We like to add chopped or sliced zucchini in stir-fry. I chop and freeze a bunch of zucchini in the summer and put in freezer bags to use throughout the year.
Zucchini boats – This is a fun way to use zucchini that we just started trying last year. Search for zucchini boats or stuffed zucchini on Pinterest and you’ll find a whole host of different things to stuff them with, but here’s one example from Taste of Home.

5 Ways to Use Sweet Corn

Grilled: Husks On
Grilled: Husks Off – We’ve done it both ways and like them both. Grilling it with husks on is easier prep, for sure, and it cooks it really nicely. Grilling it without the husks, on the other hand, gives it more of that grilled flavor and is easier to gauge when it’s finished cooking. Either way is good!
Microwave – Oh, my gosh, this revolutionized our sweet corn experience! I don’t know where this tip has been all my life, but it is THE easiest way to cook sweet corn. Put the entire ear of corn – husks on! – in the microwave for 3-5 minutes. Let cool for a couple minutes. Cut off the bottom by the stem, and squeeze out the corn from the other end. Nine times out of 10 that corn will slip right out of the husk! I’m not even kidding, it’s that easy!
Sides – This Corn Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing is a huge hit at my house. My husband loves it! (Added bonus: it uses some of that home-grown basil you learned how to grow last week!)
Main Dish – I am super excited about trying this Garden Fresh Tortellini Pasta Salad soon! It uses corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil from the garden!

5 Ways to Use Cucumbers

Salads – sliced or chopped in a lettuce salad.
Snack – I love eating sliced cucumbers as a snack. For a special twist, try adding a slice of cheese and thinly sliced meat on top.
Add it to water – I started doing this last summer because we had cucumbers coming out of our ears, and I got totally hooked on it! I simply add a few slices of cucumber to my glass of water, and the result is an amazingly refreshing drink without any extra calories! It tastes SO good, and it gets me to drink more water! Win-win!
Pickles & Relish – I just started making my own pickles and relish last year, and I had a blast trying out different recipes!
Cucumber Salads – Creamy, Marinated, Zesty, Dill… there are lots of different ways you can go with a cucumber salad, and I love them all!

Resources

Websites

Harvesting and Storing Home Garden Vegetables – This is an excellent comprehensive list of harvest and storage information for commonly-grown garden vegetables.
How to Properly Store Your Fruits and Vegetables for Maximum Freshness – Here is a list of what to store in the fridge vs. the counter.
Refrigerator or Counter? – Another list of what to store in the fridge vs. the counter.
5 Things to Do With Leftover Garden produce – Don’t let your extra crops go to waste! Here are some ideas of what you can do with the vegetables you’re not able to eat right away.
40 Garden-Fresh Vegetable Recipes – A long list of recipes from Midwest Living for your garden produce.